Two of the simplest strategies any teacher can use to help learners see mistakes as great opportunities to learn

Mistake Logs

Mistake logs let teachers and learners keep track of mistakes over time.

This also means the results of those mistakes can be tracked.

Why is this a good idea?

Three reasons.

First, it helps learners to see the connection between making mistakes and learning.

Second, it lets learners monitor how their mistakes have helped them to learn.

Third, it means the teacher can see if learners are making the same mistakes again and again, and therefore not learning from them.

To create a mistake log, open a new PowerPoint document, change the page layout to portrait and insert a table with four columns and ten rows.

Label the columns as follows:

Column 1 = Date
Column 2 = What was the mistake?
Column 3 = Why do you think you made the mistake?
Column 4 = What did you learn from the mistake?

Create copies of the document and hand these out to learners.

Now the whole class has a tool through which they can keep track of, reflect on and analyse the most important mistakes they make.

I say ‘most important mistakes’ because the log will lose some of its impact if it is used to record any and every mistake.

Better instead to have learners focus on those ‘good mistakes’ that reveal lots of useful information.

Misconceptions, for example.

This way, the log develops a greater sense of meaning than if it gets filled up with simple, easy-to-rectify mistakes.

Of course, it would be wrong to assume that learners will use their logs as you intend unless you give them guidance.

To this end, I would suggest introducing the logs to learners, explaining why you want to use them, what the benefits will be, and how they can be applied.

In addition, it is worth planning reflective plenaries during which learners fill in their logs, discuss their entries with a partner, and share what they have observed with you and the rest of the class.

Creating an exemplar mistake log when first introducing the technique is also a good idea.

This gives learners a reference point for filling in their own logs.

Something they can imitate and then internalise.

Finally, a different option involves creating a whole-class mistake log.

Here, the aim is to make the process of identifying and reflecting on mistakes a shared endeavour.

One good way to do this is to create a wall display entitled: ‘Our Best Mistakes’.

You can then lead your class in adding to this through the course of the year.

It will become a record of the good mistakes – and associated learning – to which your lessons give rise.

Mistake Discussions

Discussing mistakes means giving them status.

After all, we do not discuss things we deem unworthy of conversation.

In the classroom, discussion occupies a different position compared to other areas of life.

There is an underlying assumption that its role is educational.

Therefore, if we encourage the discussion of mistakes, if we plan to include mistake discussions in our lessons, we signal to learners that mistakes are a good thing, that they are intimately connected to learning, and that we want them out in the open, rather than hidden away.

Here are five ways you can include mistake discussions in your lessons:.

Example 1

Try using a mistake discussion as a starter activity.

For example, you might ask learners to discuss why certain mistakes are good mistakes, to compare different mistakes, to discuss how mistakes can be fixed, or to discuss how they would teach other learners to avoid certain mistakes.

One simple option is to display some misconceptions or ‘good mistakes’ on the board and to then ask learners the questions:

Why are these useful mistakes?
What could someone learn from them?

Example 2

Present your class with a piece of exemplar work containing several key mistakes.

Display this on the board and hand copies out, one per pair.

Lead a discussion in which you and the class examine the work, identifying and fixing the mistakes you find.

Example 3

Present learners with an exemplar exam script containing a series of mistakes, along with a mark-scheme.

Invite them to work through this in pairs, using the mark-scheme to identify and correct the mistakes.

Conclude the activity by asking learners to draw out what they and the class can learn from each of the mistakes identified.

If you have time, you might like to develop this by asking learners to make a guide to the exam paper called ‘Good Mistakes and How to Avoid Them’.

Example 4

If you use show and tell with your learners, why not turn one iteration of this into ‘Mistake Show and Tell’?

Doing so is easy.

Simply tell learners that you want to hear about the best mistake they ever made – and that this means the mistake that taught them the most, whether they made it in school or somewhere else.

Kick things off by modelling an example yourself.

Example 5

At the beginning of a topic, provide learners with a handout containing an overview of what they will be studying.

Invite them to look at this in pairs and to predict some of the mistakes they think they might make during the unit of work.

Develop this into a whole-class discussion and capture learner ideas by creating a ‘mistake-predictions document’ based on the five boldest or most common predictions put forward.

Return to this through the course of the unit and use it as the basis of further reflections.