The Big-fish–little-pond-effect Stands Up to Critical Scrutiny: Implications for Theory, Methodology, and Future Research

Abstract

The big-fish-little-pond effect (BFLPE) predicts that equally able students have lower academic self-concepts (ASCs) when attending schools where the average ability levels of classmates is high, and higher ASCs when attending schools where the schoolaverage ability is low. BFLPE findings are remarkably robust, generalizing over a wide variety of different individual student and contextual level characteristics, settings, countries, long-term follow-ups, and research designs. Because of the importance of ASC in predicting future achievement, coursework selection, and educational attainment, the results have important implications for the way in which schools are organized (e.g., tracking, ability grouping, academically selective schools, and gifted education programs). In response to Dai and Rinn (Educ. Psychol. Rev., 2008), we summarize the theoretical model underlying the BFLPE, minimal conditions for testing the BFLPE, support for its robust generalizability, its relation to social comparison theory, and recent research extending previous implications, demonstrating that the BFLPE stands up to scrutiny. Educ Psychol Rev (2008) 20:319-350 DOI 10.1007 Quotations (associated page numbers) to the Dai and Rinn (2008) article are based on a prepublication version of the article available to the authors of this article that may have changed during the final preparation for publication.The authors would also like to express thanks to David Dai and Anne Rinn for their encouragement and assistance to us in preparation of our article, whilst still acknowledging that they might not agree will all the views expressed here. Keywords Big-fish-little-pond-effect . Social comparison theory . Ability grouping . Academic self-concept In its simplest form, the big-fish-little-pond effect (BFLPE) predicts that students have lower academic self-concepts (ASC) when attending schools where the average ability levels of other students is high compared to equally able students attending schools where the school-average ability is low. Findings support the BFLPE and are remarkably robust, generalizing over a wide variety of different individual student and contextual level characteristics, settings, countries, longterm followups, and research designs. The results also have important policy implications for the ways in which schools are organized (e.g., ability grouping, tracking, selective schools, gifted education programs, etc.). An Advance OrganizerThe Dai and Rinn (2008) critique of the BFLPE is reminiscent in many ways of the Dai (2004) comment on a cross-cultural study on the BFLPE by Marsh and Hau (2003). To differing extents, both critiques by Dai (2004) and by Dai and Rinn (2008) suggested that: the BFLPE might be a short-term, ephemeral effect; noted situations in which there might be positive effects of school-average ability on ASC that is claimed to be inconsistent with BFLPE predictions; argued that there might be a number of individual student or contextual characteristics that moderate the BFLPE; contrasted BF...

A Further Examination of the Big-Fish–Little-Pond Effect

“…In contrast to the BFLPE, the notion of reflected glory states that students actually benefit from being in better performing classrooms because this provides them with feelings of academic pride. Although there is clear evidence that the BFLPE overrides any effects of reflected glory (for a review, see Marsh et al 2008), gender assimilation effects still need to be investigated. Furthermore, future studies should examine whether our result for gender in-group comparisons is limited to early adolescents or can be generalized to older samples.…”

“…According to social comparison theory (Festinger 1954), people are motivated to compare their own accomplishments with those of others that do a little better than themselves. Unlike comparisons with all other classmates, individual upward comparisons are self-chosen (Seaton et al 2008;Skaalvik and Skaalvik 2002). Moreover, these comparisons encourage people to improve themselves and may have positive effects on their self-concepts and achievements.…”

Career motivation of secondary students in STEM: a cross-cultural study between Korea and Indonesia

“…One reason for such a paradoxical situation is that a Confucian culture highly emphasizes the role of education in society; parents have a passion for their children's education in collectivist cultures (Lee, Rojewski, & Hill, 2013;Shin, Ha, & Lee, 2017). In addition, a ''big fish little pond effect'' model, in which students who have shown high average achievement tend to have a low self-concept because of social comparison or pressure, has been suggested as a plausible reason for East Asian students' low self-concept for math and science (Liou, 2014;Marsh et al, 2008). These contextual factors can lead to higher math and science achievement.…”

Talented But Unaware? An Analysis of the Role of Self-Assessment in Educational Transition

“…Social comparison theory in self-concept (Marsh and Hau, 2003;Marsh & Yeung, 1998;Marsh et al, 2008) assumes that academic self-concept is positively influenced by one's own performance, but is counterbalanced somewhat by the negative impact of peer performance.…”

“…On the other hand, the result could be read from the perspective of the 'big fish, little pond' effect (Marsh and Hau, 2003;Marsh and Yeung, 1998;Marsh et al, 2008), where low (!) school quality (assessed by class average Model 4 contains psychological traits that are in standard use.…”