Tip: Prototypes > Honor Failure
How can a failure help the future?
We are all tempted to clean out our classrooms by throwing away the trash. However, the prototypes that have failed are evidence of the learning process: the most essential celebration of education. Don’t discard the problems your students have overcome. Instead, put them on a shelf, honor the failure, and encourage them to use what they’ve learned in the next iterations.
#ProsocialEducation focuses praise on the effort and growth of the learner when it comes to skills, the person when it comes to prosocial behavior, and critique or redirection on the undesired behavior. Instead of complimenting the outcome, congratulate the effort. Here are some ideas to implement learner-focused language:
Instead of: Try This:
This printed heart looks great. → You worked hard to design a model of your solution.
It finally worked! → Your persistence really shines in your work.
Do you see where you messed up here? → What improvements might we make to this design?
For a learner to see themselves as a designer through inquiry, building them up is more important than the prototype they produce.
View/Download your Prototypes > Honor Failure A & Prototypes > Honor Failure B Tip Card.
