Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Group 4
The movie Stand and Deliver is the story of Professor Jaime Escalante, whose motivational skills
and teaching techniques brought academic success to students accustomed to failure. The report
represents the different aspects of the Organizational Behavior course present in the movie and the
Self Awareness
Stand and Deliver challenges the public to rethink and rethink the beliefs and values surrounding
American teaching and education. The film offers an inspiring story of a teacher on a mission.
Professor Jaime Escalante works mostly in isolation but with intense motivation and true self-
confidence. As a computer science teacher, he wanted to teach the same to students. But due to the
unavailability of the Computer at school, he was forced to teach math to the class. He knew that,
as a computer science teacher, it was a difficult task that awaited him. The students were also a
surprise to him, not at all serious and not even inclined to study. But he transmitted his values and
his positive attitude; he was determined to cause a change in the students. But he instilled with his
values and positive attitude, was determined to bring changes in the students. His belief was that
with desires or ganas, one could achieve anything. On the first day of his class, he saw that his
class was packed and made a system for everyone who does their homework to have a place in his
class. This shows the firm faith he had in his work. His conviction, "If you want to change
something, start at the top!" It was for the teachers who doubted that these students weren't good
enough. Even in a short time, he became the favorite of the students and also personally
participated in the lives of the students. He made sure that students were shown the right path to
success and given the opportunity to prove themselves. His belief was, "The students will meet the
expectations of the teachers," which happened; the students who weren't even ready to go to class
did well on the AP Calculus exam. Escalante worked hard to teach the students and encouraged
Finally, when all his eighteen students passed, society challenged them that the students had used
unfair means to pass the exam. He encouraged his students to retake the exams and made them
believe, "If life is unfair, you have to work even harder!" He gave all his students the confidence
that he had. Not only did he save the school from loss of affiliation, but he also saved the lives of
his students.
Attribution
In the movie, there were many places where the general public, state, teachers showed a lack of
trust in the students as they come from poor economic and socially backward backgrounds.
Teachers claimed "you can't teach logarithms to illiterates" and that the "kids can't handle
calculus." This shows how Attribution comes into play and how we use external and internal
factors of the environment to infer a cause-and-effect relationship. Two Basic kinds of Attribution
are there.
● Dispositional Attribution- This shows internal factors such as the student's behavior,
which is that they either don't want to or care to worry. Several times in the film, students
are shown disrespecting school property and officials. The school campus is worn and
covered with graffiti. Students are shown to engage in inappropriate behaviors, such as
● Situational Attribution- These are the external factors that come into play. The students
do not pay much attention to their studies because their lives are not easy; they come from
Perception can be defined as our way of organizing and interpreting the information gathered
through our senses. This movie is full of perceptions, such as the state's belief that students from
lower socioeconomic groups cannot pass the AP calculus exam. The teachers believe that students
lack the desire to learn and succeed in life, so they stop putting in their efforts. The students believe
that a school is a place where they are forced to go and is a wastage of their time. This has led to
poor schooling conditions and low motivation of students to learn and make something good with
Bias :
Stand and Deliver brings us into the world of a group of Hispanic students in an East Los Angeles
high school. Jamie Escalante enters their lives as the new math professor. The movie delivers a
story of resilience and the embodiment of underrepresented students fighting against society’s
views and bias on Hispanic youth. We also witness the traditional stereotypes of Hispanic students.
The movie depicts the bias people have towards the Hispanic youth they are nothing more than
criminals and uneducated civilians. The AP exam brings back the stereotype of the uneducated
Hispanic student. The testing administration has doubts that the students could have all gotten
above-average scores on their exam and initiated an investigation making sure the students were
not engaged in cheating practices. Here again confirmation bias is prevalent because these scores
would have never been questioned if the kids did not have Spanish surnames. Mr. Escalante had
complete faith in his students, the administration believed that they had cheated. They also were
very sure that such students can go to any extent to please their teacher. Both statements insinuated
that they did not believe in the student’s ability which then perpetuates the already formed bias of
uneducated Hispanic students. The Hispanic students are shown as criminals, a stereotype the
world sees them be. Mr. Escalantes continues to have witnessed the first-hand criminal aspect of
students particularly on his first day when his car radio was stolen. While we see Angel starting to
leave his tough exterior outside in the real world, he still continued to have issues with his friends
throughout the movie, most likely due to the fact that he needed to keep up a tough exterior with
the homies.
Personality
The Professor's personality, when measured based on the Big five personality model, displayed
1. Extraversion: The Professor was sociable and gregarious, which was proved when the
students could talk to him and rely on any issues they were facing in their personal lives.
He made that comfort level with his students who made Ana express her concerns that her
parents want her to work in their restaurant and not continue his education or Claudia to
2. Agreeableness: The Professor was called for teaching computers, but since computers
were not available, he was asked to teach Mathematics. He was cooperative and did resist
the orders. Another instance that proved his agreeableness was when Angel came with his
3. Conscientiousness: From the beginning, the Professor's main goal was the betterment of
the students. For that, he worked 60 hours a week. Even after having a heart attack, he
came back to teach the students so that the teaching process is not stopped for the students
and they can be prepared well for the Advanced Placement Test. Even though his wife
doesn't want him to teach during the holidays, his commitment to work drove him to
were not ready to listen to him. They were seen throwing paper at him. Some of the students
were unwilling to follow his rules like they were against the daily quizzes he conducted.
For every situation, he did not lose his calm and found a solution for every problem.
5. Openness to experience: The Professor was very creative in his teaching skill which led
to the weakest of the students understanding the complex concepts of Mathematics. For the
Mathematics. He was willing to take that risk, although the other teachers warned him that
Cognitive Dissonance
In the movie Stand and Deliver, Angel belonged to a street gang. He was keen on learning
Mathematics from Professor Escalante, but due to peer pressure and because of the fact that his
friend Chuco would judge him, he was bound to keep it a secret. This frustration led to a
confrontation with his friend and a loss of friendship between him and Chuco. Angel suffered
cognitive dissonance because there was an incompatibility between what he perceived and his
behavior.
Decision-Making Model
The protagonist, Jamie Escalante, takes his very first decision of quitting his handsome paying job
to pursue a career in Academics. As per the movie, there is no reference to his prior experience in
education, and hence the decision to become a teacher is Intuition based. However, post joining,
he realizes that the school is yet to procure sufficient computers, to begin with, the course. The
notorious and troublemaking. During a professor's meeting, he finds that none of the team
members is willing to teach calculus to these students, due to their poor academic records and
behavioral aspects. Jaimie takes this up as a challenge and decides to teach Calculus. This also is
However, the Examination authority doubts the legitimacy of their answers and doubts that
students have cheated. Even after sufficient efforts of convincing authority, Jamie Escalante fails
to prove the innocence of his students. However, he is not aware of exactly what happened in the
Motivation
Expectancy theory
In starting itself, Escalante identifies that there is a lack of motivation among the students and that
the perfect starting point is when the followers feel motivated. He used expectancy theory to
increase motivation and engagement levels among learners and promote the active acquisition of
knowledge and skills. The students are motivated to believe that their effort will lead to the
Instrumentality: (Performance- Reward) Students believe that if they perform well in calculus,
they will get the desired outcome which can be in the form of a sense of accomplishment or
achievement,
Valence (Reward- Personal Goal): Initially students are skeptical, but later they develop an
enthusiastic attitude toward the learning process and understand that the expected benefit would
be beneficial for them in many sense they realize that mathematical knowledge and understanding
Expectancy theory helps managers in understanding how individuals are motivated to choose
Mr. Jaime Escalante faced a lot of disheartening challenges from the very first day of school, but
he did not give up. Instead, he found positivity in those challenges and pushed himself and his
students to perform the best that reflects his positive attitude. Jaime taught mathematics with
enthusiasm and determination even though he was appointed to teach computers. Took classes and
tests on Saturday, and in summer, he worked hard to make their students top-quality calculus
students.
Jaime Escalante, a mathematics teacher at Garfield school, had Charismatic and transformational
behavior who transformed a class of losers, unmotivated, undisciplined, and rebellious students
into people who have learned so much that most of them passed a tough calculus exam.
● Self Awareness: The insights from this masterpiece will help us tackle life's challenges.
There are many things that we have to adapt to when we join an organization. Maintaining
disappointed in the challenges that lie ahead. Even in the real world, if we have to achieve
something in life, we have to want it. With desire comes a passion that serves as the driving
● Attribution theory: Organizations use attribution theory because it can help managers
understand some of the causes of employee behavior and employees understand their own
thoughts about their own behavior. You will have a greater grasp of yourself, others, and
your organization if you can comprehend why you behave the way you do and why others
individual views other, as this can have a significant impact on how that person acts in the
workplace. It's also a factor in how employees are motivated in the workplace. If they
preserve individuals in a specific way, they may assume that this person dislikes them, does
not listen to them, or ignores them, and so their incentive to accomplish anything will be
much reduced. This is why, before employees are employed, employers must ensure that
they will fit into the organization, and once hired, their initial impressions of others must
be positive.
● Bias: People are subjected to biases from both their superiors as well as their subordinates.
Right from the process of hiring, we are subjected to Confirmation Bias when the recruiter
first reviews our resume and forms an initial opinion about us based on inconsequential
attributes like our name, where we are from, where we went to school, and so forth. This
opinion can follow us into the interview process and consequently steer questions to
● Decision-Making Model: In any business scenario, when key decisions are demanded
within a limited period of time, bounded rationality is used most frequently. Let say there
is a sudden rise or fall in market demand of any product, the Supply Chain Manager needs
to make quick decisions of production based on limited data about the prediction of market
trends.
of orders by managers. In some cases, we tend to follow the orders of our managers in the
lure of future rewards even though we might not want to actually obey the orders. This
conflict of thoughts or ideas or values can be termed Cognitive Dissonance which leads to
are the right candidate for a job role. Job satisfaction, the job performance of any employee
● Motivation: Motivated employees can lead the organization towards a high productivity,
higher level of output, and it’s likely that the company will achieve all its desired goals.
great extent to bring the best out of them. They eliminate communication barriers, bring
favorable organizational change, take action against injustice and unethical conduct, help
in developing the sense of organizational commitment among the employees, which in turn
We were assigned to watch the movie Stand and Deliver and to summarize the concepts and
lessons of organizational behavior. Also, how this knowledge will help us in the practical situation
in the organization. So, in our group, we decided that each of us would choose a topic and write
about the conclusions we had drawn from the selected topics, as well as how they could be applied
to the world around us. The topics chosen by each of us were as follows
The above topics have been carefully studied by individuals and discussed in group discussions.
After the discussion, we all described our topics in detail. I hope our work will be appreciated.