By the time we had presented our third assignment, a caricature of self, we had become conscious of an unexpected phenomenon. Our first clue was the student's lack of complaining. Instead, our students eagerly embraced increasingly difficult assignments with an unprecedented zeal. Given the mixture of artistic and non-artistic students in the class, we were at a loss to explain this uncharacteristic behavior. Never the less, we have developed a theory to help us understand why computers do not intimidate students as traditional media can sometimes do.
Educational research offers some insights into the process.
It is well documented that a primary difference between successful and unsuccessful students lies not so much in intelligence as in the way that each approaches a problem. The successful student, faced with a dilemma, returns to reread material, breaks it into more manageable parts, and believes that with diligence, positive outcomes will inevitably follow. Encountering resistance, the unsuccessful student simply capitulates. Thus, their negative, self- fulfilling prophecy is reinforced time after time. Usually, this is contingent on how well they can or cannot depict reality.