Over the past year I have been thinking a lot about academic risk taking and after interviewing teachers and students, and tested a few things out, I'm still thinking!
I still think it's important, as do the teachers and students I've interviewed. But not many people can decide on a definition, which is problematic if teachers are trying to develop in their students. There is a definition given by the IB, but it doesn't necessarily match with peoples personal meanings.
I think for me academic risk taking is tied up with personal challenge, having a go at something even though you might fail. And from looking at my results a lot of my students find that difficult.
Most are stopped by fear, both of looking foolish and of getting low marks. To stop the fear of marks I've decided not to give any for the first half term and see if that encourages my new classes to take more risks. With me second year classes I'm trying to be clear over work which contributes to term grades and work which is formative.
It's so important to stop students from being scared, Carol Dweck's book on mindset has been really useful to come up with strategies and I would recommend it to any teacher.
Anyway I'll see how the new strategies go and if it makes any difference.
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