As an educator, I am not just concerned with students getting the right answers; I am also interested in how they learn from the mistakes and discover their learning gaps independently. This is imperative in this era of AI advancements, in which the ability to problem-solve and reflect on one's performance is prized more highly since AI bots can do a lot of rote memorization and regurgitation that we are used to.

Hence, for one professional learning circle, my teammates and I sought out to enhance students' self-assessment capabilities. Specifically, after teaching them the functions of various organs in the human digestive system, we got them to complete several tasks on our nationwide e-learning platform. This was when we introduced an error-analysis form so that students could think about why they had gotten several functions wrongly and hopefully glean some useful takeaways from this metacognitive process.

This was how the error analysis form looked like:

Error Analysis Form

The Digestive System Review Lesson has four sections.
They are Functions, Identification, Positioning and Self-Check.

Today, we will conduct an error analysis on Functions!
Please log in to SLS (e-learning platform) and check your answers for the Digestive System Review Lesson.
Fill up the table below. At the same time, pick up the mistakes that you made and think about why you made these mistakes

An example has been done for you.

Functions – Worked Example
I forgot that there is no digestion taking place in the gullet.

This exercise elicited some thoughtful responses from students. For instance, 2 students described the process instead of specifying the organ. They should do HICAP (i.e. highlight key words) rigorously and really think through in regard to what the question requires. Another student failed to consider that digestive juices are also found in the stomach and small intestine. He gave a knee-jerk answer. To reflect on his learning, he can think through his answer more thoroughly in future.

Rome wasn't built in a day. I hope that through this exercise, more and more students will be able to critically examine their thought processes and motivate themselves to attain greater proficiency. Baby steps!