Education for Persistence & Innovation Center
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The Failure of Exceptional Athletes and Scientists
We are studying exceptional achievement among scientists and athletes and how failure experiences have shaped their path to success. We interviewed Nobel Laureates and exceptional athletes to understand the strategies that they used to benefit from their failure experiences.
Learning About Other People’s Failure to Cope with One’s Own Failure
We studied how other people’s failures, especially the great scientists’ struggles, could inspire students in their own learning endeavors. Existent evidence suggests that students can benefit from learning about the failures of others and experiencing and understanding their own failure.
Cross-culture and STEM Education
We are currently conducting studies to investigate how students of different ages, academic performance levels, cultural and socio-economic backgrounds interpret and react to various kinds of failures, setbacks, and undesirable situations, especially in the STEM field.
Goals, Metacognition, and Problem Solving
In education, goals have been shown to be a powerful predictor of student academic accomplishments. We are studying how students’ understanding of their own goals, goals set by their teachers and schools impact their learning and problem-solving across a range of challenging domains.
Instructional Media That Motivates Learning
We are investigating how instructional design could motivate students’ learning in schools. We conducted a series of classroom-based experiments with random assignments of students to different instructional conditions using technologies and media, and assessed learning outcomes produced by these conditions.
About Us
Education for Persistence and Innovation Center (EPIC) is a global interdisciplinary research center at Teachers College, Columbia University, dedicated to figuring out how to turn failure into success.
We use techniques from cognitive science, social-cultural psychology, neuropsychology, oral history, and education to study the critical role that failure plays as a catalyst for learning, innovation, and career development.
News & Events
Academic Alert
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Early Associations Between Gender Groups and Intellectual Capabilities
In a thought-provoking study, researchers delved into the prevalence of gender stereotypes surrounding intellectual abilities among Korean children. The investigation aimed to uncover whether these children link brilliance predominantly with one gender and how this association influences their choices and preferences. By shedding light on the developmental trajectory of gender stereotypes concerning intellectual prowess, this study contributes significantly to comprehending how such biases shape cultural perceptions. -
The Relationship Between Emotion Regulation and Executive Functions in School-Aged Children
Let’s delve into a recent study by Halse et al. (2024), where they explore the unclear relationship between executive functions and emotion regulation in school-aged children. -
Do Immediate Rewards Enhance Intrinsic Motivation?
Intrinsic motivation, motivation to do a task rather than trying to achieve something through the task, is a key concept in education. In this study, Woolley and colleagues investigate whether immediate rewards increase intrinsic motivation along with the perceptual fusion (seeing two things as one) between an activity and its goal (i.e., the reward) when rewards are immediate rather than delayed. -
How Do Stories of Persistence Shape Our Judgments of Others?
Have you ever wondered how stories about persistence and determination affect the way we judge others? Well, that's exactly what Amemiya, Heyman, and Walker (2023) delves into. Their article explores social judgments and preferences and aims to uncover how narratives of persistence influence our perceptions of individuals facing constraints.
