Addressing the "F" Word (Failure)
Failure, or even perceived failure, is extremely hard to work through in college. At this point, you may have preceived some, or even most, of your college educational experience as a failure. Your grades (and now GPA) slipped, you may have lost scholarship or grant money support, you had to leave the University for a period of time, and some or all of those are hard to swallow. In this module we will discuss failure and how we can embrace this experience to elevate you to where you want to be operating in your academics. This is not an easy topic to cover, so I am encouraging you to go in with an open mind and a willingness to address those previous shortcomings, and look at those as an opportunity for growth and improvement rather than as a letdown.
In this video Mark Rober discusses the impact of perceived failure in an online computer game has on an individual's persistence and ultimate success in completing the game when there is a penalty applied to each attempt. He talks about the Mario Effect - focusing on the Princess and not the pits, you stick with the task, and learn more. So let's learn from, not focusing on, the failures.
So how can we embrace failure? How can we change the lens at which we look at past experiences or future shortcomings as moments to learn and growth, rather than moments of disappointment or letdown?
When enrolled in UNIV2800: Returning With Strength, you will have access to the chapter reading on Curoisity from How Humans Learn. In this chapter he discusses the importance of failure in our learning and our educational development.
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