Yes, it would be interesting to see some research about the amygdala and the flight response. There must be some out there, and perhaps some of our psychology instructors have delved into this area. I agree about the fine line in the steps between care and push, avoiding the result of having a student freeze. Personally, I like having “pass” as an option, or at least accepting performance of the task at whatever level the student is able to do at the time. In my case with Dr. Barr, for example, it would mean allowing us to sing one measure instead of the whole line or set of lines. He actually might have done that, but I don’t remember.

Good idea about encouraging students through a private conversation or a heads-up that this will be coming. I’m guessing that our public speaking classes are set up that way with steps toward a major speech, though there are those impromptu speeches – Yikes! Well, it’s another situation many think of when amygdala response is mentioned ;-)

Though it does remind me of being careful of how we phrase things in our syllabus, that some messages can promote a fixed mindset. Carol Dweck offers examples of such statements in her book Mindset: The Psychology of Success, 2016, e.g. “Your exams will all be multiple-choice and you will be observed with an online proctoring tool to ensure you don’t cheat.” We can compare this with statements designed to promote a growth mindset, e.g. “If you don’t earn a complete on all rubric criteria, re-do your assignment, and resubmit it for credit.”

Austina … this post for me also came at just the right time.

And Wendy, your comments also came at just the right moment. I agree with you that I have to be careful about what cultural norms (and whose norms they are) that I am asking them to adhere to or uphold.

Greg, I attended at NCORE last year a session on equitable grading. The guy who ran it rubbed me the wrong way as a person, but his ideas were quite good. And I’ve intuitively gone in that direction over the years … although not entirely. It’s more like a slow movement in the ocean.

This is an interesting conversation.

The question that came to my mind as I finished reading this wonderful article was: Did Drs. Bar and Meese have training on this technique or did it happen organically for them?

I think that the amygdala would initiate the flight response for many students, perhaps the majority of them. This would be a great area to research. Does anyone know about any data on this?

I am afraid that the intent is well meaning but the impact may not be for many students.

There is a fine line between demanding warmly/pushing and caring and moving students to perform and be vulnerable, without causing a student freeze, have a panic attack or flee. The approach does matter. Maybe approaching and encouraging in private? Giving a student a “heads up” that this might be coming?

Good materials to ponder.

I Have Seen the Glories of the Grading Contract…, John Warner,

So Your Instructor is Using Contract Grading…Dan Melzer, D.J. Quinn, Lisa Sperber, Sarah Faye,

When I think of expressing personal warmth, using video will help with this, e.g. for a welcoming instructor introduction or occasionally for feedback. Just so everyone is aware, in addition to using tools with D2L Brightspace for video/audio, PCC also owns a license for VoiceThread, which can be used in place of a few of the text based discussions. Providing helpful information about our class through the “Course Details” page along with links to a brief welcome video and a syllabus or even an introductory part of the syllabus can help build rapport and trust. Showing some degree of flexibility in the syllabus for life’s events can be helpful, or at least to rethink the use of rigid statements such as “No make-up exams or late work accepted.”

I’ll close this by offering another potentially useful resource. “Warm, Wise Feedback that supports High Standards + Effort + Ability + Specific Action” is a guide for giving feedback that is designed to inspire a growth mindset, . This one focuses on a math course as an example, but it can be adapted for any discipline. (Created by the California Education Learning Lab under a CC-BY-NC license.) I look forward to hearing from others about strategies that have worked!

I’m glad you brought up the student focus on grades. Those of you who attended the Anderson Conference session on equitable grading might remember this research quote, “If a paper is returned with both a grade and a comment, many students will pay attention to the grade and ignore the comment. Comments have the best chance of being read as descriptive if they are not accompanied by a grade.” (Brookhart, How to Give Effective Feedback to Your Students, 2017) This is material for another blog, but have you considered “Ungrading?” I haven’t tried it, but I plan to give it a closer look, possibly for fall term. (If you’re curious, take a look at .)