Smart is who makes lots of errors? The relevance of adaptive reactions to errors and a positive error climate for academic achievement

ABSTRACT Learning form errors seems to be crucial for talent development, but there is evidence that students learn little from their errors during school instruction. This work addressed the interplay of different adaptive reactions to errors (affective-motivational adaptive and action-related adaptive reactions), a positive error climate in the learning context and cognitive abilities with regard to their effect on academic achievement. A longitudinal data set with 2092 students attending 74 classes was analyzed with a two-level path modeling approach (students in classrooms). The results confirmed the assumption that affective-motivational adaptive reactions to errors encourage action-related adaptive reactions to errors which, in turn, foster academic achievement. Furthermore, analyzes indicated that the relationship between a positive error climate in the classroom and academic achievements is mediated by students’ individual reactions to errors. In contrast to expectations, students with higher cognitive abilities did not show more adaptive reactions to errors.