How making mistakes in practicals impacts student engagement: Understand how learners respond to and recover from different types of errors in the chemistry lab to improve student outcomes

Laboratory-based learning allows chemistry students to apply theoretical concepts to practical tasks, which often leads to them making mistakes. A 2024 study of undergraduate students examined how mistakes occur and how they affected student engagement. The researchers found that mistakes were common and identified different types, including computational and practical. They also found that these different types of mistakes had varying effects on student engagement. Find out how you can encourage learners to self-regulate and respond positively to mistakes.