Where's the "Productive" in Productive Struggle?

• In Event: Educational Practices in Gifted Education

Abstract

Current emphases in education around productive struggle reflect efforts to bring a positive light to engaging with challenging and complex tasks. Classroom attention to productive struggle includes guiding students to analyze challenging situations, work through tasks, and evaluate their strategies. Teachers may facilitate productive responses, or they may inadvertently reduce the cognitive demand – and the benefits of struggle – in efforts to help. This study explored teacher conceptions of productive struggle linked to engaging learners with challenging tasks. We examined how teachers described productive struggle, including types and sources of struggle and elements that made struggle productive. We also explored the ways teachers specifically noted sources and experiences of struggle for their advanced learners and for other learners in the classroom.

Authors

• Catherine A. Little, University of Connecticut
  Presenting Author

• Clarisa Rodrigues, University of Connecticut
  Non-Presenting Author