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TED Failure: Think BIG!



This TED Talk by Astro Teller discusses the importance of thinking big when it comes to your dreams and knowing that it is okay or even encouraged to fail. Teller starts his talk by explaining that a great dream is one that has a plan for action behind it. By using explanations of the seemingly impossible projects that Teller and his teams at GoogleX take on, he outlines the strategy, mindset, and dedication needed to accomplish great dreams. Teller's main message is that failure is a good thing. At GoogleX, development teams are working in an environment where failure is encouraged and celebrated. Team members are even given bonuses or even promotions when their projects fail. Now you might be asking yourself, how does that work? Doesn't that go against what we have been taught our whole lives about failure? The answer is yes, but as Teller explains to his audience, failure is needed in order to accomplish greatness. The problem is our world's negative attitude around failure. With this current attitude, we are working against our own success. Teller believes that it is time to change the worlds perceptions about failure so that we will be capable of creating and achieving amazing things. 

So what does this mean for future educators? And how does it relate to the next generation of students? It means that as educators, we must create classroom environments where failure is seen as a positive step toward success. In order to accomplish this, we must focus less on the final grade and more on the process of learning. As Teller discusses in his video, his teams always start with the most difficult piece of the project. If they can accomplish most difficult piece, than the project is most likely to succeed. However, because of the current fear of failure, most people start a project with the easiest part. I can think of many times that I have followed this same instinctual pattern in attempt to avoid if not simply prolong a failure. This is the mindset we need to erase from the next generation of students. In replace of it, we must teach our students to start each task or dream with the most difficult piece so that they will learn that failure is an expected and natural step on the path to success. To do this we need to create lesson plans, classroom settings, and forms of assessment that encourage students to keep a positive attitude even when faced with a setback. It is our responsibility as future educators to spark this shift in mindset. We are so fortunate to work with students of future generations because we have the opportunity to teach, influence, inspire so that each and every student will be capable of achieving their dreams.

Click here to watch the TED Talk and learn more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=929&v=2t13Rq4oc7A

Comments

  1. BeckyJanuary 29, 2018 at 8:06 PM

    I love that you begin to articulate what it really looks like when a classroom truly values the process of learning, including failure.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownJanuary 30, 2018 at 10:58 AM

    I agree with what you said when you said that teachers should emphasize the learning process more than the final grade. A lot of teachers are implementing a grading style that isn't pass or fail but rather a scale of needs improvement to fully understanding. This type of grading will definitely help get rid of the fear of failing in the classroom like you suggested.

    ReplyDelete

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