We live in a society that strives for perfection. Mistakes are the enemy of perfection, so when people make them, more often than not they are seen as failures. But what if we reframed mistakes as opportunities rather than failures? In this article, we’ll discuss why we should not view mistakes as failures but rather as opportunities to improve. Furthermore, we will also provide four steps and a couple of strategies to help students correct mistakes in an advantageous way.
Why Are Mistakes Good?
The biggest reason why mistakes are good is because they are opportunities to grow, specifically in learning. Studies have shown that correcting mistakes can benefit learning if they are reinforced with good feedback, which helps the student logically understand how the mistake happened. In many Japanese classrooms, students try to solve problems on their own before teachers give any instructions; this process encourages students to think critically. The students’ answers or methods are usually not correct without the teacher’s instructions. So, when the teacher teaches them the proper methods, the students better understand why the correct methods/answers work. Besides helping students learn, student mistakes can also help teachers better understand how their students’ thought processes work, which helps them better tailor their teaching for the student. Correcting mistakes can also instill a multitude of valuable qualities. For example, students demonstrate determination when they attempt to fix their mistakes, and they demonstrate creativity by thinking of new ways to approach a situation or problem.
How To Best Correct Mistakes
Step 1: Acknowledge Mistakes
In order to correct a mistake, students have to realize that they made a mistake. Every student will respond to mistakes differently. Some students will be adamant that their answer is correct; if this happens, try to be specific when explaining why the answer is wrong. Other students will become discouraged by their mistakes; for these students, try to praise students for their efforts; reinforcing the students’ hard work will motivate them to keep trying.
Step 2: Prepare for Correction
Step 2 is the trickiest step to get right because there are so many different ways to do this. In order to maximize the students’ growth, it is important to give them the proper amount of assistance—not too much, not too little. According to the psychologist Lev Vygotsky, people learn best when the concept is in their Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), where the concept is slightly too difficult for people to learn on their own but not so difficult that it becomes unlearnable.
If we understand our situation through Vygotsky’s theory, then our goal is to provide just the right amount of assistance to get students who are completely unable to solve a problem to a level where they can solve the problem on their own. Providing too much help will prevent the student from engaging with the concept, but providing too little help will burn out the student’s brain power. So what can we do?
One strategy we can use is modeling what is correct. By showing the student how to do the problem, we place them in their ZPD: they know how to do the problem correctly, but they still need to practice in order to truly understand. Modeling can be helpful for logic-oriented concepts that take practice to perfect, such as math. For more abstract concepts, you can facilitate their thought process by asking questions that help them think in the right way, which sets them up just enough to critically understand the concept on their own.
Step 3: Correct
Once they have all the necessary tools at their disposal to correct their mistakes, the next step is to put those tools to use! For logic-oriented problems, the student would try the problems again or ones that demonstrate the same skills. For abstract concepts, the student might try to verbally explain the concept or demonstrate their understanding of the concept through writing.
Step 4: Review
If the student got it right, then that’s great! In order to help the student cement their understanding, you can encourage the student to look back on what worked and what didn’t so that they know what to avoid in the future. If the student continued to get the problem wrong, that is also perfectly okay. The student still gained something valuable by taking these steps, whether it’s a new way of thinking or a better understanding of the concept. Just repeat these four steps, and eventually the student will get there.
About the Author:
Allan Han, MA is a writer and educator with over six years of teaching experience in teaching K-12 students fundamental English, fundamental Math, SAT writing, and high school literature. He received his Master's Degree in English Instruction at NYU and formerly taught in LaGuardia High School in the city of New York.