Thursday, September 16, 2010

Failing Forward Fast

**Failing Forward Fast**
By Karen Boyes


Humans have an inborn disposition to explore and
experiment and therefore learn. We are designed
to derive meaning from experience and to learn by
trial and error. It is important to let children
learn from experience rather than stop them
because of our adult fears.


On Monday 6th Feb 2006 the DominionPost newspaper
headline read “Parents ‘at fault’ for teen
suicides”. Wellington coroner, Garry Evans
suggests that teenagers are resorting to suicide
because of an over protective society and parents
that have shielded then from life’s problems.
Evans states, “If children are never allowed to
fail, how will they learn to pick themselves up
and walk on when they do fall?”. Evans asks the
question, “Are our attempts to protect our
children and young people against life’s failures
and traumatic events having a counter-productive
effect in that they are not being inoculated
against failure by exposure?”


Celia Lashlie, leader of the “Good Man” project,
agrees that children are being raised with a
‘lack of resilience’. She continues to say,
“Everything is being done for them. They are
delivered to school and picked up from school.
The greater the income of the parents, the
greater the level of doing it for the
kids.”


Embracing experiences, errors and mistakes is
essential in your classroom for maximising
learning opportunities. Glenn Capelli suggests
that good learners look back in order to look
forward with new and deeper wisdom.


Many organizations, classrooms, families and
individuals view making mistakes as ‘bad’ and
create an environment of shame regarding errors.
This tends to suffocate thinking and learning,
and sometimes leads to attitudes of
perfectionism. Instead, celebrate the errors and
mistakes you and your students make, don’t hide
them. This provides students with opportunities
to learn. Capelli recommends teaching students to
“fail forward fast”. This means make mistakes,
learn from them and move forward quickly.


Have discussions with your students about people
such as Edison inventing the light bulb, or
sports teams and heroes that have reflected and
improved. Hamish Carter, NZ’s tri-athlete, is a
great example of someone who has done this. With
great hopes he performed well below average at
the year 2000 Olympics, coming back to win a gold
medal four years later!


Teachers are often too busy trying to get through
content and miss out the reflection that truly
allows learning to occur.
Focusing on learning from experience leads to better
retention and faster, more effective learning.
Providing reflection time, enables learners to
consolidate understanding skills and attitudes,
and allows application of new knowledge.


Another way to encourage students to learn from
experience is to provide constant feedback. The
brain thrives on feedback and in fact needs it
needs for survival.


Eric Jensen advises, for optimal learning,
receiving feedback every thirty minutes or less
is paramount. He suggests there are many forms of
feedback, however feedback coming from the
teacher is the most inefficient. Jensen advocates
using pre-established criteria such as checklists
and rubrics so students can self assess. Other
ideas include using partners and classmates, or
whole group feedback. A concept I have found very
useful is ‘Dipsticking’. It is immediate feedback
to teachers and students with hand signals or
flash cards. Simply ask students to put thumbs up
or down to indicate their level of understanding.
However you do it, the more often the feedback,
the better; the more immediate the feedback, the
better; and the greater the specificity of the
feedback, the better.


Art Costa is an advocate of using mindful
language in the classroom. It is another way to
encourage students to learn and think for
themselves. For example, instead of saying, “You
need to start each sentence with a capital and
end with a full stop.” You might say, “This
sentence would be complete with two additions.
Can you figure out what they are?” The second
suggestion provides students with an opportunity
to reflect and learn, rather than being told.
When disciplining Costa suggests instead of
saying “Stop Running!”, rephrase it as a thinking
and learning opportunity. “Why do you think we
have rules about always walking in the
corridors?” Make your contact with every student
meaningful and let them do the thinking and
learning – not you.


Here are a few ways to help students learn from
their mistakes & experiences...


* Provide an environment where mistakes are
celebrated


* Rename mistakes to ‘learning
experiences’


* Use mindful language to encourage thinking and
learning


* Talk to students about responsible risk
taking


* Provide feedback as often as possible


* Ask students to retell observations and
procedures in small groups.


* Encourage students to write about a similar
experiences and learning


* Mime or role play learning (or things you have
learnt)


* Pictorially represent learning with symbols and
key words


* Write stories or poetry about a learning
experience


* Transfer school learning to real life
situations


* Use ’Dipsticking’ as an immediate feedback
system




Whatever you do in your classroom, let children
learn from their own experiences no matter how
small or insignificant it may seem. It begins a
pattern of reflective behaviour, which is an
indicator to success. Teach students to become
responsible risk takers and give new activities a
go, then reflect and improve. The more practice
students have the better they will become at
learning from their mistakes and errors. If you
teach them strategies to do this they are more
likely to have a successful life in all
areas.


**References:**
The Thinking Learning Classroom – Glenn Capelli
& Sean Brealey 2000 Western
Australia
How People Learn: Brain,
Mind, Experience and School. National Research
Council 2000 USA
Brain Based Learning
Eric Jensen 1996 USA
Creating An
Effective Learning Environment Karen Boyes 2001
NZ
Habits Of Mind – Activating &
Engaging Art Costa and Bena Kallick 2000
USA




**Check out our
website at [http://www.spectrumeducation.com
www.spectrumeducation.com] and shop online for
books and educational resources.
**

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