Gee, in his article, “Good Video Games and Good Learning,”
also points out the necessity of failure in learning to be successful. “The
player uses initial failures as ways to find the boss’s pattern and to gain
feedback about the progress being made” (Gee, 2005). If video games teach
students that it’s okay to fail as long as they take what they’ve learned in
the process to do better next time, why can’t schools? Likewise, successful
teachers need to be willing to take risks, trying new techniques and methods,
testing theories, to find what works for their ever changing groups of
students.
Something that greatly hinders that willingness to take risks is fear. In video games, the student can save the game before trying
something difficult, and go back to that same place if they fail, so they
haven’t really lost anything. In a classroom full of judgmental adolescents
it’s not so easy to learn from the failure and move on as if nothing
had happened.
Parker Palmer, in his chapter “A Culture of Fear” discusses
fear from the perspective of both the student and the teacher. He references
the silence when the teacher asks a question, and the students are afraid to
take a risk and fail in front of their peers. He also mentions his personal fear
as a teacher, being “fearful that I am not just a bad teacher but a bad person,
so closely is my sense of self tied to the work I do” (Palmer, 1998, p. 36).
Those are both fears I can relate to. I remember many instances of knowing the
right answer but not saying anything for fear of making a mistake, as well as
some instances where I was relieved I hadn’t said anything because it would
have been wrong, or mortified that I raised my hand and said the wrong thing.
And as a teacher who pours myself into what I do, I, like Palmer worry that if
I fail it will be far more than just failing professionally, it will be
complete personal failure.
I like Palmer’s way of connecting student and teacher
success. Teachers reap the benefits from successful students (a better future
society, personal fulfillment in their career) just as students reap the
benefits from successful teachers (preparation for the future). I think this
connectedness is key in overcoming fear of failure. I teach Spanish, and a
student who is afraid of making a mistake is never going to learn anything in
my class. I have to create a class atmosphere in which students are comfortable
enough with me and with each other to open their mouths and try, not worrying
if what comes out is perfect the first time or not. Relationship building fosters that form of connectedness. Teachers who spend
time getting to know their students find out what students are interested in,
which will inspire them to get involved in the class much more than any
textbook activity is likely to do. Students are also more likely to take risks
when they have a relationship with the teacher because they can trust the
teacher to handle their perspective failure in a way that won’t humiliate them.
References
Gee, Paul James. (2005). Good Video Games and Good Learning. Phi Kappa Phi Forum, 85 (2), 33-37.
Palmer, Parker J. (1998). A Culture of Fear: Education and Disconnected Life. The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life (pp. 35-60). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.
Tough, Paul. (2011, September 14.) What if the Secret to Success is Failure? The New York Times Magazine.
5 comments:
Lisa,
This week's readings had a similar effect on me; it's surprising how conditioned we are to fear failure and view it so negatively!
I was glad you brought up Dominic Randolph's views on failure in your post. His views also caught my attention, especially in regards to the lack of failure his students are able to experience. I sometimes feel as though increasingly, parents are trying to shelter their children from experiencing any pain, challenges, or failure of any kind. This makes sense initially but, in the end, robs kids of highly valuable learning experiences and the opportunity to form habits of perseverance. When I first started teaching a few years ago, I was shocked at the amount of parents who would e-mail me constantly about questions or issues that their kids were having, without ever encouraging the student to come and ask me themselves. I finally started telling parents that I felt it was important their student come talk to me about any concerns first, then I would communicate with the parents as necessary. The parents were completely excusing their child from developing highly necessary face-to-face communication skills that they are going to need for the rest of their lives, especially when it comes to challenging situations.
I think you made a greatly profound point in your post when you said, "In video games, the student can save the game before trying something difficult, and go back to that same place if they fail, so they haven't really lost anything. In a classroom full of judgmental adolescents it's not so easy to learn from the failure and move on as if nothing had happened." This is such an important factor when it comes to teaching adolescents, and one that proves to be an impediment to the whole 'successful failure' process. I would hope that if students were taught from an early age to take risks and that learning from mistakes is good, the fear of a wrong answer would diminish, as would consequent ridicule from peers. As far as trying to establish this in my own classrooms this upcoming year, however, I am not sure how much of the fear I'll be able to chip away at when starting from scratch with 15-year-olds. Learning to speak a foreign language is definitely a process of taking risks and learning from mistakes; do you have any experience with making your students feel more comfortable with their errors? I know you mentioned forming strong relationships helps, but do you do anything in particular to encourage peer relationships of trust as well?
Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts and experiences. As an English teacher, it was really interesting for me to see things from the perspective of a teacher of Spanish!
Stephanie
“Their well-intentioned parents want the best for them, and so they do everything they can to prevent their children from failing in any way, and are quick to pick up the pieces if they should by some fluke still manage to fail. Randolph believes (and I agree) that these students are missing the valuable learning experience that comes with failure.”
I am so glad Randolph addresses this, particularly in the context of his presumed high-achieving, private school. I was also grateful that he mentioned the sort of client-based nature of private schools as well; this is very much representative of much of my teaching experience. It’s almost as if the client [student] is entitled to high marks and success without the demands or components of learning, of which, agreeably, failure is a part. And, I think you’re right; Gee (2005) is on to something. Gaming brings a natural intrigue in that it is more than entertainment; it’s problem solving in a space which allows and even encourages failure while simultaneously building on the terms/skills “just in time” to exercise them.
And, this transfers so well into what you do as a language teacher. Because so much of the performance-based language acquisition, particularly in post-pubescent language learners, is a battle with one’s affective filter, the social anxiety and fear of failure augmented by cognitive dissonance. Learning another language takes a certain sense of shamelessness which welcomes critique, the sharpening accountability of proper or preferred vowel and consonant sounds and syntax all within the framing of a certain time, place, and culture.
My wife for example, a perfectionist at heart and brilliant as she is, genuinely reads and writes in a number of languages, yet her ability to speak is limited to only two languages. And, she would be the first to admit that she is shy and afraid to mess up.
Finally, in response to your illumination of Palmer’s work:
“fearful that I am not just a bad teacher but a bad person, so closely is my sense of self tied to the work I do” (Palmer, 1998, p. 36).
I really do think I bring my worst self to the classroom whether latently or explicitly. It’s part of who I am, but I also think that Dr. Jane B. Schulz’s referenced post expands upon this in that success seemingly lies in a diminishment of self whereby any teacher success is only marked by the flourishing of our students.
Hi Lisa,
Thanks so much for your post this cycle! It clearly resonated with a lot of folks very deeply!!
I agree with Joel that a FL teacher, in the States, where most everything happens in high school, is probably an expert on this topic. Particularly on the way in which our emotions can interfere with our ability to frame and solve a problem well.
For some reason, too, I was captivated by the idea of a “risk pad” that you linked to. It makes sense to me. We need to explicitly reference those things that we value. Taking intellectual risks is surely one of them. Setting aside a space for challenging work done in a collaborative low-stakes atmosphere seems the perfect antidote to our current obsession with simplistic work, done in isolation, in a high-stakes environment. Again, particularly when there is a performative aspect involved, as in language and the arts!
In the end, I could not agree more that a caring atmosphere with deep personal relationships is the thing most likely to over come the culture of fear, and to right the educational ship that currently seems to be a bit off course.
Thanks again for your work!
Kyle
Stephanie- I am right with you in feeling that starting when the kids are 15 is a little late to start encouraging risk taking. I think they actually start with no inhibitions and learn to hold back as they get older, so by the time they get to us in high school they have a carefully constructed wall built up to protect them from embarrassment. As far as experience making students comfortable with errors, I think them having relationships with each other is important. I've had varying degrees of success with building a supportive classroom climate, and I'm not entirely sure what it is that was different in certain classes- that's something I'm still trying to figure out. One thing that helps is telling them about mistakes I've made, or friends of mine have made in Spanish. My husband didn't speak any Spanish when we moved to Spain, so he's provided me with plenty of humorous examples. Letting them see that even their teacher has said the wrong word at the wrong time makes them feel better about doing it as students. Something I found worked well to create a sense of community in the classroom was assigning groups for projects and telling them the entire group would get the same grade. That made the perfectionists stay on the slackers to pull their weight instead of just ignoring them and doing double work instead. By the end of the project they felt good because they realized the slackers were capable and they had helped bring that out. However, like I said, it hasn't been consistent success- I had a few classes in which students would laugh at each other for pronouncing something wrong, and others where they would kindly correct each other. I wonder how much of it depends on me and how I reacted to these situations and how much is the nature of the individual students in the class.
Joel- I don't think your wife is any exception, I know several people who graduated college with a Bachelor's degree in Spanish, can read a work of Spanish literature and write you a 5 page essay about it, but when it comes to communicating with a Spanish speaker they can't. I think they probably can, they're just used to having the time to get their thoughts together in advance to avoid making any embarrassing mistakes.
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