Learning from mistakes - really?

What associations and emotions do the following statements evoke in you? «No!», «Wrong», «That's not true!», «That's capitalised», «Look, you've made a mistake», «Oh, there's still room for improvement». Perhaps you realise how you are closing yourself off inside? Then you're like most people.

In a series of studies, 1600 adults were asked to complete various learning tasks and, for example, memorise facts about their company. Some of the test subjects were shown the feedback «Your answer was correct» when they answered correctly, while the other group was shown «Your answer was incorrect» when they made mistakes.

Younger children in particular learn more slowly after negative feedback and make more mistakes.

Those participants who were made aware of errors were less able to remember the content in a later test and stated that their self-esteem had suffered - even though the feedback was relatively sober.

How well we learn from mistakes also depends on age. In a study from the Netherlands, a group of researchers investigated how positive and negative feedback affects learning and performance in three age groups (8-9 / 11-13 / 18-25 years). The participants were shown combinations of images with different shapes and colours on a monitor. The test subjects were asked to logically deduce which rules the image combinations were based on. One subgroup only received feedback if they were correct, while the other received feedback for incorrect answers. All age groups benefited more from confirmation when the answers were correct.

But: The younger children not only learnt more slowly after negative feedback, they also made many more mistakes. Their performance deteriorated! A look at the brain using imaging techniques also showed that the areas of the brain responsible for working memory, planning and abstract and flexible thinking were activated much more strongly in younger children after positive feedback.

Just as my colleague Stefanie Rietzler and I were taking a closer look at the studies on feedback, my son was learning the rules of capitalisation at school. Testing on a living object was the order of the day!

Children learn extremely well through guidance. But they switch off when we constantly tell them how not to do something.

So I bent over his homework and casually said: «You capitalised Horse. That's right! How did you know that?» He enthusiastically explained the rule to me and then said: «Oh! I should have capitalised Cloud too! That rule applies there too!»

Later that afternoon, while we were shopping, he asked: «Dad, can we play a game? You say a sentence and I have to find out which words are big.»
Once again, I realised how much children want to be seen with their abilities and skills: «Look what I can already do!»

«Yes, but you also have to tell children when they do something wrong - they also have to learn how to deal with criticism» - this objection is immediately countered if you advocate focussing more on what works.

On closer inspection, it is noticeable that this sentence usually comes from adults who are used to success, who found school easy and who have achieved a good professional position. It often sounds like this: «I also got an unsatisfactory grade in subject xy in my second year at grammar school. Then I pulled myself together, learnt more and got better. You don't get everything for free in life.»

The dose makes the poison

We can and should learn to deal with occasional criticism. However, when it comes to feedback on mistakes, the dose makes the poison. If we have received a good grade in the dictation, we will be motivated to memorise the two or three words that we have written incorrectly.

The child who receives his dictation back with 22 mistakes will only be depressed, feel helpless and develop the conviction that learning is not worthwhile. If we want to maintain the children's enthusiasm for learning, it is important that we have other feedback options than just reporting back mistakes.

Children learn extremely well from instructions and models.

When it comes to language development, most parents instinctively react correctly: we name things, repeat words, let our children join in until they have mastered the language. We are careful not to respond to a child who enthusiastically points at a dog and says «and! and!»: «Wrong! That's not «and»! It's called «dog»! With an H!» Instead, we say: «Yes, exactly, a dog!» and trust that the child will get closer to the correct pronunciation over time.

Even as adults, we learn foreign languages faster and better if our counterpart repeats the sentence grammatically correctly than if they use a red pencil. The latter often only leads to embarrassment and anxiety and causes us as adults to avoid situations in which we would have to speak French or English.

Children learn extremely well from instructions and models: «Look, you can do it like this.» Or by asking questions: «How could you go about it? How could you memorise that?» And they switch off when we constantly tell them how not to do something. This article is not intended to make you never correct your child or your pupils again. But perhaps it will help you not to impulsively give in to the typical error-orientation that almost all of us have, but to pause for a moment and ask yourself these questions:

• What would really help my child or pupils to engage with this topic, make progress and have an enjoyable experience at the same time?
• Could I correct less and show, confirm and point out progress more?
• Could I use a correctly solved example to refresh a rule?
• Could I spend more time exploring with my child or pupils why a word is spelt in a certain way rather than highlighting mistakes?