How to Make Your Classroom a Safe Environment for Risk-Taking

In my previous post, I talked about 7 reasons why it is so important to let your students take risks in the classroom. There are amazing benefits for our students when we do this. However, we need to know how to create an environment that is safe for our students to take risks. Otherwise, they won’t feel comfortable making mistakes. There are several ways to do this.

Create a Judgment-Free Zone

The first thing we need to do to create a safe environment for risk-taking is to label our classroom a judgment-free zone. If we do this in name only, it will be ineffective. Instead, we must make sure our actions match our words. We do this by modeling a judgment-free attitude and setting expectations in our classroom that our students show the same behavior. Make sure you enforce these expectations, or your students will never feel comfortable opening up and taking risks in your classroom.

Teach Students to Have a Growth Mindset

As a teacher, I’m sure you’ve heard this term before, but it’s worth a quick definition. A growth mindset suggests that people can improve themselves through time and effort. Dedication and hard work are the tools to success. In contrast, a fixed mindset assumes that our abilities (including our intelligence) are unchanging and that our efforts cannot make us better.

When we teach our students to have a growth mindset – to believe that their efforts have a direct impact on their abilities – they are more likely to be willing to make mistakes and take risks because they know that they can learn and improve from this. Students who have a growth mindset will understand that when they try (even when they make mistakes) they can become better.

Teach Students the Power of Yet

Another way we can help our students take risks is to teach them the power of yet.

Your students may tend to stop trying something when they hit a roadblock or start to fail. They may be hesitant to try new things. They may give up when things get difficult.

Teach your students that the more effort they put into something, the more they will get out of it. Remind your students that everything they know now, they had to learn. When they complain about not understanding or not being able to do something, end their sentence with the word “yet.”

I can’t do this … yet!

I’m not good at this … yet!

I don’t understand this … yet!

This isn’t working … yet!

This doesn’t make sense … yet!

I don’t get it … yet!

Teaching your students to think this way will help them understand that the only way to improve and learn new things is through effort and time and that failure is a part of this process.

Praise Perseverance and Effort

Oftentimes, we praise our students for the outcome of their work. We say things like, “You got a great score on your spelling test!” or “Your artwork is beautiful!” or “You’re so smart!”

This teaches our students that there is value in skills, abilities, and results. While this is true, this praise teachers our students to be afraid of failure and to see themselves as successful only if they have a praiseworthy end product. They will feel like they are not good enough unless they get a good score, have beautiful artwork, or show off their intelligence.

Instead, we should praise our students’ efforts, perseverance, and grit. We should say things like, “You must have practiced,” “You studied so hard,” “I’m so proud of you for keeping at it,” or “You’ve worked so hard!”

This teaches our students that there is value in the road to success, not just success itself. It also teaches them that taking risks and failing is okay because it is part of the journey. When we praise our students’ efforts rather than their accomplishments, they will be more willing to make mistakes and take risks.

Case Study: Thomas Edison

One last way we can create an environment where our students feel safe to take risks and make mistakes is by teaching our students about others who have failed, persevered, and succeeded!

Thomas Edison is a famous example. When asked about his many failures before inventing the lightbulb, he replied, “I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.”

You can also use yourself as an example. Be vulnerable in front of your students by admitting to your mistakes in the classroom and showing them how you keep going. Your students will appreciate your honestly and will benefit from the way you model how to deal with risks and failure with grace.

If your students know that many successful people (and people in general) have had to take risks – and fail – before seeing success, it will make risks and failure seem more acceptable and less scary.

Teach your students that failure is part of the path to success. When students are willing to take risks and keep going, even when things aren’t going well, they will learn, overcome, and succeed.