{"id":11,"date":"2007-06-08T16:23:39","date_gmt":"2007-06-08T22:23:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.minkhollow.ca\/KB\/Blog\/?p=8"},"modified":"2014-09-12T11:49:58","modified_gmt":"2014-09-12T17:49:58","slug":"there-are-no-wrong-answers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/2007\/06\/08\/there-are-no-wrong-answers\/","title":{"rendered":"There are no wrong answers"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Approximate Reading Time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> &lt; 1<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minute<\/span><\/span><p class=\"level1\">  I was at a conference recently, at a workshop where we were given an exercise that included a brainstorming activity.<\/p>\n<p>Among the guidelines was the now-all-too-common refrain: <strong><em>\u201cThere are NO wrong answers!&#8221;<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Poppycock.<\/p>\n<p>There are <strong>too <\/strong>wrong answers!<\/p>\n<p>Plenty of them.<\/p>\n<p>There are even dumb answers. BUT\u2026.<\/p>\n<p>We should still be encouraged to try them out. How will we know they are wrong or dumb if we never give them voice? Claiming there are no wrong answers is one of those warm-and-fuzzy <a href=\"http:\/\/www.m-w.com\/cgi-bin\/dictionary?sourceid=Mozilla-search&amp;va=sophism\" class=\"urlextern\" title=\"http:\/\/www.m-w.com\/cgi-bin\/dictionary?sourceid=Mozilla-search&amp;va=sophism\" rel=\"nofollow\">sophisms<\/a> that, in the long run, causes more problems than it solves. In a subtle and subversive way it erodes our willingness to take risks by claiming there is no risk. Risk-taking is essential to learning.<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s wrong with admitting that there really ARE wrong answers, but that it\u2019s OK to state them???? After all, don\u2019t we learn from mistakes? What\u2019s so bad about making mistakes? If the study of digital games has taught me anything, it is that making mistakes in a safe environment is a great way to learn stuff.<\/p>\n<p>So rather than misleading people by pretending \u201cthere are no wrong answers\u201d, how about if we start to admit \u201cIt\u2019s OK to be wrong here.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Note: There are still some places where it\u2019s really not OK to be wrong, like life-threatening emergencies. In most learning environments it IS OK to be wrong though &#8211; and the risk-taking that is associated with the possibility of being wrong should be both encouraged and supported.<\/p>\n<div class='wp_likes' id='wp_likes_post-11'><a class='like' href=\"javascript:wp_likes.like(11);\" title='' ><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-likes\/images\/like.png\" alt='' border='0'\/><\/a><span class='text'>Be the first to like.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class='like' ><a href=\"javascript:wp_likes.like(11);\">Like<\/a><\/div>\n<div class='unlike' ><a href=\"javascript:wp_likes.unlike(11);\">Unlike<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Approximate Reading Time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> &lt; 1<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minute<\/span><\/span>I was at a conference recently, at a workshop where we were given an exercise that included a brainstorming activity. Among the guidelines was the now-all-too-common refrain: \u201cThere are NO wrong answers!&#8221; Poppycock. There are too wrong answers! Plenty of &hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/2007\/06\/08\/there-are-no-wrong-answers\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9,12,14],"tags":[41,393],"class_list":["post-11","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-educational-technology","category-games","category-general","tag-education","tag-teaching-learning"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Hsb6-b","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":23,"url":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/2007\/08\/13\/i-am-an-ed-tech-heretic\/","url_meta":{"origin":11,"position":0},"title":"I am an Ed Tech heretic.","author":"Katrin Becker","date":"August 13, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Thank you Freeman Dyson. http:\/\/www.edge.org\/documents\/archive\/edge219.html#dysonf \"In the modern world, science and society often interact in a perverse way. We live in a technological society, and technology causes political problems. The politicians and the public expect science to provide answers to the problems. Scientific experts are paid and encouraged to provide\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Educational Technology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Educational Technology","link":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/category\/educational-technology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1588,"url":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/2011\/02\/28\/the-decorative-media-principle-in-action\/","url_meta":{"origin":11,"position":1},"title":"The Decorative Media Principle in Action","author":"Katrin Becker","date":"February 28, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"There are thousands (maybe even millions) of examples of the Decorative Media Principle out there in the Internets. The Decorative Media Principle involves creating a visually pleasing background and other decorations for a worksheet, website, etc. that is usually thematically connected with the instruction. The principle, although unproven is that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Educational Technology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Educational Technology","link":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/category\/educational-technology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/shooting-gallery-game-1024x799.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/shooting-gallery-game-1024x799.png?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/shooting-gallery-game-1024x799.png?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1836,"url":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/2011\/09\/03\/problem-solving-paralysis-action-reaction\/","url_meta":{"origin":11,"position":2},"title":"Problem-solving Paralysis | Action-Reaction","author":"Katrin Becker","date":"September 3, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Problem-solving Paralysis | Action-Reaction. I know my students ... dive right in and tinker. So why, when faced with a physics problem, do many students suddenly freeze-up if they can\u2019t see the whole solution right from the outset? How do we show students it\u2019s OK to dive right in, go\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Educational Technology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Educational Technology","link":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/category\/educational-technology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/lite_level11_8446.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2149,"url":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/2012\/05\/01\/anne-murphy-paul-why-floundering-makes-learning-better-time-ideas-time-com\/","url_meta":{"origin":11,"position":3},"title":"Anne Murphy Paul: Why Floundering Makes Learning Better | TIME Ideas | TIME.com","author":"Katrin Becker","date":"May 1, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 Anne Murphy Paul: Why Floundering Makes Learning Better | TIME Ideas | TIME.com. Interesting: With one group of students, the teacher provided strong \u201cscaffolding\u201d \u2014 instructional support \u2014 and feedback. With the teacher\u2019s help, these pupils were able to find the answers to their set of problems. Meanwhile, a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Educational Technology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Educational Technology","link":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/category\/educational-technology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4521,"url":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/2014\/09\/17\/the-becker-ed-tech-test-part-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":11,"position":4},"title":"&#8220;The Becker Ed Tech Test&#8221;: Part 2","author":"Katrin Becker","date":"September 17, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"This is the second\u00a0and last\u00a0part of my response to the Audrey Test\u00a0(see my previous post). I'm calling it the Becker Ed Tech Test (BETT) because I already have the Becker Lazy Test (BLT), which is something I developed some years ago as part of my 4-PEG game assessment. Like Audrey's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Educational Technology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Educational Technology","link":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/category\/educational-technology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"test today","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/test-today-184x300.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2840,"url":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/2012\/09\/17\/coursera-gamification-curiouser-and-curiouser-cheating-in-a-course-with-no-credentials\/","url_meta":{"origin":11,"position":5},"title":"Coursera Gamification: Curiouser and Curiouser &#8211; Cheating in a course with no credentials.","author":"Katrin Becker","date":"September 17, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"It seems that people out here at the Interwebs are searching around using the problem statement in the (my) coursera gamification course. Hmmmm, I say. I decided to make my learning experience public because I thought it might be interesting to try \"learning out in the open\". If we can\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Educational Technology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Educational Technology","link":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/category\/educational-technology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1168,"href":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11\/revisions\/1168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}