Dealing with errors in mathematics classrooms: Structure and relevance of perceived error climate

The role of within‐class consensus on mastery goal structures in predicting socio‐emotional outcomes

“…Negative classmate reaction to errors was measured with items based on Steuer et al . (). Four items were employed (sample item: ‘If someone makes a mistake in math class, the other students will make fun of it’; α = .90).…”

“…Secondly, in addition to classroom climate as a macroscopic construct referring to student cohesion and supportive peer relations more broadly, we include a further climate construct more closely tied to specific classroom situations: The error climate specifically describes how errors are dealt with in the social context of the classroom. In classrooms with a positive error climate, errors are evaluated and used as integral parts of the learning process (Steuer et al ., ). As a multi‐faceted construct, error climate is comprised of a number of distinct dimensions.…”

“…Relying on Ames’ () conceptualization of mastery goal structures, we investigate within‐class consensus on the three mastery goal structures dimensions of task, autonomy, and recognition/evaluation. We consider the following socio‐emotional outcomes: a positive classroom social climate in the sense of student cohesiveness and positive peer relations (e.g., Aldridge, Fraser, & Huang, ; Allodi, ), a positive error climate as indicated by lower levels of negative classmate reactions to errors (e.g., Steuer, Rosentritt‐Brunn, & Dresel, ), and students’ employment of cooperative strategies (e.g., Fernandez‐Rio, Cecchini, Méndez‐Giménez, Méndez‐Alonso, & Prieto, ).…”

Learning from errors: A model of individual processes

“…Study 3 provided evidence for eight theoretically and empirically distinguishable subdimensions of error climate and their impact on students' individual dealing with errors. Steuer et al (2013) further demonstrated that classroom error climate has an impact on students' affective-motivational and action adaptivity of error reactions, which, in turn, were positively associated with students' self-reported effort. Hence, according to our proposed model, the results supported the assumed association between personal conditions and characteristics of the social learning environment as well as their influences on individual learning behaviour following errors.…”

“…Based on a comprehensive literature review, we found different approaches that have been adopted in educational research to investigate the role of errors in learning: Alongside research on classroom error management and error climate (e.g. Tulis, 2013;Steuer, Rosentritt-Brunn & Dresel, 2013), individual responses to errors have been examined under different perspectives: For instance, there is a large body of research on (error) feedback and its impact on learning and achievement (for a meta-analysis see Bangert-Drowns, Kulik, Kulik & Morgan, 1991; for an overview see Mory, 1996). However, most of these studies did not address learning from errors per se.…”