Reflection- Mistakes and learning

What is the relationship between mistakes and learning?
I think that mistakes are a crucial aspect to the learning process. I also think that mistakes are not seen by many people as an important part of learning. Recently we made a big mistake in how we used the pod computers at school, this mistake has stimulated a lot of really indepth discussions and questions about how we need to become more responsible as a team.

It has reinforced to me the need to recognise and support mistakes as they happen, and then the importance of what we do AFTER the mistake. It has also reinforced to me the importance of trying to avoid making some mistakes- for example ones that really affects others.

The laptop experience has been, and is continuing to be, an awesome learning experience. The things that are happening as a result are natural inquiry.

I try really hard to use the mistakes I make to help myself improve for next time, but sometimes I tend to worry too much about the mistake itself. An example of this is how I felt about us breaking the two laptops last week- I spent too much energy stressing about the actual event rather than looking for ways to problem solve. The next step in my learning is to first understand when I'm worrying too much, and second to act differently when I realise I'm worrying.

I found this article about mistakes, learning and maturing which might be worth reading...

Mr Clarke

Reflection- dealing with miscommunication and mistakes

Today I learned that sometimes people completely misunderstand each other and don't get anywhere. This happened because on Friday there was a problem on the bus between a couple of students and a parent helper which I had to do something about.

After talking with the students involved today it occurred to me that one of them didn't understand how to communicate with the parent (or me) that they were not in the wrong, and this is what caused the problem!

It was good to be able to discuss this with all people involved and it reinforces to me the importance of open and honest communication amongst team members.

The next step in my learning is to be able to transfer this to other situations.

Another thing I've been thinking about lately is the importance of how you deal with mistakes. I'll discuss this in more detail tomorrow though.
Mr Clarke

Welcome to the Team 13 blog

This is an online diary tool which you can use to record reflections, ideas, thoughts and just about anything you think of. To the right are some links which you might find useful for your inquiries, plus we can changes these easily as people find new sites that are of use or are interesting.

Please have a play with this tool for a couple of weeks so that they can learn how it can be used and then we'll discuss how we could use it to support our learning.


Mr Clarke