Social Comparison and Education

The typical classroom setting is pervaded by evaluation. It seems probable, therefore, that one of the major outcomes of schooling is sensitization to the quality of one’s own and others’ intellectual performance. Although evaluative processes in the classroom are widely recognized in discussions of educational theory and practice, most commentary focuses on the teacher as the source of such evaluation. The teacher’s role in assigning formal grades has been discussed for some time. More recently, attention has been paid to subtle verbal and nonverbal messages that convey teachers’ evaluations to students. Although it is no doubt true that teachers influence students’ perceptions of their performance, research on the reward system of the classroom often implies that the teacher is the only source of evaluative information and that students are passive recipients, rather than active seekers, of such information. The major premise of this chapter is that another source of evaluative information is available in the classroom and that students actively utilize this source to evaluate their own performance. The alternative information source is peers’ performance. The active process by which students obtain and use this information is social comparison.