Deliberate errors promote meaningful learning.

Wong, S. S. H., & Lim, S. W. H. (2021). Deliberate errors promote meaningful learning. Journal of Educational Psychology. advance online publication. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000720

Commentary

Previous thinking has known that experiencing errors can be a valuable learning opportunity. Over the decades, errors have also been widely avoided or tolerated as occurring as chance accidents. In this study, we were comparing learning methods that do not experience errors with those that do intentionally experience errors.

As an objective, the study tested whether it could enhance learning success.

This assumes that intentionally experiencing errors, even when the correct answer is known, improves learning effectiveness. The researchers call this the derring effect and say it is a counterintuitive phenomenon.

The study was conducted between two experiments (N= 160) in which subjects were engaged in an open-book study of scientific commentary texts and then tested on the retention and higher-order application of the material to analyze new news events.

As a result, Experiment 1 showed that not only was recall performance improved, but also application of knowledge was superior to two error-free learning methods popular with students and educational researchers: detailed learning with underlined copy and concept mapping.

This advantage persists even when generating alternative conceptually correct answers, and is illustrated by Experiment 2, which reveals that the derring effect is not simply due to generation or elaboration alone, but is inherent in generating incorrect responses.

However, the subject's inability to recognize these advantages suggests that avoiding errors in learning is not always optimal.