Classroom Climate Regarding Mistakes: A Cross-Cultural Analysis

• In Event: Being Wrong (Sometimes): How Students’ Classroom Assessment Mistakes and Learning Errors Enhance Learning and Motivation

Abstract

While there is some initial research on the nature of student mistakes (Steuer, Rosentritt-Brunn, & Dresel, 2013; Tulis, 2013), there is a need to understand in greater depth the nature of student mistakes, the classroom culture that influences students’ responses to mistakes, and teacher feedback to students that supports formative assessment. There is also relatively little in the formative assessment/feedback literature that focuses specifically on teacher responses to mistakes. In addition, as pointed out by Stigler and Hiebert (2009, p. 12) “much of what happens in the classroom is determined by a cultural code [teaching script].” The cultural script of a lesson is the imagery, values, and customary ways of acting in lessons where individuals share one culture, and the interrelated aggregate of these (Author, 2017). The influence of cultural scripts is just beginning to be understood.

The objective of this study was to investigate student mistakes within the framework of a cultural script. It focused on a cross-cultural analysis to provide an in-depth understanding of several aspects of making mistakes from different cultural perspectives, with a particular emphasis on the teacher’s attitudes toward student mistakes, how mistakes are treated and dealt with in class, and how learning from mistakes is managed. The study capitalizes on the advantages of an evidence-based lesson analysis, a method of research on teaching that offers opportunities for deep reflections about formative assessment.

A qualitative case study design was used to collect and analyze observations and verbal interactions in a single 20-student grade ten mathematics class in Malaysia, including both student and teacher dialog. A “lesson study” class observation technique was used that audio and video recorded everything that was said in class for the duration of the lesson. Analysis of the observation notes and written transcripts of discourse, including the identification of codes and themes, triangulation, and member-checking, was completed by four researchers and two teachers to focus on the nature of students’ mistakes, the classroom culture regarding mistakes, and teacher responses to mistakes. Additional validity evidence was provided by 20 teacher experts.

The findings show that teachers’ attitudes toward mistakes are key to how students respond when they are wrong. Differences in how teachers treat and are dealt with in class interactions was critical to the nature of the climate in the class, resulting in appropriate mistake management teacher behavior. A significant finding was the importance of identifying the source of students’ mistakes. The impact of mistake management on students’ responses was clear – when teachers treated mistakes with patience, acceptance, and support, student responses were much more positive.

The conclusions from this study, while limited to a single classroom and lesson, provide for an in-depth understanding of the nature of a classroom culture, influenced heavily by appropriate mistake management, that facilitates student learning and helps develop positive student attitudes toward making mistakes. The study provides initial evidence cross-cultural views of student mistakes, as well as providing evidence of the “lesson study” technique to gather evidence of classroom formative assessment that is based on concrete facts and dialogue retrieved from observations and transcriptions.

Authors

• M. Sarkar Arani, Nagoya University

• Bruce W. Lander, Matsuyama University

• Masanobu SAKAMOTO, Nagoya University

• Shir Ley Tan, Nagoya University