What have students learned about making mistakes? (with student comments in quotes)

“I will never learn unless I ask questions, and it's okay to not feel smart sometimes.”

“It does not really matter in the long run if you understand something immediately, but that you go over the knowledge often and take mistakes as large areas for potential growth.”

“The more I revise one of my paper, the more I notice errors”

“I learn more from after a mistake than preparing to not make a mistake. Also, making mistakes also helps me learn what I clearly don't know and what I know. Getting lots of feedback really helps with growth.”

“Hard work pays of in this class more than any other class at Grinnell. Nothing we are doing is impossible, and if we do what you tell us we can achieve our desired outcome from the course while learning a lot. Our writing assignments were marked very carefully and we had to work very hard to get points back, ultimately though any effort put in to revisions paid of doubly -- we learned a lot more and we could get full credit back. I wish more classes were structured in this way. "

“That mistakes are discouraging but eventually you learn from them. Also, this class very much rewards effort so the more time you spend revising/studying/reading the better you do.“

“I haven't done the best on my exams and papers, but given the ability to correct them and learn from the mistakes I made makes me into a harder working individual who doesn't get down based on initial performance, but rather is inspired to do better.”

I like it when students realize that my opportunities for revision are tricking them into caring more and not less about the content.

“Without mistakes I would not learn.”

“Professor Damian made many corrections and pointed out many errors in things that seemed okay to me, in hindsight. I worked hard during the class, from the very start. However, i think i got more efficient over time and started performing better in class eventually. I look out for mistakes in my submissions/papers/etc. and carefully read his comments so I do not repeat them.”

“I've learned that to identify mistakes and make them into productive instances it can be really helpful to work things over in groups as the additional perspective often help with identifying mistakes in understanding. There have been times in this class where I've been a little lost on some concepts but ive found that often its because I just need to sit down and put more time and work into studying the concept. In this way, the course has reinforced the necessity and payoff of hardwork.“

“This class has only reinforced my belief that academic success is 60% work ethic and 40% everything else. Learning from our mistakes is why we revise, so I appreciated the chance to revise a lot (unpenalized!).” “Learning from mistake is a habit of mine” “The opportunities for revising in this class have helped me learn from my mistakes in writing, because I have more motivation to work systematically through all of the feedback and use it to improve my writing.” “I think learning from my mistakes makes me improve upon my skills.”

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