Description:
Research on training has traditionally viewed errors made by trainees as detrimental to learning. A great deal of effort has been devoted to finding effective ways of preventing errors from occurring during training. Recently, some researchers have adopted a different perspective: that errors may provide a learning opportunity for trainees. What has been investigated less is the specific mechanism through which errors can foster learning. The objective of our research was to investigate and possibly reconcile these differing viewpoints by examining the error recovery process. We found that, in some situations, errors enhance learning when the trainee adopts an error recovery process that emphasizes the goal structure of the task. We suggest several ways of coaching trainees in training sessions to adopt such error recovery strategies.