Tech Talk - The Benefit of Struggle

Has your student ever struggled during class? Do you have the urge to jump in and help, or even just do it for them? Well, you're not alone. Our culture makes us feel bad when we see our children struggle. We often jump in and offer solutions, then show them the way, to protect them from struggle. However, by doing this are we actually hurting our students love of learning?

Research shows that struggling is essential to mastery, according to Jo Boaler, Nomellini-Olivier Professor of Education at Stanford, co-founder of youcubed.org and author of the new book “Limitless Mind: Learn, Lead & Live without Barriers.” And, the highest achieving people in the world are those who have struggled the most. Neuroscientists have found that mistakes are important to brain growth. Not only is struggling good for our brains, but it actually increases our learning potential.

Jo goes on to explain, “When I tell young learners that struggle and mistakes are the best times for our brain, it is freeing. Students no longer give up on problems when they find them hard - they push through the struggle to the wonderful places on the other side. When students look at me with those puppy dog faces and say ‘this is hard’, I say, ‘That is fantastic!  That feeling of hard is the feeling of your brain developing, strengthening and growing.”

Students start the school year with hopes and dreams of all the things that they will learn.  When they struggle, and then see someone else like a parent or a teacher easily solve the problem, they can start to doubt themselves. But if we spend the time teaching children the value of struggle, emphasizing they are building a stronger brain, they will see struggle as a wonderful thing. They will develop a love of the process, which will open their minds to the desire to explore the answer and all that they can learn along the way, once they put aside the myth that they have to know all the answers. They gain the ability to search out the answer and often find a better, more creative solution. Isn't that what we want for our children?

If you have questions about our your New Code Academy Chromebook, you can contact me at rcannon@isd271.org, or you can message me through Seesaw, just look for Ray Cannon. 

Check out our New Code Academy YouTube Page for the complete Tech Talk video, more Tech Tips, and episodes of NewsBYTEs.  Don’t forget to “Like” and “Subscribe” to be notified of new contect each week.

Source:  https://www.edsurge.com/news/2019-10-28-why-struggle-is-essential-for-the-brain-and-our-lives