cal designs had confirmed that teacher expectations can and do contribute to differences in students' performance, "...although not always and not automatically." (Brophy & Good, 1974, p.32) Nonetheless, the authors pointed out that the implications of this now confirmed principle were sociologically and psychosocially staggering in terms of minority and/or poor students. Regarding these implications, the authors noted that since many middle-class teachers may be convinced (often subconsciously) that such students have intellectual limitations, they may somehow be conveying these limited expectations to the children, thereby getting from them only the little that they expect.
While many early studies of the teacher expectation/student performance relationship were empirical, a few authors took a more conceptual or theoretical approach to the relationship. Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968) had characterized the relationship as a "pygmalion" or self-fulfilling prophecy effect. According to Crano and Messe (1992), theoretical work in the field was aimed at co
...