An Experimental Investigation Into the Application of a Learning-From-Mistakes Approach Among Freshmen Students

Abstract

To achieve a more effective teaching method, an experimental study using a learning-from-mistakes approach was investigated. A novel approach was adopted from organizational learning literature involving two steps. A first step established the psychological safety notion in students, and the second step called for a student discussion of mistakes they had made. Two classes of freshmen university students studying basic accounting participated in this study. One class was assigned as the treatment group, whereas the other the control group. Students’ performance was repeatedly measured on three separate occasions: pretreatment test, midterm examination, and a final examination as the posttest. Results showed that students from the treatment group outperformed those in the control group on the latter two occasions, whereas both groups scored similarly in the pretreatment test. It is thus concluded that such a suggested approach may ultimately help students learn more effectively.