When Your Child Doesn't Know What to Do: Embracing Productive Struggle

Ever watched your child throw up their hands in frustration over homework and wondered whether to help or let them struggle through it? That delicate balance between support and independence lies at the heart of "productive struggle" – a powerful educational concept that's transforming how we think about learning.

The science behind productive struggle is fascinating. Neuroscientists have discovered that our brains literally grow new neural pathways when faced with the right level of challenge – not too easy, not too difficult, but just challenging enough. This "Goldilocks Principle" of learning explains why students who work through difficulties often develop deeper understanding than those who breeze through work or give up when it gets tough.

Unfortunately, much of K-12 education prioritizes memorization and easy completion over meaningful learning experiences. Students complete worksheets and regurgitate facts without developing the critical thinking skills needed for college and beyond. Mathematics education particularly suffers from this approach, with students memorizing formulas without understanding underlying concepts. When students are allowed to develop their own problem-solving methods, they make more mistakes initially but ultimately outperform peers who simply follow procedures.

As a parent, you can foster productive struggle by asking guiding questions instead of providing answers, normalizing mistakes by discussing how even famous inventors failed repeatedly before succeeding, and helping your child understand that assessments represent midpoints in learning rather than endpoints. When your child says "I can't do this," ask yourself: Do they understand the task? Have they been taught the necessary skills? What frameworks do you have at home to help them persevere?

Ready to help your child develop this crucial skill? Visit k12educationinsights.buzzsprout.com to share your thoughts and experiences with productive struggle. New episodes drop every Tuesday, offering research-backed strategies to help your child thrive in the public education system.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to K-12 Insights Podcast
• 4:14 What is Productive Struggle?
• 8:09 Three Practices for Supporting Struggle
• 12:13 K-12 vs. College Learning Approaches
• 18:41 Mathematics and Productive Struggle
• 26:33 Parent Action Steps
• 31:26 Key Takeaways and Closing

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:56

Welcome to another episode of K-12 Public Education Insights Empowering Parents of Color podcast, the podcast that converges at the intersection of educational research and parental actions. It's about making the trends, topics and theories in public education understandable so that you can implement them into practical, actionable strategies that work for your children. My name is Dr Kim J Fields, former corporate manager, turned education researcher and advocate, and I'm the host of this podcast. I got into this space after dealing with some frustrating interactions with school educators and administrators, as well as experiencing the microaggressions that I faced as an African American mom raising my two kids, who were in the public school system, I really wanted to understand how teachers were trained and what the research provided about the challenges of the public education system. Once I gained the information and the insights that I needed, I was then equipped to be able to successfully support my children in their educational progress. This battle-tested experience is what I provide as action steps for you to take. It's like enjoying a bowl of educational research with a sprinkling of mother wit wisdom on top If you're looking to find out more about the current information and issues in education that could affect you or your children, and the action steps you can take to give your children the advantages they need, then you're in the right place. Thanks for tuning in today. I know that staying informed about K-12 public education trends and topics is important to you, so keep listening. Give me 30 minutes or less and I'll shine a light on the latest trends, tactics and topics pertaining to the constantly evolving K-12 public education environment.

Speaker 1: 3:30

What do you do when you don't know what to do? Think about that for a minute. You're facing a new challenge, whether it's learning a new software application, tackling a new hobby or just struggling to figure something out. Or just struggling to figure something out, what do you do? In education, a big challenge is how to teach students what to do when they don't know what to do. In other words, how do students learn to struggle so that they eventually problem solve for themselves potentially problem-solve for themselves? In this episode, I'll be discussing the value of productive struggle and how you can support your children through this often frustrating yet necessary process. Do you believe there are opportunities in failing? Well, there are opportunities in failing. Well, there are.

Speaker 1: 4:30

Learning through failure is called productive struggle, and K-12 education needs more productive struggle. It's part of the learning process for all children. In neuroscience research scientists tell us our brains grow new neural pathways when we are at the age of a challenge. It's called the Goldilocks principle of learning. It can't be too easy or too hard. It needs to be just right. Struggle is a first step in critical thinking, but when is it productive struggle and when can it be too much? Is the struggle present because so many students are unorganized and glued to their phones because they procrastinate and make poor choices about how they use their time? Or are they suddenly in an academic environment that demands their attention in a way they are simply not accustomed? I explore the topic of productive struggle through the research and then provide action steps you can take to help your children develop their productive struggle muscle, so to speak. In this episode, let's gain some insight on this.

Speaker 1: 6:07

Many students work hard when it comes to doing the things they connect with or like, like playing a sport or learning a musical instrument. Even gaming generates opportunities to persist. Candy Crush, for example, says you failed when you don't complete a level yet we don't throw our hands up in the air and never return to the game. We keep playing until we pass, and sometimes we even continue to play to surpass an earlier score, but students don't connect these skills to their learning skills, to their learning. The quote-unquote learning pit is basically what happens to our brains when we're learning something new and are struggling, and then how we work our way through the struggle to come out on the other side of learning. Unfortunately, many students often find themselves stuck in the pit of struggle. To get out of this pit, it's important to intentionally build resiliency skills. Here are three foundational practices for teachers to help support productive struggle in the classrooms.

Speaker 1: 7:25

Productive struggle in the classrooms. One prioritize relationships with students because, first and foremost, for students to be able to be present and want to begin to struggle, they need to believe their teacher cares for them. This is an essential first step in every aspect of education. When students know that their teacher cares, they will show up, work harder and be present for any learning challenges. Two create the right systems for struggle. Any teacher knows that their lives are made easier when they have a strong classroom routine and a strong culture in the classroom that guides the day-to-day business in the classroom. This can be applied to productive struggle as well. A learning framework is one way teachers can help support students in tackling difficult situations, for example, with the Try, discuss, connect math framework, students are asked to make sense of a given problem that they are trying to solve and then work to solve it independently. Next they turn and share their thinking with partners or in small groups, as teachers walk around and listen to the conversations. Then the teacher leads a whole class discussion around the students thinking and solutions before finally helping students make connections with the math strategies used and applying those strategies to a new problem.

Speaker 1: 9:12

And number three normalize mistakes. It's easy for students to not try something because they're scared of failing. However, our brains actually grow when we make mistakes, and failing is a crucial part of learning. One way for teachers to intentionally create a classroom environment where mistakes are welcome is for the teacher to make a mistake board or have a mistake jar in their class. When students see or hear a mistake, they can put it anonymously in the jar or on the board. Then, once a week, everyone can clap for or celebrate those mistakes. Learning is one of the most vulnerable things teachers can ask students to do and, as such, creating the right environments for learning and cultivating learning partnerships with the students is very important. It's through this essential work of teachers who care that all students will reach their full potential will reach their full potential.

Speaker 1: 10:26

Implementing failure in the classroom is more about making learning more meaningful, not making school harder. When students fail productively, they become better learners. Wrote memorization types of homework are more like an obligatory exercise rather than a meaningful learning experience. This seems to be the nature of most assignments in K-12 public education. In contrast, college assignments tend to be more purposeful, designed to deepen understanding of the material rather than simply reinforcing rote memorization. Rather than simply reinforcing rote memorization, they also provide valuable opportunities to fail, seek help and ultimately grow from the experience. Unfortunately, this kind of productive struggle is oftentimes absent from K-12 education, leaving students ill-prepared for the mental resilience that's required to learn and adapt in college and beyond. In many cases, k-12 education lacks challenging work and is the system that actively discourages failure.

Speaker 1: 11:39

There seems to be some stigma against failure. You see it in sporting activities where everyone earns a ribbon. That doesn't even replicate real life and in fact, it reinforces a myth that in competition, everyone is a winner. Homework is often designed to be simple, easily completed, integrated, primarily for completion rather than mastery. This approach has fostered a culture where students equate success with immediate correctness rather than with the process of learning. Feeling stuck when learning something new is part of the learning process, not an indication that a student is a failure. No-transcript.

Speaker 1: 13:58

The emphasis on grades instead of growth in K-12 education fosters a fear of failure. Give students opportunities to struggle and fail. Productively is that it creates better learners. Students develop a more realistic understanding of their own abilities and begin to appreciate the process of learning rather than just the outcome. The teacher's job, then, is to teach students how to learn. By introducing challenging assignments that require thinking and engagement, teachers can help students build the mental resilience necessary for future academic and professional success.

Speaker 1: 14:33

One of the best ways educators can integrate productive struggling or productive failure into their teaching is to assign difficult, application-based homework that correlates directly with classroom learning. Instead of grading assignments for accuracy, they should be graded for effort for completion, because this removes the fear of failure while still encouraging students to engage deeply with the material. This process could look something like this, for example, in a high school math class instead of assigning a dozen repetitive practice problems, the teacher could include a few complex, multi-step problems that require students to think critically. When students struggle with these problems, they should be encouraged to ask questions and work through their difficulties in class. The goal isn't to punish students for making mistakes, but to help them recognize gaps in their understanding and develop the problem solving skills needed to overcome those gaps. A simple way to introduce productive struggle is to incorporate a challenge problem into existing homework assignments. These questions should be difficult enough to make students think, but not so overwhelming that they become discouraged. This is the key of productive struggle. Over time, as students encounter these challenges regularly, they will build confidence in their ability to tackle difficult problems independently. Teachers could then dedicate a portion of class time to review the challenging problems collaboratively. There is immense value in the aha moment that comes when a teacher explains the missing step that allows a difficult problem to click into place. When students experience this firsthand, they learn that struggling through a problem isn't a sign of failure. It's a fundamental part of the learning process. This is what helps students develop the perseverance and intellectual resilience they need to thrive, not only academically, but in every aspect of their lives.

Speaker 1: 16:57

Mathematics is one of those subjects in which students seem to struggle the most. It seems that most of the literature or the research around productive struggle started by examining how students learn math concepts. One key element of the productive struggle is that students persist and persevere to develop an understanding of mathematics that generates sustained learning and deeper appreciation for the mathematics content. Productive struggle helps students connect key concepts, determine how and where an error occurs and support students in figuring out how to use their own thinking and reasoning skills to correct an error. Thinking about thinking, or metacognition, is about the awareness and understanding of the student's own thought processes and cognitive abilities. It involves actively monitoring and regularly thinking to enhance learning and problem abilities. It involves actively monitoring and regularly thinking to enhance learning and problem solving. This type of thinking in math is considered one of the most important predictors of mathematics performance. In the context of productive struggle, metacognition plays a crucial role. Engaging in thinking about thinking practices allows students to reflect on their struggle, evaluate their problem-solving strategies and make adjustments when necessary. Students can then recognize when they are experiencing productive struggle, understand the benefits of persevering and choose appropriate strategies to navigate challenges effectively.

Speaker 1: 18:40

The balance in the mathematics classroom is for students to be challenged without being frustrated. Frustration often arises when students encounter problems that are perceived to be too difficult or when they struggle to grasp certain concepts. This frustration can lead to negative emotions, reduced self-confidence and a reluctance to engage with the material. However, productive struggle suggests that experiencing a moderate level of frustration can actually be beneficial, because when students persevere through frustration, they develop a greater sense of accomplishment, resilience and a deeper understanding of the content. The key is to encourage students to keep persevering through the challenge. If there's a lack of proper encouragement, this can promote mathematics anxiety, which can manifest into fear or despair. So how teachers and students respond to frustration during mathematics tasks is essential to the potential benefits of the productive struggle in mathematics.

Speaker 1: 19:56

The goal of productive struggle instruction is to teach students to think deeply, gain understanding and develop independent problem-solving skills. Students who use their own methods to solve problems may encounter more errors and take longer to solve problems, but they often score better on tests than students who just memorize procedures. By creating their own methods, students can create new pathways and develop connections to concepts that were previously taught in their mathematics class. However, what makes this more difficult for students is if all they had previously learned to do was memorize to solve problems. This requires that the teacher not only understand the diverse background knowledge of the students they teach, but also the teacher needs to figure out how the child made the error and then guide the child's process of reasoning rather than just correcting the answer. In other words, children need to develop their thinking skills rather than memorizing rules. This will enhance their understanding of math concepts as well as build their confidence. Developing problem-solving skills is not only limited to mathematics. Students who are supported in developing their own methods to solve problems will likely be more successful in many other school subjects.

Speaker 1: 21:32

One benefit of productive struggle is that it provides students with opportunities to thoroughly study difficult problems in order to determine similarities between the problems. This helps students to develop a deeper understanding of mathematics. Allowing students to correct their mistakes is another way to build mathematical understanding, because the knowledge it takes to correct their mistakes cannot be achieved unless students can determine how their mistakes were made. It's important to remember that mathematical problems that are meant for productive struggle are difficult, but they're not impossible to solve. Problems requiring students to think about the process of finding solutions provide challenge, because students will need to use their thinking and reasoning skills. By productive struggling, students gain a more thorough knowledge of any topic or subject.

Speaker 1: 22:34

In some cases, productive struggle may lead to feelings of shame and anxiety for students, because they perceive struggle as a weakness If students don't understand the reasoning behind their struggle, they are more likely to give up on difficult problems. However, students engaged in productive struggle realize an additional advantage. The advantage is that students who productively struggle outperform students with similar capabilities who did not participate in productive struggle and only memorized information. Students actually feel positive emotions when they productively struggle. When they are successful in their struggles, they feel pride. There's just something special about being able to solve something without any help from others. Productive struggle encourages students to take risks In order to build their own knowledge and understanding. Students try out ways to find solutions. Those ways may be successful or not, but by engaging in the learning process, students become more effective at solving problems in the future.

Speaker 1: 23:52

Struggles and setbacks as a normal part of learning could make the difference in whether students persevere and succeed in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Students who focus on the learning process tend not to label their experiences as a failure. On the other hand, students who focus on outcomes like grades or test results tend to look at a setback and label it as a failure. This is a significant difference. Higher performing students are more likely to look on setbacks as part of the learning process and not label them as failures compared to relatively average performing students. So what can you do with the information I just shared? Here are the action steps you can take regarding productive struggle.

Speaker 1: 24:59

But first a story. When my children were in the K-12 public school system, I understood the benefits of productive struggle because that was how I grew up with parents that I had, and this was applied to all of their subjects, not just mathematics. Productive struggle gave them a deeper understanding of the concepts they learned and helped to build their problem-solving skills. Now, did they enjoy the process? No, but did they learn from it and understand how it benefited them? Yes, they did. This actually worked out well for them. Yet I know that parenting is a particularly inexact science and the opportunity to second-guess our decisions about what's best for our children is a day-to-day reality.

Speaker 1: 25:53

Has your child ever looked at a homework assignment and threw up their hands saying I can't do this, do this? Are they looking for an easy way out because they don't want to struggle through understanding, or is the problem out of their depths? Here are some questions you can ask yourself when trying to understand whether your child is just being lazy or they lack understanding. Note the kind of homework tasks that were setting your child off? Why are they exhibiting the behaviors they're exhibiting? Are you sure your child understands the tasks that they are being asked to do? Is your child capable of doing the task at hand? How do you know? Is your child capable of doing the task at hand? How do you know? What systems or frameworks do you have in place to help your child persevere if they don't quote, unquote get it on the first try? Are you sure the skills have been explicitly taught in class to help them complete the homework? And have you built a culture at home where failure is just the first step in the learning process and is valued? As a parent, you may be less likely to understand the necessity of struggle. However, productive struggle is beneficial. It's important that you not just provide the correct answer and move on when helping your children with homework.

Speaker 1: 27:32

Think of productive struggle as a necessary part of the learning process. You can think about it this way If the teacher tells students how to solve the problem, the student loses the opportunity to develop a deeper understanding of the process. To help your child learn to think more productively about academic challenges, you can one regularly ask your child to reflect on their experiences and setbacks and problems, what they learned from them, rather than how they overcame an obstacle. Two, share with them the histories of important scientists and inventors and discuss how failures, setbacks and changing tactics played a role in discoveries Think about Einstein or Edison, for example. Three, be honest with your feedback so that your child develops a more realistic expectation of their work. And four, help your child understand that assessments for grades are just a midpoint indication and not the end point in the learning process. If a teacher uses productive struggle instruction in the classroom, support that teacher by using the principles of productive struggle when helping your children with homework at home.

Speaker 1: 29:05

Productive struggle in the classroom requires many elements working together, and this includes teacher and parent cooperation and understanding in order to enable students to be successful. Here are this episode's takeaways Learning through failure is called productive struggle and K-12 education needs more productive struggle. It's part of the learning process for all children. In neuroscience research, scientists tell us our brains grow new neural pathways when we are at the stage of a challenge. It's called the Goldilocks Principle of Learning. It can't be too easy or too hard. It needs to be just right. Implementing failure in the classroom is more about making learning more meaningful, not making school harder. When students fail productively, they become better learners. Productive struggle is often associated with the same levels of persistence that are commonplace in schools gaming, lego building and other things students value on a personal level. Developing problem-solving skills is not only limited to mathematics. Students who are supported in developing their own methods to solve problems will likely be more successful in many of the school subjects, including the STEM subjects. By productive struggling, students gain a more thorough knowledge of any topic or subject.

Speaker 1: 31:12

What are your thoughts on what's been discussed in this episode in relation to productive struggling? Let me know your thoughts by leaving a text comment on my podcast website, k12educationinsightsbuzzsproutcom. Here's how you can leave that text comment Go to the episode description page and click on the send me a text message link. That's it Again. It's k12educationinsightsbuzzsproutcom. If you enjoyed this episode, why not listen to another episode from my library? It could take as little as 15 minutes of your day, and remember, new episodes come out every Tuesday. Thanks for tuning in and listening to this episode. Be sure to come back for more insights on K-12 educational topics that impact you and your children. Until next time, aim to learn something new every day.