Techniques October 2012 - 45

Feature

phoTo courTesy of isTock.com/Dean miTchell

phoTo courTesy of isTock.com/Dean miTchell

again until they master the skill and ultimately beat the game. That same student might have major anxiety about upcoming classroom assessments. If educators truly want students to master the skills that are needed in CTE, then we want them to work at it until mastery is gained. Don’t we want them to fail, find out what they did wrong, how it needs to change and what they can do better? Maybe we should be helping students to fail, because failing may lead to helping them get an A in the end!

The Past Helping the Future
At the far end of this “failure is fundamental” idea is the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). A CNN.com article, “Flight Failure Won’t Stop ‘Mad Scientists’” by Michael Belfiore, discusses the agency’s unusual mission. DARPA was really “America’s first space agency,” formed
www.acteonline.org

by the government as a response to the Soviet Union’s launch of Sputnik in 1957. The article explains that DARPA’s goal was to only “undertake projects that have a good chance of failing—projects that few others dare to take on.”1 Because of DARPA’s failures over the years, we have things like handheld GPS receivers, interactive computer displays and even the Internet. These early failures are now reality because this agency decided to take them on when others were too worried about failure. Michael Belfiore states that “Failure is not surprising; permission to fail is what has enabled the agency’s spectacular success over its 53-year history.”2 CTE educators could all take a page from the DARPA playbook and understand that opening the door to failure and encouraging it is an integral part of the formula for success. There may be some risks involved in allowing students to be

open to failure—perhaps scrutiny from colleagues, parents and administration. Creating opportunities for failure in the CTE classroom can lead to big successes. With new technology constantly over the horizon and the need to teach critical thinking and problem solving to the 21stcentury learner, now is the right time to

October 2012

Techniques

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Techniques October 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Techniques October 2012

Techniques October 2012 - Cover1
Techniques October 2012 - Cover2
Techniques October 2012 - 3
Techniques October 2012 - 4
Techniques October 2012 - 5
Techniques October 2012 - 6
Techniques October 2012 - 7
Techniques October 2012 - 8
Techniques October 2012 - 9
Techniques October 2012 - 10
Techniques October 2012 - 11
Techniques October 2012 - 12
Techniques October 2012 - 13
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Techniques October 2012 - 15
Techniques October 2012 - 16
Techniques October 2012 - 17
Techniques October 2012 - 18
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Techniques October 2012 - 20
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Techniques October 2012 - 28
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