## Key Ideas > [!abstract] Core Concepts > > - **Safe mistake environment**: Students feel secure making and discussing mistakes for faster diagnosis and learning > - **High expectations with high support**: Expect effort and thinking while making mistakes acceptable > - **80% success rule**: Students succeed more than fail to build confidence for risk-taking ## Definition **Culture of Error**: An environment where students feel safe making and discussing mistakes, enabling teachers to spend less time hunting for errors and more time fixing them through open learning dialogue. ## Connected To [[Rules]] | [[Routines]] | [[No Opt-Out]] | [[Retrieval Practice]] | [[Cold-Call]] | [[Participation]] | [[Responsive Teaching]] --- ## Why culture of error is essential **Priority**: After establishing rules and routines, creating a culture of error should be your second priority with a new class (the foundation for all subsequent learning). ### The critical shift A culture of error involves shifting from defensiveness about mistakes to openness. When students hide errors, teachers must detect hidden misconceptions before addressing them. When students share struggles and errors, teachers can address problems more directly. ### Learning benefits - **Mistakes become data**: valuable information about student thinking - **Faster diagnosis**: students reveal rather than hide misconceptions - **Peer learning**: one student's mistake helps many others - **Risk-taking encouraged**: students attempt challenging problems - **Authentic participation**: honest engagement rather than performance ### Participation benefits - **Cold-call becomes supportive**: being wrong isn't threatening - **Turn and talk more productive**: students share genuine thinking - **Mini-whiteboards show real understanding**: no hiding or copying - **Question asking increases**: confusion becomes acceptable ## Core strategies for building culture of error ### 1. Have high expectations with high support **The balance**: Expect effort and thinking while making mistakes safe. **Essential standards**: - Students must respect each other's answers, whether right or wrong - Any put-downs or mockery addressed immediately according to school policy - Thinking hard is non-negotiable, being wrong is acceptable - Everyone participates, everyone gets support when needed **Your message**: "In this classroom, we have high standards. I expect you to think hard and participate. And when you make mistakes (which you will), we'll learn from them together." ### 2. Thank students for sharing mistakes **When a student makes an error**: - "Thank you for sharing that, Emma" - "I'm glad you said that because I bet lots of people were thinking the same thing" - "That's really helpful (let's figure out why that happened)" - "Perfect mistake to discuss (this will help everyone)" **The rationale**: Explain that mistakes shared help improve understanding for the whole class, not just the individual. ### 3. Avoid "easy" and "simple" language |Instead of|Use| |---|---| |"This is easy"|"You might find this straightforward"| |"This is simple"|"This follows a clear pattern"| |"Obviously..."|"As you can see..."| |"Just..."|"The next step is..."| **Why this matters**: Students who struggle feel inadequate when tasks are described as "easy." ### 4. Use "might" language **Softening language examples**: - "You might get 7 as your answer" - "Some of you might be thinking..." - "This might seem familiar from last lesson" - "You might find this challenging at first" **Purpose**: Reduces pressure and acknowledges that understanding varies among students. ### 5. Model your own error analysis **Demonstrate vulnerability**: - "I made a mistake here (can you spot it?)" - "Yesterday I got confused about this too" - "Let me show you an error I used to make" - "I still have to be careful with this step" **Impact**: Shows that making mistakes is part of learning for everyone, including experts. ### 6. Celebrate process over product |Focus on|Instead of| |---|---| |"I love how you thought about that"|"That's correct"| |"Your reasoning makes sense"|"Good job"| |"You tried a different approach"|"Right answer"| |"You stuck with it when it got hard"|"Perfect"| ### 7. Address put-downs with zero tolerance **Never allow**: - Laughing at wrong answers - Eye rolling or smirking - "That's obvious" comments - Dismissive body language **Response protocol**: - Address immediately with school sanctions - Explain why this behaviour undermines learning - Reinforce community standards - Never let standards slip on this **Example response**: > "Stop. That behaviour is not acceptable in our classroom. When someone shares their thinking, we treat it with respect. [Apply sanction]. Everyone here is learning, and that means everyone makes mistakes. That's not only okay, it's necessary." (Lemov, 2015) ### 8. Use materials that normalise errors **Diagnostic questions**: - Built-in wrong answers make mistakes expected - Discuss why each distractor is appealing - "Let's think about why someone might choose C" **Explain the mistake activities**: - Regular practice analysing errors - Students become error detectives - Builds expertise in recognising misconceptions **Example tasks**: - "Here's student work (what went wrong and how would you help them?)" - "Three students got three different answers (who's right and why?)" - "This is a mistake I see often (can you explain what happened?)" ### 9. Focus on building success **The 80% rule**: Students should be getting answers correct more than 80% of the time (Wilson et al., 2019). **Why this matters**: - Success builds confidence to take risks (Bandura, 1997) - Frequent failure creates learnt helplessness (Dweck, 2006) - Mistakes should be blips in learning, not the norm - Success motivates continued effort (Hattie & Timperley, 2007) **Implementation**: - Plan lessons so most students succeed most of the time - Use scaffolding to support struggling learners - Celebrate growth and improvement - Make success visible and achievable ### 10. Anonymous question systems |Traditional approach|Culture of error approach| |---|---| |"Are there any questions from the homework?"|Anonymous questions written on board as students enter| **Benefits**: - Removes personal risk from asking questions - Often reveals more widespread confusion - Students more likely to admit what they don't understand - Creates data about common struggles **Other anonymous systems**: - Exit ticket confusion points - Online question submissions - "Parking lot" for questions - Peer question collection ### 11. Strategic error discussion **When to highlight mistakes**: - Common misconceptions that help many students - Errors that reveal thinking processes - Mistakes that connect to broader concepts - Wrong answers that show partially correct reasoning **How to discuss errors**: - Make them visible to whole class - Discuss the thinking behind them - Connect to correct approaches - Use as stepping stones to understanding ## Integration with other strategies ### With cold-call - Students more willing to answer when mistakes are safe - Wrong answers become teaching opportunities - Participation increases across all ability levels - Students volunteer more readily ### With no opt-out - Students try harder because mistakes are safe - "I don't know" becomes starting point, not end point - Persistence encouraged through supportive environment - High expectations maintained with high support ## Troubleshooting common issues ### Students still hide mistakes - Check your own language for judgment - Increase frequency of mistake celebration - Use more anonymous systems - Model vulnerability yourself ### Some students mock others - Apply consequences immediately and consistently - Explicitly teach why this undermines learning - Create positive peer culture - Consider seating arrangements ### Focus too much on errors - Remember the 80% success rule - Balance mistake discussion with celebration - Don't make every lesson about what's wrong - Ensure students experience frequent success ### Students become overly cautious - Encourage risk-taking explicitly - Reward attempts over accuracy - Share your own learning struggles - Make challenging problems feel exciting, not threatening --- ## References Bandura, A. (1997). *Self-efficacy: The exercise of control*. W.H. Freeman. Dweck, C. S. (2006). *Mindset: The new psychology of success*. Random House. Hattie, J., & Timperley, H. (2007). The power of feedback. *Review of Educational Research*, 77(1), 81-112. https://doi.org/10.3102/003465430298487 Lemov, D. (2015). *Teach like a champion 2.0: 62 techniques that put students on the path to college*. Jossey-Bass. Wilson, R. C., Shenhav, A., Straccia, M., & Cohen, J. D. (2019). The eighty five percent rule for optimal learning. *Nature Communications*, 10(1), 4646. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-12552-4 ---