Fail Fast Mentality

Fear of failure is a well-known phenomenon among students. Why do students fear failure? Fear and anxiety originate from parents, are enforced by the teachers and ultimately delivered to students. We’re all partners in crime.

It’s typical for parents to reiterate again and again that good grades are a necessity in obtaining a scholarship or admission into a reputable college. Graduating with a degree from well-known schools will lead to a better career path, which in turn leads to a decent pay and a comfortable lifestyle. It’s easy for parents to forget that many famous scientists, inventors, and entrepreneurs faced failure head-on. They confronted their fears and managed to turn fear into fuel that drove their imaginations and ideas into fantastic results.

Fear is a double-edged sword, it can be a great asset or liability depending on how you view it. Some view fear as a requirement to achieving greatness. Fear is considered an asset when people are able to confront it and overcome it. If fear convinces you to give up before you attempt to do anything, this would be considered an unfortunate liability. Failure is a learning experience that should not be feared but experienced early on and often.

Teachers believe that there is a direct link between a student’s performance and the teacher's performance. It’s true that there’s a link, but not to the extent that one would imagine. At least not the extent that supports the pressure that teacher’s put on their student’s to achieve better grades. Teachers should take time to understand the student’s psychology before exerting pressure on their student’s performance. Not all teachers do this of course, but many of them have this mindset and it can damage someone's future. We have to change the way we communicate success to students. One approach would be changing the fear of failure to the acceptance of failure and aspiration to success. "Today, I hope to be better than the person I was yesterday" is the type of mindset that should be taught.

We have to redesign the process from scratch. Learning should be intuitive and fun, with engaging content to hold a student’s attention. Students should understand that success requires numerous trials and errors before they finally succeed. Success should be defined as being better than the previous attempt so that you can improve.

The way we handle failure should be changed as well. Instead of giving the correct answers right away, we should guide the students to think differently so they can try a different approach. We should promote creative thinking, resource management, and critical thinking.

RoboGarden encompasses all these concepts in its learning management system. Missions increase in difficulty as you progress through journeys. There is room for trial and error. Guiding hints and a gentle correction system encourages students to try again by pointing out mistakes without explicitly telling them the error. Combined with engaging graphics and a fun and intuitive environment, RoboGarden has created a gamified learning system that students will want to come back to again and again.

Join for free and begin your journey in learning to code at www.robogarden.ca