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1. Why focusing on the right answer, is the wrong answer
We’ve all been there, someone asks you a question you’re supposed to know, and your mind goes
blank. This probably happened more when you were a child, but even as adults we can suffer from
mental brain freeze. So what would 20% of that be? How much do we each have to pay if the total
bill is X? What number do we times 2 by to get Y? Perhaps if it was a written question, where we
were in the safety of our own heads, we’d work it out comfortably. So what actually happens to us,
what happens to students when they are put under pressure?
The short answer is fear. The fear of seeming stupid or silly, the fear of being laughed at, the fear of
getting it wrong. We are conditioned from a young age to fear getting things wrong. It’s just the
way we’ve structured our world. We live in a world where being wrong is dangerous. The need to
always be right is so compelling. Those who “get things right” are seen as smarter, more successful
and even more powerful. How ironic then that some of the most successful people of all, often
admit to the number of times they got “things wrong” before in fact they got it right.
Michael Jordan once said, “I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300
games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and
over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
This is why, as educators and parents, focusing on students “getting things right” is actually the
wrong answer. We need to let children see that getting things wrong is a vital part of the learning
process. If you never get things wrong it could actually be an indication of staying in a comfort
zone, never really allowing yourself to be challenged. Challenge is essential to progress. It has been

2. said that all progress comes from challenge. Challenges can be fearful. But rising above the
challenge means also rising above fear, and stepping into the unknown.
Fearing being wrong stifles a child’s’, and indeed our own, ability to think clearly. Problem solving
is a crucial part of mathematics and indeed all aspects of life. Our ability to deal with real life
problems is greatly impacted by how we understand what it means to be wrong or right.
Talking about being wrong and right in the context of teaching mathematics is a tricky one.
Mathematics, unlike many other subjects, has so much objectivity and very little subjectivity. Put
simply, it is often the case in Maths Worksheets that there is a ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ answer.
However, we often forget what the point of the right and wrong answer is in the first place. The
point is that being able to demonstrate the right answer, the correct answer, tends to imply that you
understand how to get to that answer. For example, to say that my local petrol station is 5 miles
away, I only know this because I have journeyed to it. If I had never been there I would not have
known. (Unless I quickly checked google, which would be the equivalent of a student quickly
checking google!) When I first went to the petrol station I may not have known far away it was. It is
because I went through that experience and learnt the journey why I now know. In fact, the more
often I make that journey the more certain I am that it is 5 miles away.
The journey towards knowing how to do something or why something works, for example how to
add fractions or why equivalent fractions are equal, necessarily involves a prior condition of not
knowing. It is also the acceptance of not knowing something, recognising what we don’t know, that
allows us to make space to then realise it. We have to be careful that we do not teach children to
equate not knowing something with being wrong, and therefore with being stupid and in its extreme
form, therefore, being unworthy of reward or praise.
It is best suited that children equate the experience of learning as an experience which will
necessarily mean sometimes being wrong. When being right or wrong is tied so closely with a
child’s self-esteem, the fear of being wrong can take over. If a child or student knows that getting
things wrong is a valuable experience which facilitates rather than damages their self image, then
learning has room to develop. They will more likely enjoy the experience of learning.
As a teacher, I still do ask children questions in front of the class, as I do not necessarily think doing
so should be avoided. Neither do I only pick the more confident or more able students to answer
questions. Here are some practical points teachers and indeed parents can use so that students and

3. children realise that the emphasis is not so much on being right, even when we are asking a maths
question which clearly has a right and wrong answer.
Give students time to think and let them know that taking time to think is a good thing.
• Let students know that getting the wrong answer means that there is still something they can
learn (today). Remind them that learning is exciting.
• Reward their effort at attempting to get the right answer more than rewarding them for
actually getting the right answer.
• Allow children to realise that getting things wrong is a necessary part of the learning
experience. (After all, trial and error is how we got here!).
• Express more pleasure over how confidently a student answers a question than whether it
was right, for example, “No David that’s not quite right, but great enthusiasm! Perhaps you
could think about….”
• Don’t just say no that’s wrong, give students indications of how they can alter their thinking
slightly in order to get to another solution.
• See answers as solutions, outcomes which solve something, rather than as abstract
conditions which are only relative, opposite and better than the condition of being wrong.