by Jake Hollingsworth // Seoul, South Korea // www.JakeHollingsworth.net
no.4 By rewarding effort, you teach them to try.
Success is overrated.
Well, sort of. It is easy to recognize success. It makes sense. Reaching a goal is an appropriate time to celebrate. An opportune moment to reward and recognize someone is when they complete a project, or score well on a test.
But what usually goes unnoticed is what led to that success. Trying and failing. And trying and failing again. Over and over. Success doesn’t usually occur the first time. Many of my students are timid and afraid to answer a question in class, or write a sentence on the board unless they know it is correct. They don’t trust themselves yet. In Korean culture, the concept of losing face handicaps would-be risk takers. My students tend not to go out on a limb and try for fear of being wrong.
So how do we as teachers combat such a mindset? We have a point system at my school. Students accumulate orange sticker points for scoring well on tests, or answering questions correctly. In my classroom, when I ask for volunteers to answer or write on the board, I immediately award points to the first one to raise their hand. Even before he or she answers. My goal is to teach them that making an effort is a good thing. Getting an answer wrong is secondary. We can work through that together. Overcoming their fear of trying is the important thing.
In my experience, success never comes without first failing. A mistake is one of the best teachers.
What about you? How do you encourage students to try when they are afraid of failure.
Go to the next Tip:
Everyone is a Teacher (5 of 5)
