One of the most important things that we can teach students is how to learn. As adults, we may have forgotten many of the details of our own schooling and the challenges and frustrations we experienced on our learning journey. We know that we learnt things at school but we do not always realise why some things stick with us and others are easily forgotten.
It is so important that students understand the learning process. Sometimes they get disheartened when they find an activity hard or they make mistakes, when in fact, many skills can not be easily grasped without frequent practice. Also, it is when we make mistakes that our mind is most open to adapt and take on board new learning. Many children wrongly think it is bad to make mistakes but this can lead to our deepest learning. As adults, we often try to prevent our children from making mistakes because we want to protect them and we want them to experience success. This is very valid, as success brings confidence and a positive attitude to learning. However, understanding that there may be bumps on the way and that everyone makes mistakes helps students to overcome difficulties. Teachers have such a key role in creating a classroom environment where students feel comfortable making mistakes. Teachers can do this by highlighting their own mistakes, praising effort and using students common mistakes as a teaching tool. It can take time to build up this sort of environment and trust. It is best not to put children on the spot or unnecessarily draw attention to one person's mistake initially, unless you know they will be comfortable with it. Quiet praise for effort and privately going through errors works better for some children. Teachers also need to be aware of what children may be told at home, as in some cultures making mistakes is taken very seriously.
There are many activities that we engage in that we can almost do without thinking. This feels comfortable but it does little to help us make progress. However, when we try to learn something new it can feel uncomfortable. Students need to know this is normal, so they can push through the difficult feelings or the frustration when something doesn't make sense. There has to be a balance: if everything we encounter is new or too hard it can be exhausting, but if everything we do is routine or automatic our brain will switch off. Good teachers should aim to build elements of routine and challenge into each lesson and also consider how much new material they present in one day. In addition, consideration needs to be given to students with learning differences and how much challenge they are experiencing each day. Many routine tasks may be considerably more demanding to these students than we imagine.
