As a suddenly nomadic teacher, I've seen a lot of classrooms this year. Many of these rooms have posters that give tips which supposedly make students better learners. A lot of them talk about "be[ing] more confident" and "learn[ing] from mistakes", but hwo does one "be more confident"? And what exactly are they meant to learn? I know all I learned from my mistakes as a kid was "don't make them in front of your stepfather, he'll blow his top if he catches you".
We've all seen that child: the student who waits for the answers before trying the questions, the child who looks at their neighbor's answer on the mini-whiteboard before writing anything down themselves, the kid who visibly shrinks when you look at them expecting a response, who looks next to tears if you cold call on them. Time and time again, we say to ourselves (and to their guardians at Parents' Evening) that they lack confidence. They need to be more confident. Well, how in G-d's name do you become more confident? Is it something you can work on on your own? Or is it something that develops because of your environment?
Whilst confidence initially comes from within, it is heavily influenced by our environment, both for the better and for the worse. We, as teachers, probably see our students as much, if not more than they are seen by their parents. It is part of our job to build that confidence - it is not enough to simply tell a child "be more confident". We need to look at ourselves, at our classroom environment, and at how we are teaching, and ask why is it that student is not confident? This is not like behaviour, where a student's choices are theirs alone - building confidence is something we as teachers can have a large responsibility over (that does not meant to say that it is something we alone can do. More on that later. Sorry, it's a long one)
By the time they reach my classroom, a child might've had 11 years of being trained to keep quite, to not ask for help, to not make mistakes. As teachers, it's always slightly worrying when everyone turns in work that is 100% correct. It tells us at best there's been some cheating, or at worst we're not providing enough challenge. If I have a student in front of me who is engaging in those behaviors I mentioned at the beginning - waiting for the answers, copying off their neighbor, shrinking - I explain to them (and to the class) why I need to see mistakes. We know why we need to see where students went wrong, but do we always pass that on to the students? Often children want to please us. And they think that we will be best pleased by them getting everything right. But that's not the case, and I think it's important that we share that with them. We tell them to "learn from their mistakes", but if they're making mistakes that we don't see, we can't teach from their mistakes.
So, how do we do it?
This is where I defer to Doug Lemov because he puts it better than I probably could, and he said it before me [Ecclesiastes 1:9*😉]. Lemov talks about building a culture of error [1] where students feel safe making and discussing mistakes. His focus is more about freeing up time for fixing mistakes and creating an environment of accountability, but I think it's a valuable way to build student confidence.
One of the key points (for me anyway) is about how you, as the teacher, respond to student mistakes, and to student response to student mistakes.
Response to mistakes
When a student messes up, do you let your face know? Do you instinctively wince, or cock an eyebrow? Does your voice betray your disapproval? Do you use the same language for mistakes and correct answers?
I am fairly good at keeping the same tone whether a student gets the answer right or wrong, which has been known to throw kids "wait, I thought I was sure, but now I'm not???" Lemov calls this managing your tell. It is useful, aside from being a great way to help build that culture of error and bolster confidence, with students who aren't used to getting things wrong. It forces them to pause for a moment and actually think, "wait, am I right? How do I know that I'm right?".
Another aspect of the response to mistakes is about when you give the correct answer. When you say "yes, well done, let's look at how you got that" there is a chance for students to disengage. They tick their work and tune you out. If you break it down first, go through the steps of how to get the right answer, you keep them a little longer because they're listening intently waiting to see if they're right. This is, of course useful for making sure students know the steps, and not just the final answer. I've seen it a few times where a student makes two mistakes that cancel each other out and they get to the right answer over all, but they probably won't get there again.
Response to Student Response to Mistakes
"A teacher alone cannot establish a culture in which it is safe to struggle and fail" (Lemov, 2015, p.66)
If you let the kids laugh at their peers then you are not going to build anyone's confidence. Sometimes you need to stop the class, and lay down the law. Explain, as firmly as necessary, that you will not tolerate students laughing/rolling their eyes/snorting/whatever when people make mistakes. Often students don't "get" why this is a problem and here it's important to explain why, as teachers, we need to see mistakes. When students feel comfortable making mistakes, they will be more willing to try.
Whilst it is important to teach children that mistakes are okay, the best way (imho) is to lead by example. To pretend that we don't make mistakes is to show children that adults are always right (which in itself is a harmful idea), but also it implies that they wont be adults until they stop making mistakes. During my training year, I forgot to do something (I don't remember what, it wasn't that significant), and so I apologised to the class. And my mentor reprimanded me. They said that "to apologise was a sign of weakness" (too much NCIS, perhaps) and that I had "undermined myself" by doing so. I disagreed with him at the time, and several years down the line, I still disagree with him. Aside from the fact that we can't expect the young people we teach to apologise when they make mistakes if we don't apologise for ours, young people need to know that mistakes are important. They need to understand that their teachers need to see their mistakes in order to help them most effectively, they themselves need to see their mistakes in order to identify areas for personal development.
We tell our children to learn from their mistakes, but sometimes the most important thing to learn is that it's okay to make those mistakes.
*"מַה־שֶּֽׁהָיָה֙ ה֣וּא שֶׁיִּהְיֶ֔ה וּמַה־שֶׁנַּֽעֲשָׂ֔ה ה֖וּא שֶׁיֵּעָשֶׂ֑ה וְאֵ֥ין כָּל־חָדָ֖שׁ תַּ֥חַת הַשָּֽׁמֶשׁ׃
Only that shall happen Which has happened, Only that occur Which has occurred; There is nothing new Beneath the sun!"
https://www.sefaria.org/Ecclesiastes.1.9
[1] D. Lemov. Teach Like A Champion 2.0. Jossey-Bass; 2015
[1] D. Lemov. Teach Like A Champion 2.0. Jossey-Bass; 2015