[2] Goffman used the term to describe a practice of confidence artists, but Clark proposed that it was a legitimate function of higher education to gradually refocus students from unattainable goals to achievements that were within their reach or to soften the blow of failure for what they cannot attain.
[3] Among the techniques of cooling out, students who do not achieve well on pre-entrance testing or who do not perform well in class may be refocused to remedial coursework and offered counseling and vocational planning.
In junior and community colleges, students are dissuaded from maintaining unrealistically high expectations of transferring and earning a bachelor's degree.
Researchers say that "community colleges passively discourage student success by setting institutional roadblocks in the way of those with bachelor's degree aspirations" (p.
[1]: 64 The "warming up" process may involve some of the same techniques, such as counseling students that if they can pass the chemistry and mathematics classes needed to get a two-year degree in welding, they may also be able to handle more challenging engineering coursework.