A recent article, “Test Anxiety – Learner Empowerment From Sarah and Augie,” was well received with positive feedback, and helpful to some experiencing test anxiety. The etiology of the anxiety, which for some is true “panic,” lays in perceived judgment of mistakes we might make. Mistakes are an integral part of learning; judgment impedes learning. Mistakes are healthy and productive so long as we learn from them. Judgment is neither healthy nor productive.
The featured article, written by Sarah Ross-Lazarov entitled “Mistakes are a Learner’s Best Friend (Augie, Me, and Scientific Thinking)“, approached the subject of mistakes in a clever and creative way. Since then, another fellow writer, Robin G. of Gotham Tutoring, has further expanded on the topic of mistakes through a second article entitled, “Making the Most Our of Your Mistakes.”
The focus of this article is to dispel the notion that educators should never admit their mistakes due to an erroneous belief that it comes at the expense of the respect of their students. Robin has found that quite the opposite is true, that admitting mistakes serves to strengthen the bond between teacher and student.
I encourage everyone to read the newly pressed article by Robin G. for yet another perspective on positively harnessing the “power of our mistakes.”
“What do you first do when you learn to swim? You make mistakes, do you not? And what happens? You make other mistakes, and when you have made all the mistakes you possibly can without drowning – and some of them many times over – what do you find? That you can swim? Well – life is just the same as learning to swim! Do not be afraid of making mistakes, for there is no other way of learning how to live!” ~ Alfred Adler ~
© 2012 Joseph Lennox, Ph.D
This blog article was brought to you FREE by Lennox Organic Chemistry & MCAT Tutoring of San Diego, where “Total Comprehension = Key to Success”™.
