Fail Better: How Teachers Can Help Students Overcome Failure, Perfectionism, Procrastination, Imposter Syndrome and Test Anxiety
We learn more from failure than success, right?
Unfortunately, the reality is that many students view failure as a sign to switch their focus, lower their expectations or simply give in. Failure and other psychological conditions – like perfectionism, procrastination, impostor syndrome and test anxiety – cause emotional distress and impair students’ cognitive performance. But it needn’t be like this. Fail Better offers genuine insight for those tackling these issues in schools, revealing how teachers can help students to achieve success.
Informed by a wealth of research from psychology, cognitive and behavioural science, Mark Roberts outlines the nature and scale of each issue and the practical steps that can be taken to overcome it. Providing an array of practical solutions to pervasive psychological problems, the chapters cover:
- Establishing classroom learning cultures that enable students to fail forwards
- Encouraging students to overcome perfectionism by evaluating their progress in realistic and healthy ways
- Embedding effective study techniques to combat procrastination
- Helping students to silence their inner critic and manage impostor syndrome
- Changing the narrative around test anxiety
Packed with actionable strategies, and part of the InnerDrive Teacher CPD Academy series that dives deep into key areas that matter to teachers, this book provides a clear blueprint for tackling barriers to learning.
Mark Roberts is the author of the bestsellers Boys Don’t Try? and The Boy Question. He also writes for Tes on subjects including pedagogy and educational research. Mark is Director of Research and English teacher at Carrickfergus Grammar School in Northern Ireland.