3 We all make mistakes!

Learning is an adventurous experience with ups and downs, excitements and disappointments, discoverings, uncoverings and recoverings from failure and mistakes. Learning is messy, chaotic and entangled. This is how it is. The more adventurous we are, the more mistakes we will make, the more we can potentially learn. People who don’t do much, don’t make many mistakes. This is just how it is. The doing really matters in learning. Getting our hands dirty, being confused, making mistakes and feeling lost at times too. Also feeling excitement, happiness and fulfilment when we have learnt something new. Our learning adventures boost our creative and critical being!

Mistakes: What can we learn from research, play and GenAI?

Often, we hide mistakes from plain view when we talk about learning. High-stakes mistakes and low-stakes mistakes. Any mistake! What role does the way we work with students, support their learning and how they are assessed play;  what are the effects of culture, norms and traditions? Is the emphasis on assessment of learning and judging students’ performance what stands in the way of recognising the value of mistakes for learning?

Let’s focus for a moment on research. It seems that mistakes are seen as part of the inquiry and experimentation (Peters et al., 2018). When we engage in research we are expected to refer to limitations of a research project and things that didn’t work well for example and things we would do differently. We are looking for related information in other researchers’ work. Dawson (2016) referring to failure in pedagogic research argues that it is not uncommon that failure there remains hidden, as a process and output. Dawson 2016) notes that power asymmetries potentially play a role in this together with the entangled reality of research, scholarship and teaching. Jancovich and Stevenson (2023) recognise this challenge and their research in the area of evaluating cultural practice is very much about learning from failure.

Ok, now let’s have a look at play. What happens there? Failure and mistakes seem to feature naturally in play activities. We make mistakes all the time when we play. And it is ok. We take risks, are inventive, try to solve problems (Whitton, 2018)? What could this mean for learning? Playful learning has been labelled as childish and naïve, something we should stay away from in higher education, but things are changing (James and Nerantzi, 2019; Walsh, 2018). We have started recognising the value play brings to learning and the evidence-base in this area keeps growing (James & Nerantzi, 2019). The playground model may provide a useful guide for educators interested in introducing, growing and nurturing learning through play (Nerantzi, 2015; Nerantzi, 2019).

And what about GenAI? Many students are exploring how GenAI could help them in their learning. They don’t need to be encouraged by educators it seems, and they feel that they can share their questions, thoughts and ideas with a GenAI tool without being judged perhaps (Wiersma, 2024)? They don’t mind sharing their imperfections, their work-in-progress and mistakes there while they wouldn’t share their work with their peers as easily.

What can we learn from research, play and the use of GenAI regarding making mistakes?

Mistakes in teaching and learning remain largely hidden treasures

We can learn so much from things that haven’t worked (yet) and things that went wrong in a specific situation. Things we did and others, too, individually and collectively. What can we learn about learning from mistakes when reflecting on practices that link to research, play and genAI?

Mistakes play a special role in learning. We see this in more experimental, playful and discovery learning where the boundaries are pushed, and novel connections are made (Brown, 2009). When we dare to think and do the unthinkable. When we dare to be wrong and admit it. When we dare to try again. And again. This is for example what is happening in hackathons, fast-paced collaborative learning spaces for computing students to take risks, fail and try again (Hardin, 2021).

As students and learners we will all make mistakes. As humans we make mistakes every day. Mistakes enable us to become better at problem-posing, analysing and problem solving! But not automatically just because we made a mistake, or two or more. Investigating our experiences plays an important role in learning also from mistakes. When we are not afraid to make mistakes, we become more spontaneous and responsive to what we experience and actively participate in our lives instead of being spectators and too afraid to do anything. Learning is definitely not a spectator sport! However, this meandering, wandering and wondering in, with and about the world and many questions literally in our head, can make us feel confused and what (Kleiman, 2011) defined as operating “at the edge of chaos”. Learning can feel this way for all of us!

Remember, this is what has been driving humanity forwards for millennia.

Whitton (2018, 3) writing about playful learning notes that “The positive construction of failure and the creation of learning environments where students feel able to fail is perhaps the most important characteristic of playful learning in the magic circle. In the contemporary higher education context, learners are under increased pressure to perform, owing to the rising costs of education and the increased competitiveness of graduate outcomes.” These words made me think about assessment and the role it potentially plays when making, disclosing and discussing failure and mistakes. Nobody wants to fail a module or programme or being seen as a failure.

How much of the associated fear of failing relates to the way we assess, what we assess and why we assess? Do we still overly focus on the product and expect something polished, something perfect? And is all that assessment high-stakes? Would things look different for learning from mistakes if we would focus more on the process of learning? What if the focus was more on the process and related experimentation and reflecting on the experience itself would be illuminated as something more substantial, something that is of value? Even when something fails or we make mistakes, there are so many learning opportunities and take aways! Do we actually learn more when things don’t work out? Does it also frame learning and success in learning in a different way?

I explored portfolio-based learning and assessment in my personal meandering I identified four dimensions that I feel are important to consider creating rich and embracing learning experiences for our students: Purpose, process, people and product (Nerantzi, 2004b). Would a rethink about assessment and specifically questions around value, volume and variety help to reconsider assessment as learning or learning as assessment (Nerantzi, 2024a)? I have also been asking myself to what extent grades disorientate students from what really matters which is learning.

In high-risk environments, students may fear humiliation and feeling silly or stupid if they engage in activities that go beyond what everybody else seems to be doing and where there is a risk that what they are doing may lead to failure. On top of this genAI is available 24-7, so very convenient and quick. Is this why genAI may seem attractive to students but also to educators? We can share our half-baked ideas without being judged while engaging in critical and creative conversations about these with the machine (Nerantzi, 2024c; Wiersma, 2024)? Sutherland et al. (2024) illuminated in their study the important role trust relationships play for learning. This research, while not explicitly referring to playful learning practices, made me think about the role of trust relationships and play. Mardell et al. (2023, 8) in their book about the pedagogy of play make this connection and state “Without psychological safety and trust, playful learning will not thrive.”  The authors celebrate learning from mistakes when using playful approaches and acknowledge the role of reflection as well as collaboration (Brown, 2009). Etchegaray et al. (2012) in their study in healthcare settings provide further related insights regarding what aids the disclosure of errors and speak about the important role trust and culture play to open-up and connect. How can we design for learning that is adventurous, and spaces that build trust and encourage playful experimentation?

Experiencing learning in diverse ways is important. It is equally important to acknowledge the value of reflecting in and on that experience. When things go right and when things go wrong. There is a lot of learning in reflection. This applied to students as well as educators. A study on experiential education by Gaszak (2024) suggests that educators new to reflection saw less value in reflection. What are the potential implications for them, their practice and when supporting students to develop reflection? This is something to think about and consider the importance of professional development in this area. The study by Yaacob et al. (2020) in Malaysia with MA Education students, who were teachers, illuminated the positive effects on collaborative reflection with their peers for example and how it led to increased openness, criticality and empowerment. Team-teaching and peer review of teaching and co-creation in open education provide further opportunities in this area (Nerantzi & Moravej, 2020). This first-hand experience of these teachers will enable them to shape their own practice accordingly and maximise reflective learning by their own students. How can such opportunities for development created for all practitioners in higher education?

When the reflective process is infused with creativity, play and imagination it will further enrich learning (James & Brookfield, 2014). But also when the reflection is shared, discussed, debated with others, peers, educations and others outside the course, and not a navel-gazing activity it can be a powerful strategy for personal and collective growth. But again it goes back to trust relationships, accountability and culture.

Be curious!

I would love my students to feel empowered to dare to approach learning as an adventure. To be curious, creative and imaginative! To learn and make a difference! I would like them to feel supported and stretched in their learning and be ambitious. To embrace experimental learning and be playful. To feel free and explore (im)possibilities. To feel empowered! Their curiosity  about GenAI and experimenting with it is part of it. Not everything will work, of course but all experiments provide opportunities for reflection and learning. Learning can be extremely exciting, stimulating and rewarding. Especially when we feel connected to ourselves, others and the world around us.

The late Professor Anna Craft introduced us to what she called Possibility thinking, a way to generate questions during the learning process that bring curiosity to the fore through ‘what if’ questions (Craft 2000; 2001; 2002). Try it! I suspect Socrates and Plato would recognise some of their ideas in possibility thinking especially the power of questions. While Craft’s work originally related to Early Years, its relevance for higher education is equally valuable (Craft, 2008; Craft et al., 2008). We don’t want our students to be or become less curious as they go through the education system and have no appetite for creativity left when they arrive at university.

Normalising mistakes in higher educational practice is vital. It is ok to fail. Failing is part of learning even at university. Uncover them. We fail and then we can pick ourselves up again. And again. And again. We learn. Of course we need support, a scaffold to help us when we need help. The truth is that we struggle with the term “failing” (Jancovich & Stevenson, 2023) not just in cultural participatory practice.  We are even less comfortable with the idea of failing in teaching (Johnsen et al. 2009). But if we want our students to use their curiosity, to question, imagine, invent, be resourceful, take risks, be creative and collaborate, we need to create the condition for these to happen.

Students, of course, need to be supported and there needs to be a culture of trust. This means less focus on high-stakes assessment of learning. Less judgement! More experimental practices. Trying things out! While we talk about students, educators need to feel supported too when pushing the boundaries, when being bold and daring to engage with more unusual and uncommon and novel learning and teaching approaches including learning from mistakes. And making mistakes.

How can we transform higher education practices to harness the learning power in mistakes?

What can we do to design learning, teaching and assessment that foster more experimentation, less judgment and more relationships?

What can we learn from research, play and engagement with genAI?

How can we establish trust that gives us wings and frees us from our fear of failure?

References

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