A new study published by the American Psychological Association has shown that children perform better in school if they acknowledge failure as part of the learning process.
On tasks such as anagram problems and reading comprehension, researchers found that children who were told it’s normal to fail and tried again did better than those not receiving this pep talk. “Fear of failing can hijack the working memory resources, a core component of intellectual ability,” the researchers said. “Fear of failing not only hampers performance, it can also lead students to avoid difficulty and therefore the opportunities to develop new skills.”
Yet Britain’s education system is fuelled by this fear of failure. Lurking around every corner is the threat of an Ofsted inspection. Students are burdened with a crushing routine of assessment after assessment: back in 2008 an international report revealed English children were tested more frequently, at a younger age, and in more subjects than children from any other country. Public education here seems fixed on the same goals as when it was created back in the 19th century: to create effective workers capable of meeting the needs of industrialism – that is, risk-averse and target-meeting drones.
The rise of academy-status for schools under Michael Gove, far from relieving this fear, is aggravating it. By encouraging more competition between schools, academy-status furthers the pressure for attractive pass rates and positions on league tables.
Academy-status advances the culture of schools being run as a business, where all staff are accountable for results under pressure from a management team bidding to push the school’s reputation. The better the pass rates, the better the reputation and so the more students; and the more students, the more money.
All this fear in schools completely kills any creativity or ingenuity and can only serve to create blank generations incapable or unwilling to adapt and innovate in a rapidly changing world.
Imaginative activity which the government clearly sees as a waste of time, as is evident in massive cuts to arts budgets, is actually what can best propel Britain into the future. As William Blake wrote, “What is now proved was once only imagin’d”. Students must be given the space to imagine; a space insulated from timelines, targets and expectations; a space free from the fear of failure.
So where can space be found for this in schools? With schools being run like businesses, perhaps they can learn from the real business world. 3M, a multinational corporation now with over £20 billion in annual sales, launched a program in 1948 to promote creativity and innovation within its workforce: ‘15 percent time’. 15 percent time allows 3M’s employees 15 percent of their working week to work on their own individual projects.
Many of the inventions the employees came up with are well known household products now: post-It notes, masking tape, clear bandages and are generating real profit for the company. Many of the projects failed and yet, importantly, that failure was accepted in the company culture. Why not, then, allow teachers the room to let students loose on their own curriculum-based personal projects? With no anticipated outcome or predetermined answer there could be no fear of failure.
Without the confinement of the four walls of a sports hall and a ticking clock for an hour, insights would be allowed to surface anywhere. Rather than teaching for the test, teachers could teach to engage interest and enquiry. This is what the world needs: not people who are prepared for their exams and prepared for life, but people who have come alive.