Teaching the Inevitable: Embracing a Pedagogy of Failure
Author(s)
Eckstein, Lydia E.
Finaret, Amelia B.
Whitenack, Lisa B.
Date Issued
May 12, 2023
Abstract
Failure is often taken as a given in higher education, as an inevitable part of learning new things. Yet, it remains a part of learning that students tend to fear, and faculty tend to neglect. As faculty, we do not always strategize with or leverage our students’ struggles and failures for improved learning. Instead, we hope that students learn from their mistakes and study harder or try harder the next time, because moving on with material in class is necessary to meet learning objectives. In this article, we outline several strategies for using failure advantageously for promoting student growth and learning, and to minimize the stigma of struggle in academia. We make concrete suggestions and outline strategies and resources for faculty to incorporate a “pedagogy of failure” into their work with students and we describe structural barriers to using failure strategically in higher education.
Journal
Teaching & Learning Inquiry
Department
Biology
Geology
Global Health Studies
Psychology
Citation
Eckstein, Lydia E., Amelia B. Finaret, and Lisa B. Whitenack. 2023. “Teaching the Inevitable: Embracing a Pedagogy of Failure.” Teaching & Learning Inquiry 11. https://doi.org/10.20343/teachlearninqu.11.16
Publisher
International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
Version of Article
Published article
DOI
10.20343/teachlearninqu.11.16
ISSN
2167-4779
2167-4787
Rights
CC-BY-NC License 4.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons – Attribution License 4.0 International which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly attributed.
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