Surveys and Research on Problem
After asking questions related to failure in education, we realized how wicked this project really is! Knowing that we needed some help understanding the problem in depth, we turned to research and enlisted the help of our colleagues by conducting surveys. Here is what we found:
The Root of the Problem: People are Afraid to Fail. Failure is Viewed Negatively.
Researchers have been interested in failure and have been studying failure for many years. Lambert (1969) conducted an experiment with college aged psychology students and asked them to write about a time they had failed. The definition of failure was left open to interpretation and the respondents had some interesting reflections. Some described failure over a long period of time but many recalled a specific event. These memories went back as early as first grade and many of the reflections suggested that the respondents had a “bitter” impression of the failure (Lambert, 1969). It appears that experience with failure has a long lasting strongly negative impression. Fitzgerald (2015) even writes that, “this fear of failure can, in some cases, becoming paralyzing, making a child highly risk-averse”.
Our surveys confirmed that the majority of the education stakeholders hold a negative view of failure. In one survey, 100% of respondents either agreed or strongly agreed that students and parents have a negative view of failure. In addition, 37.5% said that teachers had a negative view of failure, and 62.5% said that of administrators. We also noticed that this negative view of failure appears to increase as students get older. In one survey of elementary school teachers, 87.5% of teachers responded that they think that students view failure in a negative way however, in another survey 100% of the teachers who identified themselves as high school teachers agreed that students view failure in a negative way.
The Root of the Problem: People are Afraid to Fail. Failure is Viewed Negatively.
Researchers have been interested in failure and have been studying failure for many years. Lambert (1969) conducted an experiment with college aged psychology students and asked them to write about a time they had failed. The definition of failure was left open to interpretation and the respondents had some interesting reflections. Some described failure over a long period of time but many recalled a specific event. These memories went back as early as first grade and many of the reflections suggested that the respondents had a “bitter” impression of the failure (Lambert, 1969). It appears that experience with failure has a long lasting strongly negative impression. Fitzgerald (2015) even writes that, “this fear of failure can, in some cases, becoming paralyzing, making a child highly risk-averse”.
Our surveys confirmed that the majority of the education stakeholders hold a negative view of failure. In one survey, 100% of respondents either agreed or strongly agreed that students and parents have a negative view of failure. In addition, 37.5% said that teachers had a negative view of failure, and 62.5% said that of administrators. We also noticed that this negative view of failure appears to increase as students get older. In one survey of elementary school teachers, 87.5% of teachers responded that they think that students view failure in a negative way however, in another survey 100% of the teachers who identified themselves as high school teachers agreed that students view failure in a negative way.
So what might be causing this negative view of failure?
As Alina Tugand (2011) write, “success in school is too often defined as high marks on tests. And if results are all that matter in education, then mistakes play no positive role.” Indeed, Vallett and Annetta agree that failure is not only not accepted in education, but in some cases no allowed. “Policies now seem to remove student accountability from education; failure is something that does not happen, and when it is allowed to, it is the fault of someone else” (Vallett & Annetta, 2014, p. 174). Lambert’s (1969) study confirms this view of failure. Most students in the study placed the responsibility of the failure in their stories on other sources. Most of the time the blame was placed on teachers with 21 of 75 participants saying that the teacher had failed at making the work interesting or relevant and 16 claimed that the teacher's personality factored into their failure.
In an attempt to determine whether this negative view of failure was founded in a fear of failure that, as Fitzgerald writes, can be “paralyzing”, we also asked questions in our surveys to gauge how afraid students are of failing. We noted some significant differences in these results. For example, in one survey conducted with elementary school teachers, teachers were asked to rate how afraid students were of failing on a scale from 1 through 5 with 1 being not at all afraid and 5 being very afraid. The average response was 3.23. However, in another survey, of teachers who identified themselves as either middle or high school teachers, 4 out of 5 or 80% of them agreed that their students try to actively avoid failure.
Our surveys also indicted that societal pressures may play a role in this negative view of failure. In one survey open to all levels of teachers, 50% of respondents either agreed or strongly agreed that it was the job of teachers to prevent students from failing. This may shed some light on why failure is viewed as a bad thing by the many stakeholders. When teachers are expected to prevent students from failing, it is then unacceptable to let students fail. In the same survey, 62.5% of these teachers responded that they do not feel comfortable watching students fail. We believe it is a natural instinct to want to nurture and help students and we think this natural instinct may be what pushes teachers to intervene when a student is struggling. Unfortunately, this usually lowers the cognitive demand of the task. In addition in the same survey, 62.5% of those who responded identified that they had experience with being judged negatively after failing. School is a very social place for students, so if students do not feel comfortable failing, they will likely not be willing to take chances.
The Possible Benefits:
However, our research also suggested many possible benefits of embracing failure as a learning mode in education. One study conducted by Fitzgerald (2015) aimed to analyze if growth mindsets were an indicator of success and whether mindsets could be changed from fixed to growth. The results showed that students who were identified as having a growth mindset were able to “see challenges as opportunities”, “look for mistakes and solutions” and “will take responsibility for their failures and successes.” In addition, Lentz (2015) suggestions that failure can not only help students learn but is essential to student learning. Failure helps students to learn about their strengths but also about areas they can improve on (Lentz, 2015).
The survey results from our colleagues also indicted that there is a belief that students can and should be taught to learn through failure. For example, in one survey where respondents were asked to rate the importance of teaching through failure on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being very important. All respondents recorded either a 4 or 5, indicating that teaching through failure was important to education. In another survey of elementary school teachers, 95.65% of respondents identified that failure was not a bad thing. In another survey of teachers from various teaching backgrounds, 87.5% agreed that people can learn from failure and students learning through failure will help them on standardized tests. This shows that teachers are willing to explore the idea of teaching failure as a learning mode.
However, our research also suggested many possible benefits of embracing failure as a learning mode in education. One study conducted by Fitzgerald (2015) aimed to analyze if growth mindsets were an indicator of success and whether mindsets could be changed from fixed to growth. The results showed that students who were identified as having a growth mindset were able to “see challenges as opportunities”, “look for mistakes and solutions” and “will take responsibility for their failures and successes.” In addition, Lentz (2015) suggestions that failure can not only help students learn but is essential to student learning. Failure helps students to learn about their strengths but also about areas they can improve on (Lentz, 2015).
The survey results from our colleagues also indicted that there is a belief that students can and should be taught to learn through failure. For example, in one survey where respondents were asked to rate the importance of teaching through failure on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being very important. All respondents recorded either a 4 or 5, indicating that teaching through failure was important to education. In another survey of elementary school teachers, 95.65% of respondents identified that failure was not a bad thing. In another survey of teachers from various teaching backgrounds, 87.5% agreed that people can learn from failure and students learning through failure will help them on standardized tests. This shows that teachers are willing to explore the idea of teaching failure as a learning mode.
Our results from our research and survey responses indicated a strong need to change the perception of failure which is rooted deeply in strong emotions of fear and social acceptance. We reflected that in order to gain the benefits indicated in the research and our surveys, changing the perception of failure was an important first step.
Take a look into our solution to this wicked problem on the next page!
Take a look into our solution to this wicked problem on the next page!
References:
Fitzgerald, M. (2015, ). Learning through failure: Can we teach children to be smarter?: Nurturing a 'growth mindset' in the classroom, where effort and persistence are valued, has dramatic effects. children adapt better to challenges, seek strategies to improve performance and show higher attainment levels nurturing a growth mindset.. for parents and teachers. The Irish Times (1921-Current File)
Lambert, P. (1969). Student Perception of Failure. The Phi Delta Kappan, 50(6), 353-354. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/20372355
Lenz, B. (2015). Failure Is Essential to Learning. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/failure-essential-learning-bob-lenz
Tugend, A. (2011). The Role of Mistakes in the Classroom. http://www.edutopia.org/blog/benefits-mistakes-classroom-alina-tugend
Vallett, D. B., & Annetta, L. (2014, July). Re-visioning K-12 education: Learning through failure—Not social promotion. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 3(3), 174-188. doi:10.1037/a0033651