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Graduate Master's Theses, Capstones, Student Scholarship

and Culminating Projects

5-2018

Understanding Student Perception of Failure to Promote Self

Worth
Stephanie Grubaugh
Dominican University of California

https://doi.org/10.33015/dominican.edu/2018.edu.15

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Recommended Citation
Grubaugh, Stephanie, "Understanding Student Perception of Failure to Promote Self Worth"
(2018). Graduate Master's Theses, Capstones, and Culminating Projects. 317.
https://doi.org/10.33015/dominican.edu/2018.edu.15

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 Understanding Student Perception of Failure to Promote Self Worth

by

Stephanie Grubaugh

A culminating thesis submitted to the faculty of Dominican University of California in

partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Education

San Rafael, CA

May 2018
STUDENT PERCEPTION OF FAILURE ii

Signature Sheet

This thesis, written under the direction of the candidate’s thesis advisor and approved

by the department chair, has been presented to and accepted by the Department of

Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in

Education. The content and research methodologies presented in this work represent

the work of the candidate alone.

Stephanie Grubaugh May 01, 2018

Candidate

Elizabeth Truesdell, PhD May 01, 2018

Department Chair

Jennifer Lucko, PhD May 01, 2018

Thesis Advisor

Suresh Appavoo, Ed.D. May 01, 2018

Secondary Thesis Advisor

STUDENT PERCEPTION OF FAILURE iii

Copyright © 2018, by Stephanie Grubaugh

All Rights Reserved.

STUDENT PERCEPTION OF FAILURE iv

Table of Contents

Abstract vi

Chapter 1 Introduction 1
Statement of Problem 2
Statement of Purpose 2
Significance of the Study 3
Summary of Methods 3
Summary of Findings and Implication of the Study 4

Chapter 2 Literature Review 6

Motivated or Unmotivated 6
Effects of Failure 9
Conclusion 11

Chapter 3 Methods 13

Research Design 14
Participants 14
Data Collection Procedures 15
Data Analysis Procedures 17
Researcher Positionality 18

Validity and Reliability 19

Chapter 4 Findings 20

Intermediate theme for survey-1 and observation 1 21

Students perception about failure is generally negative 21
Students have a hard time assessing failure in their own lives 22
Intermediate theme for survey-2 and observation-2 22

Understanding the failures of famous and how students relate 22

Students show a more positive look at failure 24
Students understand that one can learn from failure 24
Primary themes 25
STUDENT PERCEPTION OF FAILURE v

Understanding the failures of peers or in group setting and how students relate 25
Student perception of the idea of failure v. the reality of failure 26

Chapter 5 Discussion 27

Implication for Literature 27

Implications for Practice and Policy 28
Limitations of the Study 30
Directions for Future Research 30

Chapter 6 Conclusion 32

References 34
STUDENT PERCEPTION OF FAILURE vi

Abstract

Teachers strive to create a safe learning environment where students can learn

from their mistakes and/or failures. Even though teachers are creating safe spaces for

learning, many students will not engage in activities that might be challenging to the

point of that students experiencing failure. The purpose of this qualitative action

research study is to examine what perceptions students have about failure in order to

help teachers find non-material incentives or reward structures to help give students

self-worth. The research method involved the collection of data through surveys, a

guided research project about the failures of famous people and an accompanying

study guide for students to fill out, researcher facilitated discussions, and classroom

observations.

This study was conducted at a suburban, predominately homogeneous, and middle-

class K-6 grade public school in Northern California. The participants in the study were

22 students from a 6th grade class, ages 11-12.

The primary findings suggest that students have an easier time understandings their

own failures in social engagements. Students are able to vocalize cultural phrases like:

You learn from your mistakes, but it can be hard to transfer those into action when

failure happens. The findings presented in this study have the potential benefit of adding

to the conversation surrounding failure in schools.

STUDENT PERCEPTION OF FAILURE 1

Chapter 1 Introduction

It can be hard to fully assess all that encompasses failure. For one thing, it is highly

personal and subjective. No two people are the same and no two people have the same

experiences. For one person, failing a math test might be inconsequential, but failing to

bring home a soccer trophy can be earthshaking. While another person, on the other

hand, might feel the complete opposite. This all depends on what motivates the

individual to succeed. Unfortunately, not every student that enters a classroom is

motivated by education. It's understood that education is important, yet, "United States

educational policy, unfortunately, has created a platform where successes are

celebrated and failures are punished — in line with the culturally popular but

problematic catchphrase ‘failure is not an option’” (Smith & Henriksen, 2016, p. 6).

Educational policy, school culture, and cultural rhetoric has had a devastating effect on

the students, the dropout rates in the United States are at an all-time high (McMurrey,

2017). Academic motivation and failure seems to be one of the triggers that, potentially,

leds to students to dropout of school.

Theories in motivation and achievement motivation refer to the human drive to excel

(Chao, Visaria, Mukhopadhyay, & Dehejia, 2017). Whereas, attribution theory believes

that humans ask themselves questions about how and why success and failure

happened. Through these theories, one can better understand a student’s relationship

to failure by promoting student to self-analysis and will ultimately help students build a

higher sense of self-worth.

STUDENT PERCEPTION OF FAILURE 2

Statement of Problem

Teachers try to provide a safe learning environment where students can learn from

their mistakes and/or failures. Yet, even though teachers are creating safe spaces for

learning, many students won't engage in activities that they might fail at because failure

is viewed as unacceptable or it makes them feel negative. Some students can become

conditioned to accepting failure and give up on higher achievement.

While student teaching and during her first year of teaching, the researcher

encountered an array of student responses to failure, yet most of the students either

showed failure aversion tactics, not willing to try for fear of the potentiality of failure, or

failure acceptance. This lead the researcher to examine how students perceive failure

and how teachers can use this information to better their teaching practices and

classrooms.

Statement of Purpose

The purpose of this qualitative action research study is to examine what perceptions

students have about failure in order to help teachers find non-material incentives or

reward structures to help give students self-worth. This study uses a qualitative action

research design approach to answer the research question: How does a select sample

of sixth grade students from one classroom in Northern California perceive failure

personally, academically, and socially? The primary goal of an action researcher study

is to improve teaching practice rather than to only produce knowledge (MacDonald,

2012).
STUDENT PERCEPTION OF FAILURE 3

Significance of the Study

This study provides a perception of how a current generation of sixth graders

perceive failure. This study also allows teachers, who have experienced similar

situations, to gain some insight ,like how students feel about failure and what drive them

to become motivated, into how they can develop strategies for the students to cope with

failure.

Summary of Methods

The research method involves a collection of data, from all 22 student participants

taking part in the study, through two surveys, a guided research project about the

failures of famous people and an accompanying study guide for students to fill out, two

in class researcher facilitated discussions, and two observations during the guided

research performed by the students. This type of research approach collects data in the

participant’s setting, building specific details to general themes through data analysis,

and the researcher interprets the meaning of the data.

This study was conducted during the spring semester of 2018 school year at a

suburban, predominately homogeneous, and middle-class K-6 grade public school in

Northern California. The participants in this study were 22 students, fifteen females and

seven males, from a 6th grade class, ages 11-12.

STUDENT PERCEPTION OF FAILURE 4

Summary of Findings and Implication of the Study

This study presents findings that have been triangulated from the collected data.

This starts with finding the intermediate themes. The findings from survey-1 and

observation-1 and, subsequently, survey-2 and observation-2 are initially analyzed

independently to create the intermediate themes before being triangulated to find the

primary themes.

Survey-1 and observation-1 yielded intermediate theme one: Students perception

about failure is generally negative and intermediate theme two: Students have a hard

time assessing failure in their own lives. After the guided research and researcher

facilitated class discussions, Survey-2 and observation-2 yielded intermediate theme

three: Students show a more positive look at failure. Lastly, from survey-2 and

observation-2, intermediate theme four: Understanding the failure of famous and how

students relate.

This was then followed by the method of triangulation of the collected data form

survey-1, observation-1, survey-2, and observation-2 to create the primary themes. The

primary themes are as followed: Understanding the failures of peers or in group setting

and how students relate and Student perception of the idea of failure v. the reality of

failure.

The first primary themes: Understanding the failures of peers or in group setting and

how students relate, indicate that students have an easier time relating their own

failures when they are able to compare the failure to another person’s failure. The

second primary theme: Student perception of the idea of failure v. the reality of failure,

show that students need to have concrete examples of failure in real time. Students are
STUDENT PERCEPTION OF FAILURE 5

able to vocalize cultural phrases like: You learn from your mistakes, but it can be hard to

transfer those into action when failure happens.

The findings presented in this study have the potential benefit of adding to the

conversation surrounding failure in schools. The results show that students ultimately

have a drive for self-acceptance in school, as well as, out of school. Students also

showed predominantly negative feelings associated with failure and a hard time

recollecting failure, which could be the student’s reaction in self-preservation.

Teachers, administrators, etc. could use this study to guide their own questions

and concerns about failure. The findings are site specific but the information can add to

the conversation.
STUDENT PERCEPTION OF FAILURE 6

Chapter 2 Literature Review

This section is an examination of research literature on the psychology of student

motivation that would influence their perception of failure. Information was gathered

from academic library searches using online resources. Research information is

organized into 2 sections.

First, the research will examine theories of motivation. Research in motivation has

been studied for decades. Wiener’s attribution theory promotes the idea that all people

ask themselves questions about how and why the individual failed or succeeded in an

endeavor. These questions and self analysis help to provide the individual with a

greater knowledge what to do and what not to do in order to succeed. This leads to the

understanding of how failure can affect motivation and how motivation can affect a

student’s behavior.

Then, the review research will examine shame and defense strategies for self

preservation. Students who experience failure have a higher likelihood to have repeated

exposure to failure which can lead to a multitude of problems in their lives.

Motivated or Unmotivated

Failure is the state of not meeting the intended objective and can be viewed as the

opposite of success. According to Smith and Henriksen,

Psychology tells us that in our evolutionary past, survival was dependent on

minimizing loss of what you have. To risk or explore unnecessarily and lose
(even a little) was dangerous—building risk-aversion into human psychology.
STUDENT PERCEPTION OF FAILURE 7

Yet, human ingenuity and discovery have always indulged curiosity, and
curiosity requires being open to failure. (p. 6)

This has led humans to study, analyze, and theorize the actions a person may take

in his or her life (Andersen & Jennins, 1980). Motivation can be defined as the driving

force behind our actions which is geared ultimately to succeed in life (Elliot & Covington,

2001). There are different forms of motivation including physiological (organic and

social), achievement motivation (e.g the need to succeed or achieve excellence),

extrinsic (e.g external rewards like money, fame, grades, and/or praise), and intrinsic

(e.g internal gratification, no external rewards) (Elliot & Covington, 2001; Chao, Visaria,

Mukhopadhyay, & Dehejia, 2017). These differences in motivation are important

because they affect our lives everyday (Elliot & Covington, 2001; Chao, Visaria,

Mukhopadhyay, & Dehejia, 2017). All of our behaviors, actions, thoughts, and beliefs

are influenced by this drive to succeed (Elliot & Covington, 2001; Chao, Visaria,

Mukhopadhyay, & Dehejia, 2017). However, what success means is based on the

individual interpretation (Elliot & Covington, 2001; Chao, Visaria, Mukhopadhyay, &

Dehejia, 2017).

Every student that enters a classroom, cares about being seen as competent in the

eyes of others (De Castelle & Byrne, 2013). "United States educational policy,

unfortunately, has created a platform where successes are celebrated and failures are

punished…” (Smith & Henriksen, 2016, p.6). This has led to a negative view towards

failure, preventing opportunities for teachers and students to take risks in the classroom.

According to Smith and Henriksen (2016),

STUDENT PERCEPTION OF FAILURE 8

…when it comes to creativity, it is clear that anyone who succeeds creatively

must be willing to try and fail-and to learn, regroup, and try again… the ability to
understand this-to grapple with the struggles and creative work, and build
resilience and tolerance for ambiguity, is a key to learning outcome. (p.6)

Educators promote classrooms as safe environments that should promote learning.

It is key to promote a safe space for students to try, fail, and persevere. This research

sets out to understand the ways in which failure affects a student's willingness, ability,

and effort to learn in a classroom.

Intrinsic motivation refers to the, “motivation that comes from inside (enjoyment,

satisfaction)” (Bènabou & Tirole, 2003, p.489). Whereas, extrinsic motivation, “comes

from outside (money, grades, detention, awards, prizes)” (Bènabou & Tirole, 2003,

p.489). External rewards work in the short term and that's why they continue to be so

widely used in education to control behavior and coerce students (Vallerand, 1997). As

a long-term goal, internal motivation is much more powerful for students to experience.

They learn a positive feeling towards learning, setting goals, and working hard

(Vallerand, 1997,). Dweck states that, “educators commonly hold to beliefs…(1) praising

students’ intelligence build your confidence and motivation to learn, and (2) students’

inherent intelligence is a major cause of their achievement in school” (p. 34). Dweck

(2007) goes on to explain that the research shows that these two believes can be

harmful towards students in the long run.

STUDENT PERCEPTION OF FAILURE 9

Effects of Failure

When a student experiences failure, feelings associated with failure can manifest

into a variety of issues. According to self-worth theorists, in school where one’s worth is

largely measured by one’s ability to achieve, self-perception of incompetence can

trigger feelings of shame and humiliation (Turner, Husman, & Schallert, 2002, p.2).

Turner, Husman, and Schallert (2002) explains that, “Shame is typically viewed as a

highly distressful emotion that can be intensely disturbing and motivationally disruptive

(p.2).” The feeling of shame can be viewed as a powerful motivator, not necessarily to

promote academic success, but to avoid failure by not investing effort (Turner, Husman,

& Schallert, 2002). “The experience of shame has been described by clinical

psychologists as acutely painful because it involves a personal, negative evaluation

stemming from perceived failure relative to personal ideals, standards, rules, or goals

(Turner, Husman, and Schallert, 2002, p.2).” This can render the individual with an “all-

encompassing sense of being fundamentally flawed (Turner, Husman, and Schallert,

2002, p.2).” As the feeling of shame and embarrassment can be crippling, along with a

students motivation to be seen as competent, student’s can generate defenses

measure to protect themselves from these feelings (Turner, Husman, and Schallert,

2002).

Inspired by motivational and “drive” theorists; De Castella, Byrne, and Covington

discuss the idea of Self-Worth Theory and Self-Protective Strategies as a function of

student preservation. Self-Worth Theory assumes that the search for self acceptance is

the highest human priority and that the need can give rise both to fear of failure and to

an orientation to approach success (De Castella, Byrne, and Covington, 2013). In these
STUDENT PERCEPTION OF FAILURE 10

settings, efforts to regulate one’s feelings and protect one’s sense of self worth,

sometimes, leads to deflective strategies designed to alter the meaning of failure by

minimizing information about their “true” level of ability (De Castella, Byrne, and

Covington, 2013).

One of these strategies is Defense Pessimism, which is “used to alter the meaning

of failure by holding unrealistically low expectations for tasks where one’s performance

will be evaluated (De Castella, Byrne, and Covington, 2013).” In connection with

Defensive pessimism, Self-handicapping, also means to alter the meaning of failure,

yet, “it does so by deflecting the cause of failure away form the students’ ability onto

premeditated escapes, should failure occur” (De Castella, Byrne, and Covington, 2013).

When students rely heavily on these strategies it can put students at great risk of

learned helplessness, which can have a much greater range of negative effects on

student’s motivation, academic performance, and physiological health, as well as,-the

potential long term impact of these behavioral patterns in later life (De Castella, Byrne,

and Covington, 2013).

According to Seligman, learned helplessness is defined as, “an organism learning to

accept and endure unpleasant stimuli, and an unwillingness to avoid them, even when it

is avoidable” (Klein, Fencil-Morse, Seliman, 1979). A student, through repeated

exposure to failure and conditioning, has learned to expect failure because it does not

have control over the situation. The person believes that whatever he or she does, or

does not do, will not have any effect on the outcome. Learned helplessness has been

linked to depression and vice versa (Klein, Fencil-Morse, Seliman, 1979). Learned

helplessness and depression have similar symptoms including, “passivity, sadness,

STUDENT PERCEPTION OF FAILURE 11

anxiety, hostility, etc. (Abramson, Metalsky & Alloy,1989, p. 359).” As for the cure of

learned helplessness, Seligman defined another theory called “learned optimism” (Klein,

Fencil-Morse, Seliman ,1979). The idea is to cultivate positive feelings such as joy,

happiness, etc. (Klein, Fencil-Morse, Seliman 1979)

When students are forced to take responsibility for these failures but fail to see

these outcomes as things they can control, they may ultimately respond helplessly by

disengaging from school all together” (De Castella, Byrne, & Covington, 2013, p. 862).

Conclusion

As the literature show, failure can be hard to process. Motivation is what drive all

humans but each individual had different motivations to drive them to succeed. Some

students are motivated by education while others are not. Motivation can come in

different forms, like physiological, achievement, extrinsic, and intrinsic. These forms are

important as they help shape the students behavior, good and bad.

Failure can have a negative effect on a student which can create a multitude of

problems. Students can develop coping mechanism, Self-Preservation Strategies, to

minimize the effects failure can have on them. These effects, failure avoiding and failure

accepting, can vary in intensity. Learned helplessness is the most sever of these

effects, paralyzing the students into enduring the unpleasant stimuli of failure. Students

can use learned optimism as a way to combat learned helplessness.

STUDENT PERCEPTION OF FAILURE 12

Teachers and students can work together to create a safe and fruitful learning

experience. Students can take responsibilities for their actions and teachers can help to

facilitate the social and emotional growth of the students.

STUDENT PERCEPTION OF FAILURE 13

Chapter 3 Methods

This study utilizes a qualitative action research design approach to answer the

research question: How does a select sample of sixth grade students from one

classroom in Northern California, perceive failure, personally, academically, and

socially? How do these types of failures, personal, academic, and social, relate to the

student’s overall understanding of failure? Do students give each type of failure

adequate self reflective-analysis?

An action research project is an appropriate approach for this study as it has a

direct effect on the participants. This allows them to be engaged in learning and further

developing their skills in self reflection and analyzing. The primary goal of an action

researcher study is to improve teaching practice rather than just the production of

knowledge (MacDonald, 2012). This method allows the researcher to study a deficit

within education, examine new techniques, and gather information to better meet the

needs of the students. The qualitative approach to research explores an individual

and/or group understanding of social and human problems (Creswell, 2014).

The qualitative action research design approach fosters collaboration among

participants and researchers and allows the researcher to use methods and techniques

such as observing, documenting, analyzing, and interpreting characteristics, patterns,

attribution, and meanings of the human experience under study (Creswell, 2014;

MacDonald, 2012). This type of research approach collects data in the participant’s

setting, building specific details to general themes through data analysis, followed by

the researcher interprets the meaning of the data.

STUDENT PERCEPTION OF FAILURE 14

Research Design

This study was conducted during the spring semester of 2018 school year at a

suburban K-6 grade public school in Northern California. The school’s population is

predominantly homogeneous with about 386 students in total: 83% white, 6%

Hispanic/Latinx, 5% two or more, 3% Asian, and 2% African American. The

socioeconomic statues of the school’s population a predominantly middle-class and 5%

of the students on free or reduced lunch. The average class size is 26 students;

according to the schools website and school profile.

Participants

The participants in this study were 22 students, fifteen females and seven males

from a 6th grade class, ages 11-12 form a school site in Northern California. Of the 22

students participating in the study, four girls and two boys were of whole to partial Latinx

heritage but none were English language learners. The rest were caucasian. The

teacher, a caucasian woman in her early 60s, who has worked as a teacher for 18+

years and is a friend and mentor to the researcher. The researcher has volunteered in

this classroom multiple times prior to the study. This enabled access and entry for the

researcher to successfully recruit participants for this study.

STUDENT PERCEPTION OF FAILURE 15

Data Collection Procedures

Two in-class sessions were used to collect data from the participants. Two lessons,

one hour each, over the span of two days were presented to the participants. Two

surveys, two in-class discussions, and one participant writing assignment served as the

primary sources for data collection during the lesson. The surveys and participant

assignment writing prompts were created by the researcher. The researcher chose to

use surveys and writing prompts as a way for students express their personal views

using their own words. During the first lesson, participants were asked to complete

survey-1 and participate in a class discussion. The six questions in survey-1 were as

follows:

What are some words that describe failure?

Is there anything good about failure?

Can you give an example of a time you made a mistake in school? How did it make

you feel? What did you learn from that mistake?

Can you give an example of a time you failed at something? How did it make you

feel? What did you learn from that failure?

Can you give an example of a time you saw a friend make a mistake? How did you

help them?

Can you give an example of a time you failed but kept trying? What happened?

The researcher then facilitated a class discussion. First the researcher asked

voluntary students to explain what failure meant them, allowing other students to weigh
STUDENT PERCEPTION OF FAILURE 16

into the discussion with their own interpretations. The researcher collected the

responses from survey-1 at the end of the first class session and took notes about the

class discussion off site.

The second class session included a lesson that involved an in-class discussion

component about understanding what it means to fail combined with an in-class

research project. Participants were asked to identify a historical or cultural figure that

either they admired and/or has had great success in life. Students were then asked to

research his/her historical or cultural figure and find examples of this person’s failure(s)

that either contributed to and/or enabled them to overcome it and achieve significant

success. The researcher circulated amongst the participants and asked questions about

their in-class project. Participant then used a writing prompt, provided by the researcher,

to help guide their research and record their findings. The writing prompt had four

questions to guide the responses from the participants.

Who is the Historical and/or cultural person you chose to study?

What are they known for? What is their greatest success?

What did this person fail at? How do you think they felt?

What does knowing about their failure help you understand about your own failure?

Participants were then asked, on a voluntary basis, to present their findings to the

class and participate in a class discussion. Participants were asked to reassess their

understanding about failure, towards the end of the class discussion. Participants

completed and returned survey-2 at the end of the second class session.
STUDENT PERCEPTION OF FAILURE 17

Survey-2 contained eight questions, with similar questions to survey-1 and is

presented below:

What are some words that describe failure?

Is there anything good about failure?

Can you give an example of a time you made a mistake in school? How did it make

you feel? Did you learn from that mistake?

Can you give an example of a time you failed at something? How did it make you

feel? Did you learn from that failure?

Do you think there is a difference between a mistake and failing? If so, then what?

Can you give an example of a time you saw a friend make a mistake? How did you

help them?

Can you give an example of a time you failed but keep trying? What happened?

How do you feel about failure?

Data Analysis Procedures

Analysis was approached from a comparative lens. First, the researcher organized

and reviewed the written responses from the participants to the questions in survey-1

and survey-2, and the corresponding field notes. Then, the researcher reread the

written responses from the participants searching for and circling key words and

phrases that describe feelings and/or unique perceptions indicating a main idea from

each response.
STUDENT PERCEPTION OF FAILURE 18

Next, the researcher took the main ideas thus identified, and transformed them into

intermediate themes. A list of these intermediate themes were created to organize and

subsequently collapse them into primary themes relevant to perceptions and

interpretations of failure. This was then analyzed through the lens of the theoretical

framework and the primary research question to generate thematic findings.

Finally, the researcher included paraphrases and direct quotes from the student

responses in order to support specific findings in the analysis so as to enable

conclusions relevant to the research question for this study. The researcher was mindful

about her own bias and made it a point to give equal weight to all perspective.

Researcher Positionality

The researcher is a graduate student at Dominican University of California obtaining

a Master’s of Science Degree in Education. She holds a California Multiple Subject

Teaching Credential but is not the teacher of record of the participants in this study. This

has made it harder to have consistent and comprehensive access to the participants.

The researcher has a personal connection toward failure, both, as a student and as

a teacher. As a student, the researcher, has struggled with failure throughout her

educational career and understands the emotional toll failure can have on a person. As

a teacher, she bore witness to the struggles some of her students face which has led

her to this topic as a way to understand how students view, process, reflect, analyze,

and respond to failure.

STUDENT PERCEPTION OF FAILURE 19

The researcher was mindful of the potentiality for her own bias about failure

infiltrating the research. The researcher made it a point to check that all student

perspectives were given equal weight in the study. During data analysis, student

answers were grouped based on themes and patterns.

Validity and Reliability

To ensure internal validity and reliability, the researcher used triangulation to

corroborate the collected data. According to Bazeley (2013) triangulation usually

involves collection of one or more alternative sources of data and checking to see if the

inferences drawn is compatible with the first instances. Triangulation, in practice, can

provide a rich and complex picture of the social phenomenon being studied, but rarely

does it generate a clear path to a particular view of what the case is (Bazeley, 2013).

The data collected from survey-1, observation-1, observation-2, and survey-2 yielded

slight different answers when analyzed.

First the researcher, collected and analyzed survey-1 and observation-1 and

created intermediate themes and patterns from those findings. Next the researcher

collected and analyzed survey-2 and observation-2, also creating intermediate themes

and patterns from those findings. Lastly, the researcher cross examined the first set of

findings and the second set of findings to see if the same set of patterns emerged and

were coherent with the previous set of findings.

STUDENT PERCEPTION OF FAILURE 20

Chapter 4 Findings

The information presented in this section are findings that have been triangulated

from the collected data starting with intermediate themes from survey-1 and

observation-1 and survey-2 and observation-2. Observation-2 was a lesson and a

handout that students filled out that was collected and analyzed. Both, survey-1 and

observation-1 and survey-2 and observation-2, were individually analyzed before being

the information was triangulated and analyzed together, presenting the primary themes.

Survey-1 and observation-1 yielded intermediate theme one: Students perception

about failure is generally negative. These findings found that students initially had

negative feelings surrounding failure. Intermediate theme two: Students have a hard

time assessing failure in their own lives. Initially students had a hard time providing

examples of their own failure, they had an easier time providing examples of other

people failing.

Survey-2 and observation-2 yielded intermediate theme three: Students show a

more positive look at failure. The findings from this second survey and observation

found that students had less of a negative response towards failure. Intermediate theme

four: Understanding the failures of famous and how students relate. Students admired

the famous people they researches, yet there was little understanding of how that

famous person’s failure could relate to the students failure.

This was then followed by the through the method of triangulation of the collected

data form survey-1, observation-1, survey-2, and observation-2 to create the primary

themes. The primary themes is as followed, primary theme 1: Understanding the

STUDENT PERCEPTION OF FAILURE 21

failures of peers or in group setting. Students had an easy time explaining another

persons failures or how they failed when another person was around. Primary theme 2:

how students relate and Student perception of the idea of failure v. the reality of failure.

Students had a hard time relating the motivational phrases when the students was

dealing with failure. This perception of failure could have been harder to deal with the

students own same and embarrassment was being felt.

Intermediate theme for survey-1 and observation 1

This subsection of the findings section of this research presents the intermediate

themes. The data from survey-1 and observation-1 were individually analyzed to create

these intermediate finding.

Students perception about failure is generally negative

When asked ‘What are some words that describe failure?’ on the survey,

participants generally chose words with negative connotations like: disappointed, sad,

frustration, discouraged, horrible, poor, not good, hurt, angry, upsetting, mad, loser, low

score, not good/your best, bad job, not trying hard enough, unsuccessful, wrong, and

mistake. Yet, out of the 22 participants, four participants added at least one positive

attribute to describe failure, including: learning, helpful, necessary, sucks at first, and

not wrong.
STUDENT PERCEPTION OF FAILURE 22

Students have a hard time assessing failure in their own lives

However, students initially had a hard time relaying a personal event, from their

lives, where they actually benefited from failure. A student wrote, “Last time I failed was

on a[n] English test I got a lot of questions wrong and it made me sad. I learned that you

can overcome failure.” Another student wrote, “I can not think of a time I completely

failed at something.” While another student explained, “ I first thought I failed when I got

a bad mile, but I know I can precuts [practice] harder and I can get better.” The most

common statement students wrote was, “I cannot think of a time I failed and learned

from it.” Student feelings, mostly negative, surrounding failure tended to overshadowed

their ability to critically think and analyze their own failure.

Intermediate theme for survey-2 and observation-2

This subsection of the findings section of this research presents the intermediate

themes. The data from survey-2 and observation-2 were individually analyzed to create

these intermediate finding.

Understanding the failures of famous and how students relate

Part of the observations took place while the students were participating in a

research project were asked to research the success and failure of a

famous/historical/cultural figure. Students understanding of historical figures influenced

their own understanding of failure. However, it can be hard for students to relate
STUDENT PERCEPTION OF FAILURE 23

themselves to historical/cultural figures. These people have been held to unfathomable

success that may seem hard for students to comprehend. Some example of the people

students chose to research were: Steph Curry, Elon Musk, Einstein, Beyonce, J.K.

Rowling, and Walt Disney. Usually, students look up to these figures and place them on

a pedestal. “What Beyonce did when she was 9 and how many times she has fallen she

still gets back up and still keeps on doing what she is doing!” Students have an easier

time viewing the failures of the individual because the student is seeing the end result of

success.

It can be hard for students to relate to the struggles these figures have endured, yet

by learning about a historical figures failure, the student assess their own worth and

failures become stepping stones. One student explained, “Failing is another step

forward to success. You learn from your mistakes.” Initially, students generally accepted

the failure of these icons as unrelatable to their own lives. When asked to write if

failures of these famous people were relatable to their own understanding of failure, one

student wrote, “Knowing about Einstein failing but then becoming one of the most

known people in the world makes me tell myself to persevere.” Many others wrote

similar thoughts, “I shouldn’t give up because he didn’t and he eventually succeeded.”

and “If I fail, I can still do something else that is good for me and the Earth.” Yet, some

found it harder to relate these failure to their own. “Not really because I don’t have

millions of dollars and I don’t launch things into space.”

STUDENT PERCEPTION OF FAILURE 24

Students show a more positive look at failure

Students were more likely to associate failure with something positive after the

second lesson. Students also had an easier time writing about their relationship to

failure when asked to use words associated with failure fewer students used negative

word like: Mistake, fail, not winning, unworthy, dislike, bad, horrible, poor, below 70%

score on a test. More students tended to use words like: Building block to success,

necessary, getting better at something, try again, opportunity, not to succeed but try

again, helpful, common, realistic, learning, ok, try again, “you almost got it”, second

chance, nice try, “did you do your best”.

Students understand that one can learn from failure

Students perception of failure seemingly changed: fewer were still generally

negative while others were mixed with an understanding of failure as a necessity. Some

examples of these perceptions are: “I feel like failure is just a way to make you stronger

and to work harder.”, “I feel like failure is just a lesson being taught.”, “What most people

think of when they hear the word failure is actually a mistake. Failure is when you give

up.”, and “You did it the wrong way but it’s your way” Though some of feelings

surrounding failure were still the same, there was an improvement in critical analysis

and understanding of the positive attributes failure can have on an individual.

STUDENT PERCEPTION OF FAILURE 25

Primary themes

This subsection of the findings section of this research presents the primary themes.

The data from survey-1 and observation-1 and survey-2 and observation-2 were

collectively analyzing to create these primary theme finding.

Understanding the failures of peers or in group setting and how students

relate

The process of analyzing the failure of peers is more powerful than analyzing the

failure of famous people. When a student is socially engaged with another, or in a

group, the student has a different perspective of him/herself. The student may feel a

greater sense of responsibility and pressure to do well. The student may have an easier

time analyzing his or her own failures because they have others to compare themselves

to. Students were only asked about their own relationship to failure, yet many students

found that the most memorable moments happened in social settings.

Many students wrote about failure in team sports and the importance of not letting

down their team. One student wrote, “In basketball, I missed the game winning shot to

up my team in the playoffs. I felt awful, but at the end of the day, it drove me to work

harder.” There were others that wrote about a failure in comparison to another person

success. One student wrote, “When I was at a friends house she had a tree climbing

rope that you can do a trick on and my friend could do this amazing upside-down twirl. I

decided to try this and I tried and tried but I couldn’t do it. I felt embarrassed. I learned

that you can’t expect to do something just because your friend can.” When a students
STUDENT PERCEPTION OF FAILURE 26

analyses his/herself against a peer, there seems to be a real-time response and

processing to the situation but there seems to be a lack of critical analysis about the

event due to overwhelming feeling like shame or embarrassment.

Student perception of the idea of failure v. the reality of failure

Overall, the students had a predominantly negative perspective of the idea failure

and yet, when students took time to analyze their own failures, either through self-

reflection or in connection with other, they understand that failure leads to learning and

thus becomes beneficial. From survey-1 and survey-2, the students provided knee-jerk

word association towards failure with a few stating a more positive perspective of

failure. This show that the gut reaction towards failure is based on the remembrance of

the moment of failure, yet when a students looks back on their lives failure seems less

dramatic. So when these students were asked to analyze some failures form their own

lives, after analyzing failure from another perspectives, they seemingly had a better

understanding of the possibility of learning from failure in their lives.

STUDENT PERCEPTION OF FAILURE 27

Chapter 5 Discussion

This section examines the potential benefit this research has on adding to existing

conversation surrounding failure. First, this section analyzes the relationship between

the findings and the academic literature reviewed in Chapter 2. Next the subsection,

Implications for Practice and Policy explains how this research could be used to further

the discussion of failure in schools. Followed by the subsection, limitation of the study,

which acknowledges the researchers conscious effort for validity and reliability in this

study. Lastly, this section presents examples of how one could expand on this research.

Implication for Literature

The results of this research align with the findings from prior research. The results

indicate the students ultimately have a drive for self-acceptance, according to self-worth

theorists (De Castella, Byrne, and Covington 2013). Based on the analyzed data, the

findings show that the student’s predominantly negative feeling towards failure are

motivators, both to succeed and as failure avoidant (Turner, Husman, & Schallert,

2002). The sense of shame is not directly discussed, yet, through the discussion and

data, related feelings are mentioned. This sense of “shame,” from self and from others,

can block the ability to self-reflect and analyze (De Castella, Byrne, and Covington,

2013).

The results also found that students had a hard time recollecting a time in which

they failed. The literature could view this in two ways. First, some students may have a
STUDENT PERCEPTION OF FAILURE 28

hard time recollecting these times due in part to self-preservation strategies. Self-

preservation strategies function as a way to protect the self from the emotional harm

that is associated with failure (De Castella, Byrne, and Covington, 2013).

A second view of why some students may have a harder time recollecting a moment

could be learned helplessness. This is more severe than just self-preservation, as

learned helplessness is the endurance of unpleasant stimuli (Klein, Fencil-Morse,

Seliman, 1979). Student may accept that failure, put it behind them, and/or not wish to

remember it. This option means that the student has been conditioned to react this way.

The overall problem with these two scenarios is that there is no definitive conclusion

base on the collected data.

There is a lot in the findings that links this research with past research, yet, there are

aspect that makes this research unique. First, the findings represent a small group of

students and their unique perspective. The findings are presented through the student's

voice, not through numbers and data points. Failure is personal and subjective, which

can be hard for one to create a one size fits all approach to dealing with students failure.

Implications for Practice and Policy

This qualitative action research design approach was intended to improve teaching

practice rather than just the production of knowledge. Yet, teachers, administrators, etc.,

who may have experienced similar situations of student failure aversion or acceptance,

can use the information presented to help them think about how their own students feel

about failure and how that is translated to the classroom. The findings in this researcher
STUDENT PERCEPTION OF FAILURE 29

have introduced a cumulative insight into how students perceive failure. Better

understanding about failure should be discussed throughout education. It should be

embraced instead of dismissed. We have to start an open dialogue about failure and not

expect students to understand and process on their own. Failure is inevitable, and

everyone experiences it. There is a benefit to understanding that one is not alone in the

feeling one has about failure. This type of discussion leads to a more empathetic view,

for teacher and for students. Empathy helps to better universalize the safe space of a

classroom.

Teachers, parents, administrator, etc. should be asking questions that constantly

assess their own selves to better assess others. They should be asking themselves

questions like: how do my students and/or children understand failure? Is there anything

that they may need help in understanding? What am I doing to help or hinder their

progress?

As teachers, we know the benefits of learning from your mistakes. As humans, we

don’t want to fail and show weakness. Students need to see failure happen in real time.

In the class room, it might be beneficial for teachers to openly acknowledge their own

failure, not just the failure that have happened in the past, “When I was in school I failed

all the time…” Teachers should make mistake or fail in the classroom, assess it in real

time, and work through it as a class. This provides students with a model for how to deal

with failure.
STUDENT PERCEPTION OF FAILURE 30

Limitations of the Study

There are limitations to this study that must be acknowledged. First, the researcher

was not the teacher of record. This has made it harder to have consistent and

comprehensive access to the participants, which means that the research presented is

only a small snapshot and not a comprehensive body of work.

Secondly, this qualitative action research is site and participant specific. The school

is located in a suburb of Northern California and the teacher student population is

predominantly homogeneous white and middle-class. Expanding on this research to

other school sites, geographical locations, demographics, etc. might produce completely

different findings.

Lastly, as discussed in the section Researcher Positionality, the researcher has had

a personal connection towards failure while a student and as a teacher. This has made

the research more personal and thus the potentiality for personal biases may have

limited the researchers ability to identify alternative perspectives that differ from her

own.

Directions for Future Research

Future research can continue to examine how student’s perceptions about failure

can help teachers finding non material incentives or reward structures to help give

students a sense of self worth. Action research allows teachers to examine and better

their own teaching practices. One can use the surveys, presented in this study, or make

their own, depending on the information they wish to uncover to broaden the scope of
STUDENT PERCEPTION OF FAILURE 31

understanding. For example, it would be highly beneficial to get a broader student

demographic, different grade level, different school sites, etc.

Also, future research can examine other factors that influence student perception of

failure. For example, if a student fails in a particular school subject how does it affect the

student in other subjects? Are teachers predisposed to think badly about a student

academic success and/or failure based on or in conjunction with the perspective of a

previous teacher? This could include more comprehensive research in a study that

tracks student progress over a long period of time. The key component for continuing

this research is to understand the varying aspects of failure and how they relate to

education.
STUDENT PERCEPTION OF FAILURE 32

Chapter 6 Conclusion

As a teacher, the researcher understood the benefits of creating a safe learning

environment, and yet a fair number of students still showed an aversion to failure that

ultimately hindered their ability to try. This does not just happen in one class but in

countless others. As a qualitative action research study, the goal was to examine how a

select sample of sixth grade students from one classroom in Northern California

perceive failure personally, academically, and socially?

As this study is action research, the initial intent was to improve the teaching

practice and help teachers build up their students self-worth. The primary finding

culminated in two themes. The first, suggests that students have a better understanding

of failure, their own and others, is when they are socially engaged. This allows students

to analyze themselves in relation to others, which provide a concrete reference for how

to deal and process with failure. This help students to understand failure through

multiple perspective, though always through their own subjective lens.

The second theme, student perception of the idea of failure v. the reality of failure,

found that students predominantly have a negative view of failure while still

understanding that there are learning benefits that come because of failure. Though

they understand this. This begs the question, what must educators and/or society do to

solve this problem?

As this research is centered on a small select group of students, this research be

used to help teachers and society ask themselves, how do my students and/or children

understand failure? Is there anything that they may need help in understanding? What
STUDENT PERCEPTION OF FAILURE 33

am I doing to help or hinder their progress? Students should learn how to better assess

and analyze themselves, instead of just relying on others to do it for them.

The overall take away from this study is that failure is a vast subject with no right or

wrong answer. What a teacher might use to help one student to overcome failure might

not work as well for another. The key is for teachers to guide students to learn how they

can help themselves to understand failure and use it as a tool for success.
STUDENT PERCEPTION OF FAILURE 34

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