ABSTRACT
T hroughout their school careers, students encounter many challenging learning tasks where some degree of failure is inevitable. When doing a math problem, coming up with an idea for an essay, or writing a computer program, students' first attempts may fail. Oftentimes, students take the easy way out by giving up on the task entirely, which impedes learning. Ideally, students will persevere through these failures, learn from their mistakes, and eventually master the relevant concepts and skills. But rebounding from failure requires a sophisticated set of motivational behaviors that many novices, including children, often do not perform.
