How do we support risk taking among students?

I like to think of my classroom as a place where students have the confidence to ‘have a go’, take risks, fail forward fast. I’m lucky to be in a school where the students mostly want to do the right thing, but there are little interventions that seem to support the risk taking and reduce the nerves. 

• I role model ‘have a go’ attitudes in my teaching. If a student asks a question I try not to act like someone who has all the answers. I talk through my problem-solving process, suggest they give it a go and see what happens, and get curious and excited when they come up with ideas to extend their learning.
• Explicit teaching of supportive comments and encouragement when people are nervous – eg during speeches I’ll role model supportive audience behaviours and we’ll have a little chat about what sort of comments could be helpful.
• Sometimes a little bit of drama helps – in the scenario above I might act out what feeling hurt or crushed feels like and do some effusive over-the-top cheerleading until the class loosens up and gets into it as well. This takes a bit of judgement re the nature of the class. My girls are a pretty happy bunch, and and a little bit of goofing off usually puts them in a good mood and gives them the confidence to take risks with their peers.

• While on the drama topic, I try to help girls recognise what failure feels like and how to try again. Eg when my code spits out an error message I’ll dramatically share how crushed I am and then get all determined and ‘I’m gonna beat this code into submission’ for them to see, as well as the ‘yeaah’ when I solve it.
• Helping students be ’the expert’ in the class is a nice boost for them and reinforces the idea that everyone has strengths. I try to share the expert role around so everyone gets a chance to help others. This relies on me spotting strengths in the students which requires a bit of time getting to know them. Sometimes it’s something as small as being responsible for showing a new students where the books are kept, or as tricky as troubleshooting another student’s code.
• Explaining repeatedly that having a go is more important that succeeding  and praising bravery rather than (more than?) success. 
  

  Photo by Martin on Pexels.com