Learning at the Edge of Error: Navigating Risk to Reimagine Education

Date: Friday, 25 September 2026 | Time: 0900 – 1035 | Venue: The NAK Auditorium, Academia (SGH Campus)

Track Type: Keynote Lecture

Speaker:

Overview:

Some of the most powerful learning happens when learners struggle, make mistakes, reflect, and try again. But in healthcare training environments, allowing errors for the sake of learning feels risky. We worry about patient safety, damaging a learner’s confidence, being judged by colleagues, or losing trust.

This creates a tension: the same moments that help learners grow are the moments that make educators most uneasy. That discomfort comes from the risks educators carry in these situations: risks to patients, learners, educators, and trust. So we often work around that discomfort by stepping in early to take over for a learner or by softening feedback. In doing so, we may limit how prepared our learners are for the uncertainty of real practice. 

What if we could use errors intentionally to improve learning? Using errors intentionally brings risk, responsibility, and consequence into sharper focus. When educators feel the risks that come with learners making mistakes, they often see only one safe move. But when we see how these risks collide in real time, new teaching choices become visible. These choices allow us to work with error rather than around it, reimagining how we prepare learners for the uncertainty of tomorrow’s world.