Mistakes as Vehicles for Educating Teachers

Dispositions are viable goals for teacher preparation programs (Katz & Raths, 1992). This study examined preservice teachers' perceptions of their own mistakes in order to understand their views toward risk-taking and tendencies toward perfectionism. When given an open-ended survey, 79 preservice secondary teachers predicted 43 different teaching mistakes which were categorized as either instructional or interpersonal. The works of Fuller (1969), Veenman (1984), Fried (1995), and Haberman (1995) provided frameworks for interpreting these findings. Implications for teacher education include the realistic portrayal of teaching, the practical and reflective nature of teacher preparation, and the type of environment created by teacher educators. A conclusion of the investigation is that fallibility fulfills an important role in the preparation of future teachers.