Success Behaviours

I encourage students to engage in behaviors that is linked to success:
What are those behaviours.

“The chief impediments to learning are not cognitive. It is not that students cannot learn; it is that they do not wish to"

If educators invested a fraction of the energy they now spend trying to transmit information in[to] trying to stimulate the students’ enjoyment of learning, we could achieve much better results.”

 

try to connect your class material to skills your students will need professionally and academically in the future. Explain that our classes are focused on Academic English. Thus they must demonstrate academic success skills in addition to English language concepts.

 

Communicate with your mentor or AD if you are not positive about a college or department policy. It is very hard to take back a statement or promise once you have made it.

 

Read faces: If a student seems confused, angry, or frustrated, don’t ignore him/her. When you finish class, just say, “Excuse me, ________ , could you stay after for a moment and speak with me?”

 

Communicate frequently about your students’ progress and grades. Your students should never be wondering about how they are doing.

 

Use the assigned textbooks for the class and test on that material. Again, be sure to explain why the skills you teach are valuable to your students’ future success in their academic and professional lives after your class.

As described by Carol Dweck and Elaine Elliot in their article, “Achievement Motivation”:

Intelligence is a set of skills that increases through effort, not a fixed quality to be judged. Students should not ask themselves, “Will I look smart?” or “Will I get a good grade?” but, instead, “What will I learn?” and “How can I do this?”

•that grades follow learning: students pay to learn, not to pass!

Clearly define your expectations to your students at the beginning of class and in your syllabi

 

       --Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in “Literacy and Intrinsic Motivation.”

“Encourage student behaviors linked to success.”

– President Templin, Convocation  Fall 2011

Article: Strength and Warm

The Surprisingly Simple Mix of Qualities That Makes People Influential

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How does Oprah Winfrey captivate millions? What's the secret behind former President Bill Clinton's charisma or Richard Branson's charm?

According to one new book, "Compelling People: The Hidden Qualities That Make Us Influential" by John Neffinger and Matthew Kohut, influencing people comes down to a surprisingly simple combination: seeming at once strong and warm.

"When you meet someone, they're sizing you up on two fundamental qualities: strength and warmth," says Kohut, a founding partner of Washington, D.C.-based KNP Communications, which specializes in preparing public figures for speaking events. "Strength measures how much people can affect the world, and warmth shows how much people are concerned about our interests."

Kohut and Neffinger came to this conclusion after years of seeing the same issues crop up in their clients' body language. Most seemed either timid and uncomfortable (lacking strength) or confident but cold (lacking warmth). The rare star, the kind of person who has "got it" -- that magical thing called charisma -- managed to project strength and warmth simultaneously.

This insight has implications for people at all career levels, Kohut says, since being identified as having leadership potential requires that you seem both competent and likable. "When we think about the people we want as leaders, we need to respect their ability, and we need to like them to want to follow them," he says.

The trouble is it's extremely difficult to portray both at once. Acting in a way that makes you seem strong, whether puffing out your chest or using big words, may show your capability, but it can be off-putting, Kohut says. And when people display warmth, by doing others favors or agreeing with their viewpoints, they give away strength. "The balance is hard to strike," he says. He believes those who have mastered it are merely multitasking, switching between tasks so swiftly it seems fluid.

What's more, physical qualities that are out of your control can automatically influence others' perceptions of you, Kohut says. Having a smaller frame may reduce your strength, for example, but having an attractive face may increase your warmth. By the same token, women are typically perceived as having more warmth and less strength, with the reverse true for men.

Yet when women move to exert their strength, particularly in professional settings, they are often penalized for going against type and are no longer viewed as warm. "This is the uneven playing field," Kohut says. "Women have to actively dial up both warmth and strength." As Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg writes in her best-selling advice book "Lean In," to get ahead, women must be confident and oh-so nice, but fierce negotiators as well.

Finding the balance
How can you find the balance and become more compelling? "The easiest and most common thing that all of us can do is stand up straight and smile," Kohut says. "It sounds basic, but it's really important."

Body language and verbal cues play a huge part in reflecting both qualities, he says. If you want to dial up strength, good posture, eye contact and confident articulation will make you seem powerful. You can also watch the body language of others to see how they're responding to you, Kohut says. When someone backs away or leans out of a conversation, you may be coming on too strong.

If you want to dial up warmth, smile, lean in to conversations, and mirror the feelings and gestures of others to appear empathetic. You could also establish common ground by complimenting a project they worked on or agreeing with their perspective. "When you agree with people, you're confirming their view of the world," Kohut says. "Then you seem more familiar."

If you're unsure of which quality you may be lacking (or overdoing), he suggests asking a trusted friend or videotaping yourself giving a presentation, so you can see yourself more clearly.

"When you discover the lens of strength and warmth," Kohut says, "it changes the way you see yourself and the world."

This article originally appeared on Business Insider.

Jenna Goudreau is the editor of Strategy and Careers at Business Insider. Business Insider is a fast-growing business site with deep financial, media, tech, and other industry verticals. It launched on July 19, 2007, led by DoubleClick founders Dwight Merriman and Kevin Ryan and former top-ranked Wall Street analyst Henry Blodget. 

Copyright 2013 Business Insider.