In the world of education, there is one letter that stands apart from the rest. One letter that makes students shudder with terror... the dreaded F. This horrifying letter stands for the word "failure". What is it about this word that makes students so terrified?
In our second lecture, teaching assistant Gianluca made some excellent points focusing on the positive aspects of failure. He explained to us that as an educator, we must understand what failure looks and feels like. This will help us to become empathetic to those students who may struggle a little more than others. By always succeeding we are actually doing a disservice to our future students. We must figure out a way to allow our students to learn from their mistakes or failures and keep striving towards a level of success (Personal Communication, 17 September 2015).
http://seanwes.com/podcast/085-failure-does-not-exist/
As you can probably guess based on the fact that I am a student in Concurrent Education, I was, and still am, an academically inclined student. Personally, I have not faced much failure in classroom activities. However, I have struggled in other areas of life, as I'm sure we all have. Since I do not have much experience with educational difficulties, I am going to have to work hard at being empathetic to my students needs. It will be a learning curve for me as well to apply strategies that are effective in boosting my students self confidence.
In her article Making Friends with Failure, Ainissa Ramirez discusses how to build up our resilience against failure. Children are naturally curious. They grow through questioning and risk-taking. This natural curiosity often dies when put in a classroom setting. All of a sudden, students are becoming afraid of silly things such as sounding dumb or getting the wrong answer. We, as educators, must make the learning environment comfortable for our students. It is crucial that students understand that "if you learned something from the experience, you did not fail" (Ainissa Ramirez, 2013).
Students must approach their learning with a growth mindset rather than a fixed mindset. Someone with a growth mindset believes that they can develop their talents and abilities through practice, slowly working away towards their goals (Drake, personal communication, 17 September 2015). Drake, Reid and Kolohan (2014) expand upon this idea that "students with a growth mindset view failure as a temporary condition because they believe that their abilities can improve with persistent effort; they welcome tackling challenges and overcoming difficulties as an opportunity for learning, and they see practice as an effective strategy to achieve eventual success." In simpler terms, every one of us has the potential to be successful, it just may take a little more time and effort for some than for others. There are thousands of examples of failure that turned into success. Many famous, successful people have had to try and try again in order to get where they now are. As world renowned basketball player Micheal Jordan once said:
"Some want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen." - Michael Jordan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7p_eKV3SzwE&list=PLnah-hqu5MaQY5t2GjBAwt9E7iJFYPsOA&index=5
I am going to end my thoughts today with a few wise words from Ainissa Ramirez (2013): "To succeed, we must make friends with failure. Failure makes you a better, kinder, stronger and wiser human being." All in all, the point I am trying to make is that you should never give up!
References
Drake, S. M., Reid, J. L., and Kolohon,
W. (2014). Interweaving curriculum
and classroom assessment: Engaging the 21st-century
learner. Canada: Oxford
University Press.
Horton, N. (n.d.). Failing Forward: 7 Stories of
Success Through Failure [online article]. Retrieved from http://breakingmuscle.com/sports-psychology/failing-forward-7-stories-of-success-through-failure
Plasticfantastic777. (2010, March 1). Keep
Moving Forward! [Video File]. Retrieved
from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7p_eKV3SzwE&list=PLnah-hqu5MaQY5t2GjBAwt9E7iJFYPsOA&index=5
Ramirez, A. (2013). Making Friends With Failure
[online article]. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/learning-from-failure-ainissa-ramirez
