Document Type
Article
Publication Date
3-2025
Publication Title
Frontiers in Education
Abstract
Children are prompted to learn and engage with new experiences, tasks, and content on a daily basis. When facing novel challenges during their work and play, children need opportunities to take risks and grow from the mistakes they make. Risk-taking, autonomy, and corrective feedback about mistakes are pivotal aspects of the learning process. However, there is still much to learn about human interactions during these instances, whether they involve teachers, parents, or other trusted adults who are working with young children. Our goal in this Research Topic was to offer a collection of studies that help deepen our understanding of children's risk-taking and learning from mistakes.
We have identified three cross-cutting themes that serve to enhance our understanding of this Research Topic: (1) supporting children's autonomy is essential to learning and play; (2) a careful look at real-world encounters between children and adults provides insights into their moment-by-moment reactions; and (3) the reactions that children and adults have to mistakes and risk-taking are situational, anchored in interpersonal contexts and activity-specific goals.
Volume
10
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2025.1575027
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Rights
© 2025 Donaldson and Solis
Version
Version of Record
Recommended Citation
Donaldson, Maleka and Solis, S. Lynneth, "Editorial: The Role of Risk-Taking and Mistakes in Early Childhood Learning and Teaching" (2025). Education and Child Study: Faculty Publications, Smith College, Northampton, MA.
https://scholarworks.smith.edu/edc_facpubs/37