Productive Struggle is OK in School

What is productive struggle in the classroom and how do teachers know when they have met the optimum learning threshold? This is an important question because appropriate levels of productive struggle increase academic rigor. Providing students with an opportunity to be challenged with concepts and skills just above their current ability level increases deeper learning and critical thinking.

Students who are learning are engaged in activities that require a level of intellectual discipline that takes them to a place right at the brink of what they know and what they do not know. Productive struggle allows students an opportunity to learn to understand in more meaningful, relevant ways. Appropriate levels of frustration actually increase student efficacy and encourage students to feel success. This kind of struggle should ultimately yield positive learning results.

Highly effective teachers use both formative (informal) and summative (formal) assessment techniques to inform their instruction and make appropriate changes to daily lessons, instructional approaches, learning strategies, and content to ensure student learning is taking place for EVERY student. This is called differentiated instruction and is necessary in order for productive struggle to be present in the classroom. 

Differentiated learning is a term we are going to focus on at Bethlehem this year as we move towards individualizing learning and targeting student's specific strengths and areas for improvement in all content areas. In essence, teachers will know right where your student is at and they will adjust instruction accordingly to both challenge and remediate as needed. 

Differentiation requires specific management techniques and also requires support from home to ensure that the goals being set by both teacher and student are being focused on in the classroom and reviewed at home. You may also notice that classroom activities and structures may look different as a result. It's OK!! As teachers and students become more comfortable with differentiated instruction, the results will be powerful. Research shows that differentiated learning approaches have a positive impact on overall student achievement SUCCESS!! This is exciting!!