Teaching Tips & Tricks, Uncategorized | Jun 15, 2012
Helping kids see failure as part of the learning journey
By Angela Watson
Founder and Writer
Helping kids see failure as part of the learning journey
By Angela Watson
Teaching kids how to cope with mistakes and failure is one of the toughest (and most important) aspects of our jobs as educators. Most of our schools are set up in a way that values a limited number of intelligences, so students who aren’t naturally successful in the traditional areas and core academic subjects often feel frustrated and dumb. The way that schools define failure and success by test scores only compounds the problem. Many children are terrified of taking risks, and view failure as the worst thing that can happen to them. They want to play it safe, fly under the radar, and just get by.
So what do we do about these issues? I’ve invited Allison Zmudato answer some questions on this topic for us. She’s the author of a powerful new book called Breaking Free from Myths About Teaching and Learning: Innovation as an Engine for Student Success. In it, she shares some revolutionary ideas that individual teachers can use to transform the way they educate students despite dysfunctional school systems. Allison clearly understands the stressful situations that teachers face and makes a solid connection between the way we teach and the level of enjoyment we get from it.
One of the things I really love about this book is that after Allison uncovers the root of the problem, she has a section called “Moving to Action.” This section explains not only what schools and school systems can do, but specifically outlines what ONE teacher can do. I find this incredibly empowering, because the implication is that every single educator can affect change. No matter how many problems there are in your school system, YOU can do something to help your students break free from myths about their learning.
I’ve asked Allison to participate in a video chat to answer a few questions with the “one teacher” approach in mind. Her answers below apply to every single one us. No matter how dysfunctional your school or school system is, you CAN make a difference for students, and help them understand and value the journey to success even when they encounter setbacks.
Here are the questions Allison answers in the video above (click here if you can’t see the video):
- What prompted you to write “Breaking Free”?
- One of the myths you talk about is “I feel proud of myself only when I get a good grade.” I’ve seen so many kids who get down on themselves when they get bad grades. What are some practical steps we can take to show kids that we value each level of their progress, and help them understand that improvement is valuable?
- The fourth myth you mention in your book is “If I make a mistake, my job is only to replace it with the right answer.” What can we as teachers do to wean students off their dependency on us to tell them what their mistakes are?
- Many students see failure as the absolute worst thing that can happen to them. You address this with myth #7: “If I get too far behind, I will never catch up.” What can we do to help these students persevere?
- Is there any final thought you want to leave with teachers who are struggling to keep their students motivated and encouraged in a system that is not designed to meet their needs? Anything else we can do to instill courage in kids so they are empowered to take risks as well as experience (and recover from) failure?
Want to win a copy of Allison Zmuda’s book courtesy of ASCD? Leave a comment below with your thoughts on helping kids see failure as part of the learning journey. The contest ends on Thursday, 6/21 at midnight EST.
UPDATED 6/22: Contest closed! The winner is #19, Adam. Thank you to everyone who took the time to leave a comment. I (and obviously many others) enjoyed reading how you grapple with this topic in your own classroom. Wonderful stuff.
Angela Watson
Founder and Writer
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This is a minute by minute battle for students with disabilities or students who are struggling and feel they have to “please” the teacher. I am consistently telling my paraprofessionals it is not the outcome, it is the process. It is not unusual for those who work with students with disabilities to want them to “feel good” and help them make their work ‘outcome’ appear perfect. However, there is no learning in the process. I have studied and studied how to help students that are so low understand that we all ‘fail’ and we all learn from those failures. It is so much fun to see them look through their imperfect portfolio’s and see how much they have progressed on their own. I do know that the pressure on teachers and administrators to pass the test that it will reflect on the student’s self imposed pressure to be perfect. I see it often in our school (Title I) where many feel their teachers are the only ones who care and they want to be their best for the teachers. I can walk down the hall when it gets closer to state testing and hear the words “the answer is ____” you must remember to answer correctly. I wonder if we sat and tallied how many times students hear “answer” in one day would encourage us to change our language in the classroom.
I struggle with this a lot since I teach special needs students who are mainstreamed, so they very often get disappointing grades after a lot of effort. It’s really hard because as much as we can try to tell them otherwise, they still see it as a major measuring stick.
I try to balance it out by having reflective discussions about what they’ve achieved, both before and after grades come out. Sometimes the kids have a hard time seeing their own good, so I participate in the discussion and point things out to them even while my main wish is for them to appreciate themselves. I don’t know how effective it is, but my hope is that after having a conversation with a student about how he learned to construct sentences, use adjectives, and use details about his main idea, I hope that that positive feeling will soften the blow of then getting back a test with a 60% from his mainstream composition teacher.
I also try to model a lot by facing up to my own mistakes. I share thoughts with my students so they can see how even the teacher makes mistakes, but it’s not a tragedy when I do – I can accept it with a good attitude, fix things up as well as possible, and move on.
I think that for kids to be OK with failure, the teacher has to be OK with failure. Ouch. I hate it when I fail to do the right thing, and I want to be “perfect” so I need to be sure I’m honest with the kids when I make a mistake.
I also think we need to take into consideration the cultural aspects of failure. Most of my students are from Asian backgrounds, and in Asia to fail is to lose face and to lose face is seen as a disgrace. I have kids who will spend hours on a task so that it is perfect rather than make a mistake that they can learn from. I’m learning that I need to be more encouraging with kids who don’t get stuff the first time around.
I’d love to read this book. I’ve been teaching 5 years now, and I’ve learned so much in those 5 years, but I’m also aware that it’s vital that I keep on learning. My kids need to see me keeping on learning to. Thanks for sharing this and reminding me about some things I need to work on in my classroom.
Whenever someone makes a mistake, I have the whole class say, “It’s OK.” I had another teacher come into the classroom and she said something wrong by mistake. When the whole class said, “It’s OK.” to her she was so happy. I also try to ask for volunteers rather than calling on students. I think this makes a big difference. If I say this is really hard, who wants to try it, and someone volunteers and makes a mistake they won’t feel like a failure. Sometimes I try to emphasize that it was my fault because I didn’t explain things clearly or I use humor. I spin a pen to choose a student and when that student can’t answer, I’ll talk to the pen and say, “What’s wrong with you. Can’t you see that Lucy is still thinking and that she isn’t ready to answer yet.”
In art, we learn that it is the process that counts, not the product… if we can keep that in mind, as a society, we would be far more creative, reflective, and even, efficient. It might be messier, but also more fun.