School of Psychology, University of Western Sydney, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith NSW 2571, Australia.
BMC Med Educ. 2011 Jul 27;11:48. doi: 10.1186/1472-6920-11-48.
Big-fish-little-pond effect (BFLPE) research has demonstrated that students in high-ability environments have lower academic self-concepts than equally able students in low-ability settings. Research has shown low academic self-concepts to be associated with negative educational outcomes. Social comparison processes have been implicated as fundamental to the BFLPE.
Twenty first-year students in an Australian medical school completed a survey that included academic self-concept and social comparison measures, before and after their first written assessments. Focus groups were also conducted with a separate group of students to explore students' perceptions of competence, the medical school environment, and social comparison processes.
The quantitative study did not reveal any changes in academic self-concept or self-evaluation. The qualitative study suggested that the attributions that students used when discussing performance were those that have been demonstrated to negatively affect self-concept. Students reported that the environment was slightly competitive and they used social comparison to evaluate their performance.
Although the BFLPE was not evident in the quantitative study, results from the qualitative study suggest that the BFLPE might be operating In that students were using attributions that are associated with lower self-concepts, the environment was slightly competitive, and social comparisons were used for evaluation.
大鱼小池效应（BFLPE）的研究表明，高能力环境中的学生的学术自我概念低于低能力环境中同样能力的学生。研究表明，低学术自我概念与负面的教育结果有关。社会比较过程被认为是 BFLPE 的基础。
澳大利亚一所医学院的 21 名一年级学生在第一次书面评估前后完成了一项包括学术自我概念和社会比较措施的调查。还对一组单独的学生进行了焦点小组讨论，以探讨学生对能力、医学院环境和社会比较过程的看法。
定量研究没有显示学术自我概念或自我评价有任何变化。定性研究表明，学生在讨论表现时使用的归因会对自我概念产生负面影响。学生报告说，环境有点竞争性，他们使用社会比较来评估自己的表现。
尽管定量研究中没有明显的 BFLPE，但定性研究的结果表明，BFLPE 可能在起作用，因为学生使用的归因与较低的自我概念有关，环境有点竞争性，并且使用社会比较进行评估。
