Mistakes are GOOD!
Did you know that when an individual knows they made a mistake, their brain grows? This is why feedback is so important. If you do not realize the mistake has been made, then your brain can't grow nearly as much. According to Jo Boaler, "Studies of successful and unsuccessful business people show something surprising; what separates the more successful people from the less successful people is not the number of their successes but the number of mistakes they make, with the more successful people making more mistakes."
So how do you help students see the value and importance of making mistakes?
In Mathematical Mindsets, Jo Boaler shares the idea of another teacher who would start class by asking students to crumple up a piece of paper and throw it at the board with the feelings they had when they made a mistake. Then, students retrieved their paper, smoothed it out, and traced all of the lines of the wrinkled paper with markers, and all of these lines represented brain growth. Students kept this as a reminder.
It is also important to not send the message that mistakes are bad, or negative, by taking points off for making mistakes on homework. Switch it up, give MORE points for mistakes.
So how do you help students see the value and importance of making mistakes?
In Mathematical Mindsets, Jo Boaler shares the idea of another teacher who would start class by asking students to crumple up a piece of paper and throw it at the board with the feelings they had when they made a mistake. Then, students retrieved their paper, smoothed it out, and traced all of the lines of the wrinkled paper with markers, and all of these lines represented brain growth. Students kept this as a reminder.
It is also important to not send the message that mistakes are bad, or negative, by taking points off for making mistakes on homework. Switch it up, give MORE points for mistakes.