Dr. Ana Figueroa (Faculty Focus), Building Psychological Safety in College Classrooms Through Cooperative and Experiential Learning (June 10, 2026).
This article, filled with insights and evidentiary data from a study the author conducted. She persuasively explains how cooperative learning experiences and experiential learning can help create psychological safety for our students, which Dr. Figueroa defines as
Psychological safety refers to students’ perception that they can contribute, take risks, and express ideas without fear of embarrassment or judgment. Foundational to deep learning, in practice, it emerges when students feel connected to peers, respected by instructors, and confident that mistakes are treated as part of the learning process.
From my perspective, students should feel psychologically safe (as defined above) in all our classes.
Dr, Figueroa reports four “key findings”:
- Collaboration as the preferred learning environment. Nearly three-quarters of students identified group collaboration as the context in which they learned most effectively.
- Independent work perceived as less effective. Almost half of respondents reported feeling least successful when working alone.
- Strong statistical association. Students’ preferences for collaborative learning and their perceptions of successful learning environments demonstrated a substantial relationship.
- Universal relational outcomes. All respondents reported forming connections and friendships within the course, and students consistently noted looking forward to class sessions.
