The Big-Fish–Little-Pond Effect, Competence Self-perceptions, and Relativity

Abstract

Abstract Enhancing the academic self-concept (ASC) is an important goal in its own right and facilitates the accomplishment of a wide variety of educational outcomes. The big-fish–little-pond effect (BFLPE), based on an integration of theoretical models, posits that high-ability students will have lower ASCs when placed in high-ability educational tracks with other high-ability students, while lower-ability students will have higher ASCs when placed in low-ability tracks with other lower-ability students. Thus, in terms of ASC, highly segregated educational systems are expected to disadvantage the brightest students and advantage the least able students in terms of ASC. Here we review the BFLPE literature over the 30 years since the first BFLPE study, with a focus on ongoing empirical issues, new theoretical perspectives, increasingly sophisticated methodological approaches, and policy/practice implications. We conclude with an overview of methodological issues pertaining to the BFLPE and the ways in which BFLPE methodology has changed and progressed over the last 30 years to take advantage of advances in statistical methodology.