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Can We Show Our Students That Making Mistakes Is Part and Parcel of Discovery?
Mistakes make science, after all
The path of learning is rarely straight — it nearly always curves in unexpected places.
A straight, clear road offers us the fewest opportunities. This is because the act of learning is a journey of discovery, of new horizons. The more detours on that journey, the more opportunities for expansion.
Take Fleming and the discovery of penicillin (who published his findings in 1929). If Fleming had been more careful and left his laboratory in a tidier state, the fungus (thereafter known as Penicillium) would have not grown on one of his culture plates. If Fleming had not recognised this ‘mistake’ as an opportunity for discovery, antibiotics, which have completely revolutionised medicine, would not have been discovered at that time.
During my PhD, a friend of mine shared an article in which the author describes discovering the true extent of ignorance in his research field. It seems that truly being an ‘expert’ in your subject has to involve the realisation that you will never meet the limits of the subject — there is…
