Techniques October 2012 - 46

Feature

Students have been taught, both on purpose and accidentally, to fear failure. Yet the working world looks for people who can overcome failures and setbacks for their employers through critical thinking and problem solving. Now is the time to reevaluate how to teach those skills to these 21st-century learners. They, unlike any previous generation, have the opportunity to use technology to test, represent, replicate and simulate real-world situations and possibilities.

be asking: Do I allow or even plan for my students to fail? Belfiore’s article ends with the statement that “DARPA’s mission to fail as well as to succeed is something we should all take to heart during these challenging times. Right now, more than ever, we need bold moves, moves that may have a high chance of failure, but with the potential to really move the needle.”3

Rethinking How We Teach
CTE educators can tell you that 21stcentury learners need problem-solving and critical-thinking skills the most. Students have been taught, both on purpose and accidentally, to fear failure. Yet the working world looks for people who can overcome failures and setbacks for their employers through critical thinking and problem solving. Now is the time to reevaluate how to teach those skills to these 21st-century learners. They, unlike any previous generation, have the opportunity to use technology to test, represent, replicate and simulate real-world situations and possibilities. This is much easier said than done, and I don’t know if it can be done from the top down. Rather, it must start with current CTE educators in the classroom. We must create the classroom to be a laboratory or workshop for new innovations—finding success through failure. The only way for this to work is to see what does not work. David Damberger, a prominent member of the Canadian chapter of Engineers Without Borders, spoke to this exact idea of learning from failure

in his 2011 TEDx conference address. He talked about using new techniques to create sustainability through engineering development projects throughout the world. It is an admirable focus for this non-profit organization, but as Damberger talks about the organization, he moves quickly into describing their failures. For instance, approximately 40 percent of the well-engineered projects that they have built in underdeveloped countries are still working several years later. The reason for this low percentage is not because of labor, engineering or development issues. Rather, it is because there has not been an understanding of the failures that come from these projects. By not being open to look at their failures, they did not understand how to correct the issues. By not admitting the problems, there was no way to rectify them. Damberger concedes that “admitting failure is quite hard, but it can get easier when we embrace failure;”4 but the point is not just to embrace failure for failure’s sake. He expresses that “we can learn from these mistakes and we can change!”5 This is the heart of looking to failure to help teach the next generation. Engineers Without Borders has published an annual “Failure Report” showing all the ways they have failed, so they can learn from them and not repeat them. They have also created a website (www. admittingfailure.com) to allow other developers to share their failures. Harvard Business Review has followed suit and come out with its own “Failure Issue” showing how they have failed. The subtitle reads:

“How to Understand It, Learn from It, and Recover from It.” Now that’s a slogan to put up in our CTE classrooms! This shift in educating and thinking could help the 21st-century learner to be more open and motivated to engage in learning. Just think of the welding student who has to recreate welds for the purpose of perfecting their welding technique, rather than just getting it done. Imagine the culinary student working to create a new recipe because the failures of the past have shed new light on how to make it better. At the end of the day, it might allow things like classroom management, test anxiety and student stress to become non-issues, leaving students and CTE educators to worry about the ultimate goal—learning and understanding! Maybe we need to realize that we have all failed at some things, but perhaps not enough to become really good at something. It took Thomas Edison a myriad of tries to understand how not to make a light bulb. How many tries will it take our CTE students before the proverbial light bulb goes on for them? Now that is a treasure worth making a Hollywood movie about! Let’s make our own declaration of 21st-century learning success, and let’s start by being willing to fail to get there.
Jamey McIntosh is the product marketing
manager for software at Realityworks. He is a former high school educator and currently is working to promote CTE programs to workforce and education. He can be reached at jamey.mcintosh@realityworks.com.

Endnotes
1. Belfiore, Michael. “Flight Failure Won’t Stop ‘Mad Scientists,’” www.cnn.com. (August 15, 2011). Ibid. Ibid. Damberger, David. “What Happens When an NGO Admits Failure,” [Video file]. www. ted.com/talks/david_damberger_what_ happens_when_an_ngo_admits_failure. html. (April 2011). Ibid.

2. 3. 4.

Techniques

October 2012

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Techniques October 2012

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