{"id":481,"date":"2023-11-03T11:55:43","date_gmt":"2023-11-03T10:55:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pcrest.com\/blog\/?p=481"},"modified":"2023-11-03T11:55:49","modified_gmt":"2023-11-03T10:55:49","slug":"identity-and-performanceand-gardening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pcrest.com\/blog\/2023\/11\/03\/identity-and-performanceand-gardening\/","title":{"rendered":"Identity and Performance\u2026and Gardening"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"900\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pcrest.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/garden.jpg?resize=900%2C600&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-482\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pcrest.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/garden.jpg?w=900&amp;ssl=1 900w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pcrest.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/garden.jpg?resize=300%2C200&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pcrest.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/garden.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Take a moment to think about all the things you know how to do well. Choose one that really matters to you. It can be part of what you do professionally, an aspect of your personal life\u2026even a beloved hobby. Now, think about how you went from being a beginner to what we might call an accomplished performer in this area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you\u2019re like most people, you think of that performance as part of who you are. Examples might include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI\u2019m a history professor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI\u2019m a mother.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI\u2019m a gardener.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The performances that matter most to us are a big part of how we define and present ourselves\u2014they\u2019re a facet of our identity. Not just what we DO (the performance itself), but who are ARE.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In order to understand (and then possibly improve) these most important performances, we need to appreciate that there are multiple aspects to them, any one of which can be targeted for analysis OR improvement. These aspects of performance are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Identity<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Learning Skills<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Knowledge<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Context<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Personal Factors<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Fixed Factors<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We&#8217;ll tackle learning skills, knowledge, context, and factors, in future posts, but for now, let\u2019s just focus on <strong>identity<\/strong>. In order to do that in a meaningful way, we need to do more than talk in vague terms. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Let\u2019s talk about the person who is a gardener.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To perform well as a gardener means identifying yourself AS a gardener. You take on the shared identity of \u201cgardener\u201d. You are not the only person engaging in gardening. Even if you don\u2019t join Facebook or Reddit groups of gardeners, you share an identity with those who do. You share an identity with the gardeners who fought leaf blight and compost issues in the Hanging Gardens of Babylon 2500 years ago. You can visit Etsy or your local garden shop and buy coffee mugs with witty gardening-related observations on them. There is a gardenerhood (think non-gendered brotherhood) of which you are a part. That is your shared identity. It\u2019s why you can say, \u201cI\u2019m a gardener\u201d and have people understand and quite possibly share that they identify as gardeners in return.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In order to IMPROVE your <strong>performance<\/strong> as a gardener, you first have to care enough about gardening to be willing to commit to improving\u2026it can\u2019t be something you would easily walk away from. For the gardener, that\u2019s kind of funny, right? You\u2019re a gardener because it\u2019s something <strong>already<\/strong> so important to you that it\u2019s part of your identity. But step out of your gardening shoes for a moment and think about being a college student. What if you needed to improve at the performance of being a college student? You would first have to care enough about being in college and learning that it would be part of your identity. You would have to understand yourself in terms of someone who is a member of \u2018the studenthood\u2019 and part of something larger. It isn\u2019t just something you\u2019re <strong>doing<\/strong> for 4, 5, or <em>x<\/em> years, but part of who you <strong>are<\/strong>. When you share the identity of student, you care enough to commit to doing what you can to get better at it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Maybe this is why large online courses have such high attrition rates. And why students at commuter colleges tend to struggle more than students living on campus. Students who juggle school and a job (and a family!) have the odds stacked against them. Each of these scenarios tends to weaken the strength of identity as a student, sometimes by forcing more critical identities (higher priorities) such as \u201cparent\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As educators (gardeners of students!), part of what we can do to help our students succeed is to help them assume the identity of student. Other aspects of their lives will push forward, but it is up to US to assert the importance of the identity of student. To do this, we can address them as students, steer them to student services or organizations, encourage them to work in groups of students by using collaborative or cooperative learning in our classrooms&#8230;anything that will help them discover, appreciate, and assume the identity of college student. When it has become part of how they see themselves and their own understanding of who they are, the chances are so much better that they\u2019re in it for the long haul and will do the hard work of improving their performance as college students instead of just walking away.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Take a moment to think about all the things you know how to do well. Choose one that really matters to you. It can be part of what you do&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[121,56],"tags":[123,122],"class_list":["post-481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","hentry","category-improvement","category-performance","tag-college-student","tag-gardening","post_format-post-format-image"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pcrest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pcrest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pcrest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pcrest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pcrest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=481"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.pcrest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":483,"href":"https:\/\/www.pcrest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481\/revisions\/483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pcrest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pcrest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pcrest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}