We’ve all said it.
Mistakes help you learn.
It’s become a classroom mantra. A Growth Mindset catchphrase. A reassurance for students who’ve just gotten something wrong.
And yes—it’s true.
But only sometimes.
And only if we understand what makes a mistake useful.
Because not all mistakes help us grow. And if we teach students that they do, we risk creating a culture where errors are accepted, but never examined.
The Myth of the Magical Mistake
There’s a comforting logic to the phrase: if you’ve made a mistake, you must be learning something.
But that’s not how learning works.
Some mistakes happen because students weren’t paying attention.
Others come from repeating the same error over and over without feedback.
Some are spotted and corrected instantly—leaving no time to think, reflect, or grow.
These aren’t learning moments.
They’re just errors.
What Actually Makes a Mistake Useful?
In my work, I describe six types of mistakes, but for now let’s focus on three that actually support learning:
- Stretch Mistakes – When learners reach into the Learning Zone and get something wrong because they haven’t mastered it yet. These are the classic productive mistakes—evidence that a learner is operating at the edge of their current ability.
- Design Mistakes – Intentional mistakes made to gain insight. Like a scientist testing a hypothesis or a learner trying something new just to see what happens.
- Aha Mistakes – When the error itself reveals something important—unexpected insight that only came because something went wrong.
These are the mistakes we want students to make.
But they don’t guarantee growth on their own.
Mistakes Aren’t Good or Bad. They’re Information.
This is the shift we need to make.
Instead of focusing on whether mistakes are to be celebrated or avoided, we need to focus on their informational value.
A mistake is just a signal—nothing more. It tells us that something needs attention.
What matters is:
- What the student does to extract that information
- What they do with that information once they have it
A sloppy mistake may tell you very little.
A well-analysed Stretch Mistake might offer deep insight.
In other words, the usefulness of a mistake depends on the actions of the learner.
It’s not the mistake itself that grows the learner.
It’s how the learner responds.
Learnership Builds That Response
Explicit Instruction often limits students’ exposure to mistakes—especially in tightly sequenced lessons where success is the goal. When errors do occur, they’re usually corrected quickly by the teacher.
That’s not a flaw in the model. It’s a feature. EDI supports accuracy and confidence.
But it doesn’t build the capacity to reflect, adapt, or apply learning beyond the moment.
That’s where Learnership comes in.
In my book Learnership, I describe how skilful learners:
- Recognise the type of mistake they’ve made
- Pause to reflect, rather than rushing to correct
- Extract insight before moving on
- Adapt their strategy based on what they’ve learned
This is how students grow—not just from error, but through it.
What You Allow, You Teach
If we accept all mistakes as learning opportunities, we risk lowering the bar.
Students start to believe that being wrong is a substitute for getting better.
But reflection matters. Correction matters. So does challenge.
That’s why we must teach students how to learn from mistakes—not just tell them that they should.
And that’s why Learnership is so important. It builds the habits, mindsets, and metacognitive tools that help students act on error, not just recover from it.
Learnership Helps Students Stretch. Correct. Repeat.
It’s not about celebrating mistakes.
It’s about learning how to use them.
Mistakes are not inherently good or bad—they’re simply signals.
Signals that can offer valuable information—if the learner is equipped to listen.
That’s what Learnership does.
It transforms mistakes from stumbles into stepping stones.
Want to Go Deeper?
This blog is part of a larger series exploring the limits of Explicit Instruction—and the missing piece that completes it.
Explicit Instruction Delivers Learning. Learnership Develops Learners.
