Fundamental Attribution Error

In Alfie Kohn's article "Why Self Discipline is Overrated," he mentions Fundamental Attribution Error, our human tendency to overvalue individual character traits over situational factors to explain human behavior. This theory is relatively new to social psychology, and this tendency keeps education and educators stuck to the status-quo, because a lack of academic success or self-discipline can be explained by an individual's shortcomings, rather than the system's or learning environment's weaknesses.

I think it might be fair to say that effective teachers are NOT as likely to fall prey to this line of thinking.

For example, if Johnny isn't doing well in class, an ineffective teacher--prone to F.A.E., will shrug it off and exclaim, "Johnny is a lazy bum."

However, a more reflective, effective teacher might notice a handful of students not doing well in class, and think about how the lesson or classroom is being structured. Perhaps the teacher and imposed situational factors have to do with the students' performance (or lack thereof).