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鈥淢istakes are a natural part of learning,鈥� writes education consultant, lawyer, and former math teacher Colin Seale , 鈥渂ut students cannot develop into critical thinkers if they regularly freeze out of the fear of making a mistake.鈥澛燗uthor of the book聽, Seale works with teachers and schools on how to incorporate critical thinking strategies into their curriculum.

Seale has a point: Mistakes are crucial if we are to learn. As Youki Terada has written for 麻豆传媒入口, 鈥淢istakes are crucial pieces of information that force a cognitive reckoning, pushing the brain to reconcile contradictory information and build more accurate, durable solutions.鈥� Terada cites a point made by Carol Dweck, author of : 鈥淓very time a student makes a mistake鈥� they grow a synapse.鈥�

Interestingly, a student鈥檚 level of confidence in a mistake plays a role in their learning. A research review in suggests that when students strongly believe their answer is correct, they鈥檙e better primed to learn than if they鈥檙e hesitant: 聽鈥淏ecause they are surprised (and perhaps embarrassed) at having made a mistake on a response they strongly thought was correct, individuals may rally their attentional resources to better remember the correct answer.鈥�

The key, though, is not stigmatizing mistakes鈥攐r the students who make them. In a mistake-friendly classroom, teachers can use errors as opportunities to assess how students are understanding course content and to support their critical thinking skills. Seale suggests that teachers regularly engage in mistake analysis鈥攇iving serious thought to the ways students are likely to get off-track in a lesson鈥攖o create an environment in which mistakes are embraced and critical thinking becomes a natural part of the curriculum.

Seale regards this as an aspect of educational equity. 鈥淐ritical thinking should not be a luxury good,鈥� he writes, 鈥渂ut our current system often treats it that way, setting aside this kind of challenging work for only the most advanced students.鈥� He argues that if students are afraid to make mistakes, they are denied the opportunity to 鈥渓ead, innovate, and break the things that must be broken as a core part of their educational experience.鈥�

How to Make the Most of Mistakes

Anticipate 鈥済ood鈥� mistakes and cultivate student confidence: It鈥檚 good practice to build opportunities for student guesswork into your teaching, a strategy that engages productive struggle and boosts learning.

Seale suggests that teachers plan for 鈥済ood鈥� mistakes鈥攕eemingly off-base answers like confusing opinions with facts or going off-track when adding fractions with different denominators. By thinking ahead about why a student might make a mistake, you鈥檒l be better prepared to help them deconstruct it and arrive at a better conclusion.

Engage with good mistakes as they happen: Seale suggests embracing good mistakes as openings for rich inquiry. 鈥淭hey offer a lot of opportunities for learning, and some of them have the potential to be magic,鈥� he writes. Rather than dismissing a wrong answer, try asking, 鈥淲hat makes you say that?鈥� When you explore the why, you might be surprised by an astute connection the student has made鈥攐ne that presents an opportunity to make still more connections.

Have students create good mistakes on purpose: 鈥淲hen we have students anticipate the most predictable mistakes that might be made on a task, we鈥檙e moving well beyond that lower level of test-taking skills and instead, getting students to think like test-makers, coming up with viable (but incorrect) options on a multiple-choice test,鈥� Seale says.

Try asking your students to think of three incorrect but good responses to a prompt. They鈥檒l likely come up with logical possibilities, which will help them make connections among ideas and build their critical thinking skills.

Seale suggests having students follow what he calls the 鈥淛oe Schmo rule鈥�: Ask them to create answers that would trip up the average person who always falls for trick answers. 鈥淚nstead of letting students come up with crazy, nonsensical options, this rule keeps the exercise at a challenging metacognitive level,鈥� he says.

Ask students which wrong answer is more right: It鈥檚 often the case that one answer is more right than another鈥攖hat there鈥檚 some element of correctness even in incorrect answers. That creates an opportunity to tease out subtleties.

Seale suggests offering students two equations that are both wrong, where one is wrong conceptually and the other computationally. Or offer two paragraphs, one with structural errors, the other flawed by grammatical mistakes. Seale believes that 鈥渁sking which wrong is more 鈥榬ight鈥� helps learners shift from asking 鈥榳hat鈥� and 鈥榟ow to鈥� to asking 鈥榳hy鈥� and 鈥榳hat if鈥欌�攁 necessary shift for giving students the tools to not just analyze the world as it is, but imagine it as it ought to be.鈥�