Overcoming fear of failure at university

At its best, life as an undergraduate at university has been thought of as a time for students to experiment, investigate, explore. Exposure to new ideas and consideration of alternative views – reforming one's view of the world – are generally considered to be part of the student experience. Time at university is a chance to embrace risk. As the educator Gert Biesta has noted, 'If you take the risk out of education, you take the education out of education'. Yet my own research is suggesting that students are increasingly turning away from this risk, and the opportunities for personal growth that may come with it. The culprit? Fear of failure, particularly around learning. 

My thesis is just one study in an expanding area of research. It's indicating that for many students, failure is not an option, and fear of failure is a key factor around how they engage. But how appropriate are our psychological tools for measuring fear of failure? And what can we do about it?

'I feel it is like I am very lost' 

Typically, tools to measure fear of failure in a more generalised context focus on feelings of shame or anxiety in everyday life. But are these measurements valid in the unique environment of Higher Education? Given the context-dependent nature of cognition, specific measurement of fear of failure in learning may provide greater insight into the issues faced by undergraduates at university. 

In schools and colleges, fear of failure may well be a motivator for success in GCSEs and A-Levels. During my work in schools and colleges, I would often witness the reluctance of students to, as they saw it, write the wrong answer on a worksheet, preferring to wait for the right answer from the teacher. This is one example of perfectionism, a strategy that may well serve them in a school system that does not always discourage rote learning. However, this is not necessarily a strategy that would serve an undergraduate well. As Choi (2021) points out, 'learning in higher education requires students to be more proactive and self-disciplined and engage in self-creation, self-initiation and self-evaluation of academic tasks'. Taking responsibility for one's own learning causes pressures and stresses in undergraduates, with those experiencing fear of failure in learning particularly vulnerable to this pressure. This can result in lower academic performance and increased levels of procrastination. 

Choi (2012) constructed the Fear of Failure in Learning scale, which identified a series of psychometric properties experienced by undergraduates. These include Performance Avoidance, Feelings of Shame, Learned Helplessness and Self-handicapping. My doctoral research used this valid tool to drill down into some context-specific examples of how these anxieties affect everyday studentship whilst at university. Through a series of focus groups and semi-structured interviews with first- and second-year students, using Braun and Clark's thematic analysis, the mundane reality of these issues comes into sharp relief.

Throughout the interviews, students engage with the fear of failure as a motivation to study as undergraduates. Many of the responses point towards avoidance of failure rather than a desire to succeed as being a reason to study and to continue to study. Numerous responses indicate the importance of lecturers being engaging and providing examples to facilitate learning, which are accessible, interesting and acceptable to their strategies of studying. One student noted 'I can't take it… if I am in a lecture, I don't know what to write down, what information do I need? All of it? If I need all of it, do I write it down? I don't have time to write it all down! I feel a bit lost after a lecture. They give me reading but what do I do with it? Especially in first year, like we are from college where it is so guided, and I feel it is like I am very lost.'

The rankings in league tables of schools and colleges have had a transformative effect in schools and colleges, perhaps so far witnessed to a lesser extent in the university sector. Repeatedly, participants in my study made reference to differences between school/college and university, and the difficulties they find in making the transition. One participant noted 'I like people telling me what to do… like in college, maybe specifically my college, and stuff everything that we needed was given to us. "Here like memorise this and everything will be great". And it worked out and it was still interesting in college and in Psychology [A-level] but now I just don't know what I should… it's too broad.' 

Another responded when asked as to whether she felt she was able to engage with self-creation; 'I do and I don't. I feel in control as I have to do all the research, but I don't as I don't know what I am supposed to be doing… if that makes sense? I am not sure what to do.' Others in her focus group agreed: 'Like I am in control, but they don't tell us what to do. Just show us! Are there examples? Examples are what I live off… I know it is a bit primary schoolish but it works!'

Students have, then, been schooled to expect and accept the support offered to avoid failure. 'I learn better by being shown something rather than being spoken to. But I understand that in uni it is a choice, you've come her coz you've choose to… but a tiny bit of guidance… just an example or something, just to help us a bit.' Another went on to note, 'The most challenging thing is like… throughout high school and college it is like really systematic… you learn this and there is an exam and then there is coursework, but here like I don't know what I am doing… like how do you know… are there exams, are there questions? At A-level and GCSE there are exam boards in A-level and GCSE you know what kind of questions there are like 2 marks, 16 marks, 30 markers but now I don't know… essays and stuff?' 

Privatisation of risk in a market-driven Higher Education

This fear of failure is exacerbated by the neoliberal contention that all risk should be placed on the individual student at university. If they fail then they must own that failure, explicable by their lack of studentship. This placing of failure on the individual rather than the state accepting and sharing a level of risk is indeed a key indoctrination of neoliberalism. The placing of great financial costs on the individual student is a severe cause of anxiety for students. If a student fails their degree course, or does not obtain a 'good degree' (now generally considered an upper second or above), then this mindset can further erode the sense of self developed by undergraduates. 

Stephen Ball, in the book The Education Debate, maintains 'individuals and families must take responsibility for their own performance and their own improvement and are "blamed" if they do not. The state funds and manages the system, using performance measures and requirements to "steer at a distance", as a kind of CEO of Education Plc, with a primary concern for global economic competitiveness.'

The state in this view is not responsible for more than providing the most basic of provision and opportunity – success is a matter of personal responsibility. This is a rejection of societal responsibility, implying class, culture, background, gender, ethnicity and race are at best secondary and at worst superfluous to explanations of educational inequalities of achievement. Intersectional approaches to educational inequality carry little weight in the milieu of neoliberal orthodoxy.

Teacher teach thyself

The starting point lies within. Accepting that the life unreflected upon is a life unfulfilled, professionals as practitioners, pedagogues and psychologists do need to reflect upon their own motivations to succeed. To what extent might this fear of failure guide, colour and inform our own actions?

Accepting that we also are prone to such motivations will enable the practitioner to empathise with, and relate to, their charges. Accepting one's own limitations will help us address them in ourselves and others. Teacher teach thyself, and know thyself. If Choi's aforementioned factors of performance avoidance, learned helplessness, feelings of shame and self-handicapping may be applied to ourselves, then through our praxis may they be addressed. 

Looking inside ourselves but also seeking help and support from colleagues in the field, sharing the difficulties and burdens of the role in an open and honest manner, may present a path forward. Accepting that there may be more common psychological ground between the educator and the learner could inspire greater engagement in learning. Given that current pedagogical thought has evolved from a student-centred approach to a learning-focused agenda, identifying the psychological factors which may serve to either facilitate or hinder learning have thus gained a greater importance in this sphere. 

Praise can be the key

Having accepted that anxiety and insecurity may be more prevalent than previously imagined, and not just confined to our students, what can educators do to address and ameliorate these issues? An indirect and oblique approach may be more beneficial than directly confronting the issue. 

Addressing the fear of failure directly with students may play into feelings of shame and further inhibit task performance. Use of praise can be a key motivator for those who do have a fear of failure. This includes praising students for doing what might otherwise be considered is expected of them. Students receiving encouraging feedback for even attempting to address a question produce a more positive educational environment. I often hear it said that educators should not praise students so liberally. I will often respond by asking if they have ever been praised 'too much' for their work. I will praise those who are in the lecture hall on time and still there at the end of the lecture. I thank them for listening to and thinking about the content. In response, the students have never reported or even appeared overstuffed or too sated with praise. 

For those students displaying performance avoidance and procrastination, support and encouragement to start is an effective strategy to help students achieve. Time spent on considering initial thoughts and personal reflections on the question at hand can lead to a more productive and timely start to a project, and then momentum takes over. 

Whilst we as educators can help students find their niche and excel, their also needs to be an acceptance that, at times, work can simply be good enough. Answers lacking accuracy or expressing controversial views can be both praised for their endeavours and challenged on their content. The art of disagreeing respectfully is one that educators can refine and one that many students would do well to learn.

And what if things are not good enough? What responses to actual failure would we wish our students experience? At A-level and in GCSEs, failure is baked into the system. This is an inevitable aspect of the school and college system. But what of failure at university? This is always going to be a bitter pill to swallow. Yet bitter pills – including failure, and a realisation of our limitations – can make us better.

• Jeremy Hopper is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Psychology, and Lead for Peer Observations, Department of Psychology, at Manchester Metropolitan University.