How Can Students Build Mistake Literacy?

When speaking with an advisee over Discord the other day, he shared that there are many things he likes about distance learning. However, he also commented that he is growing frustrated with what we know as a delay in the feedback loop. For this student’s entire schooling experience, his mistakes were easily and quickly rectified by simply raising his hand. Seemingly overnight, he now has to wait for as long as 24 hours to receive a response to even the simplest question.

As our conversation progressed, we began to speak about the fact that in a distance learning model, students have to become increasingly self-reliant. Even more specifically, we spoke about how students need to shift their mindset to begin to see learning as something they’re doing for themselves, rather than for their teacher. 

Novel times call for novel measures, and with students stuck at home, it only makes sense that we’d teach them how to rely more on themselves and less on their teachers.

It is inarguable that this is a massive mindset shift, but there are research-based strategies that can help students take greater ownership for their learning and, in turn, greater ownership for their mistakes. 

To learn more about the role of self-regulation and deliberate practice in growing mistake-literate learners, check out the video below.