Recently while
browsing internet, and skipping through YouTube, I came across a video of TED
where Brian Goldman, a doctor by profession was talking about his mistakes. Very
sincerely and emotionally, he was sharing his experiences with the audience
where he described some costly emergency room mistakes, and then talked about
how admitting these mistakes can change the way medical professionals work. According
to him, if doctors will accept and discuss their mistakes without judgment,
medicines will improve, as doctors will learn from each others. Further he
commented that as mistakes are doctors’ enemy, so they get scared to discuss
mistakes, and continue with blaming each others.
We are human
being, and somehow, according to me, we abide to commit mistakes. I personally believe
that one learns in a better way when he or she commits mistakes. I have
committed a lot of mistakes in my life, and so does everyone. If I have to
classify mistakes, I would classify them in:
1. The mistakes that I hid
2. The mistakes I learnt nothing from
3. The mistakes I learnt from
4. The mistakes I learnt from and shared my
knowledge with others (which I usually do with my students)
According to me,
last two classes have a great potential when it comes to life-time learning.
In an era, where
parents pay hefty amount to schools to get good education for their children,
teachers are expected to be ‘mistake free’. Parents, Principals, their colleagues,
the management, everyone looks at them very negatively for making mistakes. Yet,
when a teacher forms a good rapport with other teachers or his or her
colleagues, he or she shares his or her problems, asks for advice, give advice,
and thus, learn from each other. In schools, generally it happens, where a
mentor teacher shares ideas with the new teachers. But what would happen when
not only mentor teacher but everyone (including Principal, Management,
Administrators, and other teachers) shares ideas with each others?
The entire
concept of sharing mistakes, discussing them, is to change the perception of
the mistakes. This is not the change only in teachers’ but also students’
perception. When teachers make students aware about teachers’ own mistakes and
how they learn from them, they set a true and genuine example before children.
Students might learn from their own mistakes after that.
Mistakes can improve learning. In almost
every part of the world, in education scenario, mistakes are evaluated as poor
performance. Students are told not to make mistakes as it may affect their
grades. For me, as a new age world teacher, this is an absurd belief. Because if
I look at my own journey, at those all mistakes I made, I have learnt
everything from them. The bigger the mistake, the more the learning. I learnt
less from my success but more from my mistakes, from my failures.
With students,
problem doesn’t lie in making mistakes. The real problem lies is teachers not
using the mistakes to promote learning. The word SHAME is attached with
mistakes, so no student takes chance to explore and think beyond the box. If
done the survey, again it my opinion, and not a fact, it will be seen that most
of the brilliant students in the schools are not risk-takers, not unique
thinkers, not creative in their expressions. They are the ones who scored
maximum in standardized tests or assessments. Thus, we label them as gifted
students (who commit fewer mistakes). I think that it is a mistake to think of
a mistake as a mistake in learning. Everything changes when mistakes becomes
learning opportunities. Mistakes and their acceptance lead to students taking
more risks, thinking in new ways, cheating less in the examinations, etc.
We should stop
marking errors on exam answer sheet without explaining why the answers are
wrong. We should give enough explanation, and for that matter, enough time, to
understand what went wrong and how to fix it.
We should give
them a chance to correct their mistakes and redo their work. This will create learning
opportunities for them.
Grades shouldn’t
be given or marked on the basis of exam performance, but on the rate of
students’ improvement of their mistakes. The more the student improves, the
higher his or her grades.
Never say in
front of students, “No, your answer is wrong. Can anyone please help him/her
with this?” Instead of that, ask questions like: Why do you think so? Can you
elaborate it a bit?
There should be
a concept of HELPER. A helper is a student who helps the one who commit
mistakes. The helper works as a personal consultant. If a student commits a
mistake, let him/her chose his/her helper.
Instead of a
wall displaying students’ achievements, an ideal classroom should have a wall
where students should talk about their mistakes and what they learnt from their
mistakes.
A school should
have a sign at the very entrance, which says: Everyone who enters here will
learn.
