Re: Poll: Which do you think allows people to learn aikido more effectively?
I agree that a balance between success and failure need to be considered, but I arrived at that conclusion in a different way.
One could argue that the number one reason a person (especially a beginner) does not learn effectively is because they drop out, stop training, or otherwise quit. To keep training is the key to learning effectively. I believe that positive reinforcement (an instructor pointing out success) is very important to keep a beginner coming back to train. Think of it this way: If you are going to teach an 8-year old how to play tennis, you would make hitting the ball easy for them at first so they enjoy it and want to continue to get better. After some time, you would certainly need to hit the ball a little faster at times to challenge them.
So my conclusion is this: for the beginner it's all about success: "I seem to be pretty good at this, so I'm going to stick with it." As time goes by, the longer we train and are committed to training, noting failure becomes more important to learning effectively: "I know I need to improve on this particular aspect and I am committed to the challenge."
As our practice changes so do our egos and learning styles.