Building Thinking Classrooms, Liljedahl, 2021.
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"The Goldilocks Zone" Keeping Students in the FLOW of Learning
"The Goldilocks Zone" Keeping Students in the FLOW of Learning
Monica Lang
Princess Anne High School
March 2025
What is the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), or as it might be referred to as "The Goldilocks Zone"?
What is the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), or as it might be referred to as "The Goldilocks Zone"?
In education ZPD, the "Goldilocks Zone" refers to the ideal level of challenge for learning, where a task is neither too easy (boring) nor too difficult (frustrating), but just right to promote optimal learning and engagement, allowing for meaningful progress and skill development; essentially, it's the sweet spot where students are most likely to retain information and feel motivated to continue learning.
I. Retain Information: The Task Matters! Incremental progression is key.
I. Retain Information: The Task Matters! Incremental progression is key.
The Big Picture:
When planning the FLOW of your unit, think about the progression of learning throughout a unit. Do your tasks ask students to build on each step? Often we ask students to “Explain” before they have had time to “Do” and “Justify”. As you plan your next unit, consider creating your tasks to follow the progression shown on the right (Building Thinking Classrooms, Liljedahl, 2021) that leads to high quality student outcomes.
Sequencing the Smaller Chunks of Learning:
When planning the FLOW of your lessons, think about taking students from the most basic representation of a concept, making ONE incremental change at a time, until they reach the highest level. In his book Building Thinking Classrooms, Peter Liljedahl refers to this as Thin-Slicing the examples where students can work through each "slice". Using thin sliced math problems is when you provide students with one problem at a time, and each problem increases in difficulty, but only slightly. Not every group needs to get through ALL of the problems to reach a level of understanding. Decide what that threshold is when planning your lesson, and this is where you will pause and have a whole class "huddle" up to debrief.
How do I give thin-sliced problems to students? One at a time, at their own readiness level.
Banner Method - Ex: Algebra 1 Writing Linear Equations
Chunked Problem Sets - Ex. Solving Equations Solving Equations (Sequenced Chunked Probolem Sets) Ex: Geometry Distance and Midpoint; Similar Triangles and Slope; Discovery Thin-Sliced
II. Motivation NEEDS Immediate Feedback! Encourage learning from mistakes, and risk-taking.
II. Motivation NEEDS Immediate Feedback! Encourage learning from mistakes, and risk-taking.
When you get frustrated, the only way to get back in the flow, is with in the moment feedback. AVID’s 10-2-2 structure of Focused Note-Making allows for pauses, to process, to get or to give specific feedback! Reflection IN the process of learning is essential and is what motivates you to keep going!
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