The Master Teacher Blog

Academic learning is an especially challenging experience for many students. They may struggle to grasp concepts, become confused, and make mistakes that set their learning back. They can find themselves off track and so far behind that they choose to give up. 

Unfortunately, many common grading practices can inadvertently make these challenges even more daunting. One or two low grades can drop averages to the point where achieving hoped-for grades is no longer within reach. Early grading when students are struggling to learn a new skill can mask later learning growth, leaving students with a low grade despite later progress. Life circumstances may result in students being unable to complete assignments and projects on time. Confusion regarding expectations or assignment completion requirements can result in low grades even though students learned key concepts and skills. 

Any of these circumstances can leave students who otherwise would invest continued effort and work feeling despair. Students often choose to give up rather than struggle when they see no possibility of success. These are times when students need a lifeline to give them hope and make their continued learning efforts worthwhile.  

We might find ourselves taking the position that life is not always forgiving and that students must learn to deal with reality. However, we need to remember that their learning is our top priority. Our students will have plenty of opportunities to deal with the harsh realities of life. While teaching students to manage their time and deal with difficulties is certainly important, we need prioritize their core learning success.  

Fortunately, there are several steps we can take when students are at risk of giving up. These “lifelines” can make the difference between having students fall farther behind and lose hope and continuing to put forth effort and be willing to struggle in the face of learning setbacks and challenges. Here are five strategies to consider:  

• Postpone grades and focus on feedback. Quality feedback in the absence of grades leads students to focus on the steps and strategies that lead to success. Once grades are assigned, students are more likely to shift their focus and stop struggling. We need to wait as long as possible before assigning a grade to student work.  
• Include learning growth in grade calculations. Students who struggle often begin their learning with little background knowledge and related experience. They face the reality of having to learn more than students who come with these advantages. Yet, traditional grading practices often ignore this aspect of learning. In fact, students who achieve the highest grades are not necessarily the students who learned the most. Including recognition of learning growth in grading can be a good way to recognize and encourage the students who may have struggled.  
• Provide flexibility in completion timelines. Obviously, we need to provide clear expectations regarding the submission of completed assignments and projects. Nevertheless, offering reasonable flexibility can maintain engagement and commitment from students who face circumstances and challenges that might otherwise lead them to give up.   
• Throw out the lowest grade(s). Over the course of a grading period, students may experience distractions and circumstances that interfere with their learning. Or they may just have had a bad day or made a poor choice. The result can be outcomes that are not representative of their body of work. Our willingness to throw out unrepresentative work products and performances, or offer such an option, can be a source of hope and continued commitment for students.  
• Permit learning reflections as evidence of learning. For a variety of reasons, there are times when the quiz, test, and assignment performance of students may not be representative of what they have learned. When we suspect that students are caught in these circumstances, we can offer opportunities for students to submit reflections on what they have learned, present a portfolio to supplement the information we have, or make a presentation to explain and demonstrate the learning they have gained.  

It would be wonderful if we did not have to deal with grading systems and could instead focus on learning as the essential measure of progress. However, for most educators, this prospect is not near-term reality. Consequently, we need to do what we can to encourage and support students to keep learning, even when the assignment of grades threatens to distract and discourage their efforts.  

The great American philosopher Mister (Fred) Rogers once said, “Silence is one of the greatest gifts we have.” Fortunately, this gift is free and available to all of us. However, silence can feel uncomfortable, even awkward, if we are not accustomed to it or fail to appreciate its value.  

Despite its sometimes negative connotation, silence actually offers many learning and health benefits. For example, extended silence has been shown to lead to the creation of new brain cells associated with learning and recall. Silence can help us to increase and extend our ability to focus. It can also lower blood pressure and increase blood flow to the brain, thus lowering stress and relieving tension. The key is to find time and create conditions where silence can be experienced.  

At the same time, we know that learning can often be loud and boisterous, especially when it generates excitement. Making sense of new information may require discussion, lead to questions, and stimulate the sharing of observations. Obviously, these are important components of learning, yet learning also grows with reflection, contemplation, context finding, and connection making. 

The rapid pace of the school day can make finding time for and utilizing silence a challenge. We can feel the urge to fill each second of the day with words, activity, and other features in our efforts to keep students focused and occupied. Nevertheless, there are many opportunities for us to create and utilize silence to calm, guide, and support learning. Consider these five ideas that leverage the value of silence to engage students.  

• Look inside. We might begin our class period by providing students with a few minutes to silently gauge and reflect on their emotions. During stimulating discussions or insightful conversations, we can give students a few moments to silently explore their thoughts. We can encourage students to take deep breaths and engage in other relaxation and reflection techniques. This focus likely will open doors to discussion about how our students are feeling and how they imagine others might be feeling. We could then follow the period of silence with a discussion about how they can direct their emotions and energy in a positive and productive direction.  
• Clear your mind. Before beginning a new cycle of teaching and learning, we might invite students to pause, relax, and clear their minds of distractions and preoccupation. We can direct them to consciously let go of what may get in the way of what they will learn next.  
• Consider what you already know. As we introduce new content or a new skill, we might ask students to think about what they are going to learn. We can encourage students to take some time to think about what they already know. They could jot down notes for themselves or post thoughts in a virtual common space for later discussion. We need to give plenty of time and encourage them to think beyond their initial recollections. For example, what might be related? Of course, we also can ask what else they would like to know. 
• Hold that thought. Pausing after asking a question and allowing students to think before calling on someone to respond is a common and effective strategy for encouraging more thought and more students to respond. For students who are typically reluctant to respond in the presence of other students, we might signal that we will be calling on them in advance to help them be prepared to answer. It can be a great confidence builder. 
• Imagine what it looks like. When we pose a question, we can shift students’ attention away from immediately verbalizing answers and toward developing responses using pictures, graphics, maps, or some form other than words. We may need to allow students several minutes to silently draw, compose, and develop a graphic representation that fully reflects their thinking. This approach allows students who are not quick thinkers, verbally skilled, or outgoing to reflect and think while employing other forms of expression in a context of silence. 

In a world filled with noise, silence can be both a welcome relief and an uncomfortable, vacant space. Yet, the more we create and utilize silence to support learning, the more our students will appreciate its value and become comfortable in its presence. Meanwhile, the silence we experience can improve our thinking, our mood, and our health.  

It is not unusual to hear complaints that students are too dependent on us as their teachers. We may believe that students too often wait to be told what to do, how to do it, and if they are doing well enough. Unfortunately, we can unintentionally contribute to this problem. We undermine learning independence when we are quick to tell our students what to do, how to do it, and condition our approval on their pleasing us.  

Of course, we live in a world that is quickly becoming one in which imagining possibilities, figuring out what to do, and learning even when there is no one to teach us is crucial to success. If we hope to prepare today’s students for their future, we need to nurture an increasing learning independence as they progress through their school experience. The question is, how can we nurture learning independence while remaining in a position to provide support and guidance when needed? Here are eight strategies that can help us get started.  

Tap learner interest and curiosity. Students own their curiosity, so it can be a starting point on the path toward independence. Interest gives students a reason to inquire, explore, and pursue what they find compelling. We can nudge students towards independence by feeding what is already driving them. 

Provide meaningful learning choices. The nature of choice making is that if the subject or issue is important to the student, the student is more likely to value and take ownership of what they have chosen. Value and ownership are elements capable of driving independence. Students are far less likely to seek learning independence if they see the topic as something we have chosen for them rather than something they have chosen for themselves. 

Present and expose students to challenges that feature multiple solutions. Students often believe that the problems they are presented in school must have one singular solution and that success is achieved by finding that solution or providing the teacher with the answer they are seeking. Yet, life more often presents challenges that can be solved through a variety of processes and that lead to multiple answers. Our role is to ask what else might be important, how else a situation might be approached, and what other solution might also be effective. 

Allow students to experience struggle and setbacks. When we step in too quickly as students begin to struggle or experience a setback, we risk fostering dependence rather than independence. Struggle can be an effective force for learning, and setbacks can provide excellent opportunities to seek new strategies and approaches. We can encourage greater independence by asking questions that help students to reflect on their thinking and examine what else they might try. We can encourage and coach, but we need to be careful not to take over and provide answers that students can discover and develop on their own.  

Give opportunities for students to work in groups. At first, this strategy may not seem to be an obvious tool to foster independence as students may still be dependent on other members of their group. However, group work shifts the focus of learners away from our direct support, thus it can be an important intermediate step. Further, if we structure the group’s work to foster independence and autonomy, risk-averse students can gain confidence as they experience the support of other group members.  

Expose students to authentic problems and real-world challenges. Authenticity is an attractive feature in learning, as the purpose for learning becomes more apparent and the results become more rewarding. When students see the outcomes of their efforts and learning as making the lives of others or the community better, the incentive to learn becomes stronger. Further, we can position ourselves as resources to support their learning rather than the assigner of content and skills to be learned.  

Coach students to set learning goals. For many students, setting goals for their learning makes them more likely to take learning seriously than when we set and present goals to them. Of course, students often have limited experience and skills in goal setting, so we may need to provide early support and coaching. Modest, short-term goals are likely to be most effective at first. Over time, though, we can gradually shift the responsibility to our students and coach them to increase the length and significance of goals they set.  

Help students build the skills and reflection capacity to assess their own learning. Of course, we have a responsibility to assess, provide feedback, and share accountability for the learning that occurs in our classroom. Unfortunately, for many students, we become the sole judge of what is satisfactory or excellent. Yet, students can develop the ability to apply standards, rubrics, and other measuring tools to their learning. Not only does this skillset better equip students for life, but as students assess their learning, they also become less dependent on us and can better engage in discussions about how they are doing, what they need to do next, and how good is good enough.  

Nurturing and coaching students to be independent learners is not easy. They often prefer to have us tell them what to do and how to do it. Our students can become frustrated as we nudge them to become more independent in their learning. However, doing so is a key responsibility and gift from which students can benefit for the rest of their lives.  

As educators, we might think that a perfect lesson is one in which students immediately respond to our instruction and quickly grasp a challenging concept or learn a complex skill we have introduced. These experiences can be uplifting and reinforcing, but they do not always lead to the best learning outcomes for our students.  

When students are immediately able to grasp and apply what they have been taught, it is likely that they already knew some (or much) of what they heard or that the content was not as challenging as we assumed it would be. Unfortunately, it is also true that the learning that comes easily and quickly can be forgotten just as easily and quickly.  

We know that struggle is a key part of deep and long retained learning. Still, though, a common perception is that when learning comes easily, it is a sign of being smart, and when learning requires struggle, it indicates that the learner must not be very skilled. Students who learn quickly often have strong short-term memories that make them able to repeat and demonstrate what they have been taught in the near term. Obviously, we do not want students to become overwhelmed with the difficulty of struggle, but when students struggle at the leading edge of their learning, they must pay attention, examine, and grapple with what they are learning. As a result, new learning becomes more deeply embedded in their understanding and memories. Consequently, struggle should not be an experience confined to students who lack robust academic background knowledge or who need more time to process and make sense of what they are taught.  

If we want to nurture proficient, highly skilled, confident learners, we need to design struggle into the learning we present to them. Struggle must become an expected—even welcomed—element of the learning in which they engage. Let’s examine six benefits that learning struggles can generate for our students.  

Designed struggle in learning... 

• Leads to clarity. Struggle often begins with confusion about what and how to learn. As students sift and sort through what they already know and discover new elements to be learned, they gradually gain clarity and insight that lead to learning progress and ultimate success. Overcoming struggle involves the pursuit of understanding and finding a productive path forward. 

• Improves memory. When learning comes easily, students can neglect to transfer what they have learned from working memory to long-term memory. Consequently, it can be quickly lost and will need to be relearned when needed again in the future. On the other hand, when students engage in struggle, their brains are more likely to recognize the significance of what is being learned and transfer it to long-term memory for later recall.  

• Encourages use of multiple strategies. When learning involves struggle, obvious and previously relied-upon strategies can be inadequate or inappropriate for use. As a result, students often must discover, design, and deploy new approaches. Learning how to be flexible, preparing to find new paths, and practicing new tactics can be important life success skills that extend well beyond formal, school-based learning.  

• Nurtures resilience. Struggle invites students to do more than try or persist. When students learn new strategies, discover new approaches, and deploy new tactics, they are simultaneously growing their resilience. No longer are they repeating what has not worked for them; rather, they are learning to shift their thinking and adjust their behavior in ways that can be transferred to other areas of life when they encounter significant challenges and setbacks.    

• Builds confidence. The more students engage in learning that challenges them and the more that they build skills and strategies to prevail, the more confidence they develop in their learning abilities. Consequently, when these students find themselves struggling, they are less likely to conclude that they are not capable and that they should give up. Students who know that struggle is an important aspect of learning and who have a history of overcoming struggle to find success do not panic. They also do not underestimate their ability to learn challenging things.  

• Leads to satisfaction. Interestingly, satisfaction is a direct result of experiencing and overcoming struggle. In fact, without struggle, satisfaction can be a rare emotion. The more often students must struggle in their learning, the more satisfaction they are likely to glean from the experience.   

Our students' guardians, too, can fall into the trap of assuming that fast and easy learning is a sign of learning skill. We may need to explain and demonstrate the value of learning struggles so that they do not become alarmed when their students who have not struggled in the past find themselves having to develop new skills and strategies to be successful.

We typically think of review as something in which we engage students as they prepare for a major assessment. After all, we know that revisiting past learning refreshes memory and helps to retrieve previously learned concepts and skills. While such retrieval can lead to better performance on assessments, of course, review can also play important roles in learning beyond simple test preparation. In fact, review is a key to building long-term information recall, and it is crucial in preparing for new learning.  

Regular review of previously learned content needs to be a priority if we hope to have students retain what they have learned beyond the next assessment, or even the end of the year and beyond. The more opportunities we give students to review what they have learned, the longer they are likely to retain it. Further, review can build students’ confidence that they are making progress and building a strong memory base that will serve them well in the future. Let’s examine six learning benefits of regular review. 

Review builds and freshens background knowledge. Distributed practice is an effective way to review previous learning and refresh recall. It can also remind students of details and reinforce nuanced elements of previous learning, thus dispelling misconceptions and avoiding faulty memory.  

Review creates space for working memory. Working memory has limited capacity, as it functions as a temporary location for new information. When students review information and concepts to which they have recently been exposed, they accelerate the process of moving information from their working memory into their long-term memory, thus creating space for new learning to occur.  

Review strengthens long-term memory. Not only does review create space for new learning, but it also builds stronger, more accurate long-term memory. Over time, recall can become selective, and perceptions can drift. Even a quick review of key information and brief practice with previously learned skills can sharpen and reinforce long-term recall.  

Review builds connections and schema. When we initially learn new concepts or are introduced to new information, we can miss subtleties and overlook how pieces of information and actions are related. When we return to previously learned content, we often see connections and patterns we missed the first time. As a result, we can build schema that deepens our understanding and insight and increases our ability to apply what we know in new and more effective ways. 

Review increases automaticity. We know that frequent review of information such as math facts or standard procedures and processes makes them increasingly easy to recall. When combined with practice, the information becomes so familiar that we sometimes call it muscle memory. If we want students to easily access and apply what they have learned, frequent review is a must.  

Review builds expertise. The combination of review-related benefits we have discussed contributes to high levels of proficiency. The journey to becoming an expert is paved with review and practice. Regular engagement in review can prevent a drift into bad habits and faulty shortcuts.  

Obviously, review needs to be part of our ongoing learning-support routines. As examples, information learned last week might be a priority for review on the following Monday and learning from the past month might be the focus of review during the second week of the next month. The key is to make review a regular practice if we hope to have our students retain what they learned with us—after they leave us.  

It has been said that the student who does not believe they can learn is the most difficult student to teach. Learning requires effort, risk, and persistence. This prospect can seem like a heavy lift for students who doubt their abilities, lack confidence, or have not experienced much learning success. In fact, all students are, at some points, likely to wonder about their capability and question their ability to succeed. 

Yet, the presence of hope for success is often the first step in the learning process. It opens the door for students to see the purpose and possibilities associated with learning. Still, it is a factor in learning that we may overlook and take for granted as we prepare to teach.  

When hope is lacking, investing energy and enduring the frustration that can accompany learning can seem like a “bridge too far.” In fact, it can be easier for students to see themselves as incapable and tell themselves that what they are asked to learn is not relevant, useful, or worth the effort. Such self-talk can actually feel better than risking engagement with an activity that may lead to embarrassment and shame.

Obviously, negative self-messaging undermines our efforts and our messages about the importance and value of learning. A well-prepared, focused, professionally prepared lesson is of little value if students are not ready or able to engage in the learning we have planned.  

To be clear, hope is not just voiced optimism or a naïve view of life. Hope is the realization that success is possible with patience, effort, strategy, and persistence. Hope is a key motivator that pushes and pulls people toward their goals. Equally important, students who are hopeful also are more likely to bounce back when they make mistakes and experience setbacks.  

The good news is that hope is a learnable skill. We can teach and nurture it. Here are five actions that can help us to get started.  

Create an emotionally safe learning environment. Students need to feel safe to take risks. They need to be free from the prospect of embarrassment and public criticism. Respect, valuing, and support are crucial elements of an environment in which students feel safe to take risks and learn. Of course, a safe learning environment by itself is not enough, but it is a condition that we need to create to make taking learning risks feel like a reasonable commitment.  

Conduct empathy interviews. The more we understand about students who struggle to gain and sustain hope, the better able we are to reach and teach them in this crucial area. Explore the student’s history with learning, including that which occurs outside of school. Inquire about past challenges they have confronted and overcome to find success. Nudge for details about what they did, how it worked, and how they felt. What we learn from these conversations can provide helpful reminders and levers to instill, nurture, and sustain hope. Finally, assure students that we want them to experience this type of success, and the feelings that accompany it, over and over in our class.  

Give students a sense of control. Hope is closely associated with a sense of control. Helping students to see connections between their efforts and learning outcomes can be crucial to the development of hope. We can start with small things: making choices about activities, what to do first, with whom to work, and so on. Over time, we can expand and build choices to include use of time, learning strategies, and other learning drivers. The goal is to help students gain a sense of agency relative to their learning.  

Coach students to set goals. Goals are tangible elements of hope. Goals create a path to the future. We can help students to break goals into specific, actionable steps so they can see how they can get from where they are to where they want to go. At first, the goals may be modest and short-term, but over time they can build into more challenging and significant learning targets. Initially, students likely will need instruction, coaching, and support. However, we need to be careful to ensure that the goals are owned by the student. If students perceive the goals as ours, we will have lost much of the leverage the goals can provide. 

Encourage students to reflect on and talk about hope. At first, students may be reluctant to discuss this aspect of their learning. To build awareness and comfort, we might start with activities such as writing about or discussing a sentence stem like “Today, I hope…” as a warm-up activity and collect or invite reflections at the end of class. We might share vignettes of people who persisted and prevailed in the face of a challenge because of the power of hope. We can also connect examples of how the power of hope led to solving complex and difficult challenges related to our subject area to make a connection with what students are learning. As students become more comfortable and conscious of the power of hope, we might even have them write a letter to their future selves describing who they hope to become and why. 

We do well to remember that the level of hope in people ebbs and flows. We may see progress one day, followed by a day that will require more attention and reassurance. Experiences and circumstances can impact hope, especially as students are building confidence and growing the power of their hope. We must be patient without giving up. As hope grows, we can be assured that in the face of struggles and setbacks, we will see students bounce back faster and persist longer.

Some students come to us with naturally high levels of confidence. They are accustomed to meeting and overcoming the learning challenges presented to them. They are ready to take learning risks, and they are quick to let us know when they need additional attention and support. Other students come to us with doubts and a history of struggle. They question their abilities and are reluctant to take learning chances. These students experience high levels of anxiety and frustration when confronted with learning challenges, sometimes even when we know that they can easily accomplish the tasks before them.  

Notably, students who come to us with low levels of confidence in their learning capacity can present our greatest opportunities for wins. Often, with encouragement, timely support, and coaching, these students can reach new levels of self-assurance and commitment to learning. Their potential is waiting to be unleashed—and we can help them.  

Of course, not all students with low confidence in their ability to learn are the same. Each student needs our attention and understanding. They need us to choose the right strategies at the right times to provide reassurance, guidance, and support. Here are ten strategies to instill more confidence in students.  

Create a safe and secure learning environment. It is nearly impossible for uncertain students to build confidence in an environment that lacks clear expectations, consistent classroom management, and positive relationships. They need to experience high levels of trust and respect. Students must feel secure before they take risks. 

Tell and show students that we believe in them. Students not only need to hear that we believe they can overcome the learning challenges they face, but they also must feel it. We can notice effort and progress and be ready to provide support when they need it. We also can encourage students to believe in themselves. Statements like “You’ve got this” and “I know you can do it” are good places to start. 

Remind students of past progress and successes. When we remind students of times in the past when they faced difficult challenges and were able to make progress and eventually succeed, we provide evidence that has credibility with the students. We can remind students that it is the quality of their work that makes the difference. With quality work, they will succeed. 

Reinforce the importance of effort and strategy. Students often assume that doing well in school is the result of being smart rather than an investment of their energy and commitment. While some students may find that academic work comes easier for them than others, it is an investment of good effort and smart strategy that can level the playing field. Coaching students to focus on the effort they will give rather than worrying about the outcome can be a good confidence boost.  

Provide honest, success-focused feedback. To gain legitimate confidence, students need to know where they stand. Providing clear, objective, honest feedback helps students to understand where they have made progress and where additional attention and effort will be needed. However, we also need to help students see their next steps toward success. Some students will do their best if they can see the big picture. Others will do better if they focus on what is next.  

Resist stepping in too quickly and overcorrecting. When we see less-than-confident students begin to struggle, we can be tempted to step in immediately with hints and advice. Yet, the progress and success that come from struggle is a great confidence booster. Further, intervening too early risks undermining the students’ confidence and increasing their dependence on us. The best approach is to watch carefully and step in at the time when frustration threatens to overwhelm commitment to the task. 

Tap the power of “yet.” When initial attempts do not result in significant progress or success, less-than-confident students often conclude that they are not capable of meeting the learning challenge they face. We can remind them that the message is not that success isn’t possible. Rather, they are simply not quite there yet. They can still learn and succeed. The key is to have them focus on good strategy, smart effort, and persistence. All three are elements within the control of the student.  

Discourage comparisons with others. Students who are not confident can become discouraged when they see other students for whom a learning challenge or new skill seems to come easily. They may not be aware of other areas where those students are struggling or where they were when they started. Students are better served when they focus on their own progress, not on how others are doing.  

Treat mistakes and setbacks as opportunities to learn. Mistakes can be frightening, disheartening experiences when confidence is already lacking. We need to instill in and remind students that mistakes are key building blocks of learning. Without mistakes, little progress is probable. Rather than treating mistakes and setbacks as things to be avoided, we can help students to focus on what has been gained and what can be learned from these experiences.  

Remove scaffolding and supports in response to progress. When engaging in major learning tasks or building complex skills, students often need scaffolding to guide their early efforts. Our early support may come in small increments with frequent application, but as students make progress, we need to be attentive to how much scaffolding and other supports they still need and withdraw them as soon as students are ready to be more independent. Leaving scaffolding in place too long risks stunting progress and encouraging over-reliance on external supports.  

Few experiences in education can offer more satisfaction and reinforcement than helping a student to realize their potential and see themselves as a capable learner. The effort may take a while, but it is more than worth the investment.  

Most people with knowledge of Artificial Intelligence (AI) believe that we are only seeing initial hints of what AI will soon be able to do, and, consequently, it is a challenge to plan and prepare for the opportunities that lie ahead. Still, we need to think creatively, imagine vigorously, and resist allowing our assumptions to limit our vision.  

This challenge is especially acute in education. The design of the schools we have dates back more than a hundred years. Despite calls for and efforts to change, our schools remain organized as they have for generations, and they function much as they always have. 

AI challenges us to use what we know to question what we have assumed, examine practices that no longer serve our students, and follow what we know about how learning happens. Consider these five assumptions, the common practices associated with them, and the ways in which learners might engage (and the ways in which learning could be transformed) in the age of AI. 

Assumption #1: Learning follows a linear path, at a predictable pace, from ignorance to knowledge.  

Real learning often either speeds up or slows down in response to the learner’s background knowledge, interest, and learning experience. A learner’s curiosity may create a desire for a “side trip” to explore a topic, concept, or skill of interest rather than adhering to a scripted, preset, narrowly focused curriculum. Artificial Intelligence can shift direction, adjust pace, and open new doors to learning in response to each individual learner. Meanwhile, AI can assist learners and educators to track progress and measure key skill development across a variety of contexts and experiences.  

Assumption #2: Learning results from exposure to a cycle of formal instruction, guided practice, and learner response.  

Schools have traditionally been organized based on the assumption that the teacher is the primary source of knowledge and uniquely possesses the expertise to plan lessons, determine the pace of instruction, and assess learning progress. Further, the assumption has been that learning must occur in the classroom, under the supervision of the teacher, in order to be recognized. Learning occurring outside of the classroom and curriculum is generally ignored, rarely assessed or valued. AI offers the potential for learning to be stimulated by a wide variety of sources and experiences in near limitless locations, at a pace that works for the learner. AI holds the promise for learning to happen anytime and anywhere. It also has the capacity to assess and document learning that occurs well beyond the walls of the school. 

Assumption #3: Learning activities must be presented in discipline-based curricula and lessons.  

Traditionally, school curricula have been organized to present skills and content within the confines of a specific discipline such as science, math, English, and social studies. AI holds the potential to embed learning experiences in contexts that span multiple disciplines, connecting concepts and skills in seamless experiences that make application of knowledge and skills gained in one subject or context easy to transfer and apply in another.  

Assumption #4: Schools are to train students to ask fewer questions and give more answers.  

Most of our youngest learners come to school filled with curiosity and questions. However, for schools to operate as designed, students must focus their attention on the questions adults ask and concentrate on providing the answers adults will accept. Artificial intelligence can respond to endless questions without becoming impatient or frustrated. Even better, the questions learners ask can become stimuli for exploration, exposure, and understanding. Rather than limiting the number of questions learners ask, AI can help students to become skilled inquirers and drivers of their own learning. 

Assumption #5: Learning must be measured by formal, often standardized tests.  

AI can offer assessment options well beyond the traditional standardized test. Simulations, case studies, and other learning applications and demonstrations can assess areas of learning such as critical thinking, creativity, problem solving, and decision making. Authentic learning assessments that used to require elaborate planning and set up can now be organized and carried out in near real time. Further, assessment results can be presented in objective, criterion-referenced narratives that provide depth and insight beyond the capacity of previous assessment systems.  

We cannot know what the future holds—but we cannot afford to wait until it arrives to plan and prepare for it. While much is not yet known about the capacities Artificial Intelligence will develop, we can use what we do know to begin reimagining, reorienting, and reinventing the way learners experience school.  

The term “productive failure” might seem like an oxymoron. We typically think of failure as fruitless, as something to be avoided. Yet, when viewed from a learning perspective, failure can be a powerful stimulus for future success. In fact, mistakes, missteps, and setbacks can be among the most valuable precursors to learning available to our students.  

It goes without saying that we all enjoy the feeling of having succeeded. However, success can be the result of many factors, not all of which are evidence of learning. For example, we may have simply made a lucky choice that just so happened to work out. Or we may have made mistakes of which we were unaware, but we still were able to achieve the outcome for which we hoped. Regardless, we can feel little incentive to commit to continued learning when we feel as though we have already succeeded.  

On the other hand, those times when we try and fall short allow us to realize that we have more to learn—more skills to develop, more approaches to try, and more answers to discover. We have an incentive to reflect, adjust, and try again. Hiding within a less-than-successful experience can be key insights, hints for new approaches, and suggestions for efforts that, if pursued, lead to true success. 

Unfortunately, in schools we typically applaud successes and discount, even criticize, failure. Failure is seen as something to avoid despite its potential to lead to learning breakthroughs, new understanding, and lasting knowledge. When respected and valued, failure can be the starting point for what propels learning forward.  

Productive failure in our work with students can take multiple forms. Students may often experience failure as they attempt to apply new learning in response to direct instruction. Failure that is followed by denial, disinterest, and disregard is unproductive and typically offers little learning value. Failure only becomes productive when it is followed by examination, reflection, the search for new information, and additional informed attempts. Obviously, what happens after a learning attempt has a greater impact on long-term learning than does how well or poorly an initial attempt might have gone. 

Productive failure has also been shown to be a powerful learning driver when it precedes instruction. A study reported in the Journal of Learning Sciences found that ninth-grade students who unsuccessfully tried to solve math problems on their own before receiving instruction achieved levels of comprehension following instruction that were nearly double those achieved by students who received only the direct instruction. Another study involving seventh-grade math students found that even though students were unable to generate correct answers on their own prior to instruction, following instruction they significantly outperformed students who were introduced to the problems and solutions via direct instruction.  

While productive failure has not received significant attention in elementary and secondary education, its power to stimulate and support learning is well known and respected in other fields. In fact, productive failure is such a powerful approach to learning that it is commonly used in medical schools to prepare future medical professionals.   

So, what are some ways we can tap and leverage the power of productive failure to increase learning success for our students? Here are some places to start. 

We can reinforce with students that: 

• Failure is feedback. The experience contains important information about how to succeed.  
• Failure only lasts until the next attempt is made. Continued learning effort erases any negativity in the experience. 
• Struggle in learning can be a powerful teacher regarding the nature, structure, and resolution of problems. Struggle can also lead to lengthened retention of new learning. 

• Successful learning attempts still deserve examination to determine whether they were the result of luck or chance or resulted from understanding and insight. They can also contain hints about how to achieve even higher levels of success.  
• Instruction does not always have to precede efforts to learn. In fact, trying to solve problems before instruction can uncover unique and creative learning strategies and insights. 
• When we learn or create something truly new, we must almost always engage in productive failure. Consider Thomas Edison’s one thousand failed attempts before inventing the light bulb.  
• What matters most is not whether we try and fail; it is what we have learned from and do with the experience.  

Failure should not be a “dirty” word in learning. In fact, it is a crucial and unavoidable part of challenging learning experiences. We would do well to honor, respect, and value learning attempts that fall short, especially when they are mined and when they lead to new insights, opportunities, and discoveries.   

Source:  

Kapur, M. & Bielaczayc, K. (2012). Designing for productive failure. Journal of the Learning Sciences. 21(1), 45-83. https://doi.org/10.1080/10508406.2011.591717