Learning from Negative Experience: A Philosophical Exploration of “Productive Failure”

Abstract

Failure is a part of learning. This is not only a leading conjecture of various instructional design frameworks, but also a key component of well-known educational philosophies. We argue that bridging the divide between contemporary empirical research programs that position failure as pedagogically desirable and the philosophical-conceptual analysis of failure may open a space for a broader, more inclusive discussion of the pedagogical nature of failure. We focus on the instructional design of “productive failure” (Kapur, 2015) and the works of John Dewey and Lev S. Vygotsky.