Positive Adult Education, Learned Helplessness and the Pygmalion Effect

Positive education is seen as a transformative methodological approach capable of improving the act of teaching and learning and, above all, essential for the development of students’ personal skills and competences. However, few studies have been carried out on this topic in the field of adult and continuing education; instead, they have been published mainly in the field of formal education and at school age. This study works with a sample of 399 people over 16 years of age and students of the Universidad Popular de Dos Hermanas in order to show the relationship between the Pygmalion effect and learned helplessness in the process of acquiring knowledge in adulthood. In this way, three tools were used: one questionnaire that showed the teachers’ perceptions of the students’ qualities and behaviour and two that provided information on self-concept, self-esteem, personal and social skills and other variables directly related to emotional intelligence and positive education. It shows how exposure to negative operational constraints hinders the psychosocial and socio-educational development of learners in all possible ways, while, on the other hand, it indicates the importance of positive education to compensate for this phenomenon by enhancing the development and growth of those who study and participate in non-formal education through positive reinforcement. Likewise, the factorial interrelation of both positive and negative conditioning factors and their incidence on learning is shown; the importance of neutralising the negative components and strengthening the positive reinforcement and the role played by the community and education professionals as catalysts and behavioural modulators at any stage of learning and age group for the achievement of the objectives of the student and of education itself in a broad sense.

From being “disadvantaged” to becoming the most advantaged

Since Merton defined the self-fulfilling prophecy in 1948, it has been adopted to several disciplines, and yet, only a small proportion of researches was built on its original complete notion accurately. Empirical papers even met challenges in proving an important part of it, notably that the initial expectation, that came true unwittingly through the behaviour of participants, had to be “false”. That crucial point is the Achilles heel of self-fulfilling prophecy researches, including its special cases, the Galatea, Golem and Pygmalion effect experiments. The research gave an overview on the self-fulfilling prophecies’ related themes in Educational Research, Psychology and Sociology: interactions/stereotypes–stigmas and performance/ achievement; and aimed to examine the (aggregate) role/potential of “disadvantaged” people (i.e. people with mental, physical, psychological problems, disadvantaged socioeconomic/ familial backgrounds) in inducing the special cases of self-fulfilling prophecy – compared to other participants’ aggregate role/potential across all formerly reviewed studies. To this end, an umbrella review method was implemented, that has been unprecedented in social science. A research evidence-based inclusion–exclusion criteria, a PRISMA 2020-based search strategy, and a two-phase quality appraisal ((1) an author-led PRISMA 2020 assessment, (2) a two-researcher 10-step protocol; results: 4.3–4.4/5) were carried out, leading to a sample of two meta-analyses. The data collection and summary were based on qualitative and quantitative findings. The results showed that the effect sizes in “disadvantaged” experiments (d between 1.38–2.20) exceeded overall effect sizes of meta-analyses (d1 = 0.81, d 2 = 1.13) and of most studies in their samples. With regard to that Merton’s “initially false conceptions” can/could be completely incorporated into the research design only when the “disadvantaged” are/were the subject of these experiments – i.e. indeed a self-fulfilling prophecy is/was measured –, the final conclusion is that the “disadvantaged” are actually “the most advantaged” people in inducing the positive cases of self-fulfilling prophecy, particularly Pygmalion effect.

Positive Adult Education Learned Helplessness and the Pygmalion Effect

Positive education is seen as a transformative methodological approach capable of improving the act of teaching and learning and, above all, essential for the development of students' personal skills and competences. However, few studies have been carried out on this subject in the field of lifelong and adult education. This study works with a sample of 399 people over 16 years of age and students of the Universidad Popular de Dos Hermanas in order to show the relationship between the Pygmalion effect and learned helplessness in the process of acquiring knowledge in adulthood. In this way, three tools were used: a questionnaire that showed teachers' perceptions of students' qualities and behaviour and two that provided information on self-concept, self-esteem, personal and social skills and other variables directly related to emotional intelligence and positive education. It shows how exposure to negative operational conditioning factors influences the psychosocial and socio-educational development of students in every possible way, while on the other hand, it indicates the importance of positive education to compensate for this phenomenology by improving the development and growth of those who study and participate in non-formal education. Likewise, the factorial interrelation of both positive and negative conditioning factors and their incidence on learning is shown; the importance of neutralising the negative components and strengthening the positive reinforcement and the role played by the community and education professionals as catalysts and behavioural modulators at any stage of learning and age group for the achievement of the objectives of the student and of education itself in a broad sense

The Pygmalion Effect to Piano Teaching From the Perspective of Educational Psychology

Aiming at the problem of low student enthusiasm in piano teaching, this work tried to apply “Pygmalion effect” to piano teaching from the perspective of educational psychology. Forty-five students were chosen from nine classes in grades 2, 4, and 6 of a central elementary school in Beijing City using experimental research, and the experimental group and the control group were set up. A questionnaire was adopted to conduct the pre-test and post-test of the experiment, which were done to analyze the factors that affect the attitude of students toward music learning and the effect of piano teaching. The results show that the encouragement level of the piano teacher and the enthusiasm of the students in the piano course were significantly correlated at the 0.01 level. There was also a significant correlation between self-efficacy and student piano learning enthusiasm at the 0.01 level. Furthermore, the pre-test and post-test results showed that the students in the experimental group of each grade generally performed much better in piano learning than the students in the control group, which proves that the “Pygmalion effect” can play an excellent interventional role in piano teaching. In this research, the value of “Pygmalion effect” in the educational psychology of piano music education in primary schools was deeply studied to explore the possibility of a novel piano teaching model. The research results show that teacher encouragement can stimulate the subjective initiative of students and make them perform better in piano learning. This research provides reference and ideas for the combination of education- and psychology-related research in the music classroom.

THE „PYGMALION EFFECT“ IN THE CLASSROOM

The article provides a brief literary review of some concepts, which are more characteristic for the psychological sciences, but have adequate application in pedagogical practice. This is the „Pygmalion effect“, which means that expectations of students are high, and this will lead to higher academic results on their part. This concept is related to the so-called „self-fulfilling prophecies“ – the individual develops to the extent that we expect from her/him. Of course, these phenomena are extremely important for the atmosphere in the classroom, because in a sense they determine the teacher’s attitude towards students. An attempt is made to define other terms: „Galatea effect“ and „Golem effect“ as well.

Imitation

This chapter follows the short, troubled history of Uber’s corporate culture and how a leader’s behavior can permeate an entire organization, turning the workplace environment toxic and hostile to underrepresented groups of employees. A deeper look at role modeling via the classic Bobo doll study demonstrates how simply observing someone else’s behavior can lead to either socially beneficial or harmful outcomes. On a subtler level, expectations held by others, and particularly those in power, can result in their fulfillment through unconscious words and action, termed the Pygmalion effect, as demonstrated with a study of teacher expectations and student IQ. Imitation, through either role modeling or conforming to expectations, lies at the heart of a culture’s establishment and rigidity.

Comparative efficacy of racecadotril versus loperamide and probiotics in acute diarrheal illness of adults.

Objective: Main aim of this research is to evaluate and differentiate the safety, effectiveness and acceptability of racecadotril versus probiotics and loperamide in the out/ inpatient management of adults with acute diarrheal illness. Study Design: Mainly a multicentre, heterogenous, double‐blind, comparable‐ assemblage analysis. Setting: Department of Medicine District Head Quarter Hospital Sargodha. Period: May 2019 to October 2019. Material & Methods: Patients over eighteen years of age (Males/females) having acute diarrheal illness were entitled for this study. Patients who have symptoms of at the minimum three watery stools per 24 hours with less than two weeks duration were considered having acute diarrhea. Acetorphan (100 mg 3 times/ 24hrs), probiotics and loperamide (2 mg succeeding every loose motion) were given orally in 100 adults with moderate severe diarrhea in three different groups of patients. Treatment plus oral rehydration therapy was continued for five days or uptill recuperation, if this sprung up prior. The patients were briefed (at the day one visit) to report during the succeding visit about symptoms control. Patients were not clued-up that normal stool frequency was the main seek of the study, so there was no chance for Pygmalion effect. Results: Towards the end of study it was observed that the quantifiable accomplishment rates for loperamide, racecadotril and probiotics were 89.0%, 94.28% and 33.33% respectively. Denote diarrhea span was (16 +/-1.9h) with racecadotril, (15+/-1.1h) for loperamide and 26 +/- 4.5h) for patients using probiotics. Conclusion: In adult patients having acute diarrheal illness loperamide and racecadotril are expeditious, about equivalently effectual therapies. Probiotics are not as effective as other two drugs but have least side effects. Treatment relevant constipation was more in loperamide group as compare to two others.