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The Role of Mistakes in the Classroom
September 6, 2011 | Alina TugendAs the school doors swing open to welcome the start of another year, both teachers and students will have goals: to inspire a class, to learn new things, to get good grades.
What probably won't be on that list is to make a mistake -- in fact many. But it should be.
Why? Because we're raising a generation of children -- primarily in affluent, high-achieving districts -- who are terrified of blundering. Of failing. Of even sitting with the discomfort of not knowing something for a few minutes.
If students are afraid of mistakes, then they're afraid of trying something new, of being creative, of thinking in a different way. They're scared to raise their hands when they don't know the answer and their response to a difficult problem is to ask the teacher rather than try different solutions that might, gasp, be wrong.
They're as one teacher told me, "victims of excellence."
Why is this? Because success in school is too often defined as high marks on tests. And if results are all that matter in education, then mistakes play no positive role. They are only helpful if we believe that the process of learning -- which inevitably must include the process of erring -- is just as, or more, important than getting to the correct answer.
I realize that parents play a crucial role in how their children view mistakes -- and I've written about that -- but here, I'm focusing on educators.
While writing my book Better by Mistake: The Unexpected Benefits of Being Wrong, I came across some fascinating research about how children learn and what message they take away about mistakes.
Carol Dweck, a professor of psychology at Stanford University, has conducted groundbreaking research in this area. One of her experiments asked 400 5th graders in New York City schools to take an easy short test, on which almost all performed well. Half the children were praised for "being really smart." The other half was complimented "having worked really hard."
Then they were asked to take a second test and given the options of either choosing one that was pretty simple and they would do well on, or one that was more challenging, but they might make mistakes.
Of those students praised for effort, 90 percent chose the harder test. Of those praised for being smart, the majority chose the easy test. Dweck has conducted such experiments and studies in a variety of school districts -- low-income, high-income, homogenous and mixed- culture and races.
A cornerstone of Dweck's research is the concepts of fixed mindsets and growth mindsets. Those with fixed mindsets, as Professor Dweck says, believe people are good at something -- either good at math or music or baseball -- or they're not. For those with a fixed mindset, mistakes serve no purpose but to highlight failure.
Those with what Professor Dweck calls growth mindsets -- who believe that some people are better or worse in certain areas but we can all improve and develop our skills and abilities -- are much more likely to be able to accept mistakes because they know they're part of learning.
And studies in a secondary school have shown that when students are taught about growth mindsets and that the brain is malleable, their motivation to learn dramatically increases. Take a look at the web site www.brainology.us if you want to learn more.
This doesn't mean, of course, that we can all be world-class chess players or pro athletes, but rather that we all have a much greater ability to develop our potential than we think we do. It takes hard work, however, and we can't do it without taking chances and making mistakes.
Embracing such an ideology also means, to circle back, that the emphasis in schools must be on the process of learning, not solely the results. I know this is difficult in our country now, particularly when so much stress is put on standardized tests -- which are all about results and not exploring different ideas -- as a way to measure the success of both teachers and children.
But it can be done. We can learn from other cultures -- for example, in Japan, children are allowed, and expected, to work out a problem in front of the class for 10 minutes or more. Even if the student is wrong, there is no shame. Mistakes are an indication, not of failure, in these classrooms, but of what still needs to be learned.
I also know a group of fourth-grade and fifth-grade teachers in New York who, inspired by the idea that children need to learn to make and live with mistakes, are developing their own lesson plan to build resilient learners. The idea is to help students examine the ideas of effort and persistence, learn to take risks and accept imperfection and be willing to sit with the uncertainty of not knowing.
It's a big task. But over time, I think we can teach students how to shift the prism at least slightly, so they look at mistakes not as something to be dreaded and avoided, but as an inevitable -- and often very helpful -- part of learning.
© 2011 Alina Tugend
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Comments (20)
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Bless our Mess!
Love your insight! We have a song/lesson plan called "Messy" which teaches students to appreciate the wisdom they gain through making mistakes rather than feeling deflated every time they aren't perfect. As you can imagine, it's one of our most popular song/lessons.This is an amazing article. Pinning, tweeting, facebooking. Thanks for pointing all this out. btw When I work w/kids, I often make mistakes, then correct myself in front of them. Part of the lesson :-)
making mistakes
One said to error is human. Mistakes have to be accepted. We have saying in Africa that says making a mistake is no big deal, a mistake when you repeat the same mistake. I am in the field of training health workers, and you know a mistake there sometimes my cost a life. So in medical education we introduced skillslab to allow mistakes and subsequently learning. I know even in the physical sciences lifes may lost ie electrocution,chemical or physical burns- we have to teach caution
teacher
I see a lot of students who are afraid of raising their hands and making a mistake. It hurts me to know that students are afraid of making mistakes. In my class, I try to teach students that making mistakes is the only way at getting better. When I have parent teacher conferences, I try to explain to the parents that their grade does not really reflect who they are and what they are capable of doing and/or learning. Some parents understand and others still push their child to do better which sometimes puts a lot of distress on the student. This makes them less motivated. It is hard to make the balance of what I, as a teacher is teaching them, and what their parents are teaching and telling them.
one more thing
I also feel that if we are choosing multiple ways of assessment in the classroom, we are going to see the student in his/her best light and probably learn a lot about the student. Yes, he/she will make mistakes, but we're human. Looking at a variety of assessments will allow us as teachers to make the best academic decisions for our students.
GREAT reminder
I think this is a great reminder. I think so often as teachers, we get so caught-up in reading, worksheets, and tests, that we sometimes forget the important of REALLY understanding the material. You made a good point when you said, "do you really know why you got that answer wrong." I do sometimes have students correct their mistakes in a test, but I feel like I get so caught-up in the TIME in takes to go through a test a second time (on top of all the other grading and testing done throughout the day), that to me it almost doesn't seem worth it. I agree that students do need to make mistakes to learn. I think that is important. As their classroom teacher, I always tell them that I too make mistakes, and that it is okay to do that.
I agree wholeheartedly and as
I agree wholeheartedly and as a parent am amazed that my child will simply get a graded test handed back. When I ask if she understands why something was marked incorrect, she replies "no, we just got it back". A critical role in learning is review of assessment - why was an answer incorrect? Why was the mistake made - was it because there were tricky answers designed to throw you? Was it that a student didn't read the question correctly? Or was the calculation/comprehension at fault? If a student is not given an explanation of what made it wrong, they have no way of knowing how to correct their thinking. Students should be given the opportunity to conference with the teacher on questions they didn't understand if a teacher doesn't have time to review incorrect answers on a whole-class schedule.
So Important!
Thank you for shining a light on the inherent power and far reaching consequences of asking questions and seeking answers with a right/wrong mindset. I fully agree with your comments regarding the teaching of process, "The emphasis in schools must be on the processes of learning, not solely on results." I believe as long as teachers and administrators stay plugged into the information dissemination paradigm we don't stand a chance of making the changes needed for our 21st century students. I see your discussion of "mistakes as a compelling way into the larger and enormously important issues of developing self-efficacy, creativity, lateral thinking, self-regulation and problem-solving ability. I have highlighted these issues too in my book Learning for Keeps: Teaching the Strategies Essential for Creating Independent Learners.
Teacher
In my classes, I intentionally make mistakes. Starting with the first day of class, I hand out my papers that say at the top, "Find at least one typo, circle it and fix the mistake." I will have misspellings, incorrect punctuations, incorrect syntax, or false statements. Students like being the first to find the typo. Also, I say to the class that I will make mistakes or tell them that they are wrong when they are correct because I want them to correct me. The students enjoy catching me making mistakes. I then acknowledge my mistake and thank them for correcting me. As the year progresses, I observe the students do respond to each other in a similar manner.
Great Points!
In my foreign language classes I hope and expect the students to make several mistakes through the course of the year and explain to them that it is critical to the learning process. It's easy to give examples of how we made (and continue to make) mistakes using our first language. I agree that far too many students are afraid of being wrong and therefore do not take the necessary risks. One of my German professors always said, "If you are going to make a mistake, make a big one-- you are more likely to learn from it."
I'd just like to point out
I'd just like to point out that we have a lot of work in our society as well as our schools in order to promote "better mistake making."
First, we need to allow people to make mistakes in online social spaces (like posting pictures of themselves nude) and find a way to make these kinds of mistakes things which don't destroy people forever. We used to forget about this kind of stuff, now it follows us forever.
Second, we need to expect restitution from people when they make mistakes, whatever they may be. Mistakes should be things people grow from, not things which destroy them.
David