Before we could really dig into this wicked problem, we had to think it through in many different ways. We did this by following Warren Berger's questioning methods described in his book, A More Beautiful Question. We asked general questions to consider the topic from many different perspectives and then focused our questions with various question starters - Why? What if..? How?
The list of questions below show the many different ways we thought we could approach looking at this problem. As you read through the questions, think about what questions you might add - you can add your questions to the post entitled "Your Questions" in the Community Chat section of the website! Continue on throughout our site to see how we decided to narrow our focus as we took the next steps to research failure in the classroom.
What is failure?
How do students define learning?
How do students define failing?
How do you know you’ve failed?
How do you know you’ve succeeded?
Are grades true measures of success or failure?
Why would we want our students to fail?
Can you fail forward?
How do students perceive failure?
Why are people afraid to fail?
Why is failure an effective learning mode?
How can we communicate with parents that failure is a part of the learning process?
How can we educate parents as they shift to this new mindset?
How can teacher praise be adjusted to reflect the shift towards encouraging learning from failure?
How can a growth mindset culture help stakeholders accept failure as growth?
How can positive failure be graded?
Should failures be graded?
Is there a rubric that has been created that addresses the process and effort versus the end product?
How can we help our perfectionist students embrace their failures?
Would tracking their learning journey be a helpful tool as they go through their learning journey?
How can setting goals impact understanding failure as a learning mode?
How will student behaviors be impacted by the acceptance of failures as a learning mode?
How can the classroom environment be adapted to value failures versus end projects?
How do we teach students to respect other kids’ failures?
How can teachers change their feedback process to help students use their failures before they are punished for them?
How can reflection time positively impact a culture that welcomes failure?
Are pre and post tests an effective tool in using failure as a part of the learning journey?
How can student attitudes impact the learning journey?
How can we reach our emotionally and behaviorally impaired students that struggle to accept any deviation from typical success (read: 100%)?
Can ‘famous failures’ help shift the mindset in the classroom?
Can adding a ‘level of difficulty’ section to the rubric encourage students to take bigger risks?
Is it possible to scaffold students too much?
What does it mean to fail?
What does it mean to learn?
How do we know if we have learned something? Are grades true measures of success or failure?
Why are we afraid of failure?
Are we prepared to fail?
How can we become prepared to accept failure as a positive?
Thinking outside of the classroom, who or what determines that we fail?
What can we learn from our failures?
Why does fail have a negative connotation?
How do we feel after we have failed?
How do you feel after you have succeeded at something?
In a classroom, do teachers encourage failure as a learning mode?
How can attitudes change the way we view failure and successes?
Why is there a timeline for our learning? (think standards, state testing)
Why must we have set guidelines for our learning? (again, standards)
Who determines you have failed?
How have we failed?
When do teachers provide feedback the most?
How do we know if we have learned something?
Why?
Why can a growth mindset culture help stakeholders accept failure as growth?
Why will changing the feedback process for teachers help students use their failures to further their learning?
Why does feedback usually come in the form of a grade?
Why will being prepared to accept failures be a positive part of the learning process?
Then, we focused on creating "What if we…?" & "How?" questions to guide our thinking in regards to possible solutions.
What if we provide resources that teachers can easily incorporate into their classroom?
What if we introduce the Power of YET to our audience?
What if we provide resources to encourage a growth mindset in the classroom?
What if teachers adjusted their feedback?
What if they began to praise the process students’ go through rather than just praising the product?
What if teachers provided feedback more frequently throughout the learning process rather than just a final grade on a test?How can we encourage teachers to add “one more thing” to their busy schedules?
How can we help them understand that a simple change in the type of praise or adding the word “yet” to negative statements can have a major impact in the classroom culture? (Ex: I can’t do this math problem --- YET!
How can we prepare students to embrace failure?