Ae. Smith et al., SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECIES, PERCEPTUAL BIASES, AND ACCURACY AT THE INDIVIDUAL AND GROUP LEVELS, Journal of experimental social psychology (Print), 34(6), 1998, pp. 530-561
We examined ability grouping as a moderator of self-fulfilling prophec
ies in two ways. First, we examined ability group moderation for indiv
idual students with data from 1701 students and 97 teachers from sixth
-grade math classes. Second, we examined ability group moderation at t
he class level with data from 108 sixth-grade math classes. Across bot
h sets of analyses, results showed that: (1) teacher perceptions predi
cted student achievement primarily because those perceptions were accu
rate; (2) teacher perceptions biased marks for students in heterogenou
s classes (consistent with perceptual bias): and (3) self-fulfilling p
rophecies were strongest when students were grouped within classes. We
also found that teacher perceptions mediated the relationship between
within-class ability grouping and student achievement. Implications f
or understanding accuracy, the power of self-fulfilling prophecies, an
d group level perceptions are discussed. (C) 1998 Academic Press.