The aim of this article is to update and inform from the literature review of studies, worldwide, on self-fulfilling prophecy and self-efficacy in the field of education. Different databases and repositories from different universities worldwide were reviewed. As selection criteria, research was considered that respond to the terms self-fulfilling prophecy, Pygmalion effect, expectations, general self-efficacy, academic self-efficacy, considering the methodological approaches, results and contributions of the research on the subject. This is a documentary descriptive theoretical type article, whose consultation period was from 2016 to 2021 and whose final sample was 103 documents. It is concluded that Self-Efficacy and Self-Fulfilling Prophecy are on different shores, the first has the subject as his own agent, so that he foresees the success of his actions; in the second, the agency is delegated to third parties and the subject becomes passive with a high probability of fulfilling the prophecy, independent of his social status.   Received: 14 July 2022 / Accepted: 5 September 2022 / Published: 5 November 2022