From teacher rescues students from struggle and frustration…
To teacher promotes a sense of wonder and productive struggle
In order to have an “a-ha” moment, a student must first be in a place of struggle. A sense of wonder means that the student is curious and recognizes that she doesn’t know or understand something. When we struggle through something we feel a great sense of accomplishment when we get to the other side of it, but the satisfaction cannot come without the initial struggle.
Toddlers who never fall down, never learn to walk. In a similar way, students who don’t have to face challenges and wrestle with their own ideas are less likely to become self-reliant learners or confident in their own reasoning. They spend much of the time complacent, in shallow understanding, and at moments when they face challenging problems, they are prone to give up or turn to an “expert” for answers or solutions.
All learning involves some stretch. When a teacher gives students frequent opportunities to wrestle with complexity, disequilibrium, and cognitive conflict, along with appropriate supports, students can develop more perseverance, self-confidence, deeper reasoning skills, and independence for future challenges. This does not mean that everything needs to be very difficult in the classroom, but it does mean that teachers should help student notice struggle and mark it when the group has made progress.
When students are working through the Practices they should be driven by a desire to figure something out. There should be something that sparks wonder providing a pathway to productive struggle. Whether it is wrestling with two different ways to solve a problem and the pros and cons of each approach or whether it is seeing something in the natural world that needs an explanation students should be tuned into the point of the struggle so they can feel satisfied when they have worked through it.
Anticipate areas of struggle. The more you can anticipate possible struggles, the better you can choose your follow-up questions and strategies to make the struggle productive for students.
Acknowledge the struggle, and also build confidence. Let students know up front that they will be exploring new ideas and that struggle is expected. Tell them you are confident that they can succeed. Explicitly tell students:
1. “I’m really interested in your ideas, your thinking, how you would solve a problem or explain a phenomenon; I even want to know what you wonder about.”
2. “It is OK if you are not sure.”
Clarify your role as a teacher. Make it clear that your role is not to have all the answers or to rescue them from difficulty. Let them know in what ways you will help them. For example, tell them:
1. “I will help you clarify your thinking—I can be a sounding board.”
2. “I’ve gathered some resources you might use.”
3. “In response to your questions, I will give some suggestions and ask some questions.”
Provide individual think time before small group discussion. Students benefit from a little quiet time to gather their thoughts, in which thinking is uninterrupted by student or teacher talking. This can lead to an increase in the thoughtfulness and variety of responses and ideas.
Respond first with questions. When students say “I’m stuck” or “I don’t get it” have them reexamine the problem or situation again and ask:
1. “What seems to be going on here?”
2. “Why/what part do you think is challenging?”
3. “What might make it easier?”
4. “What is the first thing you might try?”
5. “What does the group think?”
Addressing the confusion to the class can validate the sense of confusion or struggle and renew the student’s sense of confidence: “Scott has discovered something perplexing in this problem/situation, has anyone else found it?” When students ask for verification “Is this right?” respond by asking them to explain their thinking and ask:
1. “Why does it make sense?”
2. “How could you test it?”
3. “Do others have similar or different ideas?”
Pose questions/problems to create different entry points
1. Avoid over scaffolding and reducing too much the cognitive demand on students.
2. Consider introducing a new topic or situation. This can help students explore and discover connections to prior and related knowledge.
3. Ask "How might this new situation help us understand what we are trying to figure out?" or "How are they similar/different?"