At our morning meeting, our principal shared with us an article about "productive struggle." It emphasized the importance of making mistakes in the learning process. In it, David Ginsberg says, "students' grasp of new concepts and skills is often better when they struggle through the process of learning those concepts and skills than when teachers error-proof that process."
I find myself error-proofing often for students and I know that I need to work on allowing students to trouble-shoot on their own. However, it can be hard to put this idea into practice. My colleagues and I wondered this morning about helping unmotivated students, the issue of time, and the possibility that a "wrong" idea sticks in a student's head instead of the correct one. How do we deal with these issues?
The article can be found here: http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/coach_gs_teaching_tips/2012/01/dont_prevent_students_mistakes_prepare_for_them.html
What do you think? Do you have "no help days" or productive struggle activities? If so, how have you made them work?
I really like the idea of "no help days." My co-teach and I lament at how after we give instructions we have twenty students behind us begging us for help. We get exhausted answering common sense questions that if students would have spent five minutes trouble shooting they would have got it. I also like the idea because that could help with burnouts from the day. I would be less mentallly tired if I didn't answer a million questions every day.
ReplyDeleteThis article also reminds me of a seminar we went to early this year on informative writing. The speaker talked about the importance of "think alouds" and how it is important to let students hear your thinking. The speaker also stressed how it is also important for students to hear your thoughts when you are struggling and to hear how you work through that struggle. I have been trying to do a better job of modeling how you get through a struggle, but I too find myself going back to the habit of wanting to error proof.
I agree. It is important for students to work through problems and process independently without that automatic reflex response of asking for help at the first indication that something might be hard. I love the idea of modeling how to work through a struggle. It teaches an important life skill, as we all struggle sometimes when learning new things.
ReplyDeleteI have also been tempted to not go over directions of an assignment as a form of productive struggle. I think students are given a direction sheet for an assignment or project and the teacher automatically starts going over key points but not ALL of the directions. This causes students to rely on the teacher for the directions and not have to read them. My thought was you could say "here is your assignment. go." It would force them to read all directions first and not rely on me. (assuming your directions are clearly laid out). :)
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