59 students occupying the level. Mr. Daniel also has the same opinion with Ms.
Martha that the purpose of labeling is to know which students who need more help.
“What I usually do is directly mapping whenever I enter the class. It is to know which one is active and inactive students. So far, there is no
different treat to a number of students; my treatment is the same to every
student.” - Mr. Daniel, 13032015, my translation Moreover, in giving such kind of label, Ms. Richa assumed that it should
not be intended to discriminate the students. Self-fulfilling prophecy has its role on giving a label to the students. Yet, though the students are at a high and low
level, lecturers should have believed in t heir students’ potentials or achievements
no matter what. It must be done that way to see each student objectively. “If we are being judgmental, we will not be able to see something
objectively. So, that’s one thing that I avoid from the first time whenever
I teach, I try hard not to be a judgmental person”. Ms. Richa, 11032015
The participants shared that implementing self-fulfilling prophecy might bring both positive and negative sides. Yet, based on the interview, most of the
participants implemented the positive side of self-fulfilling prophecy. The example of implementing self-fulfilling prophecy in a negative way is that when
lecturers expect too much on the students without seeing the students ’ condition.
Another example is when the lecturers become subjective to several students because the lecturers only believe in the potentials of several students in the class.
One of the participants, Ms. Martha, shared that it is quite natural to have a kind of spontaneous negative self-fulfilling prophecy. Mr. Jono shared that he has once
given negative label to his students.
60 “I am only a human, when there were students who have such kind of
potential distractor, I will think harder to make those students know that I do not like their attitude. I wrote it sometimes”. Mr. Jono, 23032015,
my translation Each participant has different way in trying to be objective to the
students. Though Mr. Jono has once given negative label to their students, he still tried to make the students understand his objective in teaching. A good teacher
will refuse to label their students with bad label; they look at each student and see the gem that is inside of every of them and communicate the vision back to the
student Ashton-Warner 1963; Ayers, 1993; Carini, 1982; Curwin, 1992; Heath, 1983; Kohl, 1967 as cited in Suthami 2015. Self-fulfilling prophecy has its role
in M r. Jono’s behavior. If he did not implement the positive self-fulfilling
prophecy to his students, he would leave the inactive students and pay more attention only on a number of active students in class.
B. The Influence of Implementing Self-Fulfilling Prophecy in Lecturers’ Ways of Teaching
This section answers the second question as presented in the problem formulation: to what extents
do the lecturers’ perceptions on self-fulfilling prophecy influence their way of teaching? The findings in this section were
acquired through having interviews with four lecturers of English Language Education Study Program, Sanata Dharma University. Similar to the previous
part, the researcher did not provide the participant s’ real name due to the
confidentiality of their real names. The four participants would be coded as Ms. Richa, Mr. Daniel, Mr. Jono, and Ms. Martha. As stated in the second chapter, this
61 research did not address to discuss
students’ achievement. Although the answer to this question is probably difficult to pin down with certainty, implementing self-
fulfilling prophecy brings different effect from every lecturer. In this research, the researcher would like to know to what extents do the perceptions on the
implementation of self-ful filling prophecy influences the lecturers’ way of
teaching. Lecturers’ belief on their students might influence their way of teaching.
Giving high expectation is one of the characteristics of teacher ’s implementation
of self-fulfilling prophecy to their students. As Rosenthal and Jacobson 1968 suspect from his past research, the teachers expectations of their students
behavior became a self-fulfilling prophecy. Rosenthal and Jacobson 1968 also state that when teachers expected certain children would show greater intellectual
development, those children did show greater intellectual development. High expectation, for all of the participants, is really important to be shown to the
students. Each lecturer has different style in delivering high expectation to their
students. Mr. Jono shared that high expectation is not always about promising something high and good. Yet, he alwa
ys asked for students’ commitment to learn more and keep their commitment. He always tells his students that their
commitment to learn is supported by the good environment around the class. Research by Cotton 1989 states that merely holding certain expectations for
students have no magical power to affect their performance or attitudes. Rather, it is the translation of these expectations into behavior that influences outcomes.
62 Being asked to what extent the self-fulfilling prophecy influence her way
of teaching, Ms. Richa shared that, “Not necessarily that way influence their way of teaching but I believe
that what teacher expect will influence the way the teacher teaches.” – Ms. Richa, 11032015
Ms. Richa said that whenever teachers believe or expect something for their students, then the way teacher teaches or the lecturers’ attitude will be obviously
influenced. Moreover, Mr. Daniel seemed in line with Ms Richa, he stated, “It the implementation of self-fulfilling prophecy influences in the way
that I know who needs more help”. – Mr. Daniel, 13032015 Implementing self-fulfilling for Mr. Daniel means to be equal to all of his
students. He has his own be lief about the students’ potentials. He truly disagreed
that the belief is used to differentiate teachers’ attitude toward students in a
negative way. Therefore, he used his belief to help his students who need more help than others. All of the participants use the personal approach due to make the
students feel appreciated and respected so that they are engaged to the teaching- learning process.
As stated in the previous section, all of the participants implement self- fulfilling prophecy in a positive way. Therefore, this part discusses the influence
of positive self- fulfilling prophecy toward their teaching based on lecturers’
perception. The effect of self-fulfilling prophecy which has been shown by the lecturers is related to Rosenthal
’s 1968 theory which focused on behavior that transmit teachers’ false beliefs to students including the degree to which teachers:
1 create a warm and friendly environment for students; 2 provide students with opportunities to develop their skills; 3 provide students with opportunities to
