If you stand outside a college classroom long enough, you’ll notice something interesting. Students come in carrying heavy bags loaded with laptops, notebooks, and, in some cases, even ambition. But we very rarely ask what else they are carrying that they shouldn’t carry – not physically, but mentally. Something that would undermine their effectiveness as students and learners in this digital and AI age.

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Over the years, I have realised that students don’t struggle because of a lack of potential or ability, but rather because of habits or attitudes they have developed over time. These attitudes or habits may not appear serious on the surface, but they slowly compromise learning. I use the analogy of them being snakes in the college bag. They may not be easy to spot, but they are definitely there, hiding in the bushes and snake holes and can get to you when you least expect.

Illusion of understanding

The first attitude we see is: “I have understood this well enough.” It shows up right after a lecture or after reading something. It may appear that there is a feeling of having achieved closure. The notebook is neat and hardly used, and the mind feels settled. But if you ask the student to explain the same idea a few days later or apply it elsewhere, it starts to fall apart. Whatever felt like understanding was really just familiarity, and the real understanding is a bit hazy. It takes effort to understand something well. It usually involves getting stuck, getting it wrong, and trying again. Even learning skills like driving require these kinds of uncomfortable situations to become good at them. Most students don’t stay with something long enough to reach that stage. This is the proverbial illusion of understanding. This is our first snake.

Fragmented attention

Then there is the constant digital distraction that has seemingly become normal now. A student studies and even attends classes with a phone next to them, messages coming in, apps switching, and attention moving every few minutes. They believe they are managing everything at once. But if you look closely, nothing is going deep. The mind never really settles. And without that depth, learning becomes thin and cursory. In the corporate world, I often insisted that successful execution requires undivided attention. In education, fragmented attention is the second snake.

Output-over-outcome obsession.

A third attitude we often see is the student’s preference for marks over learning. The preference slowly builds up over time. Students would be less likely to seek clarity on understanding something and more likely to ask whether that something is important for the exam. They are also very keen to know which questions are highly likely and which topics can be safely omitted from exam preparation. It’s subtle, but it changes everything. Curiosity will shrink, effort will become selective, and learning will become transactional. Imagine the complications if a surgeon failed to learn how to stitch a wound after surgery. We can call this the output-over-outcome obsession.

Staying in the comfort zone

There is also a habitual preference for ease, familiarity, and comfort in performing the task at hand. Students stick to what they already know they can handle. They avoid speaking up if they are unsure. They hesitate to ask questions that might sound basic or those about unknown terrain. They pick safer paths. It keeps things smooth, but it would ultimately limit their growth. This is staying in the comfort zone, which is our fourth snake.

Dependency disposition

A related habitual pattern is looking for someone to ease up their workload. Students may wait for someone to simplify things for them—faculty, notes, online videos, and friends or classmates. There is very little wrestling with ideas on their own. And because of that, when they face something unfamiliar, they feel lost very quickly. Independent thinking doesn’t develop just from watching or listening—it develops from doing. I call this as the snake of dependency disposition. This is the fifth snake in the bag.

Lack of reflection

And finally, something that is easily missed is the absence of reflection. Students complete several classes and finish many assignments, hardly pausing to reflect on what they actually learnt and what stayed with them. They don’t step back to see how the points they pick up are connected. At most, they gather a scattered set of information. The mind needs to pause to make sense of what it has received. It does not convert experience into understanding in real time. It needs a period of calm to sort, classify, connect, discard, and anchor the concepts. Without that, everything stays at the surface and does not get absorbed. This sixth snake is the lack of reflection. Whatever was learned in one class stays in that class. It does not build, nor does it get transferred. And over time, the student carries a lot of information, but very little insight.

Need for small shifts

The issues discussed above are not show stoppers, and that’s what makes them dangerous. They don’t disrupt the system; hence, students still attend classes, submit assignments, and take exams. From the outside, everything looks fine. But over time, the impact shows since depth is missing, and their confidence is fragile. The ability to handle real, messy problems remains limited. And in the new AI and Digital world, it’s such an ability that matters most. Making judgments by connecting the dots and orchestrating different stakeholders, technologies, and people would be very important. These snakes would undermine that whole effort.

So what can be done? We don’t need to look for big, complicated solutions—just small, deliberate shifts in outlook.

Students need to test their understanding more often. Then, they can try explaining things in their own words and by applying ideas in new contexts. They need to create some protected time slots when they are not distracted. This can be useful even if it’s just for an hour each time. They need to allow themselves to struggle a bit instead of rushing to ask others for clarification. They need to ask more questions, even if it feels uncomfortable. And perhaps most importantly, they need to stop and think. Just for a few minutes at the closing bell of the class, or end of the day— pause and ask, “What did I really learn today?”

Role of teachers

From a teacher’s perspective, the responsibility is just as real. They need to build spaces where thinking matters more than getting quick answers. They need to welcome questions and remove the fear of being reprimanded or being laughed at. Otherwise, these snakes will thrive quietly.

In the end, what a student carries back as true learning matters far more than what we give them. The best curriculum cannot compensate for the bad practices and habits. But the right habits can make even an ordinary learning experience into something powerful. It’s time we stopped merely going over the syllabus—and started asking what is in the college bag.

(Rajiv Noronha is Dean & Professor at St. Joseph’s Institute of Management, Bangalore.)