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.

Narrating failure in academia: how to turn trash into treasure

Instead of hiding from failure in shame and despair, and on the way to normalising it, we should learn how to better narrate it, says Lucas Lixinski

Lucas Lixinski

UNSW Sydney

Failure as a teaching tool

Advice on using productive failure to activate deeper learning

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’

Manu Kapur

ETH Zurich

Sailing boat under stormy skies

Learning challenge and difficulty: calm seas do not make skilful sailors

Five strategies for university teachers to encourage students to use challenge, struggle and safe failure for effective long-term learning

Alexandra Osika, Stephanie MacMahon, Jason M. Lodge, Annemaree Carroll

The University of Queensland

Failure must be celebrated in higher education

Three steps to accepting failure: recognise, embrace and enculturate

Many fail to see the blood, sweat and tears that often go into both successes and failures. We must learn how to celebrate the process as well as the outcome

Kenan Kok Xiao-Feng , Oran Devilly

Singapore Institute of Technology

Teacher presents to group of students

The power of failure: a case study to foster resilience in students

Nici Sweaney offers simple strategies to shift focus from outcomes to learning and discovery, helping research students to embrace risk-taking and learn from setbacks

Nici Sweaney

Australian National University

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

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

Claire Davey-Potts

University of Exeter

Breaking the stigma of failure in academia

Normalised failure depicted in a baby bird learning to fly

Lead by example and share your failures

Rejection is part of academic life. Leaders should share their own stories of failure to help others through theirs, says Tracy Nevatte

Tracy Nevatte

Keele University

Failure is crucial in academia, science and research

Failure can feel hot and shameful, but we must normalise it

Failure is essential in research, so we need to reframe it into an opportunity for learning, says Emma Williams

Emma Williams

EJW Solutions

Metal chain showing resilience

Techniques for managing and learning from failure in academia

Failure in academia does not have to be entirely negative – it can provide an opportunity to grow, build resilience and is an essential part of the self-improvement process

Gustavo Espinoza Ramos

University of Westminster

A man defeated by his own shadow

What happens when we can’t help a student when they need us most?

The job of university personal tutor is not nine-to-five, and academics in support roles are fallible and don’t always get it right. Catherine Lee shares advice for those times from personal experience

Catherine Lee

Anglia Ruskin University

Why learning to listen will help you avoid ‘helicopter research’ and make you a better science communicator

A year of failed fieldwork in Africa led Sallie Burrough to ask questions about how researchers interact with the societies they work in. Here, she shares five tips for transparent, inclusive practices

Sallie Burrough

University of Oxford

Failure as an opportunity for growth

professional woman in office with laptop with head in hands

How to use failure to build an academic career

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

Beiting He

Macau University of Science and Technology

Design thinking can be used in universities and by academics to help bring about new approaches to working in teams

Five tips for using design thinking to transform your academic practice

Jenny Moffett explains how embracing design thinking may offer ways to combat academic perfectionism and develop vital skills for navigating uncertain paths

Jenny Moffett

RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences

Serendipity plays a big part in much scientific discovery - and researchers can increase the chances of it happening

How to enhance your chances of serendipitous research discoveries

Five approaches that will help researchers prepare for and make the most of serendipitous opportunities

Rachel Herbert

Elsevier

A hammer next to a series of bent nails and one perfectly hammered in

Failing your way to academic success

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

Kelvin Yihang Zhang, Kim Yong Joong

Macau University of Science and Technology

I’m a Columbia student, and I don’t want my grade inflated

Normalising failure could improve students’ mental health, give them the freedom to learn more effectively and make them more resilient all at once, says Jacob Clay

Jacob Clay

Columbia University

Equip students for the future

Image representing innovation involving thinking creatively and taking risks

Five ways to apply a creative mindset to education

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

Alan Morgan

University College Dublin

Young woman pondering some notes

Failure as a career development tool

How to encourage students to actively examine their ‘failures’ to provide useful direction and inform improvements when considering their future career options

Dawn Lees, Rachel Sloan

University of Exeter

University students and adaptability

Adaptability is different from resilience – and here’s how to nurture it

Identifying what adaptability is and how to boost it can help students make appropriate adjustments to optimise their academic and personal well-being

Andrew J. Martin, Paul Ginns, Rebecca J. Collie

UNSW Sydney, University of Sydney

A young man gazes are a gridded cube

Making space for innovation: a higher education challenge

Risk, chance and disruption can be paths to innovative teaching practice. Here, Michelle Prawer offers ways to bring more flexibility into the classroom

Michelle Prawer

Victoria University

Failing fast: what universities need to consider when adopting edtech

An edtech company might offer an outstanding technology that fits with the ethos and strategic direction of an institution, but that is just the start, says John Miles

John Miles

Inkpath