Failure Readings

This is a selection of articles related to failure.  We provide an overview, but we encourage you to read the abstract of the article to see if it is something of interest to you and/or your educators. 

Anderson, A., Goeke, M., Simpson, A., & Maltese, A. V. (2019). Where should learners struggle? Connected Science Learning, 1(12).

Description: In this article we explore how activity design and learning contexts can influence youth failure mindsets through a case study of five youth who described failure as sometimes a good thing and sometimes a bad thing (a perspective we characterize as Failure as Mosaic). These youth and their descriptions of failure-positive and failure-negative experiences offer a unique opportunity to identify how experiences can be designed to support learning and persistence. [ARTICLE]

Bevan, B. (2017). The promise and the promises of making in science education. Studies in Science Education, 53(1), 75-103.

Description: This paper takes a critical view of the claims about Making as a productive form of science teaching and learning and reviews the current research literature’s substantiation of the ways in which Making supports students’ agency, promotes active participation in science and engineering practices, and leverages learners’ cultural resources. [ARTICLE]

Blikstein, P., & Worsley, M. (2016). Children are not hackers: Building a culture of powerful ideas, deep learning, and equity in the maker movement. In K. Peppler, Y. Kafai, & E. Halverson (Eds.), Makeology (pp. 64-79). Routledge.

Description: This chapter examines the cultural roots of the Maker Movement, make the case that the roots are a threat to its survival in schools, and propose a new set of principles that might allow the movement to achieve the goals dreamed by Dewey, Freire, and Papert. [BOOK CHAPTER]

Feigenbaum, P. (2021). Telling students it's OK to fail, but showing them it isn't: Dissonant paradigms of failure in higher education. Teaching & Learning Inquiry, 9(1), 13-27.

Description: Educators increasingly extol failure as a necessary component of learning and growth. However, students frequently experience failure as a source of fear and anxiety that impedes risk-taking and experimentation. This essay examines the dissonance between these generative and stigmatized paradigms of failure, and it offers ideas for better negotiating this dissonance. [ARTICLE]

Haimovitz, K., & Dweck, C. S. (2016). Parents’ Views of Failure Predict Children’s Fixed and Growth Intelligence Mind-Sets. Psychological Science, 27(6), 859-869.

Description: We tested the hypothesis that a different belief of parents—their failure mind-sets—may be more visible to children and therefore more prominent in shaping their beliefs. Overall, parents who see failure as debilitating focus on their children’s performance and ability rather than on their children’s learning, and their children, in turn, tend to believe that intelligence is fixed rather than malleable. [ARTICLE]

Maltese, A., Simpson, A., & Anderson, A. (2018). Failing to learn: The impact of failures during making activities. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 30, 116-124.

Description: In this paper we explore data from maker educators about their experiences with failure. We surveyed maker educators about how they view failure happening with youth in their formal and informal programs and how they respond. The results reveal some concrete strategies that seem to show promise for helping educators increase the likelihood that failure experiences for youth can lead to gains in learning and persistence. [ARTICLE]

Myers, K. (2019). Unspeakable failures. Composition Studies, 47(2), 48-67.

Description: Myers unpacks the narrative of failure in this essay. On the surface, popular rhetoric reframes failure as a ubiquitous experience and learnable skill; however, without critical engagement and efforts to create counter-stories, failure and resilience rhetorics operate as a discourse of white privilege. Failure experiences that do not make the imperative turn toward success are the unspeakable failures, unspeakable because we lack language or support systems for experiences that do not rebound quickly and consistently into forward movement. [ARTICLE]

Ryoo, J. J., & Kekelis, L. (2018). Reframing “failure” in making: The value of play, social relationships, and ownership. Journal of Youth Development, 13(4), 49-67.

Description: This paper reveals the centrality of playfulness, teamwork, and ownership of projects in order to persist through challenges that arise in inquiry-based projects. [ARTICLE]

Simpson, A., Anderson, A., & Maltese, A. V. (2019). Caught on camera: Youth and educators’ noticing of and responding to failure within making contexts. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 28(5), 480-492.

Description: Analysis revealed differences in how youths and educators attended, interpreted and responded to failures that suggest differences in the sophistication of their response. Educational implications from these findings support less direct oversight by educators and increased use of techniques to have the youth demonstrate positive troubleshooting behaviors. [ARTICLE]

Simpson, A., Anderson, A., Maltese, A. V., & Goeke, M. (2018). "I'm going to fail": How youth interpret failure across contextual boundaries. In J. Kay & R. Luckin (Eds.), Proceedings of the 13th International Conference of the Learning Science (Vol. 2, pp. 981-984). London, United Kingdom: University College London.

Description: Looking to unpack perceptions of failure, youth who participated in making activities were interviewed about their experiences with failure and thoughts about the term. Youth’s perceptions of failure fell into four categories: failure as enhancing, failure as debilitating, failure as mosaic, and failure as fluid. [PROCEEDING]

Skipper, Y., & Douglas, K. (2012). Is no praise good praise? Effects of positive feedback on children's and university students’ responses to subsequent failures. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 82(2), 327-339.

Description: The aim of the present research was to examine the effects of person and process praise compared to a control group where only objective outcome feedback was given. Findings suggest that process feedback may not be inherently positive; instead, person feedback seems particularly detrimental. [ARTICLE]

If you're looking for more, check out this compilation: The Big List of Resources about Failure in STEAM Education.