You wince at the set of differential equations you need to solve. You barely understand the topic, and you have to plough through a whole page of them. You are tempted to turn to ChatGPT to get through this assignment. It’s not graded, so you needn’t feel guilty for using the bot.

But how will you learn to solve them unless you grapple with them on your own? Though it’s going to be a long evening, you decide to wrestle with the equations, knowing that it is the only way to get a firmer handle on them.

Origins

The term “productive struggle” was coined by James Hiebert and Douglas Grouws, in the context of Maths instruction, to describe the effort students have to make to decipher complex problems slightly beyond their current levels. In a paper in the Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, Hiroko Warshauer avers that perseverance is a key element of productive struggle. Only when students persist on challenging tasks that are slightly beyond their level can they gain mastery of a concept.

Further, a student’s environment plays a significant role in promoting perseverance. Teachers may foster active engagement by “questioning, clarifying, interpreting, confirming students’ thinking” and coaxing them to discuss problems with their peers, says Warshauer. When teachers communicate that struggle is a part of the learning process, students know that it’s okay to labour over sums. Because many students experience Maths anxiety and tend to give up when problems become demanding, it’s important to reassure them that contending with problems is an integral aspect of learning. Letting students know that confusion, doubt, and mistakes are essential elements of the learning process can mitigate their anxiety.

Asking students to explain their reasoning helps them become more accepting of productive struggle. Instead of focusing on the final answer, teachers may coax students to articulate the steps involved in finding the answer. They may also urge them to approach and solve problems in different ways. These exercises need to be done in a non-judgmental space where students are not afraid of taking risks and making mistakes. The whole point is for students to appreciate the process of thinking. Warshauer also recommends that teachers anticipate points of likely struggle and provide leading questions to propel students’ thinking forward.

Across subjects

Of course, productive struggle is not limited to mathematics but is applicable to all disciplines. A post on progresslearning.com titled What is productive struggle in education? describes this phenomenon in the context of reading. When students are given a text that is just above their current level of ‘proficiency’, they have to actively engage with it to understand its contents. To comprehend a challenging text, students need to deploy an array of critical thinking skills like making connections, questioning, drawing inferences, summarising and identifying key points and supporting details. As they engage with the material, students are likely to feel befuddled and frustrated. But sticking with it and trying to understand it is what leads to deeper learning.

While some students may sail through the primary years of schooling, everyone, including those considered bright or brilliant, struggles with learning as the content gets more complex. The ability to persist with productive struggle is what differentiates proficient students from their mediocre peers. Don’t imagine that toppers don’t wrestle with confusing sums and dense texts. Just as everyone’s muscles grow stronger when they do the hard work of lifting weights, our neuronal connections also grow more robust and refined when we engage in mental workouts.

The only caveat is that you need to find the optimal level of challenge without burning yourself out. While mild to moderate frustration is expected, if a subject is causing you deep anguish, you may seek help from your professor, peers or a tutor. If none of the strategies work, consider shifting to another course.

The writer is visiting faculty at the School of Education, Azim Premji University, Bengaluru, and the co-author of Bee-Witched.