Productive Struggle

This week's article summary is Productive Struggle: What It Is and How to Achieve It.

Earlier this year, as a number of us were presenting to parents about how Trinity measures student learning, I was reminded of the interconnection of a Growth Mindset, the formative assessments we give throughout the year, and productive struggle (the subject of this week’s summary).

A core tenet of Trinity’s culture is that we are a community of learners. No matter how experienced and knowledgeable we are, there is always more to learn. (My stack of unread books at home is a testament to this.)

Possessing a Growth Mindset enables us to remain confident in the face of failure and missteps. Productive struggle is grappling with challenges during the learning process. Formative assessments help our students see where they are in the learning process and what next steps they need to take to learn more and/or to re-strategize about action steps to employ towards mastery.

As there are always ups and downs and highs and lows in learning, it’s important to help our students see that productive struggle is a core part of the learning process: to err is human and to learn we need to err!

Joe

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So many students this year are struggling — struggling to fill in holes from the previous years’ learning, struggling to absorb new material despite those gaps and struggling to find their place in the school’s social community. To get through it, they need to understand and embrace productive struggle.

Think of the child who spent his entire kindergarten year virtually on Zoom followed by a hybrid first-grade year. That student is now in second grade, and “this may be their first time, full-time, in the classroom. They’ve not only missed some of the physical basics — maybe how to open a school milk carton, sit still, stand in line — but they likely also have some developmental gaps that make it harder to go from the concrete to the more abstract thinking.

In college, a similar disruption has occurred. College freshmen didn’t get that typical experience of the last year or two of high school that helps develop stronger work habits and transitions them to less hand-holding from the teacher, better reliance on note-taking, and an understanding of what’s expected of them.

Just like stress can be good or bad, struggle also has two faces. The good kind is productive struggle. 

Productive struggle is really just another term for developing grit. 

Letting students work in teams is one way to develop grit because students can learn that everyone has different learning styles and levels of knowledge, and each can contribute something. Teamwork also teaches social-emotional skills and can improve students’ development of persistence.

Whether students work in teams or individually, teachers should also consistently reinforce with students that they’re not expected to know everything already and that they’re not expected to succeed right away. 

For many students when they come up against walls and struggle they view that as a bad thing. Help students by saying “Everyone struggles sometimes. Struggle is part of the life experience. We want to equip you with tools that you’re going to need to be successful and not crumble — or to understand that when you do crumble, there are ways to recover, and we’re here to help.”

Using real-life examples — such as an athlete, singer, scientist or entrepreneur who constantly practices to improve, even after they’re famous, or grandparents who are asking for help figuring out smartphones or streaming services — can help students see the value in struggle. 

Integrating the social-emotional aspect into learning concepts helps teachers note red flags — each student’s may be different — that indicate when they feel pushed too far. Instead of letting the student keep going and shut down, teachers who recognize what’s happening can quickly intervene to ask questions, suggest a different approach or, with younger students, give them a small break from the subject. Then they bring students back to try again, building grit a little at a time. That’s the productive struggle at work. 

Struggle is common in life, no matter what a student’s — or adult’s — age. Preparing them for it, embracing it and reminding them that a community of teachers and peers are there to catch them when they stumble can make all the difference, they say.