Abstract

The perception that students are not willing to help themselves is a frequent complaint among college faculty (e.g., Roueche & Mink, 1982), which, to many experienced faculty, seems to be getting worse. This phenomenon is often attributed to learned helplessness, which occurs when an individual faces repeated failures believed to be beyond their control. However, learned helplessness does not accurately capture the current phenomenon nor does it have the same causes. Therefore, we propose the term “learned passivity”, in which an individual believes that waiting, rather than taking action, will lead to favorable outcomes. Because information systems (IS) is characterized by constant adaptation and complex problem solving, learned passivity is a particularly pernicious problem for IS educators, and a path to career failure for students. In this panel, we will explore what leads to learned passivity, its negative consequences for IS education, and how IS faculty can mitigate its effects.

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