Risk-Taking In The Classroom: A Necessary Component

In my classroom, risk-taking is part of the learning experience and is encouraged. Risk-taking goes hand-in-hand with allowing students the opportunity to fail, without them feeling ridiculed or too discouraged. However, this does not appear to be as prevalent a classroom philosophy as it should be within our educational system, especially during students' adolescent years. In addition, this classroom approach seems to go against our current culture which focuses too much on the mentality to "succeed no matter what." As noted in Clifford (1991), "errorless learning methods have failed to produce the creative, self-confident scholars we had envisioned" (p. 293). Furthermore, in Clifford's research study, she concluded that in the classroom "students often preferred near-moderate risks, expressed positive attitudes toward risk taking, and demonstrated learning benefits" (Clifford, 1991, p. 289).

References

Clifford, M.M. (1991). Risk taking: Theoretical, empirical, and educational considerations. Educational Psychologist, 26(3/4), 263-297. Retrieved from http://www.erlbaum.com/Journals/journals/EP/ep.htm