Blog: Trial and Error

Being a parent and an educator is constantly challenging.

Times are different. The world around us is different.

What was once familiar and normal, is now replaced by a new way of living and thinking.

With distinct memories of how our entire world combatted and continues to wage war against the vicious Covid-19 pandemic, we, too, were forced to embrace and adopt a new way of teaching and educating.

There was no time to test, no rigorous research back then to prepare us, instead, we had to get started right away and only then recalibrate and fine-tune, make adjustments and evolve in our ways to teach our children.

Likewise, our children soldiered alongside us. They never questioned us and frowned upon our inability to get it all together. They may have wondered; they may have struggled to cope. But they remained patient.

We, on the other hand, sought advice from each other and made many attempts to identify the best way to connect with the children. Truth to be told, until we found the ideal way to make this work, there were many moments of trial and error.

We made mistakes.

We failed.

We were frustrated.

We had to deal with big emotions.

We were not ready.

And truthfully, that is okay.

But in retrospect, shouldn't we then also ensure our children are given enough opportunity to make mistakes and learn from them?  

Or are we guilty of constantly focusing on quick fixes, perfect mastery or the ability to regurgitate facts with zero room for error?

It is funny that as our toddlers learned to walk, we never lost our patience and how we praised every small effort. No tiny gestures were overlooked. A tumble was cheered, and initial instability was oftentimes minimised.

We constantly and rigorously celebrated every step and fall, only because we knew they were learning.

Then, that experience and our own journey of navigation during the Covid-19 Pandemic should be our constant reminder that function as an anchor.

As suggested by Edward Thorndike (1874-1949), learning can take place by trial and error, repetition does improve the ability to solve problems.

However, such repetition should be meaningful, pleasurable for the child and strengthened with rich and authentic interactions with peers or adults to welcome a joyous and inspiring learning experience.

Did they fail to notice the differences between the two leaves?

Did they struggle with number sense?

Did they misspell a word?

Did they forget to complete a task within a given time?

Then, that experience and our own journey of navigation during the Covid-19 Pandemic should be our constant reminder that function as an anchor.

Let us allow and make room for errors. Let us help our children to find out what caused those errors, discuss and cheer them on to their journey of success, instead.

As adults, who took time, and had first-hand experience of learning through our mistakes, we then should pause to journey with the child at their pace as they too discover valuable lessons from their mistakes.

As such, for every mistake a child makes, it is simply a call for an opportunity to revisit a learning experience based on children's interests and abilities, over a period of time, to enable the child to master a task with adequate scaffolding and guidance.

We needed time, and the same remains true for our children.

Hopefully, hereafter, we too can honestly say that we have allowed our children to make mistakes and learn from them, the way we did.

And our children remember us, returning the favour, as we remained patient and soldiered with them in their mistakes.

Yes, there should be room for trial and error with our children.

References:

• Pound, L. (2005). How Children Learn : From Montessori to Vygotsky - Educational Theories and Approaches Made Easy. Andrews UK.
• Pound, L. (2008). How Children Learn. Andrews UK.