General Introduction

This blog is part of my Differentiation and Adaptive Teaching Knowledge Base.

I use the terms differentiation and adaptive teaching synonymously. To me, they are the same, as genuine differentiation has always involved adapting your planning and your teaching to meet the needs of the learners in front of you.

For me, differentiation is all the practical strategies, activities and techniques teachers use to personalise learning.

For ease, we can break that down into my five categories of differentiation: Activities, Questioning, Words and Writing, Things the Teacher Can Do and Things You Can Ask Learners to Do or Use.

This blog falls into the category of things the teacher can do.

Celebrate Mistakes

Making mistakes is an inevitable part of life and one of the main ways in which we learn.

In school, many learners are fearful of error.

There are several reasons for this.

First, there is the fear of embarrassment.

Learners may be concerned that they will look foolish in front of their peers.

They may believe that they will be made fun of if they make a mistake or that it will reflect badly on them.

Learners may prefer to avoid taking risks and play it safe to minimise the chance of failure.

Second, summative assessment has a significant role in school life.

This is where learners are assessed to find out how much they know and understand.

Results are given in the form of grades, levels or marks.

Such a system inevitably ranks learners in relation to one another.

In addition, the tests that form these types of assessments are often high stakes: there is one opportunity and that’s it (or, at least, that’s how it feels to learners).

Third, learners may seek to protect their own ego by avoiding situations where a mistake could be made.

By ego I refer to that vision of oneself that each of us possesses.

If a learner has regularly experienced failure during their school career and does not believe they are capable of accessing the learning, they may become reluctant to put themselves in a position (for example by answering a question) where further failure might be possible.

This is akin to a withdrawal.

The learner disengages to preserve their own self-image, or they develop a self-image that is set in opposition to education and those things that are associated with it.

Celebrating mistakes is one way of trying to overcome these barriers.

It is a means of turning the fear of failure on its head.

It involves praising the mistakes learners make as great learning opportunities – and then using them as such.

For example, in a lesson on long division, a learner may make a mistake in their working out.

Rather than drawing a cross next to this and telling the learner it is wrong, the teacher can instead ask the learner to explain their reasoning and then discuss with them how they went wrong, why they went wrong and how they can learn from this in the future.

Here are five simple strategies you can use to help celebrate mistakes and change learners’ perceptions of them.

Good Mistakes vs Careless Mistakes

Help learners understand the difference between good mistakes and careless mistakes.

Good mistakes help us learn.

They are the result of trying hard, putting in effort and embracing challenge.

Good mistakes reveal information that we can use. Either to avoid the same mistake in the future, or to do things differently next time.

Careless mistakes are where we lost concentration, didn’t check, or took a shortcut that caused us to go wrong.

Mistake Maker of the Week

Once learners understand the difference between good mistakes and careless mistakes, you can start giving out an award for ‘Mistake Maker of the Week’.

This is the learner who has made the most useful, insightful or illuminating mistake through the week.

A mistake that has helped everyone to learn.

Or one that revealed some really useful information.

Used consistently, this strategy, particularly in a primary context, completely changes how learners think about mistakes.

Famous Mistake Makers from History

Share stories with learners of famous mistake makers.

Or people who have been through lots of trial and error before, ultimately, being successful.

The discovery of penicillin can be seen as a good mistake.

Had the petri dish been cleared away, the mould would not have grown.

Instead, the mistake, or accident, led to a discovery that has changed the world.

Good Mistake Contest

Divide your class into teams.

Give each team a name and explain that, over the next few lessons or weeks, you are going to keep a tally of who makes the most good mistakes.

Closely specify what constitutes a good mistake and share this with your learners.

Make clear that only mistakes that fit these criteria will count.

Explain that there will be a prize for the team who make the most good mistakes.

(Or, that each team will get a reward, with the size of the reward dependent on how many good mistakes they make.)

The advantage of this approach is that each learner in a team can contribute but, to do so, they must embrace tasks and/or extensions that are at the right level of challenge for them.

Good Mistake Bingo

When teaching a new topic, make a list of common mistakes and misconceptions associated with it.

Turn this into a class bingo sheet.

Explain that you want these mistakes out in the open.

You think they will probably happen, based on your experience, and that you want to know when they do – so you can teach away from them.

This can create a fun dynamic, where learners in the class are eager to share mistakes and misconceptions when they make them, so the class as a whole can successfully complete the mistakes bingo sheet.

How can celebrating mistakes help you to differentiate?

Many learners fear failure.

This discourages them from attempting to answer questions, from completing tasks or from embracing challenge.

Celebrating mistakes is a way of overcoming this.

An atmosphere in which mistakes are celebrated and used as learning points is likely to be one in which more learners engage with the learning and take on challenges.

Using mistakes as a teaching point is an excellent way of helping learners to make progress.

It does not matter where a learner is at, they will be able to learn from their mistakes.

The approach therefore brings benefits to all learners, no matter their starting position.