By Alusine Fullah
At this 21st century, one of the most powerful beliefs that we should instil in pupils/ students is the idea that mistakes are a valuable part of leaning. Today, the culture of imbibing culture of error in our classroom is no longer breathing in our cleaning institutions. I normally tell my colleagues: my man look if you as a teacher is not immune to mistakes, so who are they (pupils). To prove me right, just visit one two schools or colleges. All what you hear: “My pupils are very stupid…they are very arrogant but just wait I am going to discipline them…”No! A good teacher should create a culture of error in his classroom.
Naturally, as human beings, we perceive the error as something negative or to be avoided, who likes to make mistakes? But the reality is that the error occurs all the time inside and outside the classroom and it is not necessarily bad. I have the belief that an error is part of the learning process. Why shouting and to some extent canning your pupils because they make mistakes in the classroom? The classroom should be a place where students or pupils FEEL SAFE sharing their mistakes and discussing them so that as a teacher you help your students/ pupils learn from them.
When the error is part of the classroom culture, students/ pupils acknowledge mistakes with comfort, they willingly make them visible to their teachers and classmates, and they confidently take risks knowing that their efforts may result in failure. Not only does this reinforce the idea that what is worth learning will almost always challenge them, but it makes pupils’ errors far easier to assimilate and act upon them. And when pupils respond to mistakes with patience rather than defensiveness, unlocking the academic value of studding mistakes becomes easy.
As a tutor, you should always plan for errors. It is quite crucial to normalise errors in the classroom. In fact, you can directly expect it and use it as a powerful learning tool. In this scenario, as a teacher, you will never get angry because a student/ pupil makes mistakes, on the contrary, you will take advantage of it to generate learning or highlight possible comprehension errors. As I stated above, you should plan for it. Therefore anticipate in your students’ misunderstandings and your responses to them. This increases your chances of acting angrily when you encounter mistakes.
One thing I want you to always note as a teacher is that errors should serve as opportunities to learn. Don’t yell because your pupils have made mistakes on the assignment you gave them. Choose your words and actions carefully to show students that making errors is normal and necessary for learning. In other words, teach your students/ pupils that getting it wrong is the first step toward getting it right. After the errors, give them motivating spirit for a next try. Some tutors are in the habit of molesting or shaming students/ pupils public because they (pupils) have flunked his/her test. No! That is ethical in the classroom context.
I am not saying that you should always pretend that something is right when it is wrong, No! Just that you show your students/ pupils that you are fine with that. For instance, after receiving a barrage of wrong answers you can say: “thank you for these answers. This helps me to teach you much better.” Avoiding saying: Listen guys, by now you should know how to solve this problem. You have no paid attention to my explanations. When you fail you fail. Period…
