According to Cohen’s Taxonomy of Mistake Literacy, there are seven levels of learning that may result from mistake-making. The taxonomy deliberately focuses on levels of learning, rather than types of mistake-making.

Learning from mistakes starts with a shift in mindset. While the pessimist might see their mistakes as a justification to cease their pursuit of achieving mastery, the optimist knows that the upshot of mistake-making is learning.

With students stuck at home, it only makes sense that we’d teach them how to rely more on themselves and less on their teachers — taking greater ownership for their learning and, in turn, greater ownership for their mistakes.

We have to accept that home learning environments are going to be imperfect -- and that’s ok; but, in an imperfect learning environment, we should also accept that mistake-making is only going to increase.

Now, more than ever before, mistakes are an inevitable part of the learning process. So, how can we put students in a position to feel comfortable and confident engaging with their mistakes?

Why is it that sometimes we learn and sometimes we stagnate or even regress? Well, that’s where Mistake Literacy comes in -- a mindset that builds students’ capacity and capability to recognize, react to, and repair their mistakes.