An investigetion of big fish little pond effect in high schools with diverse ability

The purpose of this study was to investigate the Big Fish Little Pond Effect (BFLPE) hypotheis on students' academic self-concept. BFLPE states that school average achievement negatively influences students' academic self-concept. The study was conducted with 4273 high-school students in 12 cities. The schools were stratified according to their achievement level. The Academic Self-Decsription Questionare -II was adapted in Turkish language and used in this study. Variance analyzes, t tests, correlation analyzes, multiple linear regression analyzes and hierarchical regression analyzes were used to analyze data. The BFLPE hypothesis was partially supported. The results of the study showed that studentsint schools with higher achievemnt held higher academic self-concept than students in schools with average and low achievement. However, school-grade average had a negative contribution to academic-self concept. When individual achievement was partialed out in high achieving schools, average school abilitity had a positive contribution to academic self-concept. Both assimilation and contrast effects were observed together.