This episode challenges a common pattern in classrooms: identifying what students struggle with faster than what they do well. It explores how repeated correction and narrow definitions of competence can quietly reduce participation, risk-taking, and engagement. It also highlights how some students are misread, not because they lack ability, but because their strengths show up in ways the system is not designed to recognize. This episode invites educators to question what they measure, what they reinforce, and what they might be overlooking.

This episode draws in part on research in:

• Student engagement and disengagement (Fredricks, Blumenfeld & Paris, 2004; Skinner & Belmont, 1993)
• Teacher expectations and labeling effects (Rosenthal & Jacobson, 1968; Jussim & Harber, 2005)
• Academic self-concept and identity (Marsh & Martin, 2011; Oyserman, 2009)
• Formative assessment and feedback (Black & Wiliam, 1998; Hattie, 2009)
• Motivation and expectancy-value theory (Eccles & Wigfield, 2002)