I'm filling my head with the ideas of failure within teaching and learning. In their small animal nursing skills lab, my students are graded on their technical abilities, not how successfully or quickly they draw blood from a dog. They're graded on following directions, handling animals, and practicing appropriate needle/syringe technique. It recently dawned on me that my students are learning and allowed to fail during this process. In fact, without failure, they wouldn't be able to grow from their own mistakes and become proficient in such skills.
In 21st Century learning, failure and exploration by students is encouraged. Failure comes with a negative connotation. For many, we think it's unacceptable to fail. In reality, this process is necessary. While failing is encouraged, it's still difficult to accept.
I was asked to investigate learning, failing, and making in my professional setting. Below is an infographic I designed using Venngage, a free digital infographic tool. While it was a self-assessment, students are at the center of my profession. As an educator, my sole purpose is to educate my students and to prepare them to be day-ready veterinary nurses.
I am pictured at the center of the infographic. I continue to evolve through experience, connections with others, professional growth, and tried techniques in the classroom. A very important aspect to my learning experience is my many failures. Some of my professional failures are that my students didn't make the connection I was hoping for, I ran out of time to get the message across, and I delivered incorrect information. Regardless, I've grown and learned from them. My program, colleagues, students, and director all experience failures. Failing is real and accepted in my professional setting.
But I really want my students to be the focus of this blog. How do they learn in my program and what is valued? Students are expected to be proficient in nursing and technical skills. Students must work efficiently yet conscientiously and be detail-oriented and thorough. We welcome and encourage failure but don't tolerate behavioral failures.
Students bring knowledge from past experiences and relationships, which is an educational theory termed constructivism created by Jean Piaget. According to Ackermann, "To conclude, for a child—or an adult—to abandon a current working theory, or believe system, requires more than being exposed to a better theory" (2001). What and how students understand is heavily based on their previous knowledge.
Students continue to learn by utilizing and strengthening four important skills (the 4Cs) of 21st Century learning in our program (creativity, collaboration, critical thinking, and communication). One specific use of these skills is the construction of client educational flyers or posters on holistic veterinary medicine. Students create their own projects and then present to other classmates who completed their projects on different topics. This assignment incorporates creativity, critical thinking to complete a project for an appropriate audience, and oral communication.
The connection to these 4Cs also brings rise to a second theory of education, that of constructionism. First introduced by Seymour Papert, this theory supports the importance of learning through making and sharing. Ackermann states, "To Papert, projecting out our inner feelings and ideas is a key to learning. Expressing ideas makes them tangible and shareable which, in turn, informs, i.e., shapes and sharpens these ideas, and helps us communicate with others through our expressions" (2001). This concept of learning is certainly used by faculty and students in our program.
After spending time in self-reflection regarding my learning and my students' learning, it's clear that while we have high expectations of our students (and of ourselves), we all encourage and accept failure. We evolve through building relationships and gaining knowledge beyond what we've gained through varying experiences in life.
References:
Ackermann, E. (2001). Piaget’s constructivism, Papert’s constructionism: What’s the difference. Future of Learning Group Publication, 5(3), 438.
Altmann, G. (2018, March 22). Result excuse me failure inability [Digital image]. Retrieved July 2, 2019, from https://pixabay.com/illustrations/result-excuse-me-failure-3249597/.
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