After a particularly rough term in high school, my mom tried to comfort me by saying, “When you fail, you learn more.” I replied, “Then I must be a genius!” Cheeky, yes—but she wasn’t wrong. In fact, research shows that productive failure plays a vital role in how we learn. In the classroom, however, the fear of failure often prevents students from taking risks, asking questions, or engaging deeply, especially in higher education, where grades and perfection are prized. So, how can we shift this narrative and build a classroom culture where failure is seen not as defeat, but as a powerful learning tool? Continue reading
In today’s colleges and universities there is an emphasis on developing students with critical thinking skills. This soft skill is less about memorizing a path and more about being able to adapt and apply knowledge in new situations. If this is true, why then do we continue to teach in ways that don’t allow students to explore? How have we gotten to a place where our students seem to be less and less comfortable in ambiguous situations?
In the field of coaching there is more and more research that shows that when an athlete is in an environment where they feel supported and where they are having fun, skill acquisition comes more easily (for an interesting talk on this, 
As a child one of my favorite stories was