Tanji Holmes
Design Portfolio
Fofil: Fear of Failure Inhibits Learning
Teacher Development Program
Project Manager: Tanji Holmes
During my time at Harvard I created a teacher development program aimed at re-framing the way failure is perceived in academia. Failure is something that is inevitable in learning. From a young age we learn about the proverbial motto, trial and error, and are even encouraged to adopt its context. But despite what was once seen as the accepted norm, the error portion has become brimmed with negative connotation. Errors or, failure, in the educational system has become so widely unacceptable that students have developed a fear of failure. As a consequence, we are seeing negative effects on the way students are learning. The implementation of Fofil: Fear of Failure Inhibits Learning, a proposed teacher development program is a proposed intervening solution!
Contributions
• Designed and created a school-based teacher development program (Fofil) to bring awareness to the negative impacts that fear of academic failure has on students’ academic achievements, and to provide educators with the tools and support necessary to imbed change within the classroom
​
• Created and designed on-campus quarterly teacher development workshops and in-depth hands-on trainings
​
• Designed virtual mentoring sessions and trainings to help educators gain clarity, build community relationships, and to feel supported in transition throughout the school year
​
• Created program objectives, accounted for problems and opportunities, conducted literature reviews, developed a theory of change, and designed mechanism for ongoing evaluation, continuous improvement, and sustainability