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“The situation we’re in - and its culture - often play a stronger role in shaping our behavior than our character does.” (P.143)

“When we perceive cues and have interactions that suggest we could be negatively stereotyped because of our group membership, we’re more likely to experience stereotype threat.” (P.178)

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My professors cared about me as a person.

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My professors cared about me as a person.

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This part of the book, especially Chapter 7, challenges a fixed mindset that views people as a token of a (stereo)type. Investing in human development and recognizing an individual's specific needs and constraints are some of the ways one can combat this mindset. The goal is to creating environments in which people are less likely to experience stereotype threat and become self conscious about their perceived social identities. Not worrying about such things and feeling respected are key to both individual and institutional success.

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The author proposes that there is a correlation between Cultures of Genius and unethical behaviors. I find this discussion interesting as it invites me consider how, as an instructor, I can create learning environments that deter students from cheating. I am thinking specifically about students using AI to write papers. This problem has been extremely prevalent, and one interesting thing I heard from undergrads is that they felt the need to use it, otherwise they would not be able to keep up with others, or their work would not be as high quality as others (because they assumed everyone used AI!). I am not sure if this is a reflection of a Culture of Genius that the author describes, but it might be important to discuss how instructors can create growth-minded environments that encourage individuals to believe in their own potential so they no longer feel the need to rely on such tools for coursework and do not give up their agency to AI.

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If learning feels more challenging and comes more slowly, we generally retain what we’ve learned longer and are better able to apply that learning more broadly.

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One connection I had was some content in Chapter 9 "Evaluative Situation".

The author writes "When an organization or manager requires continual proof of performance—such as near-constant check-ins or production of superfluous deliverables—it suggests to employees that the organization is unsure whether they can do the work required of them." This reminds me of my advising in stage management - sometimes during a tech rehearsal, I'd like to sit by a student stage manager to give them advices and correct their mistakes. Looking back, I realize this is actually giving them a lot of pressure in them moment and making them feel I'm unsure of their ability to do the job well.

Moving forward, I'm definitely giving them more space, and reduce the time of sitting by them; instead, I plan to just take down notes and delivery feedback later, so that students can have more space to focus on their work and try different things.

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When reading chapter 10, which is about High-effort situations, I realized that a lot of my extracurricular activities in college belong to this situation, where I had to put in a lot of work and learn new things on my own. There was no advisor or faculty mentor to guide me along the way.

However, because of the psychological safety of extracurricular activities (there's no instructor grading me or judging my efforts), I could freely experiment with new ideas and learn new skills. That experience improved my resilience so much and taught me so much about growing and learning.

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Had one professor who cared about me as a person/had a mentor who encouraged me.

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Had one professor who cared about me as a person/had a mentor who encouraged me.

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During chapter 6, the medical professor stayed tutoring a student until 0300 to help the student pass an anatomy exam.

"Basically, we were told from the very beginning, 'We've selected you, now you're ours, and you are going to succeed.'" Investing in students to display a growth mindset will increase sense of belonging in their particular programs. This display of mentorship and care from the professor will sets a large influence on how the student will be empowered to seek help and also display these qualities to their peers.

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page 209 -- "Learning that mindset isn't static, and instead is often situation-dependent, freed people from the moralization and judgment they were used to. They felt liberated by the discovery that how they respond to these four challenging situations isn't just about them -- and their responses are changeable! Every person's response is the result of a complex interaction between their personal beliefs, experiences, and history, and the organization's culture."

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Many factors contribute to how I navigate mindset triggers ... in some cases, evaluative situations feel safe and exciting, and in others they don't! This made me think about how to navigate those dynamics within my classroom and mentoring environments.

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page 182: "Growth-minded faculty not only had smaller achievement gaps in their classes, but their students also reported being more motivated and engaged, and they felt that the professor inspired them to do their best work."

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A culture that prizes immediate perfection or only celebrates outcome (rather than process) tends to incentivize cutting corners or hiding problems.

Mentorship and feedback would be encouraged to support early-career employees in developing over time, rather than pressuring immediate perfection.

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One connection I had to my professional life in nursing are the evaluative situations being a mindset trigger. In nursing, there are multiple formative and summative evaluations that triggers students to be anxious and apprehensive that negatively influences student performance. In my role as a Success Coach, I work with students to over come this prove and perform mindset.

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As we prepare our work, we focus on ways to seek feedback from others (creating a microculture of growth around us) to refine the idea we're creating. When we present our work, we might feature our successes to date, but we also might share some of the challenges and struggles we've faced along the way, and the strategies we're using to overcome them.

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In the section on Integrity and Ethical Behavior, there was a statement about how the wrong goals and metrics can impair an individual's ability to act in line with the core values of the organization. I think this not only ties into promotion and tenure but something I try to really analyze when it comes to how I'm assessing learners in the classroom, am I holding true to core values (course goals) when creating the assessment and how can I better lay those out for the students to be successful.

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"When we believe there is a positive correlation between effort and ability, we're more likely to see problems as solvable with the right tools." (p.244)

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There was a portion of chapter 7 that highlighted storytelling as a way to cultivate deeper connections and encourage identity safety. I think this ties into all three of the Support Big six items (exciting, caring, encouraging). Storytelling can help to build better connections and humanize you more with the learner which in turn helps further develop that rapport and relationship for support.

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Reading about the four mindset triggers:

1) Evaluative Situations

2) High Effort Situations

3) Critical Feedback

4) Success of Others

Reminded me about some of the insights in James Lang "Cheating Lessons" where he asserts that cheating/ academic dishonesty is more likely in high in high stakes contexts that emphasize performance over mastery and do not foster self-efficacy through productive feedback.

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Learning from Academic Dishonesty
James M. Lang

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ISBN 9780674724631

Publication date: 09/02/2013

Nearly three-quarters of college students cheat during their undergraduate careers, a startling number attributed variously to the laziness of today's students, their lack of a moral compass, or the demands of a hypercompetitive society. For James Lang, cultural or sociological explanations like these are red herrings. His provocative new research indicates that students often cheat because their learning environments give them ample incentives to try-and that strategies which make cheating less worthwhile also improve student learning. Cheating Lessons is a practical guide to tackling academic dishonesty at its roots.

Drawing on an array of findings from cognitive theory, Lang analyzes the specific, often hidden features of course design and daily classroom practice that create opportunities for cheating. Courses that set the stakes of performance very high, that rely on single assessment mechanisms like multiple-choice tests, that have arbitrary grading criteria: these are the kinds of conditions that breed cheating. Lang seeks to empower teachers to create more effective learning environments that foster intrinsic motivation, promote mastery, and instill the sense of self-efficacy that students need for deep learning.

Although cheating is a persistent problem, the prognosis is not dire. The good news is that strategies which reduce cheating also improve student performance overall. Instructors who learn to curb academic dishonesty will have done more than solve a course management problem-they will have become better educators all around.

Praise

Lang's book serves as an excellent introduction to principles of effective teaching-that is, teaching that leads to meaningful student learning. Happily, these principles also reduce student motivation to cheat, as Lang cogently argues. Faculty will find in Cheating Lessons many practical examples of ways they can implement these principles in their teaching.

-Derek Bruff, Vanderbilt University

James Lang has written a smart, original, well-researched guide to 'building better learning environments' framed as a guide to avoiding academic dishonesty. Rigorously grounded in empirical studies, rich with illuminating examples, and engagingly written, Cheating Lessons promises to be an eye-opening and immensely useful book for post-secondary educators.

-Christopher Hager, Trinity College

Author

James M. Lang is Associate Professor of English at Assumption College and former assistant director of the Searle Center for Teaching Excellence at Northwestern University.

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Cheating Lessons - Harvard University Press

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Nearly three-quarters of college students cheat during their undergraduate careers, a startling number attributed variously to the laziness of today's students, their lack of a moral compass, or the demands of a hypercompetitive society. For James Lang, cultural or sociological explanations like these are red herrings.