Productive Failure

PRODUCTIVE FAILURE.

Productive failure???

Is that even a thing???

A study conducted in Singapore, home of the top performing math students in the world, reveals that a much deeper level of learning occurs when students first have a chance to “flail around with unfamiliar math concepts.” The opportunity to struggle, in the right context, allows the student to figure out “what they know, the limits of what they know, and exactly what they do not know.”

I’ve spent most of my math teaching career giving “direct instruction.” That means that I stand in front of my students and tell them what they need to know and what they need to do. There generally wasn’t a context for using the math concepts beyond applying them on math homework and math tests. Students learned the math concepts because they were supposed to. Learning in this way produced students who could be good “rule followers” when given a very specific and familiar context to use the concepts, but the students were not nearly as proficient at applying the concepts in different, unfamiliar contexts.

A rude awakening for me came when I realized that my lecturing was actually getting in the way of deeper learning. In order to truly learn, students need to be engaged and invested. Engagement and investment typically involves a period of curiosity and exploration. This investigation then often leads to frustration and failure. This concept of productive failure has been transformative in my teaching. A student's realization that they have the ability to navigate through frustration and then persevere to a point of learning is key to deeper learning.

Instead of seeing the teacher as the primary source of information, students need to realize (and believe) that they have the ability to figure out concepts. In the past, when a student was frustrated or did not understand something, my "teacher instinct" was just to tell them the answer. Ultimately, I think this hurt the student more than it helped because it trained within the student a learned helplessness. As students work through various roadblocks in their learning/investigations, my role needs to be one of facilitation. I allow for "wait time" so students can work, I give hints, I ask guiding questions, and I give students an opportunity to struggle and ultimately make a breakthrough in their learning. As an educator, I try to abide by the maxim "Never say something that a student could say." I don't want to deprive students of the "aha!" moment. When, after persevering through frustration and struggle, the student reaches a moment of enlightenment, they achieve ownership of the "discovery." The learning is theirs, the knowledge is theirs, and the chances of holding onto the concept are much greater. Productive failure gives students a greater understanding of their own ability to learn and leads to greater confidence in themselves as capable learners.

The Best Way to Understand Math is Learning How to Fail Productively