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FAIL- Further Attempt In Learning-recording of conference presentation

conference contribution
posted on 2021-06-25, 15:13 authored by Ursula Kate HurleyUrsula Kate Hurley, Davina Whitnall
Recording of a presentation to UKCGE Annual Conference 2021. Abstract: Failure is part of being human, we learn more through failure than through success. We are psychologically and biologically wired to remember the negative, this instinct helps us to protect ourselves against future disasters and keep us safely away from harm. Failure is often a considered a negative but looking at it differently can open unexpected routes to success. Albert Einstein said, “failure really is just success in progress.” However, the pressures of the research environment can make it difficult to take this view. Paradigms of educational histories teach us that failure can have disastrous consequences for future success (Jackson 2003). Elliot and Thrash argue that for many young people, fear of failure becomes “a dispositional burden that they must carry with them into each new achievement situation and that affects the goals they choose to pursue” (2004, 968). By the time high-achieving students reach PGR level, fear of failure is often strongly developed and can lead to intense anxiety, as well as a risk-averse approach. What can we do about this? Salford University’s Doctoral School has developed a “Flipping Failure” initiative, in which experiences of failure are re-framed as opportunities for personal development and pathways to success. In this series of case studies, we explore applications of failure as a collective problem-solving framework to help researchers manage the isolation and remoteness, reflect and re-purpose, making the most of what they have already developed, increase resilience and capacity to cope with change and uncertainty.

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