A Case Study in Statistical Inference: Reconsideration of the Rosenthal-Jacobson Data on Teacher Expectancy.

This report is a critical evaluation of the research study Pygmalion in the Classroom by Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968) and the report of an extensive reanalysis of the Rosenthal and Jacobson data. The Rosenthal and Jacobson study was chosen for detailed examination for two reasons. First, it addresses a major social problem, has received nationwide attention, and has prompted a number of similar studies in the area. Second, its basic design, measurement problems, and the statistical procedures used in its analysis and reanalysis are typical of those encountered frequently in educational orliehavioral science research. Our criticism and reanalysis is intended to serve several purposes. Its major aim is to provide a pedagogical aid for students, researchers, and users of research. Thus it offers an extensive critique of a study, its design, analysis, and reporting. This critique provides a vehicle for examining common methodological problems in educational and behavioral science research, and for discussing and comparing statistical methods which are widely used but seldom well understood. The reanalysis of the Rosenthal-Jacobson data provides a demonstration of the wide variation in apparent results possible when 'similar analytic procedures are applied to data with sampling and measurement problems. Finally, we sought to identify the conclusions that can reasonably be drawn about teacher expectancy from the RosenthalJacobson study, since the wide publicity attracted by the study's expectancy hypothesis may have already sensitized teachers to this type of experiment and thus prejudiced attempts at replication.

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