Mistakes are often seen as failures, but they’re actually the cornerstone of true learning. In this episode, Lauren explores how to shift the perception of mistakes from something to avoid to something to embrace—both in schools and at home. Drawing on experiences as an educator and parent, we discuss how mistakes reveal a child’s thinking, foster self-awareness, and provide invaluable opportunities for growth. Learn why the path from “not knowing” to “knowing” is vital, and how we can create environments where mistakes are celebrated as stepping stones to success.
TRANSCRIPTION
Embracing Mistakes: Unlocking the True Power of Learning
Today, I’m going to talk about mistakes. This is remarkable in a child’s life: the ability and willingness to make mistakes and learn from them. However, it’s worth discussing it further and providing more language to describe it.
In typical schools and school systems, mistakes are acknowledged and are part of the learning process. However, I don’t think they are embraced enough, especially for children who are struggling. Mistakes are actually where learning occurs. If I’m not making a mistake, then it means I’ve already learned it. Ultimately, schools are where we go to learn; they’re not where we go to know.
Shifting the Paradigm: Learning at School, Not Knowing
If I link it back to the idea of homework, I always felt pressure to complete the homework in a way that allowed my children to get to school the next day and show the teacher that they had done the work. When my child started struggling, that was one of the things I realised: How backwards is that? As a parent, I want to develop my child in a way that allows them to demonstrate to the teacher that they already know the material and can earn good marks. It really should be the other way around.
The mistake should occur at school, where the teacher should work with those mistakes to understand the child’s thought process and adjust their knowledge and skills, so that the child learns, grows, and develops, ultimately gaining the ability.
Omatas’ Approach: Learning as a Process
At Omatas, we focus on teaching children and helping them understand the concept of learning. Learning is a process of moving from the unknown to the known, progressing from being unable to do something to being able to do it. And that is where we need to stop and think, allowing the child time to process what the mistake is, what it looks like, and how it feels, as well as why the mistake occurred and how we can adjust our thinking or knowledge to solidify our understanding of the work.
The Value of Mistakes for Teachers and Students
The mistakes are the things that teachers should be embracing because that’s where we get to know the child and their thinking. By getting to know the child, we help them understand themselves, their thoughts, and their unique way of doing things. The mistakes range from getting a sum wrong to not listening to an instruction and failing to comprehend it correctly, or being in the wrong field at the wrong time, or bringing the wrong book to school.
All of those are learning opportunities. They are not opportunities to punish a child or give them some kind of negative mark, but a chance to say, “Oh, that’s interesting. It’s interesting that you brought your maths book today. Tell me what you were thinking. Did you know it was maths? What did you check? Did you check your timetable? How can I help you check your timetable? How can I improve your ability?”
Teaching in the Moment of Error
So, if we don’t make room for teaching within the moment of error, then we are not teaching; we are lecturing and testing. I’m specifically thinking about the primary school stage of life. Although it may be different in high school, in primary school, children are still developing these skills. And I’m concerned about the message we convey to children when they make a mistake and we reprimand them for it. We relate to them the message that mistakes are something to be avoided. But the mistakes are the learning. And that’s what I focus on at my school.
