Many studies mention the benefits of learning from mistakes. Psychologists have considered failures the most powerful learning sources [1]. According to Thorndike’s law of effect, negative outcomes that accompany failure serve as punishment, which increases the probability of adapted behavior in subsequent events [2]. In other words, it can prevent subsequent mistakes of the same kind through improvements of existing practices. Study suggests that emotional impact of failures and responsibility for the errors play a key role in learning from mistakes [3]. In this literature review, we aim to explore whether mistakes pointed out by others can better facilitate one’s learning.
Individuals are often defensive when their mistakes are pointed out and will even continue with their present course of action despite growing costs [4]. Staw posits that individuals have sufficient internal and external needs to demonstrate competence, which leads to justification. To prevent going into a cycle of escalating commitment, Staw suggests that individuals should seek and follow the advice of outsiders who can assess the relevant issues of a situation without being responsible for previous losses or subject to internal or external needs to justify past actions. Although people often get defensive when others point out their mistakes, it is still worth having outsiders assess one’s situation to avoid the pitfall of escalation tendency.
Edmondson also suggests that group interventions may be needed to encourage detection and discussion of mistakes, which in turn leads to learning [5]. Edmondson finds that willingness to discuss mistakes openly is a primary influence on the effect of learning from mistakes. He suggests that actual errors are confounded inextricably with detected errors, so discussion is essential to learning from mistakes. He learns that willingness to discuss mistakes is highly influenced by leadership behaviors. This idea is further supported by Michael, who suggests that embracing error is feasible when organizations reward such behaviors [6].
Since group interventions may be more helpful, the question becomes how to overcome barriers to detect and discuss mistakes in a group setting. Recent research has shown that team-level variables, such as psychological safety, can help people overcome defensiveness when they are presented with data that disconfirm their expectations [7, 8]. Edmondson proposes three barriers to learning from mistakes in teams: reluctance to admit mistakes because of the risk of being seen as incompetent, tendency that inhibits sharing negative feedback to maintain one’s own and others’ images, and reluctance to seek feedback because of the risk of being seen as lacking in self-sufficiency or as intrusive. Hence, Edmondson argues that creating conditions of psychological safety, “a climate in which the focus can be on productive discussion that enables early prevention of problems and the accomplishment of shared goals because people are less likely to focus on self-protection” [8], is essential to laying a foundation for effective learning in teams.
In support of creating psychological safety, Herteis et al. reveal a culture of learning from mistakes through individual appraisal of mistakes to the handling of mistakes in the organization is beneficial in overcoming the barriers [9]. This idea is further demonstrated in Cannon and Edmondson’s study that having shared beliefs about failure as learning-oriented would enhance learning from mistakes [10]. They prove that effective coaching and clear direction are helpful in promoting constructive beliefs about failure. Building upon this idea, promoting a culture of appraising mistakes as learning opportunities and coaching learners on how to give constructive feedback can reduce the potential for defensiveness and hence better learning outcomes.
Reflection has long been recognized as an essential part of learning [1]. Bennett-Levy et al. study has specifically shown its benefits in cognitive behavioural therapy [2]. The question becomes how to best facilitate reflective practice in CBT. This literature review aims to explore whether individuals can reflect better from watching others reflect. If individuals can benefit from vicarious reflection, how can we better incorporate this into an online CBT training platform?
Vicarious learning, originally defined as the process by which “an observer learns from the behavior and consequences experienced by a model rather than from outcomes stemming from his or her own performance attempts'' [3], has long been recognized as an effective learning approach. Hoover et al. study has demonstrated the benefits of vicarious observational learning to direct experience sequencing across a variety of task types and levels of analysis [4]. Bandura has suggested that observers can often learn faster than actual performers of tasks because of the latters' need to devote at least some attention to performing required responses [5].
Beishuizein et al. report that students working with videos of expert performance on how to approach a lecturing task in addition to textbook material outperformed students working with only textbook material at a post-test and at a retention test [6]. In our implications, students can learn to reflect effectively by having a walk-through of a good reflection step-by-step. For example, as students first start reflection-on-action, giving them a step-by-step interactive tutorial of how an expert does it may help students learn what to pay attention to in reflection.
Knowing the potential benefit of observing experts illustrating a concept, Cox et al. aim to assess whether subjects can learn from observing dialogue between students and tutors and the relative values of different types of observational stimulus [7]. Their results show that experts and novices can both be good models for learners. It also demonstrates that the extra effort of comprehending more equivocal dialogue does not override its educational utility. Monthienvichienchai and Sasse study has also supported that seeing others’ mistakes and how these mistakes are corrected is significant in vicarious learning. Students can more easily understand concepts when explained to them within the context of correcting a misconception [8]. Learning from observing peers’ practices can be just as helpful as learning from observing experts. This idea is further supported by Myers as he coins the concept of coactive vicarious learning where learning occurs through discursive interactions between individuals [9]. One design implication that can be drawn from this is having a learning community for reflection.
Interactions between observers and models are integral to vicarious learning in the context of online communities [10]. Sun et al. discover that communication visibility and collaboration visibility promote vicarious learning in online communities. In the context of reflection-on-action in MI training, enabling others to reflect on learners’ interviews may help learners gain both meta-knowledge and instrumental knowledge of reflection. In this specific context, meta-knowledge refers to specific concepts or practices in MI, while instrumental knowledge refers to knowledge about how to reflect. Communication and collaboration visibility, in this case, allow new insights on where to improve and prompt discussions on the topics. Seeing other people reflect on one’s own interviews or others’ interviews also provides insights on how to reflect. Through these interactions, learners can reinforce theoretical knowledge and improve their reflection skills.