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Permission to Fail

Permission to Fail. Helping Students overcome Learned helplessness. Susan Boyle FULL TIME Faculty Member. What is ‘Learned Helplessness?. Discovered by Martin Seligman and Steven F. Maier at the University of Pennsylvania in 1965. Photo Credit: University of Colorado at Boulder.

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Permission to Fail

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  1. Permission to Fail Helping Students overcome Learned helplessness

  2. Susan Boyle FULL TIME Faculty Member

  3. What is ‘Learned Helplessness? Discovered by Martin Seligman and Steven F. Maier at the University of Pennsylvania in 1965. Photo Credit: University of Colorado at Boulder Photo Credit: Reflective Happiness

  4. The belief that an individual has no personal control over the outcome of a situation.

  5. Learned helplessness can mean that a student fails to invest time and energy into the work, because she or he doesn’t truly believe it will impact their outcome. What does this mean for the student learner? Students tend to internalize failure as a sign of inability to perform the work, rather than as a stepping stone on the path to success: “I failed the essay assignment because I am a terrible writer.”

  6. “When people feel that they have no control over their situation, they may also begin to behave in a helpless manner. This inaction can lead people to overlook opportunities for relief or change.” Kendra Cherry

  7. Learned Helplessness 7

  8. Students may remain passive when confronted with challenges in the classroom, despite their ability to change their own responses.

  9. “People tend to want to succeed at the highest possible level while at the same time avoiding the possibility of failure” (Brennen, n.d., p. 3). So why bother investing at all?

  10. What is your gut response when you hear the word “Failure”? Reflection Question

  11. How do students respond to the same question?

  12. “The first gut reaction when I hear the word failure is not passing, not succeeding, not going to make it, not going to be successful, or a big let down.” Text

  13. “It brings a sadness or darkness over me. My parents taught me that failure was ok as long as I tried my best. But to me It meant that I did not try hard enough.”

  14. “When I hear the word failure I think of me because I have let myself down so many times. I kept making the same mistake over and putting my education on the back burner.” Text

  15. “The word failure gives me a bad feeling.   An emotional response, similar to hatred with sadness in it.  I do not like to fail at the things that I desire, and I will back off of things when I fail at them sometimes.”

  16. “When I hear the word failure the first thing that comes to mind is pitiful and the thought of not graduating. If I fail at something I become disappointed because I let myself down.” Text

  17. “Yes, I try to avoid failure at all costs. If I could eliminate the possibility of failing and not fail again, yes I will because I do not like failure.”

  18. How do we help to empower our students?

  19. “I walked out feeling as low as a snake's belly in a wagon rut. And I saw my battalion commander, because I had let him down. And I went up to apologize to him, and he said, ‘Stanley, I thought you did great.’ And in one sentence, he lifted me, put me back on my feet, and taught me that leaders can let you fail and yet not let you be a failure” (McChrystal, 2011). TED Talk:Stanley McChrystal: Listen, learn ... then lead

  20. Even Einstein Struggled: Effects of Learning About Great Scientists’ Struggles on High School Students’ Motivation to Learn Science By Lin-Siegler Xiaodong, Janet N. Ahn, Jondou Chen, Fu-Fen Anny Fang, & Myra Luna-Lucera

  21. “Story-based instruction that models how scientists achieve through failure and struggle” (Lin-Siegler et al., 2016, p. 314). • Students given one of three stories: • Outlining how scientists struggled intellectually. • Outlining how scientists struggled in their personal lives. • Outlining the successful discoveries made by these scientists. Using stories to shape the ways that students learn about science

  22. “Students expressed that stories are often given to younger students. However, this approach largely disappears after Middle school age, even though high school students express a strong thirst for hearing stories about people who create the knowledge that they are learning” (Lin-Siegler et al., 2016, p. 317).

  23. “We live in what Sarbin (1993) calls “a story-shaped world” (p. 63), surrounded by narratives of all kinds that embody our cultural values—popular movies and television shows, myths and folklore, religious histories and traditions, social scripts and mores, to note only a few” (Clark & Rossiter, 2008, p. 63).

  24. The students who were exposed to the “struggle stories” displayed improvement in their grades for science class. • The nature of the struggle stories, whether or not they were intellectual or personal, did not impact the effect of the story on the learner. • “A significantly larger number of students who read about scientists’ struggles (intellectual or life) felt connected with the stories and scientists than did students who read about scientists’ achievements” (Lin-Siegler et al., 2016, p. 323). What did they discover?

  25. How do we apply this research to help our students engage and connect with the material? • Include more narrative learning opportunities. • Emphasize the role that failure plays in progress. • Encourage our students to create and share their own personal narratives that are relevant to the material.

  26. Avoiding “Learned Helplessness” by Andrew Miller

  27. “Work with students as well to create a culture where the answers are everywhere” (Miller, 2015, para. 3). • Curating and creating an academic space where the answers exist in multiple places. • Encourage students to seek answers from resources outside of their instructor. the answers are everywhere

  28. “Instead of using questions to check for understanding and getting the right answer, we can use questions to probe students' thinking and push them to think about their learning” (Miller, 2015, para. 4). • What would happen if we revised our role in “helping” our students? What are the consistent questions we are asked, and how can we “flip” those experiences to develop a stronger sense of autonomy within our students? • Getting “out of the way” with our students: how can we be a valuable resource to them without being the final destination for answers? How do we build in steps to enhance the self-confidence of our learners?

  29. “Do you allow for multiple drafts and revisions and demand high-quality products? If so, you are communicating to students that they have multiple tries to learn and, more importantly, that they can be creative and experiment” (Miller, 2015, para. 6). • When providing feedback, are you also providing students with the immediate opportunity to utilize the suggested revisions? • Are there “second chances” for students to reflect upon during the course of study? Second chances and revisions

  30. Teaching to fail by edward burger

  31. “Individuals need to embrace the realization that taking risks and failing are often the essential moves necessary to bring clarity, understanding, and innovation.” Edward Burger Text

  32. “Instead of just touting the importance of failing, I now tell students that if they want to earn an A, they must fail regularly throughout the course of the semester — because 5 percent of their final grade is based on their "quality of failure." Would such a scheme provoke a change in attitude? Absolutely — with this grading practice in place, students gleefully take more risks and energetically engage in discussions” (Burger, 2012, para. 4).

  33. At the end of the course, students write a one page reflective essay on their failures, and how these attributed to their growth during the course. • Students assign themselves a score from 0-10. 0= “I never failed” or “I learned nothing from my failure” 10= "I created and understood in profound, new ways from my failed attempts.” how does burger assess the “quality of failure”?

  34. How can we ease our students’ fears about failing? • Recognize that many students are facing this fear every time they enter a learning environment or begin a new project. • Build in the expectation of failure. • Normalize the concept of failure as a step towards success. Foster an environment that encourages revisions and second attempts. • Share stories about failure, encourage story telling about failures. Encourage students to reflect on their mistakes and share them in the context of classroom discussions. So what do we do from here?

  35. Questions? Contact: susan.boyle@phoenix.edu

  36. Brennen, A. (n.d.). Enhancing Students’ Motivation. Retrieved from http://www.soencouragement.org/enhancing-students-motivation.htm Burger, E. (2012, August). Teaching to fail. Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved from https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2012/08/21/essay-importance-teaching-failure [Catholic Dads HQ]. (2012, February 25). Learned Helplessness. [Video File]. Retrieved from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TU7RBqTndJ8 Cherry, K. (n.d.). Psychology.about.com. Retrieved from http://psychology.about.com/od/lindex/f/earned-helplessness.htm Clark, M.C., & Rossiter, M. (2008). Narrative Learning in Adulthood. New Directions For Adult & Continuing Education, (119), 61-70. doi: 10.1002/ace.306 Edison, Thomas. [I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.] Retrieved from: http://www.personalexcellence.co Einstein, Albert. [A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new]. Retrieved from: http://www.motivationquote.co [Failing is not always failure]. Retrieved from: https://stellarcorpse.wordpress.com/2015/05/23/motivation-from-omtexsports-2/ references

  37. Lin-Siegler, X., Ahn, J.N., Chen, J., Fang, F.A., & Luna-Lucero, M. (2016). Even Einstein struggled: Effects of learning about great scientists’ struggles on high school students’ motivation to learn science. Journal of Educational Psychology, 108(3), 314-328. http://search.proquest.com/docview/1764355581?accountid=166133 Marquis, J.W. (2013, November). How to help your students embrace failure through game-based learning. Te@ch Thought. Retrieved from http://www.teachthought.com/technology/help-students-embrace-failure-game-based-learning/ McChrystal, S. (2011, March). Stanley McChrystal: Listen, learn … then lead. [Video file]. Retrieved from: https://www.ted.com/talks/Stanley_mcchrystal?language=en Miller, A. (2015, May). Avoiding "learned helplessness". Edutopia . Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/avoiding-learned-helplessness-andrew-miller?utm_content=blog&utm_campaign=avoiding-learned-helplessness&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=socialflow&utm_term=link Reyes, C. (2011, January). When children fail in school: Understanding learned helplessness. Education Articles. Retrieved from http://www.edarticle.com/articles/1068/when-children-fail-in-school-understanding-learned-helplessness.php references

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