Abstract
Research on the self-evaluation bias of students' school competence has focused mainly on its correlates for students' school adaptation. This study focused on teachers' theories about students with a positive or negative bias in their self-evaluation of competence. French students enrolled in the third and fifth grades of elementary school (sample 1, N = 508; sample 2, N = 322) and their teachers (sample 1, N = 27; sample 2, N = 13) participated in this study. We examined the relationship between the more or less biased perceptions that students have of their competence in French and mathematics and their teacher's judgment. Models for each sample were tested while controlling for students’ performance, their gender, repeating of a school year, and average class level. The results for both samples showed that the more positively biased a student's evaluation of their competence was, the better their teacher’s judgment was.
Similar content being viewed by others
Availability of data and material
The collection procedure and storage of data has been declared and registered with of the Commission nationale de l'informatique et des libertés de France (French National Commission for Information Technology and Civil Liberties; No. declaration register: 0886549). The data are available by sending a request to first author address.
Code availability
The data were processed on IBM SPSS statistics 25 using Python 2.7 writing code. The analysis approach is described in the body of the article. The code are available by sending a request to the first author address.
Notes
Δ(A−B) = D(A) −D(B) where D(A) is the model A deviance, D(B) is the one of the model B et Δ(A−B) is the decrease in deviance between the initial model A and the more complete model B.
References
Babad, E. Y. (1993). Teachers’ differential behaviour. Educational Psychology Review, 5, 347–376. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf01320223
Balzer, W. K., & Sulsky, L. M. (1992). Halo and performance appraisal research: A critical examination. Journal of Applied Psychology, 77, 975–985. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.77.6.975
Boissicat, N., Pansu, P., & Bouffard, T. (2020). Does classroom social comparison bias students’ evaluation of their own competence? Social Psychology of Education, 23, 1303–1326. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-020-09582-y
Bonneville-Roussy, A., Bouffard, T., & Vezeau, C. (2017). Trajectories of self-evaluation bias in primary and secondary school: Parental antecedents and academic consequences. Journal of School Psychology, 63, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsp.2017.02.002
Bouffard, T., Boisvert, M., & Vezeau, C. (2003). The illusion of incompetence and its correlates among elementary school children and their parents. Learning and Individual Differences, 14, 31–46. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2003.07.001
Bouffard, T., & Narciss, S. (2011). Benefits and risks of positive biases in self-evaluation of academic competence: Introduction. International Journal of Educational Research, 4, 205–208. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijer.2011.08.001
Bouffard, T., Pansu, P., & Boissicat, N. (2013). Quand se juger meilleur ou moins bon qu’il ne l’est s’avère profitable ou nuisible à l’élève. Revue Française De Pédagogie : Recherches En Éducation, 182, 117–140. https://doi.org/10.4000/rfp.4020
Bouffard, T., Vezeau, C., Chouinard, R., & Marcotte, G. (2006). L’illusion d’incompétence et les facteurs associés chez l’élève du primaire. Revue Française De Pédagogie : Recherches En Éducation, 155, 9–20. https://doi.org/10.4000/rfp.61
Bouffard, T., Vezeau, C., Roy, M., & Lengelé, A. (2011). Stability of biases in self-evaluation and relations to well-being among elementary school children. International Journal of Educational Research, 50, 221–229. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijer.2011.08.003
Bressoux, P., & Pansu, P. (2003). Quand les enseignants jugent leurs élèves. Presses Universitaires de France.
Bressoux, P., & Pansu, P. (2016). Pupils’ self-perceptions: the role of teachers’ judgment controlling for big-fish-little-pond effect. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 31, 341–357. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10212-015-0264-7
Brophy, J. E., & Good, T. L. (1974). Teacher-student relationships: Causes and consequences. Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
Chung, J., Schriber, R. A., & Robins, R. W. (2016). Positive Illusions in the academic context: A longitudinal study of academic self-enhancement in college. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 42, 1384–1401. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167216662866
Colvin, C. R., Block, J., & Funder, D. C. (1995). Overly positive self-evaluations and personality: Negative implications for mental health. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 68(6), 1152–1162. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.68.6.1152
Côté, S., Bouffard, T., & Vezeau, C. (2014). The mediating effect of self- evaluation bias of competence on the relationship between parental emotional support and children’s academic functioning. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 84, 415–434. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjep.12045
Darley, J. M., & Gross, P. H. (1983). A hypothesis-confirming bias in labeling effects. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 44, 20–33. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.44.1.20
Davis, J. A. (1966). The campus as a frog pond: An application of the theory of relative deprivation to career decisions of college men. American Journal of Sociology, 72, 17–31. https://doi.org/10.1086/224257
Dennis, I. (2007). Halo effects in grading student projects. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92, 1169–1176. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.92.4.1169
Dompnier, B., Pansu, P., & Bressoux, P. (2006). An integrative model of scholastic judgments: Students’ characteristics, class context, halo effect and internal attributions. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 21, 119–133. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf03173572
Dompnier, B., Pansu, P., & Bressoux, P. (2007). Social utility, social desirability and scholastic judgments: Toward a personological model of academic evaluation. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 22, 333–350. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psfr.2007.03.001
Dupeyrat, C., Escribe, C., Huet, N., & Régner, I. (2011). Positive biases in self-assessment of mathematics competence, achievement goals, and mathematics performance. International Journal of Educational Research, 50, 241–250. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijer.2011.08.005
Dusek, J. B., & Joseph, G. (1983). The bases of teacher expectancies: A meta-analysis. Journal of Educational Psychology, 75, 327–346. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.75.3.327
Festinger, L. (1954). A theory of social comparison processes. Human Relations, 7, 117–140. https://doi.org/10.1177/001872675400700202
Fleury-Roy, M. H., & Bouffard, T. (2006). Teachers’ recognition of children with an illusion of incompetence. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 21, 149–161. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf03173574
Frome, P. M., & Eccles, J. S. (1998). Parents’ influence on children’s achievement-related perceptions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 435–452. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.74.2.435
Glock, S., Krolak-Schwerdt, S., Klapproth, F., & Böhmer, M. (2013). Beyond judgment bias: How students’ ethnicity and academic profile consistency influence teachers’ tracking judgments. Social Psychology of Education, 16, 555–573. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-013-9227-5
Good, T. L., & Brophy, J. E. (2000). Looking in Classrooms (8th ed.). Longman.
Gramzow, R. H., Elliot, A. J., Asher, E., & McGregor, H. A. (2003). Self-evaluation bias and academic performance: Some ways and some reasons why. Journal of Research in Personality, 37, 41–61. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0092-6566(02)00535-4
Gresham, F. M., Lane, K. L., MacMillan, D. L., Bocian, K. M., & Ward, S. L. (2000). Effects of positive and negative illusory biases: Comparisons across social and academic self-concept domains. Journal of School Psychology, 38, 151–175. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-4405(99)00042-4
Guilbert, D. J. (1990). Évaluation psychométrique du concept de soi chez les enfants d’âge scolaire. Master thesis. Université du Québec à Montréal.
Hafen, C. A., Ruzek, E. A., Gregory, A., Allen, J. P., & Mikami, A. Y. (2015). Focusing on teacher-student interactions eliminates the negative impact of students’ disruptive behavior on teacher perceptions. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 39, 426–431. https://doi.org/10.1177/0165025415579455
Harter, S. (1982). The Perceived Competence Scale for Children. Child Development, 53, 87–97. https://doi.org/10.2307/1129640
Harter, S. (2012). Emerging self-processes during childhood and adolescence. In M.Leary & J.P.Tangney (Ed.), Handbook of self and identity (2nd ed., pp. 680–715). Guilford Press.
Hauser-Cram, P., Sirin, S. R., & Stipek, D. (2003). When teachers’ and parents’ values differ: Teachers’ ratings of academic competence in children from low-income families. Journal of Educational Psychology, 95, 813–820. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.95.4.813
Hoge, R. D., & Coladarci, T. (1989). Teacher-based judgments of academic achievement: A review of literature. Review of Educational Research, 59, 297–313. https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543059003297
John, O. P., & Robins, R. W. (1994). Accuracy and bias in self-perception: Individual differences in self-enhancement and the role of narcissism. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 66, 206–219. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.66.1.206
Jamain, L. (2019). Biais d'auto-évaluation de compétence en français et en mathématiques chez les élèves de primaire : évolution et implications pour l'adaptation et la réussite scolaire des élèves? (Doctoral dissertation, Université Grenoble Alpes). Retrieved from : https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-02364688
Jamain, L., Bouffard, T., & Pansu, P. (2020). Le lien entre le biais d’auto-évaluation de compétence et la performance scolaire : rôle de l’autorégulation et de la compréhension des attentes de l’enseignant par l’élève. Canadian Journal of Education / Revue Canadienne de l'Education, 43, 197–228. Retrieved from https://journals.sfu.ca/cje/index.php/cje-rce/article/view/4087
Kurman, J. (2006). Self-enhancement, self-regulation and self-improvement following failures. British Journal of Social Psychology, 45, 339–356. https://doi.org/10.1348/014466605X42912
Lai, E. R., Wolfe, E. W., & Vickers, D. (2015). Differentiation of illusory and true halo in writing scores. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 75, 102–125. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013164414530990
Larouche, M.-N., Galand, B., & Bouffard, T. (2008). The illusion of scholastic incompetence and peer acceptance in primary school. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 23, 25–39. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf03173138
Leising, D., Locke, K. D., Kurzius, E., & Zimmermann, J. (2016). Quantifying the association of self-enhancement bias with self-ratings of personality and life satisfaction. Assessment, 23, 588–602. https://doi.org/10.1177/1073191115590852
Lévesque-Guillemette, R., Bouffard, T., & Vezeau, C. (2015). Les liens entre le jugement de l’enseignant sur les biais d’autoévaluation de compétence de l’élève et la qualité de leur relation. Revue Des Sciences De L’éducation, 41, 179–197. https://doi.org/10.7202/1034032ar
Logel, C., Iserman, E. C., Davies, P. G., Quinn, D. M., & Spencer, S. J. (2009). The perils of double consciousness: The role of thought suppression in stereotype threat. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45, 299–312. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2008.07.016
Marsh, H. W. (1986). Verbal and Math Self-Concepts: An Internal/External Frame of Reference Model. American Educational Research Journal, 23, 129–149. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.3102/00028312023001129
Marsh, H. W. (1987). The big-fish-little-pond effect on academic self-concept. Journal of Educational Psychology, 79, 280–295. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.79.3.280
Marsh, H. W. (1990). Causal ordering of academic self-concept and academic achievement: A multiwave, longitudinal panel analysis. Journal of Educational Psychology, 82, 646–656. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.82.4.646
Marsh, H. W., & Craven, R. G. (2006). Reciprocal effects of self-concept and performance from a multidimensional perspective: Beyond seductive pleasure and unidimensional perspectives. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 1, 133–163. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-6916.2006.00010.x
Marsh, H. W., & Martin, A. J. (2011). Academic self-concept and academic achievement: Relations and causal ordering. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 81, 59–77. https://doi.org/10.1348/000709910X503501
Marsh, H. W., & Parker, J. W. (1984). Determinants of student self-concept: Is it better to be a relatively large fish in a small pond even if you don’t learn to swim as well? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 47, 213–231. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.47.1.213
Marsh, H. W., Kuyper, H., Seaton, M., Parker, P. D., Morin, A. J. S., Möller, J., & Abduljabbar, A. S. (2014). Dimensional comparison theory: An extension of the internal/external frame of reference effect on academic self-concept formation. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 39, 326–341. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2014.08.003
Martínez, J. F., Stecher, B., & Borko, H. (2009). Classroom assessment practices, teacher judgments, and student achievement in mathematics: Evidence from the ECLS. Educational Assessment, 14, 78–102. https://doi.org/10.1080/10627190903039429
McGeown, S., Goodwin, H., Henderson, N., & Wright, P. (2012). Gender differences in reading motivation: Does sex or gender identity provide a better account? Journal of Research in Reading, 35, 328–336. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9817.2010.01481.x
Metcalfe, J. (1998). Cognitive optimism: Self-deception or memory-based processing heuristics? Personality and Social Psychology Review, 2, 100–110. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327957pspr0202_3
Miserandino, M. (1996). Children who do well in school: Individual differences in perceived competence and autonomy in above-average children. Journal of Educational Psychology, 88, 203–214. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.88.2.203
O’Brien, L. T., & Crandall, C. S. (2003). Stereotype threat and arousal: Effects on women’s math performance. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 29, 782–789. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167203029006010
Pansu, P., Régner, I., Max, S., Colé, P., Nezlek, J. B., & Huguet, P. (2016). A burden for the boys: Evidence of stereotype threat in boys’ reading performance. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 65, 26–30. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2016.02.008
Paulhus, D. L., & John, O. P. (1998). Egoistic and moralistic biases in self-perception: The interplay of self-deceptive styles with basic traits and motives. Journal of Personality, 66, 1025–1060. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-6494.00041
Phillips, D. (1984). The Illusion of Incompetence among academically competent children. Child Development, 55, 2000–2016. https://doi.org/10.2307/1129775
Phillips, D. (1987). Socialization of perceived academic competence among highly competent children. Child Development, 58, 1308–1320. https://doi.org/10.2307/1130623
Phillips, D. A., & Zimmerman, M. (1990). The developmental course of perceived competence and incompetence among competent children. In R. J. Sternberg & J. Kolligian, Jr. (Eds.), Competence considered (pp. 41–66). Yale University Press.
Régner, I., Steele, J. R., Ambady, N., Thinus-Blanc, C., & Huguet, P. (2014). Our future scientists: A review of stereotype threat in girls from early elementary school to middle school. Revue Internationale De Psychologie Sociale, 27, 13–51. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797610386619
Reilly, D. (2012). Gender, culture, and sex-typed cognitive abilities. PLoS ONE 7, 0039904. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0039904
Robins, R. W., & Beer, J. S. (2001). Positive illusions about the self: Short-term benefits and long-term costs. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80, 340–352. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.80.2.340
Sanrey, C., Bressoux, P., Lima, L., & Pansu, P. (2020). A new method for studying the halo effect in teachers' judgment and its antecedents: Bringing out the role of certainty. British Journal of Educational Psychology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1111/bjep.12385
Seaton, M., Marsh, H. W., & Craven, R. G. (2009). Earning its place as a pan-human theory: Universality of the big-fish-little-pond effect across 41 culturally and economically diverse countries. Journal of Educational Psychology, 101, 403–419. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0013838
Shih, M., Ambady, N., Richeson, J. A., Fujita, K., & Gray, H. M. (2002). Stereotype performance boosts: The impact of self-relevance and the manner of stereotype activation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83, 638–647. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.83.3.638
Shin, H., Bjorklund, D. F., & Beck, E. F. (2007). The adaptive nature of children’s overestimation in a strategic memory task. Cognitive Development, 22, 197–212. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogdev.2006.10.001
Stoet, G., & Geary, D. C. (2013). Sex differences in mathematics and reading achievement are inversely related: Within-nation assessment of ten years of PISA data. PLoS ONE, e57988. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0057988
Südkamp, A., Kaiser, J., & Möller, J. (2012). Accuracy of teachers’ judgments of students’ academic achievement: A meta-analysis. Journal of Educational Psychology, 104, 743–762. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0027627
Südkamp, A., Kaiser, J., & Möller, J. (2014). Teachers’ judgments of students’ academic achievement: results from field and experimental studies. In Teachers’ Professional Development (pp. 5–25). Brill Sense. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6209-536-6_2
Thorndike, E. L. (1920). A constant error in psychological ratings. Journal of Applied Psychology, 4, 25–29. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0071663
Tiedemann, J. (2000). Parents’ gender stereotypes and teachers’ beliefs as predictors of children’s concept of their mathematical ability in elementary school. Journal of Educational Psychology, 92, 144–151. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.92.1.144
Tiedemann, J. (2002). Teachers’ gender stereotypes as determinants of teacher perceptions in elementary school mathematics. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 50, 49–62. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1020518104346
Upadyaya, K., & Eccles, J. (2015). Do teachers’ perceptions of children’s math and reading related ability and effort predict children’s self-concept of ability in math and reading? Educational Psychology, 35, 110–127. https://doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2014.915927
Funding
This work has been carried out within the framework of the ANR-2016 SCHOOLBIAS project supported by the National French Research Agency: ANR-16-CE28-0011.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
This article is based on the first author non-published thesis. All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Ludivine Jamain. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Ludivine Jamain and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflicts of interest
The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Jamain, L., de Place, AL., Bouffard, T. et al. Students’ self-evaluation bias of school competence and its link to teacher judgment in elementary school. Soc Psychol Educ 24, 919–938 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-021-09638-7
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-021-09638-7