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##  Failure Syndrome Students. ERIC Digest.                                      

"Failure syndrome" is one of several terms that teachers commonly               use (others include "low self-concept," "defeated,"                             and "frustrated") to describe students who approach assignments with            very low expectations of success and who tend to give up at early               signs of difficulty. Psychologists have described this phenomenon               as "learned helplessness," a slightly more technical definition but             referring to a similar pattern of behavior. Unlike students of                  limited ability, who often fail despite their best efforts, failure             syndrome students often fail needlessly because they do not invest              their best efforts--they begin tasks half-heartedly and simply give             up when they encounter difficulty. This Digest delineates the nature            of the problem, suggests strategies for coping with failure syndrome            students, and discusses how teachers can help. WHO ARE FAILURE                SYNDROME STUDENTS?Some students, especially in the early grades,            show failure syndrome tendencies as part of larger patterns of                  emotional immaturity (for example, low frustration tolerance or                 avoidance, inhibition, or adult dependency as reactions to stress).             They may focus more on dependency-related desires for attention from            the teacher than on trying to learn what an academic activity is                designed to teach. This pattern may be a defense mechanism exhibited            by some children who feel unable to compete with successful                     siblings, who lack confidence in their own abilities, or who have               acquired failure expectations from their parents or teachers.                   Parents or teachers may communicate low expectations through a                  variety of direct and indirect means, especially to students who                have been assigned labels such as "learning impaired." 
Most                   failure syndrome symptoms, however, develop through social learning             mechanisms centered around experiences with failure. Most children              begin school with enthusiasm, but over time many find the experience            anxiety-provoking and psychologically threatening. Many children                find it difficult to have their performance monitored in classrooms             where failure carries the danger of public humiliation. 
It is not             surprising, therefore, that some students, especially those who have            experienced a continuing history of failure or a recent cycle of                failure, begin to believe that they lack the ability to succeed.                Eventually such students abandon serious attempts to master tasks               and begin to concentrate instead on preserving their self-esteem in             their own eyes and their reputations in the eyes of others (Ames,               1987; Rohrkemper & Corno, 1988). WHAT STRATEGIES HELP FAILURE                 SYNDROME STUDENTS?Failure syndrome students need assistance in              regaining self-confidence in their academic abilities and in                    developing strategies for coping with failure and persisting with               problem-solving efforts when they experience difficulties. Many                 specific suggestions have emerged from research on particular                   theoretical concepts or treatment approaches. Many of these involve             what Ames (1987) has called "cognition retraining." Three of the                more prominent approaches to cognition retraining are attribution               retraining, efficacy training, and strategy training. 
ATTRIBUTION             RETRAINING. This strategy involves bringing about changes in                    students' tendencies to attribute failure to lack of ability rather             than to a remediable cause, such as insufficient effort or use of an            inappropriate strategy. Typically, attribution retraining involves              exposing students to a planned series of experiences, couched within            an achievement context, in which modeling, socialization, practice,             and feedback are used to teach them to (1) concentrate on the task              at hand rather than worry about failing, (2) cope with failures by              retracing their steps to find their mistake or by analyzing the                 problem to find another approach, and (3) attribute their failures              to insufficient effort, lack of information, or use of ineffective              strategies rather than to lack of ability. 
EFFICACY TRAINING.                 These programs also involve exposing students to a planned set of               experiences within an achievement context and providing them with               modeling, instruction, and feedback. However, while attribution                 retraining programs were developed specifically for learned                     helplessness students and thus focus on teaching constructive                   response to failure, efficacy training programs were developed                  primarily for low achievers who have become accustomed to failure               and have developed generalized low self-concepts of ability.                    Consequently, efficacy training helps students set realistic goals              and pursue them with the recognition that they have the ability                 needed to reach those goals if they apply reasonable                            effort. 
STRATEGY TRAINING. In this approach, modeling and                     instruction are used to teach problem-solving strategies and related            self-talk that students need to handle tasks successfully. Strategy             training is a component of good cognitive skills instruction to all             students; it is not primarily a remedial technique. However, it is              especially important for use with frustrated students who have not              developed effective learning and problem-solving strategies on their            own, but who can learn them through modeling and explicit                       instruction. 
Ames (1987) noted that these cognitive retraining                approaches do not take into account the social aspects of the                   classroom and the reward structures in effect there. Citing findings            that an emphasis on competition and social comparison will increase             performance anxiety, Ames recommended emphasizing private rather                than public feedback, phrasing such feedback in terms of progress               beyond the individual's own previous levels rather than comparisons             with classmates, and avoiding such practices as publicly grading on             a curve or posting students' achievement scores. HOW CAN TEACHERS             HELP?Brophy (1995) found that teachers were unusually confident             about their ability to intervene successfully with failure syndrome             students. They tended to mention similar response strategies                    regardless of grade level, location, or effectiveness ratings. A few            spoke of providing support and encouragement to such students                   without making any demands on them; others spoke of making demands              without providing special support or assistance; but most suggested             a combination of support, encouragement, and task assistance to                 shape gradual improvement in work habits. 
These teachers would                make it clear to failure syndrome students that they were expected              to work conscientiously and persistently so as to turn in work done             completely and correctly, but they would also provide help if                   needed, reassure them that they would not be given work that they               could not do, monitor their progress and provide any needed                     assistance, and reinforce them by praising their successes, calling             attention to their progress, and providing them with opportunities              to display their accomplishments publicly. This special treatment               would be faded gradually as the students gained confidence and began            to work more persistently and independently. These strategies are in            line with what is known about cognitive retraining. 
Brophy (1998)             found that highly effective teachers and other teachers generally               implemented similar strategies to help failure syndrome                         students--such as including encouragement and shaping strategies in             their responses to the student, engaging in supportive behaviors,               providing reassurance, and making personal appeals to the student to            improve performance. But the higher-rated, more-effective teachers              appeared to place greater emphasis on insisting on better effort and            seemed to have greater confidence that the improvements the student             could achieve would be stable over time rather than merely                      temporary. They tended to assume that the demands made on students              were appropriate (and therefore that failure syndrome problems                  stemmed from the students' mistakenly pessimistic attributions and              self-efficacy perceptions), while lower-rated teachers were more                likely to fear that their task demands were too difficult for the               student to handle. 
Dweck and Elliott (1983) argued that students              who have developed an "entity" view of ability (e.g, who see it as              fixed and limited) stand to benefit from direct training designed to            shift them to an "incremental" view (e.g., seeing ability as                    something that can be developed through practice). 
Teacher                    behaviors that encourage incremental rather than entity views of                ability include: 
 * acting more as resource persons than as                   judges, 
 * focusing students more on learning processes than on               outcomes, 
 * reacting to errors as natural and useful parts of the            learning process rather than as evidence of failure, 
 * stressing             effort over ability and personal standards over normative standards             when giving feedback, and 
 * attempting to stimulate achievement              efforts through primarily intrinsic rather than extrinsic                       motivational strategies. CONCLUSIONIn summary, failure                    syndrome students approach assignments with very low expectations of            success and tend to give up at early signs of difficulty. Many                  teachers use strategies with these students that are in line with               what we know about cognitive retraining strategies such as                      attribution training, efficacy training, and strategy training.                 Teachers' effectiveness can be enhanced, however, if they use                   modeling to teach coping strategies, especially techniques for                  persisting in the face of frustration or failure. 
This Digest was             adapted from: Brophy, Jere. (1996). TEACHING PROBLEM STUDENTS. New              York: Guilford. Adapted with permission of the                                  author. REFERENCESAmes, C. (1987). The enhancement of student             motivation. In M. Maehr & D. Kleiber (Eds.), ADVANCES IN MOTIVATION             AND ACHIEVEMENT: VOL. 5. ENHANCING MOTIVATION (pp. 123-148).                    Greenwich, CT: JAI Press. 
Brophy, Jere. (1995). ELEMENTARY                    TEACHERS' PERCEPTIONS OF AND REPORTED STRATEGIES FOR COPING WITH                TWELVE TYPES OF PROBLEM STUDENTS. East Lansing, MI: Institute for               Research on Teaching, Michigan State University. ED 389                         390. 
Brophy, Jere. (1998). MOTIVATING STUDENTS TO LEARN. New York:            McGraw-Hill. 
Coley, Joan Develin, & Hoffman, Dianne M. (1990).                Overcoming learned helplessness in at-risk readers. JOURNAL OF                  READING, 33(7), 497-502. EJ 406 809. 
Deschler, Donald P., &                   Schumaker, Jean B. (1993). Strategy mastery by at-risk students: Not            a simple matter. ELEMENTARY SCHOOL JOURNAL, 94(2), 153-167. EJ 474              774. 
Dweck, C., & Elliott, E. (1983). Achievement motivation. In              P. Mussen (Ed.), HANDBOOK OF CHILD PSYCHOLOGY. VOL. 4.                          SOCIALIZATION, PERSONALITY, AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT (pp. 643-691).               New York: Wiley. 
Rohrkemper, Mary, & Corno, Lyn. (1988). Success              and failure on classroom tasks: Adaptive learning and classroom                 teaching. ELEMENTARY SCHOOL JOURNAL, 88(3), 297-312. EJ 366                     495. 
Rosenshine, Barak, & Meister, Carla. (1994). Reciprocal                  teaching: A review of the research. REVIEW OF EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH,             64(4), 479-530. EJ 500 529. 
Struthers, C. Ward, & Perry, Raymond              P. (1996). Attributional style, attributional retraining, and                   inoculation against motivational deficits. SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY OF                 EDUCATION, 1, 171-187. 
Vacca, Richard T., & Padak, Nancy                      D. (1990). Who's at risk in reading. JOURNAL OF READING, 33(7),                 486-488. EJ 406 807. 
Young, Andrea C. (1997). Higher-order                    learning and thinking: What is it and how is it taught? EDUCATIONAL             TECHNOLOGY 37(4), 38-41. EJ 547 829. 
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This publication was             funded by the Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S.              Department of Education, under contract no. RR93002007. The opinions            expressed in this report do not necessarily reflect the positions or            policies of OERI. ERIC Digests are in the public domain and may be              freely reproduced.                                                           **Title:** Failure Syndrome Students. ERIC Digest.                                      **Document Type:** Information Analyses---ERIC Information Analysis Products (IAPs) (071); Information Analyses---ERIC Digests (Selected) in Full Text (073); **Target Audience:** Practitioners                                                                **Descriptors:**  Academic Failure, Achievement, Attribution Theory, Behavior                    Modification, Change Strategies,  Cognitive Restructuring, Cognitive            Structures, Expectation,  Failure, Goal Orientation, Helplessness,              Intervention, Low Achievement, Motivation, Personality Traits,                  Psychological Patterns,  Self Concept,  Self Efficacy, Student                  Improvement, Teaching Methods, Underachievement                              **Identifiers:** ERIC Digests, Strategy Training                                              
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