Date of Award
4-14-2026
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education (EdD)
Department
Educational Leadership
First Advisor
Suzanne Buglione
Committee Members
Felice Billups; Elaine Ward
Keywords
Learning from errors; Positive error climate; Productive failure; Skill-based education
Abstract
Experiencing a mistake, error or failure while learning generates an additional inquiry process that activates prior knowledge and increases retention of subsequent feedback and new material (Kapur, 2008). The use of errors to guide practice has been shown to lead to skill-mastery and expertise (Ericsson et al., 1993). When classrooms are psychologically safe environments where penalty-free exploration and knowledge application are encouraged, students gain a deeper understanding of the content (Tulis, 2013). This qualitative exploratory descriptive study aimed to understand the ways that undergraduate faculty in skill-based disciplines involve errors, mistakes and failures in teaching and assessment practices. This study explored how the use of errors in the classroom were utilized in different undergraduate skill-based disciplines. Data were collected from faculty (N=10), in the skill-based disciplines of culinary (n=5) and nursing (n=5), through open-ended question surveys (N=10), interviews (N=10), and document analyses (N=10). Thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006) was used to analyze the data with the aim to add to the current body of research on error-inclusive teaching practices and assessments. This study’s findings included the role of positive error climate as an essential component for student learning, the critical function of feedback to supporting student learning, and the use of probing and Socratic questions to embrace errors and guide exploration. This study’s findings also included the identification of assessments that accurately gauge understanding and mastery, and the way common student errors and poor performance can help guide faculty to improve practices and assessments to be more effective.
Recommended Citation
Metheny, Maura, "Mastery by Mistakes: Reframing Failure in Higher Education Skill-Based Teaching and Assessment" (2026). JWU Dissertations & Theses. 33.
https://scholarsarchive.jwu.edu/jwu_etd/33
