Students are made by making mistakes
Think about the following sentence: “Suppose that you have clicked for sending an email about a funny thing but you have realized that you have mistakenly sent your mail to your company.”
All of us have made such mistakes. But by chance, you will not make such mistake again. Making a mistake is an integral part of learning process. Such mistakes remain in your mind for a long time. Please note that minor mistakes also affect learning process of you and that of your children as well.
Many researches illustrate that some mistakes help us.
Around the world, many educators were believing in that making mistakes are counter effective and it hurts learning process. They deeply believed in that in the event that a learner learns a topic in a wrong way, the information would become fixed in their mind. But the opposite was true. Many studies around the world have indicated that making errors during the learning process as well as correcting them will result in a better understanding and recall materials.
Within 1990s, researchers conducted a research so as to compare Japanese and American educational systems, through which they found out that the American teachers made genuine efforts to correct the answers of their students and disregarded their incorrect answers. They did not ask them why their answers were correct or incorrect.
On the other hand, the Japanese ones were willing to ask their students so that they find the correct answers. Afterward, they talked about various responses. The learners should learn why the incorrect responses were wrong and the correct ones were right.
Such reflections resulted in better recall. Letting students to make mistakes so as to learn from them was the most important reason that the Japanese students had a better performance rather than the Americans in universally held math competitions.
Growth Mindset Power
Upon comparing the students enjoying growth mindsets with the students with fixed mindsets, the value of making mistakes becomes crystal clear. Professor Carol Dweck, from Stanford University, had conducted a research on the importance and effects of growth mindsets. The individuals who enjoy such mindsets know that intelligence is not set at birth. Accordingly, they work to develop and improve it. Also, the people with fixed mindsets believe in that whether you are born smart and intelligent or not. This theory is rooted in and proven with a significant study. Needless to say, the students with growth mindsets have a better performance rather than those with fixed one, even if they were tested lower in comparison to the fixed-minded students when they were younger.
Mistakes are viewed as learning opportunities by growth mindset students. A research had showed a different result when comparing how children with different mindsets play video games. After making mistakes, students enjoying growth mindset had a better performance and with higher accuracy rates. But the students with fixed mindsets did not show any improvement. The studies conducted in a classroom indicated similar results as well.
It is worth mentioning that the students with growth mindsets learn from mistakes instead of regarding them embarrassing. If you regard mistakes as opportunities, your kids and children will consider its benefits too.