Jill Maschio, PhD
June 28, 2023
The Problem
After teaching for some time, you might have developed certain stereotypes of students, such as those that “can” and will or “can’t” and won’t after reading just a paragraph or two of their written work. For instance, when a student does not use sources or cite them, you may find yourself thinking that the student does not care or are not college material. The moment you notice significant errors in students’ papers, the discrepancies trigger your negative mindset. A positive mindset is important for academic success. Still, if a student is not achieving a professor’s expectations, then the interaction between the professor and the student may decrease positive thinking in the student’s mindset. Let me explain how that may happen.
Dweck (2015) explains that a student’s positive mindset is paramount to achieving one’s educational goal. Thinking that the students are to blame for failing a course or dropping out of college and that you, as faculty, have no control over your students’ decisions may create unconscious behavior that matches that belief. In 1948, Robert K. Merton coined a term called he self-fulfilling prophecy. Taken to the classroom, Rosenthal and Jacobson’s (1968) showed that when six-grade teachers were told that certain students were “growth spurters” based on their IQ scores, those children did perform better even though the performance was a result of the teachers’ expectations. Imagine a basketball coach who believes that one of the team players is an exceptional player, then the coach may automatically spend more time with the player, provide more positive feedback, and put the player in the game more frequently than other members of the team. Because the player receives positive attention, the individual believes in his or her own performance and does well. The coach sees the player doing well, and that confirms the initial expectation. In the meantime, what happens to the rest of the team members who did not receive that extra attention? They may feel they are not as good of a player, so their behavior eventually matches their belief. Faculty may do the same with their students unknowingly.
Change Your Mindset, Change Student Success
The ways in which faculty talk and interact with the whole class will go noticed by all the students. What you can do is simply tell your class when overall they performed well as well as when they do not and what your expectations are moving forward so that everyone can succeed. Offer encouraging words to help keep them motivated to continue doing well or to improve if needed.
If you believe that your class as a whole can perform, then your positive actions will follow. You just may see an increase in the course GPA and a decrease in student dropouts. My experience doing that is that I find more of my students who are struggling come to me asking for more specific guidance in the course so that they can improve their grade. Most students want to improve their grade if it is low. At the end of the term, you can expect your students to let you know that you are appreciated for your genuine concern and enthusiasm.
In my course for high school and higher ed educators, I explain that there are nine different teacher personalities. That educators have different personalities that they bring to the classroom that influence the students’ mindset. It is the personality that you bring to the classroom in which you inspire students to be motivated, to want to success, and perhaps begin their journey to discover what it is they want to do with the rest of their lives. Knowing your own teaching personality can be a learning experience of your own and lead to personal and professional growth on the job.
- You can learn more about your teaching personality in my course. Click here for more information.
References
Dweck, C. (2015, September 22nd). Carol Dweck revisits the ‘growth mindset’. Retrieved from https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2015/09/23/carol-dweck-revisits-the-growth-mindset.html
Rosenthal, R., & Fode, K. (1963). The effect of experimenter bias on the performance of the albino rat. Behavioral Science, 8(3), 183-189. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10991743
Rosenthal, R., & Jacobson, L. F. (1968). Teacher expectations for the disadvantaged. Scientific American, 218(4), 19-23. www.jstor.org
