How to fail well

By Miranda Prynne, 4 May, 2023
Spotlight on failure in HE
Advice to help faculty and staff reframe and harness failure
as a useful aid to learning and development
How to fail well
Advice to help faculty and staff reframe and harness failure as a useful aid to learning and development
Spotlight on failure in HE

Failure may not be something many of us enjoy, yet it is vital to learning and discovery. So, how can those working in universities normalise, even welcome, failure as a stepping stone to continued development, particularly when set against a backdrop of competition for enrolments, research funding, jobs and top grades? This collection of resources looks at how faculty and academics can harness failure to improve their own research and professional practices, what it takes to create a culture of innovation and exploration and how educators can reframe failure as an important tool for students to grow and deepen their knowledge.

Failure as a teaching tool
Resources
By miranda.prynne, 13 October, 2021

Using productive failure to activate deeper learning

Advice on using productive failure to activate deeper learning
Manu Kapur explains how using a flipped-classroom approach, setting students problems that they are unable to tackle properly until they have been taught the associated concepts, deepens their learning through ‘productive failure’
Teacher presents to group of students
By Miranda Prynne, 26 April, 2023

The F-word: how to use failure as a learning tool

Image of paper balls with one emerging as an origami swan
Fear of failure impacts student well-being and academic outcomes so educators need to help reframe ‘failure’ as a useful learning tool. Claire Davy-Potts explains how
Reading time
4minutes
Breaking the stigma of failure in academia
Resources
By sara.custer, 28 April, 2023

Lead by example and share your failures

Normalised failure depicted in a baby bird learning to fly
Rejection is part of academic life. Leaders should share their own stories of failure to help others through theirs, says Tracy Nevatte
Reading time
3minutes
A man defeated by his own shadow
Failure as an opportunity for growth
Resources
By Eliza.Compton, 21 March, 2023

How to use failure to build an academic career

professional woman in office with laptop with head in hands
Failure can be a stepping stone on the way to professional success. Here, Beiting He offers tips for finding support through setbacks and cultivating a resilience mindset
A hammer next to a series of bent nails and one perfectly hammered in
By Eliza.Compton, 18 April, 2023

Failing your way to academic success

Rubber duck dodging an obstacle
Failure offers students and educators a chance to explore their shortcomings and come to greater self-awareness. In fact, it can be seen as growth in disguise, write Kelvin Yihang Zhang and Kim Yong Joong
Equip students for the future
Resources
By Miranda Prynne, 18 May, 2022

Five ways to apply a creative mindset to education

Image representing innovation involving thinking creatively and taking risks
Students should be encouraged to create and innovate rather than just accrue knowledge. Alan Morgan shares five approaches to cultivating a creative mindset in class
Reading time
3minutes
By Miranda Prynne, 24 April, 2023

Failure as a career development tool

Young woman pondering some notes
How to encourage students to actively examine their ‘failures’ to provide useful direction and inform improvements when considering their future career options
Reading time
4minutes
A young man gazes are a gridded cube