er can or should do to promote learning. The research, however, indicates that the characteristics and actions of teachers have a major influence on student motivation and learning (e.g., Jansen et al., 2022). Students will use deeper learning strategies if they believe the material is relevant to their personal goals. Their motivation to learn varies according to how much they trust the instructor and how meaningful and important they perceive the content to be.
- I maintain my integrity and would not lower/sell myself by decreasing the level of teaching, as some of my colleagues do, to gain popularity or high students’ ratings. Virtually everyone exhibits what is known as self-serving bias. They take credit for successes but explain away failures. The belief stated above is self-serving bias applied to teaching. If students learn, it is because I’m a good teacher. If students don’t learn, it’s because they are lazy or ill prepared. It’s the fault of the admissions office for not recruiting strong enough students, high school teachers for not adequately preparing students for college, or parents who are too indulgent and overprotective. If my colleagues get higher ratings, it is because they have lower standards than me or prioritize being popular with students. These teachers fail to distinguish between making it easier to make high grades, which is grade inflation, with making it easier for students to learn, which is skilled, effective teaching. Self-serving bias allows people to maintain a strong ego in the face of failure, but it also blinds them to steps they could take to improve.
- Students do not have the tools to fully appreciate my teaching at present. However, in future years, when they become professionals and look back, they will realize how much knowledge and understanding they gained from my course. Think back to a teacher in college or high school that you really didn’t like. Has your opinion of them improved over the years? The research says that’s unlikely. Several studies have found that student evaluations are stable over time (Marsh and Roche, 1997). Even for classes where you may have learned a lot but found the class unpleasant, the negative emotional response is enduring (Haught et al., 2016). This belief is another form of rationalization. It excuses faculty from taking responsibility for improving their teaching. Furthermore, students who have a bad experience in a class may project that negative emotion onto the whole field. For example, students who have a poor experience in an introductory psychology course may conclude that they dislike all of psychology and the field has no merit.
- My teaching is good enough; there’s no need for me to improve. Weak students tend to show poor metacognitive awareness of their actual level of content mastery. They are grossly overconfident; they believe they have a deep comprehensive understanding of the material when their actual level is shallow and full of gaps. Poor metacognition and overconfidence occur in struggling teachers as well. They may feel they are giving clear, engaging, and accessible presentations, but the students do not find them so. The well-known Dunning-Kruger effect states that for any skill, part of being incompetent is not realizing how incompetent you are. Surveys of teachers find that an incredibly high percentage rate themselves as above average in ability or higher. Once again, this belief is a rationalization for avoiding taking steps to improve teaching.
- Teaching cannot be improved—good teachers are born, not made. Much has been made about the importance of a growth mindset for student perseverance and success. Growth mindset is the belief that one’s abilities can improve through one’s own efforts. By contrast, a fixed mindset is the belief that one’s ability, such as the ability to write well or do math, is inborn and unchangeable. A growth mindset is just as important for teachers as it is for students. Obviously, teachers with a fixed mindset about teaching skill will not work to improve. The research is clear that teache