Defining Productive Struggle in Mathematics Classrooms: Implications of Cognitive Science Research Evidence for Mathematics Education

• In Event: Engaging Students in Mathematical Thinking

Abstract

Since the early mathematics education reform efforts in the ‘80s, a widely accepted practice for effective teaching of mathematics has been engaging students in struggle with important mathematics. However, scholars from not only mathematics education but also from cognitive science have found that struggle itself does not guarantee conceptual understanding and that it is not always productive. In order to provide students with opportunities to struggle productively, there is a need for well-defined criteria for what constitutes “productive struggle” and images of the processes involved in it. In this paper, drawing on cognitive science research evidence, we offer a framework that can serve as a guideline for the design of mathematics education research on and practice of productive struggle.

Authors

• Bilge Yurekli, University of Pittsburgh

• Mary Kay Stein, University of Pittsburgh