Fear absorbs tremendous mental bandwidth. Fear squeezes out energy to think about anything else. When we are fearful, we are less likely to take risks, we are less able to make decisions, and we are less likely to learn.
Fear of failure in schools can be a driver of student anxiety, worry, and depression. For some students, fear of failure drives them to “play the game of school” that holds little meaning for and even less value to them. For others, fear of failure leads to the choice to focus elsewhere in life and discount the importance of learning in school and the significance of failure. Still others bounce between worrying about failure and lowering expectations relative to their chances for success.
Yet, we know that missteps, setbacks, and even failure are important to the learning process. Failure can carry valuable information and the opportunity to learn. Failure gives a reason to examine, reflect, and adjust. Our students cannot completely embrace success unless they conquer their fear of failure.
Fortunately, there is much we can do to help students meet the challenge of overcoming their fears about failure. Here are ten strategies we can tap; five are things we can do, and five are areas in which we can coach students to think and act.
What we can do:
Focus on learning over grades. Learning invites and values mistakes and setbacks. Grades too often punish them.
Model how to deal effectively with mistakes and errors. When we misstep or misspeak, we need to avoid minimizing, denying, and making excuses. When we do not know an answer, we can take time to reflect, understand, and learn.
Create strong positive relationships with students. Relationships build influence. When we are confident in the potential of students, they become more confident. If we value academic tasks, students are more likely to value them, too.
Nurture an environment of safety, respect, and reflection. Mistakes are less scary if blame, shame, and criticism are not present. Treating failure as an opportunity to discover and learn can be a powerful lesson.
Focus feedback on effort and strategy over ability and performance. Our attention and words can help students to focus on effective processes. When something does not work on a first attempt, focus on the strategy and type of effort, not ability.
What we can coach students to do:
Become aware of mounting fear and its symptoms. Coach students to use countering strategies such as breathing, stretching, and relaxation techniques.
Accept and honor mistakes as a crucial part of academic learning. Remind students of other areas of life where mistakes are accepted as part of the learning and skill-building process.
Plan and prepare. Fear usually dissipates with action. Practicing strategies and completing tasks can generate confidence and counter anxiety. They also reduce the likelihood of failure.
Set and focus on a goal. Goals can squeeze out distractions and make mistakes less of a concern.
Develop and take pride in resilience. What happens is less important than the choice in how to respond. There is always a choice.
Fear of failure may never completely disappear. In small amounts, it can even be a motivator. However, we need to do everything in our power not to have fear of failure become a barrier to learning and success. The learning environment we create and our coaching can make a crucial difference in the learning experience we offer to our students. The skills and strategies they develop will serve them well long after they leave us.
When we think about learning, especially learning in schools, we often equate speed and ease as indicators of good learners and good learning. At times, we even use speed as a proxy for learning ability. We talk about “fast learners” as good learners and “slow learners” as weak learners.
Yet how quickly we recall information or perform a task is not necessarily an indicator of learning. It may be that we have already encountered facts or have experiences close enough to the learning task that we can extrapolate from current knowledge and practice skills closely related to what we already know. It is also true that for some people immediate recall comes easily, but they are not necessarily able to retain what they learn.
Conversely, learners who need additional time to learn are not necessarily weak learners. It may be that they just need more time to assimilate and integrate new content and skills before they can be confident. Meanwhile, they may retain what they learn longer and be able to use their learning more effectively.
Clearly, speed is not necessarily the best indicator of real learning, especially when learning new content and developing new skills. Ease of learning is also not always the best indicator of learning that will stick and serve for the long term.
The fact is that when we and our students are learning in areas that are not already familiar to us, that challenge us, and force us to focus, many traditional behaviors that we try to avoid are signs that real, significant learning is occurring. Rather than seek to avoid the feelings and symptoms of struggle, we need to celebrate the process and progress in which we are engaged. Let’s explore five of these symptoms or telltale signs of real learning.
First, when we find that we must slow our learning pace and focus our attention, we accept that we are encountering content or a challenge that goes beyond our past knowledge and existing skills. We are in the process of building beyond what we already know and can do. When students face the need to slow down, we can reinforce for them the promise their focus and attention can offer in new learning success.
Second, when we struggle and feel stuck we can reassure ourselves that what we are facing truly is new learning. Our struggle is an invitation to find new strategies, redouble our efforts, and identify resources around us that can support our progress. Times when we feel stuck often come just before significant breakthroughs. We can remind ourselves and reassure our students that when we struggle we make real learning more likely.
Third, as much as we often try to avoid them, mistakes can be indicators that we are engaged in real learning. Missteps and setbacks are natural parts of the learning process. If we make no mistakes and find the learning process to be easy, we may not be adding to our learning. We may just be reinforcing much of what we already know. We need to reassure ourselves and our students that mistakes are not evidence of poor learning. Rather, they are signs that we are building our knowledge and expanding our skills in new areas.
Fourth, when we engage in learning that leads us into new areas we can become uncertain about things that we used to take for granted. Learning often leads us to discover new perspectives, uncover new facts, and question long-held assumptions. Similarly, we can help our students to be comfortable questioning, inquiring, and challenging their thinking as they are exposed to a wider, more complex world than they may have assumed.
Fifth, real learning can lead us to change our mind. Beyond becoming less certain about what we believed and assumed in the past, real learning can lead us to recalibrate beliefs, abandon old assumptions, and adopt new perspectives and positions relative to our lives and work. One of the greatest gifts we can give to our students is the experience of learning that leads to new insights, new understandings, and new perspectives. Often this experience will ignite curiosity and instill a passion for learning that will last a lifetime.
New learning is often not comfortable. It is not always easy. Yet, it is the struggle, the mistakes, the uncertainty, and changes in the ways we see and engage in life that make the journey worthwhile.
Share your story and the tips you have for getting through this challenging time. It can remind a fellow school leader of something they forgot, or your example can make a difficult task much easier and allow them to get more done in less time. We may publish your comments.
