[jajabinx124]

Originally Posted by Ginger Power

I have been thinking to myself (and debating with others) the value of failure vs. the value of success. I don't think that anybody will question that both hold great value in the learning process for students and mentors alike. What I've been asking is how do we as mentors balance these methods of learning? Mentors generally have the power to intervene in students' struggles and take away the lessons that can be learned from failure, but at the same time, save the student from frustration and give them a new skill with which they can create bigger and more exciting problems to be solved. Obviously there is no "correct", one-size-fits-all answer, but there are surely more successful, and less successful methods.

Here is my take on the issue:
My parents tell me that I am supposed to go to the boy's bathroom and guide me through the process. I successfully do it over and over and never have an issue. I have succeeded in learning which bathroom to use: value in success.
But maybe one day I'm tired, or knowing me, not paying full attention and I mistakenly walk into the girls bathroom (something I'd be willing to bet most of us have done). The embarrassment and humiliation will cause me never to forget to check the sign before walking into the bathroom: value in failure.

Long story short, value that comes from success is generally easy to come by when it's handed to you, but the value that comes from failure has a more permanent and lasting effect.

On the other hand:
The strategy team is debating what direction the team should go for the year and has hit a major road block. They can't figure out what to do and the argument is getting heated. Mentor William Beatty has this great game-breaking idea that he proposes to the students. They can all now move on and begin implementing the idea: value in success.
Meanwhile many other teams who resent mentor-built-robots allow the students to debate until their voices are hoarse. After a week or two they finally agree and have a student crafted strategy. They end the year as an average team and all agree the students need to be quicker in deciding the strategy next year: value in failure.

Long story short, value that comes from failure takes more time and often leads to fewer new discoveries and experiences (less build time and prototyping time in the above example). Value from success often allows for more and greater success and failure opportunities since it can be done in a quick way.

So basically I typed all that to say I have no idea how to balance out success and failure. I think this is a question that every mentor and team should answer for themselves. I also think it is a question that drives a lot of the mentor-built vs. student-built debate (please don't let it turn into one of those). As a mentor going into my second year, and trying to be the most effective mentor that I can, I'd be really interested to hear how others have answered this question for themselves in the past.

While I can't answer some parts of your questions, I'll talk a bit about success, failure, and how humans learn from both.

The former and late President of India, Abdul Kalam, viewed the word "fail" as an acronym: First Attempt In Learning. (Most of the time failure is a first attempt in learning). Just something I thought I would throw out there. Humans tend to learn more from failure because after experiencing failure, their mindset can change. The likelihood is more higher if they experience failure that they will learn from it and work harder towards succeeding at what they failed at. Example: A student bombs a Physics unit test and is overwhelmed by the material on the test. The likelihood is high that this student will work twice as harder to suceed on the next unit test. Also, failure must be taken positively. Smile and work hard towards reforming your mistakes.

Success is a whole other story. A lot can be learned from sucess, but I still think a student who fails learns more than a student that suceeds. Part of it is the students mindset, but I'll give an example anyway: A student aces his Physics test and thinks the material is super easy. The student possibly may slack a bit (study wise) for the next unit, because he is under the impression that the material is easy. Sucess sometimes may influence a humans mindset like shown in the example above, success sometimes changes the mindset of the student negatively (for example: "This material is so easy, I don't even have to study for it", I'm particularly guilty of that as most high school students who breeze through high school are). The example and thoughts I provided about success aren't particularly true if you stick to a positive attitude and hard working mindset, regardless of positive results.

I think balancing it is a great idea, both success and failure should be experienced by every FIRST student.