what is productive struggle?

One day, I was discussing education with my dad. He told me the best definition of the purpose of education he ever heard came from a third-grade teacher. She said, “the purpose of education is for students to learn what to do when they don’t know what to do.” My dad explained that to

him, it perfectly sums up learning. If you think about it, almost everything we do requires us to figure out what to do when we don’t know what to do. Start a new job? Figure out what to do. Car breaks down? Solve the problem. Decide what to do after graduation? Determine what to do next. 

That third-grade teacher’s definition describes school, work, and life. And for us, is encapsulates the heart of productive struggle. Practicing how to struggle through a new learning situation is exactly what prepares us for the future.

There are several key words and phrases in my definition. First is student participation. You simply can’t have productive struggle without students participating in the process. Next, it is a structured instructional situation. Generally, teachers plan and craft the opportunity for students to apply prior knowledge in a new situation at a level which requires the right level of struggle—not too little, not too much. Finally, students are using the knowledge they already have, just to something that is new to them. Connecting the two is an intricate part of productive struggle. 

Productive struggle includes the activities that allow students to struggle as well as the scaffolding strategies provided for the students. It’s critical to choose tasks, assignments, and activities that are appropriately challenging for your students. Then, ensure that students have support as needed so they can be successful with their struggle. 

how does productive struggle connect to rigor?

For over 20 years, I’ve helped teachers and leaders understand the concept of rigor and how to implement it in the classroom. You may be wondering why my new books are not on rigor. As I’ve worked with rigor, I’ve found the heart of rigor is the instructional opportunity to demonstrate high expectations through requiring students to demonstrate learning at high levels. As I continued to explore this aspect of rigor, I began to realize that productive struggle is the heart of rigor.

There are several key words and phrases in my definition. First is student participation. You simply can’t have productive struggle without students participating in the process. Next, it is a structured instructional situation. Generally, teachers plan and craft the opportunity for students to apply prior knowledge in a new situation at a level which requires the right level of struggle—not too little, not too much. Finally, students are using the knowledge they already have, just to something that is new to them. Connecting the two is an intricate part of productive struggle. 

Notice how productive struggle overlaps with rigor. You must have high expectations to create a task where students struggle productively. Scaffolding is critical as teachers need to provide support when students need it—but not too soon. Scaffolding shouldn’t prevent struggling; it will assist when the struggle becomes unproductive. Finally, for rigor, students demonstrate learning at high levels. Adapting current knowledge to solve a novel problem is high levels. So, the two concepts are interrelated.