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Productive Struggle in the Classroom: A Q&A With Dr Barbara Blackburn
by Dr. Barbara Blackburn
Published via Barbara Blackburn Education : April 18th 2026
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.
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Productive Struggle for K-12 Students
by Dr. Barbara Blackburn
Published via Share My Lesson : March 6th 2026
Barbara R. Blackburn explains how teachers can design learning experiences that challenge students to think critically, apply prior knowledge and develop deeper understanding.
Productive Struggle in Your Classroom: Understanding the Basics
by Dr. Barbara Blackburn
Published via The Educator : March 30th 2026
Have you heard about productive struggle? It’s an emerging buzzword in education, and although it started in the maths classroom, it is moving into all subject areas. Let’s look at what productive struggle is and isn’t, they key dispositions that are critical for productive struggle, and several activities and tasks that foster productive struggle.
Supporting Productive Struggle with Scaffolding
by Dr. Barbara Blackburn
Published via Middleweb : July 14th 2026
Scaffolding is an integral part of productive struggle. The goal is to achieve a balance – supporting students without solving problems for them.
In this article, we’ll look at ways to provide student support or “scaffolding” within lessons and then discuss how we can teach students to self-scaffold.
