First the bad news: Covington & Omelich (1981) have found that when students fail repeatedly at an activity, two things happen: (1) they are likely to try to preserve their perception of self-worth by greatly reducing their effort with regard to the subject matter; and (2) they undergo a further devaluation of their self-concept. These outcomes arise from a realization that low ability is a major cause of their failure and from the helpless feeling that there is nothing they can do about it. Although a strategy of reduced activity or inaction invites further failure, it at least offsets the personal, shame-evoking implications of low ability. If the excuses for not trying are convincing to others as well as to the students themselves, they may also minimize teacher punishment and peer disfavor. This kind of inaction would appear to be a particularly appealing strategy for self-doubting students who are most threatened by failure and least attracted by the prospects of study. {This syndrome is closely related to self-handicapping, which is discussed in relation to attribution theory in Chapter 5.}

Now for the good news: Belated success (success after an initial failure) appears to offset the disadvantages of the initial failure. The researchers suggest that eventual success allows students to share a double dividend: (1) they can appear both virtuous and able by overcoming initial adversity through hard work and (2) they maintain or regain self-perceptions of ability.

The implications for mastery learning are interesting. It is possible that students who engage in mastery learning may fail repeatedly before finally succeeding. According to these researchers, these students are likely to reduce their effort as a result of each successive failure. However, if they eventually do succeed, they regain part (or even all) of what was lost. The key seems to be to (1) make the steps small enough to maximize the probability of success by at least the second try, and (2) make sure they succeed on at least the second or third try.

The important point of this research is that, unless it is implemented properly, the very method designed to help these students could backfire and hinder their progress.