Guiding Question 1. Describe a college class experience in which the instructor minimized your engagement. What specific behaviors by the instructor weakened your engagement?

Guiding Question 2. A student does poorly on a research paper, and attempts to explain the outcome to his parents.

Give an example of an explanation which shows a pessimistic explanatory style (stable, and uncontrollable attributions), then an example of one which shows an optimistic explanatory style (unstable and controllable attributions).

How does each explanatory style influence students' motivation?