Guest blog from the founders of EasyA

Building Resilience By Making Mistakes

“I’ve made a mistake.” It’s a phrase most children (and adults!) hate to admit. Whether it’s scoring poorly on a test or getting something wrong in class, most children associate mistakes with shame and have been conditioned to view them as a negative phenomenon to be avoided at all costs. And it doesn’t help that most schools see mistakes as worthy of punishment over praise. But getting things wrong is in fact crucial to a child’s learning and overall development. Rather than circling them in red ink, we should welcome, analyse, and embrace these unique opportunities for learning. In the words of Elbert Hubbard, “the greatest mistake you can make in life is continually fearing that you’ll make one.”

In order to appreciate the importance of making mistakes, one must realise that they are a key mechanism by which students learn - as counter-intuitive as it may seem. While focusing on mistakes might be the last thing a child (and parent) wants to do, getting comfortable with analysing where one has erred is imperative to improvement. In fact, an often cited 1992 study, which compared the US and Japan’s teaching styles, found that students whose teachers focused on their mistakes and recapped their errors in detail (Japan), performed markedly better than those whose teachers praised their correct answers and glossed over their mistakes (US). However tempting it might be to focus on the number of questions your child has got correct, it can be more meaningful to pay attention to those that aren’t. After all, the best learning comes from appreciating what one does not know.

But making mistakes is not only vital to improving academic performance. The confidence with which students make their mistakes can impact how beneficial a mistake is. A study by researchers at Columbia University found that students who got an answer wrong with confidence actually ended up recalling the correct answer with far greater clarity. But how do you encourage your child to make mistakes and get comfortable with getting things wrong? After all, it’s hard to convince your child that not being right can in fact be good.

A large part is down to letting your child learn autonomously. Seeing your most beloved struggle with their work alone, unaided by external guidance, might go against one’s parental instincts, but can have profound benefits. Find this hands-off approach hard to believe? Research on two groups of children in Singapore, centered around the concept of “productive failure” and “direct instruction”, found that students who were left to solve complicated maths problems independently made more mistakes initially, but scored higher on final tests than those who solved problems with direct guidance from their teachers. In future studies, these students also showed a higher willingness to make mistakes and find creative ways of solving problems. As ironic as it might seem, encouraging children to make mistakes and feel comfortable doing so does actually promote better learning.

All in all, mistakes are an inevitable part of growing up and building confidence. Whether it’s failing a test in class or falling off a bike in the park, it’s rare that one makes a mistake from which one does not learn. Instead of avoiding them, we should welcome mistakes as a crucial part of any learning experience. After all, if one learns from their supposed “mistake”, can it even be considered a mistake?