One process is streaming. As Gilborn and Youdel express, students placed at the bottom of the educational triage have their self-esteem and aspiration undermined as they are regarded as 'hopeless cases'. In this way, there is a correlation between streaming and self-esteem, and thus aspiration level of a student.
A second process is labelling. As Becker discusses, teachers can label students with preconceived notions about how an 'ideal pupil' looks and acts. This process of labelling can often become a self-fulfilling prophecy and may affect the help given to certain students. This bias therefore impacts student attainment positively or negatively based on how well they seem like the 'ideal pupil'.