#NAISAC2017 Takeaways: Creating a Failure-Friendly Environment for Students

Friday of the NAIS annual conference was a good day to see another one of my colleagues in action. So I enjoyed learning from my Loomis Chaffee dean colleague Mike Donegan as he presented Failure 2.0: Creating a Failure Friendly Environment. Before I get into the heart of my takeaways, can I just say Mike had a full house (standing room only) and did a great job of engaging the audience. By the size of the audience, one could see that this topic is something that many educators are looking to tackle in all our schools. How do we help students "fail" and stopping seeing failure as the end of their worlds, but more of an opportunity? Now don't get me wrong, no one wants that "F" on a test, but creating "failure-friendly" environments is not just about supporting students through a bad grade, but it's also about creating an environment where students are willing to put themselves out there and take some risks even while knowing that it may not go their way (or be perfect). They may not get that position they applied for. Their voice may shake all throughout their entire chapel talk. They may not get that A, B or even C on that may test, but what can they learn in that moment about their preparation, their mastery, or about work more closely with their teachers that could help them be a better student in the long run. The thing is that there is something to be learned from each of these situations that a student would miss out on if they always play it safe because being wrong or vulnerable or not being elected/selected feels worse. So a few nuggets I walked away with were ....

Redefine Failure
It's important for us as educators to help students redefine, reframe what is. Failure can be a risk taken, lesson learned, and perhaps a message in the mess.

Redefine Resilience
Mike went on to show that redefining failure is not enough, but it's important to also define or expand on the definition of resilience, a word we hear a lot about in our schools.

 

Use a Failure Checklist

Have students reflect on a failure by asking themselves four questions.

1. What can I learn from this?
2. How could I have done things differently?
3. Where do I go from here?
4. What does this make possible?
(Richardson, J.W. The Failure Checklist (MS Word document). Retrieved from http://www.personasuccesstoday.com/the -failure-checklist)

Create a Failure Resume 

Have faculty share their failure stories or like Professor Haushofer, create a Failure Resume to share with students (example: http://bit.ly/1TaFEN4). We can also ask students to create their own failure resume where they also include what they learned from that. Students can also benefit from hearing their parents failure stories. After Mike's presentation, one head of school spoke about how this one evening he shared his personal and professionals with his daughter and how much more his daughter took away from that conversation than she had from knowing all of his successes.

"E" Them
One other approach Mike encouraged educators to consider when creating a "failure-friendly" environment for students, is to "E" them. Encourage. Endow. Empower. Enable. Embolden.