If we all did the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves. -Thomas Edison
Fear is powerful. This emotion dictates, far too often, the kinds of decisions we make and our reactions to the events that take place in our lives. It cripples our spirit and hobbles our innovation.
But what is the worst effect of fear? It keeps us from fulfilling our potential.
Failure and risk. Look at these two words. Are they negative or positive? I imagine our default response is negative. But, let's revise our immediate response. What if we could learn to embrace failure and risk as positive? What if we could come to see that we can reach our potential, or, better yet, extend past our percieved potential and astound ourselves by embracing the learning that comes about when we take a calculated risk; when we experience failure?
Recently, Commander Chris Hadfield, the Canadian astronaut who was a commander at the International Space Station in 2013, gave a powerful TED talk about fear. What really resonated with me was Hadfield's thesis that you can't really get anywhere if you let fear stand in your way. I know that this is not a novel idea, but Hadfield clearly outlined an approach for overcoming fear using an analogy that many of us can relate to:
How do you get around it, though? How do you change your behavior? Well, next time you see a spiderweb, have a good look, make sure it's not a black widow spider, and then walk into it. And then you see another spiderweb and walk into that one. It's just a little bit of fluffy stuff. It's not a big deal.And the spider that may come out is no more threat to you than a lady bug or a butterfly. And then I guarantee you if you walk through 100 spiderwebs you will have changed your fundamental human behavior, your caveman reaction, and you will now be able to walk in the park in the morning and not worry about that spiderweb -- or into your grandma's attic or whatever, into your own basement. And you can apply this to anything.
What does Commander Hatfield's idea suggest to me, an educator? Well, firstly, you can't have a meaningful learning experience that will stick with you, if you can't take a risk. Secondly, you can't grow into your potential, if you are too afraid to make a mistake.
I know that in my classroom, an English Language Arts class, I demand that my students don't parrot back to me what they "think" I want to hear. I want them to feel safe enough to tell me what they think. I want them to take intellectual risks and come up with their own ideas. The best way I know how to encourage that kind of intellectual behaviour is to present my students with open-ended questions, and to insist that every question has a "response" instead of an "answer". This wording might be linguistic hair- splitting, but an "answer" gives students only two options. They are either right or wrong, therefore, they have to find the "right" answer which causes learning to become fraught with anxiety. Few students will take a risk when they are anxious. Whereas, when I ask my students to provide a "response" I indicate to my students that there are a variety of possibilities, which I respect, and that finding the one that represents their thinking the best will potentially involve thinking outside of the box which is often inherently risky.
Now I know that in every discipline there are times when you need a "right" answer, but there are many, many times when a learning task or summative assessment in any subject can be open-ended. Why not start there? Also, since many of us work in school climates that are based upon a numerical mark, why not ensure that students get used to taking a risk on formative assessments first? Let's build up their confidence in terms of risk taking and dealing with mistakes before we expect them to take a risk on a summative task.
So, how does an educator go about eradicating fear? With mindfulness, effective narrative feedback, celebration of divergent thinking, and respectful learning tasks, educators can create a classroom environment where students know that it's okay to walk into the "spiderweb".
By the way, if you want to listen to Commander Hadfields entire talk, click on this link: http://on.ted.com/a05vW
I look forward to your comments and suggestions. Let's revision our pedagogical practice together.
