Controlled Failure

Controlled failure. That is what a college classroom allows. Controlled failure doesn’t mean “no failure.” There will be failure, for many. But it is under controlled conditions. This is why formative assessments are so very important. Those are the controls under which they can learn from errors, as long as there is reflection or better, controlled, focused personal investigation involved as to why they got 75% of the questions right and 25% wrong. (How much of human knowledge is later decided by the discipline or society to be wrong?) It is the current state of the knowledge they get right and wrong, not the big questions of the human existence which they also should be examining.

 

Example: I teach how to write resumes and cover letters. Rarely are they up to par or even really good examples of how the students could present themselves for career opportunities. And I want them to know they could always do it better, giving suggestions as someone who 1. Hires people and 2. Reads a lot about this subject, 3. Has seen a lot of resumes and cover letter-type documents. But they can’t get it wrong according to current standards. Some still write "To Whom It May Concern" on the letters’ salutations. Or "Dear Sir or Madam"(!)  Some use "I" all over the resume. Some put all kinds of material from their high school experience and they are about to graduate from college. At one point in history this was all acceptable, but they haven’t been in high school in quite a while.

 

In order to pass the class, however, the student has to show mastery of concepts. Unfortunately, our whole educational system is based on time; the mastery must not take place only, but it must be within an 8-week or 16-week time frame.  Why? Like I’ve always said, crowd control. Education is too expensive to let it take place on the student’s time frame. I think the time-bound nature of learning is what bothers me the most about it; practically, though, most students would take incompletes and postpone finishing. At least in self-regulated and self-directed learning, there is less concern about time frame.


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