We learn from our mistakes. Let's make a lot of them!
Informal
term for a very simple
philosophy of
learning, as well as the
methods and
knowledge required to use it in
teaching.
The basics of risk learning deal with the
instinctive fear of failure, which nearly all learners experience. In risk learning, the learner is encouraged to take risks, knowing that they most likely
will lead to
mistakes. There are two main gains from this: The learners
rate of learning will increase, and the learner will experience many of the common problems related to the
topic or
skill being learned.
I have most luck in explaining risk learning when taking an example of my own experience: When learning
spanish, entirely from scratch, I had a private
tutor (this was in
Guatemala, making it affordable). First day I was introduced to a few basic pieces of
grammar and some common words. My
homework for the next day was
to write a joke in spanish. The
nature of jokes prohibits you from using only easy grammar and few words; if you do so, the joke will rarely retain its point or, especially, its
punchline. Therefore, I was forced to use grammar I did not understand and words I did not know.
Naturally, the result was riddled with bad grammar and wrong words. However, this
brute force method had kicked my
brain seriously into gear, allowing me to handle the remaining parts of this entirely new
language far easier. In
essence, risk learning, when accomplished well, makes the learner more daring. Also, the fact that we learn from our mistakes (far better than from success, in fact), makes the learning much more effective. Both these effects speed up the rate of learning.
The main
barrier in applying risk learning is the mentioned
fear of failure, which will often make unprepared learners freeze up or simply refuse (some
consciously, some
subconsciously) to proceed. The most important
component of succesful risk learning is
moral support. A 'risk teacher' (
not a formal term!) should have a cheerful and comforting
attitude and always,
always make sure the learner feels OK with his or her mistakes. It is
vital, that the learner is first made to
believe, that
it is OK to fail. One method for this, mainly usable when risk learning is to be used a lot on a learner, is to have the learner routinely participating in
challenges clearly (some would say
ridiculously) beyond his or her
ability. A common choice is to have the learner participate in regular
chess matches against someone far outmatching him/her. Since the learner expects to fail, it will not have the same
traumatic effect, and in time, the learner should get used to working against all
odds. Thus,
failure will not agonize the learner, and risk learning can be undertaken more intensely. The increase in
motivation and
confidence of succesful risk learners can be partially summed up in one students words: "Looks tough, but I've seen worse".