Appreciating Productive Struggle: Educators’ Experience of "Confusion to Clarity" During Professional Learning
Keywords:
mathematics teacher education research, productive struggle, structured inquiry, professional learning, primary educationAbstract
Productive struggle is a vital aspect of mathematics learning; consequently, how teacher educators can effectively communicate the power of this idea to classroom teachers should in itself be an important consideration. We argue that providing teachers with firsthand experience of learning mathematics through structured inquiry approaches (e.g., launch-explore-summarise/review) is vital for supporting their appreciation of productive struggle. To facilitate this, during professional learning workshops with primary school teachers and education support workers, we have introduced a reflective template (the "confuse-o-meter") to enhance educator awareness of their own journey from "confusion to clarity" as work on a task unfolds. In this Illustration of Practice, we draw on data collected from several workshops we recently facilitated, which focussed on introducing challenging tasks and the launch-explore-summarise/review lesson structure. Our purpose is to both demonstrate the importance of providing educators with first-hand experience of productive struggle, and to illustrate how the reflective template designed supports this process.
References
Clarke, D. M., & Clarke, B. A. (2003). Encouraging perseverance in elementary mathematics: A tale of two problems. Teaching Children Mathematics, 10(4), 204–209. https://doi.org/10.5951/tcm.10.4.0204
Clarke, D., Cheeseman, J., Roche, A., & van der Schans, S. (2014). Teaching strategies for building student persistence on challenging tasks: Insights emerging from two approaches to teacher professional learning. Mathematics Teacher Education and Development, 16(2), 46–70.
Hiebert, J., & Grouws, D. A. (2007). The effects of classroom mathematics teaching on students’ learning. F. K. Lester (Ed.), Second handbook of research on mathematics teaching and learning: Volume 1, (pp. 371–404). Information Age.
Hubbard, J., Russo, J., & Sullivan, P. (2023). Spotlighting: Helping to scaffold the "explore phase" of the lesson when teaching with challenging tasks. Australian Primary Mathematics Classroom, 28(1), 31–37.
Ingram, N., Holmes, M., Linsell, C., Livy, S., McCormick, M., & Sullivan, P. (2020). Exploring an innovative approach to teaching mathematics through the use of challenging tasks: A New Zealand perspective. Mathematics Education Research Journal, 32(3), 497–522. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13394-019-00266-1
Kapur, M. (2008). Productive failure. Cognition and Instruction, 26(3), 379–424. https://doi.org/10.1080/07370000802212669
Livy, S., Muir, T., & Sullivan, P. (2018). Challenging tasks lead to productive struggle! Australian Primary Mathematics Classroom, 23(1), 19–24.
Nottingham, J. (2017). The learning challenge: How to guide your students through the learning pit to achieve deeper understanding. Corwin Press. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781071873007
Pogrow, S. (1988). Teaching thinking to at-risk elementary students. Educational Leadership, 45(7), 79–85.
Russo, J. (2020). Designing and scaffolding rich mathematical learning experiences with challenging tasks. Australian Primary Mathematics Classroom, 25(1), 3–10.
Russo, J., Bobis, J., Downton, A., Hughes, S., Livy, S., McCormick, M., & Sullivan, P. (2020). Elementary teachers’ beliefs on the role of struggle in the mathematics classroom. The Journal of Mathematical Behavior, 58, Article 100774. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmathb.2020.100774
Russo, J., & Hubbard, J. (2022). Differentiating mathematics instruction through sequences of challenging tasks in the early primary years. In N. Fitzallen, C. Murphy, V. Hatisaru, & N. Maher (Eds.), Mathematical confluences and journeys (Proceedings of the 44th Annual Conference of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia, Launceston, pp. 16‒19). MERGA.
Russo, J., & Russo, T. (2022). Mathematics in a multi-age setting. Australian Primary Mathematics Classroom, 27(1), 34–40.
Stein, M. K., Engle, R. A., Smith, M. S., & Hughes, E. K. (2008). Orchestrating productive mathematical discussions: Five practices for helping teachers move beyond show and tell. Mathematical Thinking and Learning, 10(4), 313–340. https://doi.org/10.1080/10986060802229675
Sullivan, P., Bobis, J., Downton, A., Hughes, S., Livy, S., McCormick, M., & Russo, J. (2020). Ways that relentless consistency and task variation contribute to teacher and student mathematics learning. In A. Coles (Ed.), For the learning of mathematics monograph 1: Proceedings of a symposium on learning in honour of Laurinda Brown (pp. 32–37). FLM Publishing Association.
Sullivan, P., Mousley, J., & Zevenbergen, R. (2006). Teacher actions to maximize mathematics learning opportunities in heterogeneous classrooms. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 4(1), 117–143. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10763-005-9002-y
Vernon, A., & Bernard, M. E. (2006). Applications of REBT in schools: Prevention, promotion, intervention. In A. Ellis & M. E. Bernard (Eds.), Rational emotive behavioral approaches to childhood disorders: Theory, practice and research (pp. 415–460). https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-26375-6_14
