Students that are unsure of their own judgment often ask the question “Does this look right?”
When answered yes, it brings comfort and a sense of accomplishment to the student. However, this can also develop co-dependent behaviour removing students from their own sense of judgement. When answered no, it creates a sense of fear, often resulting in the fixation of correcting small unnecessary details.
‘…if you’re not prepared to be wrong, you will never come up with anything original…by the time they get to be adults, most kids have lost that capacity. They have become frightened of being wrong.’
Robinson, K. (2006) Do schools kill creativity? Available on: https://www.ted.com/talks/sir_ken_robinson_do_schools_kill_creativity
I recently supported a student who had been struggling with her 3D garment simulation. After hours of problem solving, I suggested leaving the work in an unfinished state. The student was shocked and proceeded to explain how they could not submit it in this state. This was a dilemma I had faced with many students and struggled to reconcile. On this occasion, I found the right words to put the student at ease; “It’s ok to make mistakes. If you show the mistake, evaluate it and present how you attempted to fixed it, it may actually improve your grade.” There was an instant sense of relief from the student, followed by surprise. In that moment I realised that we rarely prepare students for the pitfalls they may face and how to manage and evidence this.
“…to set the student off in pursuit of an un-named quarry may be merely wasteful, but to grade him (sic) on whether he catches it or not is positively mischievous”
Rowntree, D (1987) Assessing students: How shall we know them
During an exercise, in which we were asked to rewrite 4 level descriptors, an interesting thought came up. Does a student with a “bad” concept who evidences and evaluates mistakes grade level to a student with amazing processes and outcomes but little evaluation? In my opinion, evaluation and skill/natural talent should be rewarded equally, as they both evidence imagination and judgement skills. The very same things Davies, A (2012) says are the “cornerstone of creative thinking” and “we expect all art and design students to develop it as they progress in their study”. Although this approach to assessing may not extend itself to the working environment, it creates a space for students to experiment, make mistakes and develop self-evaluation and lateral thinking skills. Could rewarding mistakes be the key piece needed to improve student progression?
More thoughts on this topic can be found on the post Do we all need to be excellent?