Lesson 12: Error Correction

Attention

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this lesson's material, students will be able to:

• Identify the potential impact of providing poor error correction
• Demonstrate the ability to write multiple versions of the same instructions in order to maximize comprehension and understanding.

Teaching

Mistakes are Important

Making mistakes is one of the greatest learning opportunities that life presents to us. Provided we choose to learn from them!!

When we consider the natural consequences...as many of you have when you have submitted different plans to me...we see the value of "letting the chips fall" when it comes to certain kinds of behavior.

A child, for instance, may not want to do their homework...and then they are dropped from the softball team. The natural existing consequences in the world are great teachers...consider these:

• Failing grades for not doing homework
• Speeding tickets (yes, you were speeding, it is against the law, and the officer is not "out to get you")
• Fines
• Losing opportunities because you didn't get your paperwork in on time

If you learn from your mistakes, you only get the consequence once!

Error Correction

This topic is a bit difficult. It is difficult because we often want to step in and help someone to NOT make a mistake, even though we know that they learn well from making mistakes.

The judgement as to WHEN to intervene is yours...there is no hard-fast rule about when we should try and prevent a mistake and when we should "let the chips fall".

However, be cautious that sometimes, because we are anxious to get a task done, tired, irritated, angry, and such...we are more likley to do error correction poorly.

We use prompts and error correction comments when we are helping someone accomplish a task, SPARINGLY...meaning we don't do it often...we don't want to guide them any more than is necessary...and we need to hold them accountable to doing on their own what we know they are capable of doing on their own.

Instructions

Sometimes when we create instructions for someone they don't understand them. It seems obvious to US...I mean, we wrote them and we wrote them clear! Keep in mind that clear instructions for you is not the same as clear instructions for others.

(The field of Technical Writing is all about clear communication that maximizes comprehension. Imagine how many different learning styles, IQs, and personalities have to read the instructions in a manual that goes with their computer...and one set of instructions needs to try an communicate to everyone! That takes writing talent!)

Because not all of us are great Technical Writers, we sometimes have to create multiple versions of the same instructions in order to get out point across. For example:

Can you see where the second set of instructions provided more detail and more specific instructions on how to accomplish the task. It is a bit of "overkill" but...

I could have also had them turn the computer around so they could SEE the button...

To correct, or Not to correct...that is the question...

We make two kinds of errors when we deal with error correction:

• Not correcting an error when it is made (this gives the impression that what they did is OK and they LEARN that!)
• Giving a promt during the second attempt that is not sufficient to avoid another error (this makes the person feel stupid and inadequate...and this will be reflected in your own behavior)

Now..sometimes a person is making an error because they failed to do the background work necessary to engage the question...this is a different issue.

Ways we Correct

There are a number of ways we can engage a student when they are making errors:

• We can repeat instructions and test for comprehension (it might be simply a definition of a word in the same instructions that is the barrier)
• We can modify the instructions
• We can reteach the skill
• We can offer a different way to do something or a different way of thinking about something
• We can create an analogy (analogies are symbolic representations that we can use to explain complex processes)

One day, long ago, I was counseling a client. She had had a horrible life with lots of trauma and loss, but was slowly gaining back her life and getting better. She stated that she felt a lot of pain remembering and processing the things that are happening to her and she felt she was actually getting worse. I knew different because it was apparent that she was doing a lot better. So I provided her with an analogy for what she might be going through.

I stated that she was growing as a person...she was changing and becoming "bigger" than the problems that she had. I said that this is sort of like a lobster (she loved lobster). As has a hard shell and as it grows it strains against the hard shell until it breaks out of it. This process is painful (as far as we know) but it is really the only way for the lobster to grow. Her past and her defenses and habits (which needed to change) are sort of like the lobster's shell. The pain you feel as you change is an indication that things are going well...because you are starting to break out of the shell that has kept you from growing!

She really latched on to this and she began to refer to her "issues" as her "shell"

Years later I met her again at a store...she was very happy to see me, had been doing well, was working, etc...and she told me that she still thinks of that shell analogy each time she feels frustrated...and it still helps her. Those are great moments.

Assessment

Lesson 12 Quiz

1. In what ways does poor error correction bring about frustration in students?
2. Consider your Job Tools from Lesson 11. Picture yourself providing verbal instructions for ONE of the steps in your task. Write out TWO DIFFERENT versions of the same instructions...i.e. imagine that the person you are teaching did not "get it" the first time and you have to come up with another way of saying it. The instructions should be clearly different from one another but essentially provide the same information.