My Favorite Failure with Dr. Ron Beghetto and Laura McBain

In this episode of the Fueling Creativity in Education podcast, Dr. Cyndi Burnett and Dr. Matthew Worwood welcome back Dr. Ron Beghetto along with Laura McBain, Co-Director of the K12 Lab at the Stanford d.school. Ron and Laura recently came out with a new book, “My Favorite Failure: How Setbacks Can Lead to Learning and Growth”. As a human-centered designer, Laura’s work focuses on understanding the ecosystem of education and finding meaningful opportunities for disruptive design and innovative educational experiences. 

 

Listen in to learn about Ron and Laura’s personal favorite failures, the relationship between expectations and failure, how to start the school year off with sharing favorite failures, and the valuable difference between mistakes and failures. The duo also shares their best tips and advice for new teachers as well as how to get students to push through feelings of failure so that they can learn and grow from it.

 

Questions Answered:

Why is it important to acknowledge and talk about emotions in school?

Are we more willing to take risks when we don’t know the potential consequences?

Are we more likely to experience failure when we do not know anything about the environment?

What types of failure are the most impactful for students? (ie. F letter grades, public failure)

…and more!

Laura’s Tips for Teachers and Parents: 

1. Start talking about failure more.
2. Make sure the work you’re designing for young people are worth the failure. How do you design real life examples where students are taking on work of consequence?
3. Provide multiple opportunities for students to reflect on failure daily and/or throughout the lesson.

 

Ron’s Tips for Teachers and Parents: 

1. Stay away from empty slogans that minimize emotions. Find ways to acknowledge and validate the emotional pain and difficulty one experiences when they’re failing and talk about what to do next.
2. Encourage and take beautiful risks yourself. Invite kids to give you feedback on your failures.

Recommended Resources:

Listen to S1 Episode 6 with Ron Beghetto

Listen to S2 Episode 7 with Ron Beghetto

My Favorite Failure by Ron Beghetto and Laura McBain

Weaving Creativity into Every Strand of Your Curriculum by Cyndi Burnett

Bruce Tuckman’s Group Dynamics

 

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What to learn more about Design Thinking in Education? 

Do you want to build a sustained culture of innovation and creativity at your school?  Visit WorwoodClassroom.com to learn how Design Thinking can promote teacher creativity and support professional growth in the classroom. 

 

Have a question? Email Dr. Burnett and Dr. Worwood at questions@fuelingcreativitypodcast.com!

 

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About Laura McBain:

Laura is the K12 Lab Director of Community and Implementation at the Stanford d.school. In this role, she leads the K12 Lab network and aims to use design thinking to transform education and the world. As a human-centered designer, her work focuses on understanding the ecosystem of education and finding meaningful opportunities for disruptive design. She is an advocate for equity and social justice work and is leading experiments to ensure more students have access to an innovative educational experience that will help them thrive in a changing world. Formerly Laura was the Director of External Relations at the High Tech High Graduate School of Education. As the Director of External Relations, Laura traveled the globe designing and leading professional development focused on the implementation of progressive education, school transformation, deeper learning and equity initiatives. She has served as a principal of two HTH sites and has taught middle and high school classes in public charter and comprehensive schools. Laura was the architect of the Deeper Learning Conference, a 1200 person, adult learning experience aimed at activating and galvanizing educators for large-scale change.

 

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About Dr. Ron Beghetto:

Dr. Ronald A. Beghetto, PhD is an internationally recognized expert on creative thought and action in educational settings. He holds the Pinnacle West Presidential Chair and serves as a Professor in the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University.   

 

Dr. Beghetto is the Editor for the Journal of Creative Behavior, Editor for Review of Research in Education, Series Editor for Creative Theory and Action in Education (Springer Books), and has served as a creativity advisor for LEGO Foundation and the Cartoon Network.

 

Visit Ron’s website

Buy his books