Seeing Failure in a Positive Light
My last post on mindfulness had me thinking about the impacts of emotions on teaching and learning. In working with teenagers, I am often subjected to my students allowing emotions to get the better of them. I generally struggle to provide them with strategies they can employ to decrease or eliminate the negative effects emotions can have on their ability to learn. As mentioned in a blog post I read called Eliminating Emotional Barriers (SR2Learn, 2011), self-efficacy is a key factor contributing to one's perceived success or perceived failure to complete any given task. Often students become stressed or anxious when they believe they are not capable of achieving success. This in turn, causes them to perform poorly. The school in which I teach is within a community that places a large emphasis on final results. Many of my students are strongly affected by this mentality and are often, as a result, quite overwhelmed. I recently watched a TED Talk by Carol Dweck (2014), wherein she discusses the power that comes from believing that you can improve. Her talk outlines the benefit of fostering a growth mindset within the classroom, whereby students are taught that abilities can improve and that failure is a matter of “not yet” as opposed to not able. She goes on to suggest that teachers can improve self-efficacy of their students by rewarding the process and strategies they use to approach tasks as opposed to the end result - their willingness to think creatively. This, in turn, creates a positive atmosphere within the classroom and an increased amount of effort, focus and reflection from the learners. I like the idea in theory, but am looking for suggestions on how to paint failure in a positive light within a context where failure is viewed very negatively.
Images retrieved from:
Growth Mindset Quotes. (n.d.). Retrieved February 26, 2017, from https://www.pinterest.com/explore/growth-mindset-quotes/
References:
Dweck, C. (2016). The power of believing that you can improve. Ted.com. Retrieved 15 February 2017, from https://www.ted.com/talks/carol_dweck_the_power_of_believing_that_you_can_improve#t-248175
So you Really want 2 Learn (SR2Learn)?,. (2011). Eliminating Emotional Barriers. Retrieved 15 February 2017, from 
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ReplyDeleteHello Emily,
ReplyDeleteThank you for shedding light on the importance of the process and not merely the end result of our student work. Even in something like Math, we encourage our students to show their thinking and work so we can better understand how they arrived at an answer. It is not uncommon that the work is weighted more significantly than the answer alone and this should be applicable in all subject areas and this can help foster confidence and growth mindset in our students because they recognise they are assessed on more than just the final stage of thinking.
In response to painting failure in a positive light, I often look back at this Ted Talk by Angela Duckworth, who paints how our response to failure and perserverance through obstacles is one of the greatest predictors of our success. Perhaps it might help answer some of your questions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H14bBuluwB8
Thanks for this post.
Thanks for the resource!
DeleteHi Emily,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your post and the philosophy of a Growth Mindset mindset interests me greatly as I have two young daughters. Having a growth mindset is so important, nit only as a student, but in life. Life is full of challenges and obstacles that we must overcome. In Barbara Corcoran's Ted Talk entitled Rethinking Failure she says, "Failure and innovation are kissing cousins." I can't agree more. If you are interested in watching this Ted Talk visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kU1DI8HsYAg. Another book I have enjoyed reading is Paul Tough's How Children Succeed. "It tells the personal stories of young people strug- gling to stay on the right side of the line between success and failure. And it argues for a new way of thinking about how best to steer an individual child — or a whole generation of children — toward a successful future."
By the way, I like your blog design -- very nice!!
Thanks,
Kay