Wrong Remains Wrong
A positive culture of error: What a phrase! But is making mistakes today really less embarrassing than it used to be? People still don’t like being wrong – especially in school.
My teacher, Ms. Krieg, neatly handwrote in my first report card: “Christa is a bright, sweet child. She excels both verbally and in writing. However, if she makes a mistake or doesn’t understand something right away, she immediately panics! She needs to learn not to react so strongly to mistakes.” Back then, and for many years after, my dictations were full of errors, each one relentlessly marked in red. I spent decades practicing and doing punishment dictations. Ms. Krieg was right: Today, the word “dictation” still triggers feelings of panic and helplessness in me.
Every child knows that it’s best not to make mistakes. But as time goes on, it becomes clear that bad grades, extra homework, frequent parent-teacher meetings, and limited future opportunities are all tied to one’s mistakes and wrong choices.
Over the course of time it becomes clear that bad grades, extra homework, frequent parent-teacher meetings, and limited future opportunities all stem from one thing: mistakes and poor choices.
I received my first report card in the mid-1980s. At the time, it wasn’t common to embrace mistakes or address them in a respectful or transparent manner. Today, it’s a widespread concept in all curricula and school strategies: Mistakes are helpful. However, many students think this sounds like a big lie. The first day of school marks the start of a serious phase in life, and every child knows that the best thing to do is not to make mistakes. Over the course of time it becomes clear that bad grades, extra homework, frequent parent-teacher meetings, and limited future opportunities all stem from one thing: mistakes and poor choices.
The fear of being “wrong”
“There are hardly any individuals who enjoy being wrong and making mistakes,” Michael B. Horn writes in his latest book, From Reopen to Reinvent. (RE)Creating School for Every Child. The education expert and author adds: “Hardly anyone puts energy into activities that promote their own failure.” The word “mistake” remains a negative word, even if you spell it correctly. No one gets into an on-the-job training program or a university-track high school because they’re good at making mistakes. The fear of making mistakes also prevents learners from challenging themselves. After all, mistakes are a sign of weakness. They make you question your own self-confidence.
If you Google “test anxiety,” you’ll find around 1.3 million results in 0.39 seconds. A PISA study on well-being also shows how deep-seated this fear is among learners. In 2015, students were surveyed about test anxiety for this study. One-third of all Swiss students stated that, despite good preparation, they felt nervous before an exam. There are no statistics on children who did not prepare or who were underprepared. We can only guess what their numbers might be.
In many ways, how today’s students feel about mistakes and failure isn’t much different from what their parents and grandparents experienced. While the days of getting whacked with a stick or smacked on the head for being wrong are long behind us, failure and mistakes are still often met with a sense of helplessness and panic – even though we supposedly live in a culture that embraces mistakes.
“There are hardly any individuals who enjoy being wrong and making mistakes.”
“Grades that measure performance and the popular idea that it’s okay to make mistakes just don’t go hand in hand,” Martin Hafen, lecturer at the Institute for Social Management at the University of Lucerne, says. “As long as exams and the concepts of ‘right and wrong’ remain the main measures of success in school, the idea of embracing mistakes is just empty talk.” In a society that emphasizes performance, encouraging mistakes remains a contradiction. A culture focused on selection and achievement creates an expectation of flawless results. As such, people focus on avoiding mistakes, while learning is pushed into the background.
Knowledge counts, mistakes don’t.
Who doesn’t know the feeling of not answering a question out of fear of being wrong? And who hasn’t consciously ignored, hidden, or even denied that they made a mistake? The uncomfortable feeling of being ridiculed, exposed, or even stigmatized for not knowing something is constantly with us – first during dictation lessons in elementary school, and later during performance appraisals with bosses. Learning from one’s mistakes is a process; it requires time and the opportunity to engage in it, as well as trust in oneself and in one’s environment.
Learning from one’s mistakes is a process that takes time and the opportunity to do so. It also requires trusting ourselves and those around us.
Hafen is convinced that you need a school system focused on learning experience and the empowerment of students to meet the demands of a positive error culture. “If school is to be a protected learning space, then it must be insights that matter, not mistakes,” the sociologist stresses. Learning from one’s mistakes is a process that takes time and the opportunity to do so. It also requires trusting ourselves and those around us.
According to educational researcher John Hattie, a positive culture of errors “invites” us to explore “new possibilities.” His research highlights the critical role mistakes play in the learning process. Rather than signaling failure, mistakes can figure as valuable landmarks allowing us to chart a path from what is known toward potentially new perspectives.
Martin Hafen adds: “Mistakes often only become mistakes through the reactions of those around us.” Social context and family play a powerful, formative role. No one would call a toddler’s attempts to stand up, only to fall repeatedly, mistakes. For toddlers, failure is just part of the process. It’s the principle of “trial and error” that drives development. But once children enter the school system, their shortcomings are suddenly put on display, compared to others, and evaluated. What were once natural learning experiences become tasks dictated by external forces, with failure seen as something to be corrected.
Not without a good relationship
The Swiss curriculum, Lehrplan 21, includes a culture of errors as a key aspect of good teaching, alongside that of providing feedback and engaging in communication. It’s up to teachers to put this into practice. When I spoke with a middle school teacher, she explained how she integrates mistakes into the classroom situation: “We differentiate between training and testing phases. During the training phase, mistakes are an important part of the improvement process. In the testing phase, students should aim to avoid mistakes as much as possible.”
“I’m convinced that educational institutions don’t just look at grades. They are looking for young people who recognise mistakes, own up to them, and try not to repeat them.”
Educational researcher Hattie sees a positive relationship between teacher and student as a crucial condition for freely making mistakes. The expert emphasizes that a good relationship creates the certainty that it’s okay to make mistakes. This gives students the space to ask for help and the self-confidence to try again. The mistake becomes a learning opportunity, not a problem.
In a conversation with the author, a high school teacher shared that he prefers to avoid the term “culture of errors.” Instead, he focuses on encouraging students to think critically, to figure out for themselves what’s right and wrong, and to understand the reasons behind it. However, it remains true that bad grades from mistakes on exams don’t help students get into high school or secure an apprenticeship – whether or not there’s a culture of errors. “I’m convinced that educational institutions don’t just look at grades,” the teacher adds. “They’re looking for young people who can recognise their mistakes, take responsibility for them, and work to avoid repeating them.”
PISA-Studie zum Wohlbefinden (2015) > www.oecd.org /berlin > Publikationen > PISA 2015 Results (Volume III) Student’s Well-Being
John Hattie; «Visible Learning for teachers». 2012. Routledge.
John Hattie & Gregory Yates; «Visible Learning and the Science of How We Learn». 2013. Routledge.
Michael B. Horn; «From reopen to rein- vent». 2022. Jossey-Bass.
published in “Bildung Schweiz” (02/2023)