Strategy: Permitting the Learner to Fail
FROM: 3.1.3 Methodology for Creating a Quality Learning Environment
Step 5 in the Methodology for Creating a Quality Learning Environment is “permit the learner to fail”.
Most faculty find it difficult to watch students struggle in a learning situation. Their natural tendency is to jump in and remedy the situation, typically with a content-related intervention. This serves to temporarily end the struggle and provide momentary success. However, be careful to avoid enabling behavior which does not allow for failure, and, in the long run, is not in a student’s best interest.
It is emotionally difficult to watch someone failing in a particular situation. Yet the key question to ask in these situations is, “What action will produce the best long-term result for the person who is struggling?” Sometimes not taking action is best.
It is important that faculty not view a student’s short-term failures as a reflection of the instructor’s performance. Realize that when a student experiences these moments, it builds emotional resilience and increases his or her ability to cope and respond. Allowing failure to happen in small steps actually empowers a student. The “good learner experiments, discovers and is secure in his or her emotions, so he or she can take risks and accept failure as a frequent and productive event on the road to success at a new task” (K. Krumsieg & M. Baehr, 2000. Foundations of Learning from Pacific Crest.).
There is a related recent blog post, Failure for Dummies that speaks directly to this topic.