I was extremely interested in the quote “failure learning students, especially those with helplessness symptoms, do not so much need a steady diet of success as they need to learn how to cope with frustration and failure productively” from the article Rebuilding Discouraged Students. I think this pertains a lot to what I will do as a teacher because I will be teaching higher level classes. The real world is full of let downs and failures, so to only allow your students to succeed sets them up for a huge let down. I liked that Brophy said teachers should model how to handle failure situations and stress. It is a hard process for students who think they will fail to get over that fear. As a teacher it is most important to make sure those students learn why they are failing and how to improve. Students are learning not only subject matter but skills for the real world. By preparing them with ways to get over failure and improve from it, we are giving them ways to succeed in real life where success is not guaranteed. Also I think it is definitely important to help students with failure syndrome to see the error in their ways. They may not even realize that they are setting themselves up for failure. I think a lot of students do not try to their potential, even those who are good students. The goal is then to help students see what they can actually do. We should give ways to go farther then they do normally to help build them up to doing it on their own. Being able to critique yourself in a constructive manner is a useful tool for anyone.
Another part of the article that goes along with this is students who are obsessed with self worth protection. These students are ones I will definitely have encounter teaching math. Many people just want to achieve the performance goal without focusing on the learning goal. The issue then is to show these students they can challenge themselves and succeed more. You need to show them the effort they put in will reflect in their overall outcomes. I think high school is a time for preserving yourself. The problem then is to help students get past that and focus on their own needs. I would hope I could help my students see that yes math is hard, but if they can challenge themselves then they will enhance their ability to learn all levels. Students need challenge but also need to have desire to do things for themselves.
