10 December 2019
According to a recent study conducted by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), students in Singapore are more afraid of failure compared with their 15-year-old counterparts overseas.
The latest Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) found that in Singapore, more than 70 per cent of students expressed concern about failure in a questionnaire that asked then to indicate how they felt about failure through three statements. The statements related to whether they were worried about what others thought of them if they failed, or that they might not have enough talent.
In response, the Ministry of Education said yesterday that an excessive fear of failing could be “disabling” and that it is making changes to dial back the obsession with grades.
The latest Pisa study also showed that 60 per cent of Singapore students had a “growth mindset”, meaning that they believe their intelligence can change with effort that they put in. The opposite is a “fixed mindset”, where people think their talent or intelligence is limited.