Key points:
- Struggle is an essential part of the learning process- even though kids are resistant to it.
- Be explicit with kids that learning is challenging and that it will be a struggle. Celebrate struggle and praise persistence and effort- [ Central C- Commitment].
- Hang back and let kids wrestle with tasks for a while.
- Struggle without progress is unproductive- use teacher judgement to determine when to move on.
- Give kids "enabling prompt" (such as a tool, reminder/comment about prior knowledge that may assist, narrowing down number of steps, changing numbers) if they are struggling too much.
- Aim for the "Goldilocks effect"- not too easy, not too hard.
Key Points:
- Quality vs Quantity- go for fewer problems that have links to real life, allow them to make errors and learn from them and express confusion.
- A classroom that gives students time to solve rich, real life challenging problems will not be as orderly- will be noisy, unpredictable and have a "messy" feeling. This can be hard for teachers.
- Studies have shown that schools that have fewer problems per lesson are successful as opposed to a board full of low-level equations.
