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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Unlocking Student Success: Exploring Effective Interventions to Combat Procrastination
Have you ever held off completing a task until the last minute? This behavior is known as procrastination, a type of self-regulation failure often carried out by students. In an effort to further examine procrastination, Turner and Hodis (2023) conducted a meta-analysis studying intervention methods that have been used after 2018. -
The Emotional Journey: Goal Pursuit, Emotion Regulation, and Well-Being
Let's delve into a recent study conducted by Benita, Arbel, and Milyavskaya (2023), where they explore the dynamics of how students in Israel pursue their academic goals. This study looks closely at why students want to achieve their goals, how they manage their emotions, and the impact of these factors on their overall well-being. -
From Failures in Design to Designing How to Overcome Failures
How do you respond when you experience failure? To explore this, Jackson and colleagues (2022) conducted a study investigating and synthesizing experiences of failure and how it can be used as a learning experience in design. -
How do Experienced and Anticipated Cost Impact Math Achievements and STEM Career Choice?
The perceptions of cost (sacrifice/effort) play a major role in predicting academic and motivational outcomes in students. By investigating anticipated and experienced costs (task effort, outside effort, emotional cost, loss of valued alternatives) and their effect on student achievements and STEM career achievements, Beymer and colleagues (2023) provide insight on how educators should best aid and motivate students to succeed in STEM.