According to recent research eight-year-olds learn primarily from positive feedback (‘Well done!’), whereas negative feedback (‘Got it wrong this time’) scarcely causes any alarm bells to ring. This study prompts the Science Daily to posit that “Learning From Mistakes Only Works After Age 12″.
That certainly ring alarm bells for me. How did they learn to walk? I’d better not let my nine year old anywhere near a road or tell her off as shes about to step infront of a bus.
kids - they never learn!
The article points to behavioural research, which shows that eight-year-olds respond disproportionately inaccurately to negative feedback. Based upon this work, Dr Eveline Crone used fMRI techniques to compare the brains of three different age groups: children of eight to nine years, children of eleven to twelve years, and adults aged between 18 and 25 years. Individuals in each group were given test items in which they must discover a rule. They received a tick or a cross as feedback. Looking at the brain scans during this activity showed distinct differences – In children of eight and nine, cogntive control areas of the brain react strongly to positive feedback and scarcely respond at all to negative feedback. But in children of 12 and 13, and also in adults, the opposite is the case. Their ‘control centres’ in the brain are more strongly activated by negative feedback and much less by positive feedback.
The danger in this study is that it may lead to the conclusion that young children cannot learn from errors and we should avoid them in education. That to my mind would be a big mistake (get the pun? I am over 12 after all). One of the recurring themes at Online Educa in the Generation X discussions was the fact that many kids never learned about failure until they entered the workplace.
Perhaps we need to reposition ‘errors’ – why should they be negative feedback? Children can learn fantastically well from errors when they are motivated to do so and get good feedback. Look at just about every video game kids play – they make errors and die thousands of times as they master often difficult tasks (see Super Mario, brain training, etc etc).
Can't play until your 12!
No problems there. They love it; reflect on how and why the error occurred and have no problem discussing it with their peers. Similarly in sport. They take a shot in football and miss but that does not stop them trying again and again. If they learned only from positive feedback and not mistakes then they would never ride a bike or would be much use in evolutionary terms.
Maybe getting a simple cross (what does that tell you?) and giving no further feedback is the problem or worse the kid feeling like their stupid. Look at the work of Michael Frese and others on error management methods. When errors are postioned as positive learning experiences and individuals are given the tools to manage them then they can significantly improve learning performance.
Posted by thinkingworlds 
