*Make an Update: Take one area of the learning sciences. How does educational psychology contribute to our understanding? What evidence does it offer? What interpretative concepts and theories does it provide?

In order to incorporate productive struggle in the math classroom, the teacher has to create an environment of a growth mindset. The term growth mindset was developed by by Stanford professor Carol Dweck in her book Mindset, where she describes intelligence as just the starting point for development. She states that the growth mindset is based on the belief that your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts, your strategies, and help from others (Dweck, Mindset the new psychology of success, 2016). This is important for productive struggle because without students knowing they can overcome problems, they will not be motivated to complete them. The video below, “Teaching Habits that Promote Productive Struggle in Math” starts the video with the question, “What separates successful math students from unsuccessful (MIND Research Institute, 2016)”? The answer is not IQ nor natural ability, but instead, what makes a student successful in math is how they respond to mistakes or failures (MIND Research Institute, 2016).

Productive struggle is a very important skill, especially when it comes to teaching mathematics. Important tools for creating productive struggle are scaffolding, questioning, and limited information. A well-known math teacher, and current desmos creator and speaker, Dan Meyer, discusses the importance of removing too much given information in math textbooks. He started to explain this problem with the TED talk below. He discussed how math books are written in a way that does not allow for any productive struggle, and how this has lead to a very low retention rate (TED-Ed, 2013).

Another math teacher, Michael Giardi, also noticed this problem in math and in an article he wrote, “After I watched a TED talk about the power of visual learning, I had an idea to challenge my students with activities that would promote productive struggle (Giardi, 2018).” Giardi gives an example of what this looks like in the picture below. Notice it is very similar to what Dan Meyer demonstrates in his TED talk by removing the words in the problem and allowing for creativity, discussion, and exploration. Also, this form of productive struggle naturally creates motivation because students are perplexed and want to know the solution. Giardi says it perfect when he states, “Allowing students the opportunity to practice inquiry before instruction makes math come alive. It challenges them to engage in struggle, collaboration, and rigorous thinking, and it increases participation in lessons (Giardi, 2018).”

(Giardi,April 5 2018). Promoting Productive Struggle in Math. https://www.edutopia.org/article/promoting-productive-struggle-math

References:

Dweck, C. S. (2016). Mindset the new psychology of success. New York: Ballantine Books.

Giardi, M. (2018, April 5). Promoting Productive Struggle in Math. Retrieved from Edutopia: https://www.edutopia.org/article/promoting-productive-struggle-math

MIND Research Institute. (2016, April 28). Teaching Habits that Promote Productive Struggle in Math. Retrieved from Youtube: https://youtu.be/HAd8n5x0LxU

TED-Ed. (2013, August 1). Math class needs a makeover - Dan Meyer. Retrieved from Youtube: https://youtu.be/qocAoN4jNwc