FAILURE or 
LEARNING
CURVE?
#ELTCHAT summary for Wednesday 12th June 2013
The first question asked was
‘What do you mean by failure, students not learning?’ followed swiftly by ‘Are
we talking teacher or student failure?’
This talk was
initiated by the amusing Failure Fest at IATEFL 2013; however, our purpose in
discussing the topic was to find ways to learn from our genuine mistakes in order to
become better teachers, or to promote more efficient learning.
@Marisa_C offered to share a post from her DELTA blog http://t.co/fIHlRA8wPJ ‘Teacher successes & failures'
Failure?
@ColinTGraham
If you go through your teaching career
blithely thinking that everything you do is
If you go through your teaching career
blithely thinking that everything you do is
‘OK’, then that is the big fail!
@ColinTGraham: The concept of
"failure" depends on the criteria you set for success, so maybe it's
about that to begin with. Perhaps it is not setting yourself some kind of measurement of ‘successes’ (more
than 1) before you go do a lesson. Does it equate to ‘You did not achieve this
particular standard, or
match this particular criterion? He prefers to think
that things didn’t go as planned, rather than see them as
failures. @vickyloras agreed that avoiding the
‘fail’ word was a positive step- as teachers can be
surprisingly good at self-flagellation, and don’t need any encouragement!
@haniehak thought that the word failure was too strong.
@Shaunwilden thought that it was just semantics- the result is the same. @Colin felt that the idea of pass/fail
was binary and that ‘less successful’ allowed you to take something positive
away.
@Marisa_C tends to use ‘unsuccessful’ when grading individual teacher’s lessons.
@KatySDavies felt that failure is a bigger picture than just individual lessons. She thought that
if the main
criterion is meeting your
students' needs, then if they are not met, 'failure' is justifiable,.
@Marisa didn't like the
idea of it being associated with any type of belief /doctrine.
@SueAnnan thought that many mistakes were simply the result of inexperience. Perhaps
the mistakes at
the beginning of a teacher’s
career are not the real issue- as @Katie
said: if you get to the end and realise you didn't
spot those mistakes or learn from them = failure?
Mistakes keep us on our toes, so we don't
become complacent.
@VincentOConnor said that we are not always
able to predict what will work in the
classroom, as
lessons we see as failures often provide good
learning opportunities for our students, and those we
expect will work well, don’t. Much of this can be put down to experience, but
there are a number
of elements to
take into consideration.
@esolcourses said that we need to consider that factors outwith our control can be the
reason for things
going wrong.
The Ideal teacher?
@Marisa_C:
Does the word
'failure' stem from some kind of idealised teacher model we carry in our head?
@theteacherjames was set against the idea of measuring yourself against an ideal. He
suggested that the best thing was to
learn to be yourself. @KatySDavies believed
that the image changed as we became
more experienced, making it impossible for
us to be satisfied anyway. She also thought that it was
important to be aware of
how much our own personality will influence our teaching style.@james agreed, and stated that things had had to fall into place
before he realised this in his own case. @shaznosel thought that your
character and goals also had a part to play.
@LizziePinard pointed out that the more you learn, the more
you become aware of how much there's still
to learn… :-) @KatySDavies
suggested it's like the rabbit hole in Alice in Wonderland… every question
you
answer seems to open up ten more.
Who is brave enough to share their mistakes?
@MarjorieRosenbe: I once tried to explain future tenses using
examples in a course book and ended up
confusing the students and me. I never did
that again! Other things going wrong include forgetting
materials, games etc. for class.
@VincentOConnorI often feel my
set up is rushed, or that I presume my students know where I'm going with an
activity, even the ones I know well!!
@MarjorieRosenbe: Anyone fail with a group for whole
semester? Happened 3 years ago but
The group was problem for all at college
@theteacherjames: Sometimes it can
take a long time to realise you made a mistake, maybe
@ColinTGraham: New situations
always seem to be the 'breeding ground' for a sense of failure - start of course,
new text, etc. This was refuted by @theteacherjames
, who is experiencing this at the moment and enjoying the new experience.
@shaznosel: As Katy mentioned
in her blog-failure is not what we think
we did/n't do. It’s whether we did/n't do it for our learners. Did we fail them?
@hartle depends a lot on
what we mean by failure, in fact. Failure to interact with students, for
example, to plan, to manage classrooms etc.
Learning?
@esolcourses acknowledged that making mistakes was
okay, as long as you learned from them. Many of us agreed that we learned more from our own/
colleagues/trainees mistakes than from great
lessons.
@hartle agreed that failure
leads to learning and thought that ‘perfection’ signified ‘finished’, with
nowhere else to go and nothing left to learn.
@theteacherjames: I'm always telling my students-it is
okay to make mistakes, that’s how they learn. It would be a bit strange if I
didn't say the same to myself.
@ColinTGraham: In my maths teaching, I like to
encourage error-making, because it becomes a
learning/teaching opportunity.
@Shaunwilden didn’t feel that this was a good idea
to encourage, but @Colin explained
that it was about creating a learning environment where it is okay to be wrong.
He felt that mistakes were a good thing if handled correctly.
@hartle often the
"failure" to do an activity as "planned" can lead to
fascinating new adaptations of
materials etc. This was agreed by @fedeanna1 when she said: Failure could be a new
starting point. We
cannot always control what stands outside us
@face_english :
The most memorable learning experiences come from 'mistakes'. When we stop making mistakes, we stop learning.
MarjorieRosenbe: I think we remember better what we do wrong
than what we do right.
@ColinTGraham:I tend to think we remember that we did
something wrong, rather than what the error
itself was...
@ Marisa_C suggested that we should always ask
questions if we feel dissatisfied with a lesson or activity, even without a set of preset criteria. @haniehak thought that we could do that before going in to class,
which would give us a selection of
alternatives should things not go to plan.
@AlwaysCharlie wanted to know how many mistakes were
accepted per class. He said that he makes more when he is tired, which is
probably true for the majority of us. @theteacher
james thought that there were normally mistakes of some description made in
class, or, in his words,
‘something fishy’ was going on. @haniehak
thought that the number wasn't important provided we didn't continue to make the same mistakes the following time.
@esolcourses believed that if you aren't making
mistakes you are probably not venturing outside your
comfort zone.
@ColinTGraham: I would be
worried if I came out of a lesson without having something I wanted to
change or improve - everything OK? = fail for me
As @Marisa_C
commented: in ELT it's hard to know if no learning at all took place - maybe
OTHER
learning happened – it has more to do
with us.
@ColinTGRaham also worried about whether students
always learned what the teacher intended in what appear to be successful
lessons. He told us about a situation: Colour the nouns red, the verbs green, etc... "What
did you learn today?" "Colouring"...!
@esolcourses agreed that having a lesson go to plan
doesn’t necessarily mean that much is learnt
Reflection?
@theteacherjames brought up the topic of reflection, as
a key to development.
@ColinTGraham noted that
reflection is built in as part of an action research cycle.
@KatySDavies agreed that the worst failures occurred when the
teacher hadn’t reflected
on what had taken place in the classroom.
@Marisa_C asked whether reflection should be recorded.
Does it work as well if it is not done?
@esolcourses: I record really successful lessons and
howlers and
analyse them in depth, to try to pin down what worked and what didn't.
@vickyloras thought that recording reflection meant that it could be revisited and analysed.She mentioned
that we might not remember
exactly how things unravelled, or might perhaps focus on the wrong
things.
@MarjorieRosenbe: I think we remember better what we do wrong
than what we do right.
@ColinTGraham thought that we remembered doing something wrong, rather than the error itself.
@hartle: often we remember the emotive reaction
to a situation that went wrong, and have to distance
ourselves before we can identify the problem.
@LizziePinard thought that you
would be able to use your record to see progression taking place.
@SueAnnan mentioned a course she had
completed, which included a weekly reflection post. @Shaunwilden suggested that the method of publicly reflecting
didn't suit everyone, although @KatySDavies
thought that the discipline of a regular time could work well- it could be
weekly, or monthly. Both @LizziePinard
and @theteacherjames suggested that
finding whatever worked best for you was the important thing to remember.
@Marisa_C said that
we have our own learning curve, just as our students do, and reflection fits
into our
internal learning rhythm
@Marisa wondered whether there should be a structured checklist of some kind, but
then who would
make the checklist? She mooted the idea
of simply using a column next to some lesson notes. The
simplicity of that idea rang a bell with @LizziePinard who thought that even
just noting down 3 things
which went well/ badly would be easy
to do. She determined that it would work as a reflective aim for her own CPD, with a blog
post from time to time to see whether she could notice patterns emerging.
@haniehak thought that a personal
checklist would work, as each teacher could then concentrate or their particular
strengths and weaknesses.
@hartle: not sure about
"structured" could become too rigid: each teacher can find their own way. The
important thing is to do it
@ColinTGraham Self-assessment goes wrong if you don't accept that you can't control
everything and maybe need to focus on one or two things only
First we need to learn awareness, and then we
will be a position to benefit from the methods
available and will
recognise the benefits inherent in a supportive staffroom.
And for Training
courses?
@Marisa_C encourages and rewards structured
reflection on her CELTA and DELTA courses. This
is something which is encouraged on the
Cert. and DipTESOL too.
@theteacherjames enjoyed this aspect of his own CELTA
course, but thought that some of his
course-mates were ‘self-flagellating’,
focussing on the negatives, rather than the positives.
@Shaunwilden thought that trainees try to pre-empt
the ‘what went wrong’ feedback, and therefore
forget to note the positives. All
trainers need to stress the need for positive feedback as well.
@SueAnnan thought that the wording on the
template used for feedback and reflection could be part of
the solution.
Trainees need to learn how to reflect and as @LizziePinard noted, the framework is useful in the beginning, but they should be encouraged to find the best way for them personally.
Blogging about it?
@Marisa_C and @Shaunwilden thought that a blog was a
good way to keep a reflective diary.
They suggested
that anyone who felt threatened by the idea of confessing their failures in
public
could keep their
blog private, until they were ready to share.
@theteacherjames said that was the
reason he blogged, but @ColinTGraham
didn't find blogging
helpful and
thought it should be down to personal preference. He suggested that having two
or three outlets for
reflection would be better.
And to finish…
@dianatremayneI know the theme is teachers but I used this
video with my learners to show the
Picture used taken from ELTpics (water) under CC license
