| 
  • If you are citizen of an European Union member nation, you may not use this service unless you are at least 16 years old.

  • You already know Dokkio is an AI-powered assistant to organize & manage your digital files & messages. Very soon, Dokkio will support Outlook as well as One Drive. Check it out today!

View
 

Embracing Failure

This version was saved 13 years ago View current version     Page history
Saved by Diana
on March 13, 2011 at 5:23:10 pm
 

 

Embracing Failure

 

 

 

Failure is instructive. The person who really thinks learns quite as much from his failures as from his successes. - John Dewey 

 

Over the past 8 years, education has seen a narrowing of curriculum due to the implementation of No Child Left Behind. The growing 'culture of one right answer' is eroding the analytical and critical thinking abilities of American students who are being fed a diet of rote memorization and bubble sheets. This conversation will delve into the research and scholarship related to the need for a curriculum devoted to developing a thinking nation, complete with the ability to fail and learn from that experience. What are practical types of interventions that can be implemented to work contrary to the "culture of one right answer" standardized testing fervor? How do individual teachers work to provide a more hearty experience to students in the face of sanctions and mandated interventions? What does a classroom, school or set of standards look like when it is valuing success as much as failure in the learning process?

 

Barry Schwartz on our loss of wisdom - TED talk  (3:37-5:45) 

We also argue that practical wisdom is becoming increasingly difficult to nurture and display in modern society, so that attention must be paid to reshaping social institutions to encourage the use of practical wisdom rather than inhibiting it.

 

Bridging Differences - We Need Schools That 'Train' Our Judgment

I want a nation of citizens who are less inclined to think that the “truth” can be captured in one of four feasible answers—a,b,c, or d. I mention “feasible” because in constructing such tests it is crucial not to have one “right” and three absurd alternatives.

 

Ready to Innovate: Are Educators and Executives Aligned on the Creative Readiness of the U.S. Workforce?

Overwhelmingly, both the superintendents who educate future workers and the employers who hire them agree that creativity is increasingly important in U.S. workplaces, yet there is a gap between understanding this truth and putting it into meaningful practice.

 

You Play World of Warcraft? You're Hired!

Gaming tends to be regarded as a harmless diversion at best, a vile corruptor of youth at worst. But the usual critiques fail to recognize its potential for experiential learning. Unlike education acquired through textbooks, lectures, and classroom instruction, what takes place in massively multiplayer online games is what we call accidental learning. It's learning to be - a natural byproduct of adjusting to a new culture - as opposed to learning about. Where traditional learning is based on the execution of carefully graded challenges, accidental learning relies on failure. Virtual environments are safe platforms for trial and error. The chance of failure is high, but the cost is low and the lessons learned are immediate.

 

 

Failure: The Secret to Success

Failure. The mere thought can paralyze even the most heroic thinkers and keep great ideas off the drawing board. But is failing really that bad? We get an inside look at the mishaps of Honda racers, designers and engineers to learn how they draw upon failure to motivate them to succeed. From poor color choices to blown race engines, these risk-taking individuals provide an honest look at what most people fear most. Watch the film and discover the upside of failure. (specific place link)

 

University of Colorado Denver Business School study shows failure better teacher than success

While success is surely sweeter than failure, it seems failure is a far better teacher, and organizations that fail spectacularly often flourish more in the long run, according to a new study by Vinit Desai, assistant professor of management at the University of Colorado Denver Business School.  Desai's research, published in the Academy of Management Journal, focused on companies and organizations that launch satellites, rockets and shuttles into space – an arena where failures are high profile and hard to conceal.

 

A Defense of Unknown in Infographics

We’re inventors - we’re creators. And that’s the most important thing about what we do. And I think we should welcome failure every once in a while. - Hannah Fairfield

 

Accept Defeat: The Neuroscience of Screwing Up

What turned out to be so important, of course, was the unexpected result, the experimental error that felt like a failure. The answer had been there all along — it was just obscured by the imperfect theory, rendered invisible by our small-minded brain. It’s not until we talk to a colleague or translate our idea into an analogy that we glimpse the meaning in our mistake. Bob Dylan, in other words, was right: There’s no success quite like failure.

 

Getting It Wrong: Surprising Tips on How to Learn

People remember things better, longer, if they are given very challenging tests on the material, tests at which they are bound to fail. In a series of experiments, they showed that if students make an unsuccessful attempt to retrieve information before receiving an answer, they remember the information better than in a control condition in which they simply study the information. Trying and failing to retrieve the answer is actually helpful to learning. It’s an idea that has obvious applications for education, but could be useful for anyone who is trying to learn new material of any kind.

 

 

 

Questions!

Your Thoughts?

What are the ways in which critical thinking are supported in your educational spaces?

 

What are practical types of interventions that can be implemented to work contrary to the “culture of one right answer” standardized testing fervor?

 

How do individual teachers work to provide a more hearty experience to students in the face of sanctions and mandated interventions?

 

What does a classroom, school or set of standards look like when it is valuing success as much as failure in the learning process?

 

 

 

Who I am?

blog-laufenberg.wordpress.com 

email-dlaufenberg at gmail dot com

twitter-dlaufenberg 

skype-laufty 

AIM/iChat-dlaufenberg

Comments (0)

You don't have permission to comment on this page.