The Master Teacher Blog

It has been said that the student who does not believe they can learn is the most difficult student to teach. Learning requires effort, risk, and persistence. This prospect can seem like a heavy lift for students who doubt their abilities, lack confidence, or have not experienced much learning success. In fact, all students are, at some points, likely to wonder about their capability and question their ability to succeed. 

Yet, the presence of hope for success is often the first step in the learning process. It opens the door for students to see the purpose and possibilities associated with learning. Still, it is a factor in learning that we may overlook and take for granted as we prepare to teach.  

When hope is lacking, investing energy and enduring the frustration that can accompany learning can seem like a “bridge too far.” In fact, it can be easier for students to see themselves as incapable and tell themselves that what they are asked to learn is not relevant, useful, or worth the effort. Such self-talk can actually feel better than risking engagement with an activity that may lead to embarrassment and shame.

Obviously, negative self-messaging undermines our efforts and our messages about the importance and value of learning. A well-prepared, focused, professionally prepared lesson is of little value if students are not ready or able to engage in the learning we have planned.  

To be clear, hope is not just voiced optimism or a naïve view of life. Hope is the realization that success is possible with patience, effort, strategy, and persistence. Hope is a key motivator that pushes and pulls people toward their goals. Equally important, students who are hopeful also are more likely to bounce back when they make mistakes and experience setbacks.  

The good news is that hope is a learnable skill. We can teach and nurture it. Here are five actions that can help us to get started.  

Create an emotionally safe learning environment. Students need to feel safe to take risks. They need to be free from the prospect of embarrassment and public criticism. Respect, valuing, and support are crucial elements of an environment in which students feel safe to take risks and learn. Of course, a safe learning environment by itself is not enough, but it is a condition that we need to create to make taking learning risks feel like a reasonable commitment.  

Conduct empathy interviews. The more we understand about students who struggle to gain and sustain hope, the better able we are to reach and teach them in this crucial area. Explore the student’s history with learning, including that which occurs outside of school. Inquire about past challenges they have confronted and overcome to find success. Nudge for details about what they did, how it worked, and how they felt. What we learn from these conversations can provide helpful reminders and levers to instill, nurture, and sustain hope. Finally, assure students that we want them to experience this type of success, and the feelings that accompany it, over and over in our class.  

Give students a sense of control. Hope is closely associated with a sense of control. Helping students to see connections between their efforts and learning outcomes can be crucial to the development of hope. We can start with small things: making choices about activities, what to do first, with whom to work, and so on. Over time, we can expand and build choices to include use of time, learning strategies, and other learning drivers. The goal is to help students gain a sense of agency relative to their learning.  

Coach students to set goals. Goals are tangible elements of hope. Goals create a path to the future. We can help students to break goals into specific, actionable steps so they can see how they can get from where they are to where they want to go. At first, the goals may be modest and short-term, but over time they can build into more challenging and significant learning targets. Initially, students likely will need instruction, coaching, and support. However, we need to be careful to ensure that the goals are owned by the student. If students perceive the goals as ours, we will have lost much of the leverage the goals can provide. 

Encourage students to reflect on and talk about hope. At first, students may be reluctant to discuss this aspect of their learning. To build awareness and comfort, we might start with activities such as writing about or discussing a sentence stem like “Today, I hope…” as a warm-up activity and collect or invite reflections at the end of class. We might share vignettes of people who persisted and prevailed in the face of a challenge because of the power of hope. We can also connect examples of how the power of hope led to solving complex and difficult challenges related to our subject area to make a connection with what students are learning. As students become more comfortable and conscious of the power of hope, we might even have them write a letter to their future selves describing who they hope to become and why. 

We do well to remember that the level of hope in people ebbs and flows. We may see progress one day, followed by a day that will require more attention and reassurance. Experiences and circumstances can impact hope, especially as students are building confidence and growing the power of their hope. We must be patient without giving up. As hope grows, we can be assured that in the face of struggles and setbacks, we will see students bounce back faster and persist longer.

Some students come to us with naturally high levels of confidence. They are accustomed to meeting and overcoming the learning challenges presented to them. They are ready to take learning risks, and they are quick to let us know when they need additional attention and support. Other students come to us with doubts and a history of struggle. They question their abilities and are reluctant to take learning chances. These students experience high levels of anxiety and frustration when confronted with learning challenges, sometimes even when we know that they can easily accomplish the tasks before them.  

Notably, students who come to us with low levels of confidence in their learning capacity can present our greatest opportunities for wins. Often, with encouragement, timely support, and coaching, these students can reach new levels of self-assurance and commitment to learning. Their potential is waiting to be unleashed—and we can help them.  

Of course, not all students with low confidence in their ability to learn are the same. Each student needs our attention and understanding. They need us to choose the right strategies at the right times to provide reassurance, guidance, and support. Here are ten strategies to instill more confidence in students.  

Create a safe and secure learning environment. It is nearly impossible for uncertain students to build confidence in an environment that lacks clear expectations, consistent classroom management, and positive relationships. They need to experience high levels of trust and respect. Students must feel secure before they take risks. 

Tell and show students that we believe in them. Students not only need to hear that we believe they can overcome the learning challenges they face, but they also must feel it. We can notice effort and progress and be ready to provide support when they need it. We also can encourage students to believe in themselves. Statements like “You’ve got this” and “I know you can do it” are good places to start. 

Remind students of past progress and successes. When we remind students of times in the past when they faced difficult challenges and were able to make progress and eventually succeed, we provide evidence that has credibility with the students. We can remind students that it is the quality of their work that makes the difference. With quality work, they will succeed. 

Reinforce the importance of effort and strategy. Students often assume that doing well in school is the result of being smart rather than an investment of their energy and commitment. While some students may find that academic work comes easier for them than others, it is an investment of good effort and smart strategy that can level the playing field. Coaching students to focus on the effort they will give rather than worrying about the outcome can be a good confidence boost.  

Provide honest, success-focused feedback. To gain legitimate confidence, students need to know where they stand. Providing clear, objective, honest feedback helps students to understand where they have made progress and where additional attention and effort will be needed. However, we also need to help students see their next steps toward success. Some students will do their best if they can see the big picture. Others will do better if they focus on what is next.  

Resist stepping in too quickly and overcorrecting. When we see less-than-confident students begin to struggle, we can be tempted to step in immediately with hints and advice. Yet, the progress and success that come from struggle is a great confidence booster. Further, intervening too early risks undermining the students’ confidence and increasing their dependence on us. The best approach is to watch carefully and step in at the time when frustration threatens to overwhelm commitment to the task. 

Tap the power of “yet.” When initial attempts do not result in significant progress or success, less-than-confident students often conclude that they are not capable of meeting the learning challenge they face. We can remind them that the message is not that success isn’t possible. Rather, they are simply not quite there yet. They can still learn and succeed. The key is to have them focus on good strategy, smart effort, and persistence. All three are elements within the control of the student.  

Discourage comparisons with others. Students who are not confident can become discouraged when they see other students for whom a learning challenge or new skill seems to come easily. They may not be aware of other areas where those students are struggling or where they were when they started. Students are better served when they focus on their own progress, not on how others are doing.  

Treat mistakes and setbacks as opportunities to learn. Mistakes can be frightening, disheartening experiences when confidence is already lacking. We need to instill in and remind students that mistakes are key building blocks of learning. Without mistakes, little progress is probable. Rather than treating mistakes and setbacks as things to be avoided, we can help students to focus on what has been gained and what can be learned from these experiences.  

Remove scaffolding and supports in response to progress. When engaging in major learning tasks or building complex skills, students often need scaffolding to guide their early efforts. Our early support may come in small increments with frequent application, but as students make progress, we need to be attentive to how much scaffolding and other supports they still need and withdraw them as soon as students are ready to be more independent. Leaving scaffolding in place too long risks stunting progress and encouraging over-reliance on external supports.  

Few experiences in education can offer more satisfaction and reinforcement than helping a student to realize their potential and see themselves as a capable learner. The effort may take a while, but it is more than worth the investment.  

Most people with knowledge of Artificial Intelligence (AI) believe that we are only seeing initial hints of what AI will soon be able to do, and, consequently, it is a challenge to plan and prepare for the opportunities that lie ahead. Still, we need to think creatively, imagine vigorously, and resist allowing our assumptions to limit our vision.  

This challenge is especially acute in education. The design of the schools we have dates back more than a hundred years. Despite calls for and efforts to change, our schools remain organized as they have for generations, and they function much as they always have. 

AI challenges us to use what we know to question what we have assumed, examine practices that no longer serve our students, and follow what we know about how learning happens. Consider these five assumptions, the common practices associated with them, and the ways in which learners might engage (and the ways in which learning could be transformed) in the age of AI. 

Assumption #1: Learning follows a linear path, at a predictable pace, from ignorance to knowledge.  

Real learning often either speeds up or slows down in response to the learner’s background knowledge, interest, and learning experience. A learner’s curiosity may create a desire for a “side trip” to explore a topic, concept, or skill of interest rather than adhering to a scripted, preset, narrowly focused curriculum. Artificial Intelligence can shift direction, adjust pace, and open new doors to learning in response to each individual learner. Meanwhile, AI can assist learners and educators to track progress and measure key skill development across a variety of contexts and experiences.  

Assumption #2: Learning results from exposure to a cycle of formal instruction, guided practice, and learner response.  

Schools have traditionally been organized based on the assumption that the teacher is the primary source of knowledge and uniquely possesses the expertise to plan lessons, determine the pace of instruction, and assess learning progress. Further, the assumption has been that learning must occur in the classroom, under the supervision of the teacher, in order to be recognized. Learning occurring outside of the classroom and curriculum is generally ignored, rarely assessed or valued. AI offers the potential for learning to be stimulated by a wide variety of sources and experiences in near limitless locations, at a pace that works for the learner. AI holds the promise for learning to happen anytime and anywhere. It also has the capacity to assess and document learning that occurs well beyond the walls of the school. 

Assumption #3: Learning activities must be presented in discipline-based curricula and lessons.  

Traditionally, school curricula have been organized to present skills and content within the confines of a specific discipline such as science, math, English, and social studies. AI holds the potential to embed learning experiences in contexts that span multiple disciplines, connecting concepts and skills in seamless experiences that make application of knowledge and skills gained in one subject or context easy to transfer and apply in another.  

Assumption #4: Schools are to train students to ask fewer questions and give more answers.  

Most of our youngest learners come to school filled with curiosity and questions. However, for schools to operate as designed, students must focus their attention on the questions adults ask and concentrate on providing the answers adults will accept. Artificial intelligence can respond to endless questions without becoming impatient or frustrated. Even better, the questions learners ask can become stimuli for exploration, exposure, and understanding. Rather than limiting the number of questions learners ask, AI can help students to become skilled inquirers and drivers of their own learning. 

Assumption #5: Learning must be measured by formal, often standardized tests.  

AI can offer assessment options well beyond the traditional standardized test. Simulations, case studies, and other learning applications and demonstrations can assess areas of learning such as critical thinking, creativity, problem solving, and decision making. Authentic learning assessments that used to require elaborate planning and set up can now be organized and carried out in near real time. Further, assessment results can be presented in objective, criterion-referenced narratives that provide depth and insight beyond the capacity of previous assessment systems.  

We cannot know what the future holds—but we cannot afford to wait until it arrives to plan and prepare for it. While much is not yet known about the capacities Artificial Intelligence will develop, we can use what we do know to begin reimagining, reorienting, and reinventing the way learners experience school.  

The term “productive failure” might seem like an oxymoron. We typically think of failure as fruitless, as something to be avoided. Yet, when viewed from a learning perspective, failure can be a powerful stimulus for future success. In fact, mistakes, missteps, and setbacks can be among the most valuable precursors to learning available to our students.  

It goes without saying that we all enjoy the feeling of having succeeded. However, success can be the result of many factors, not all of which are evidence of learning. For example, we may have simply made a lucky choice that just so happened to work out. Or we may have made mistakes of which we were unaware, but we still were able to achieve the outcome for which we hoped. Regardless, we can feel little incentive to commit to continued learning when we feel as though we have already succeeded.  

On the other hand, those times when we try and fall short allow us to realize that we have more to learn—more skills to develop, more approaches to try, and more answers to discover. We have an incentive to reflect, adjust, and try again. Hiding within a less-than-successful experience can be key insights, hints for new approaches, and suggestions for efforts that, if pursued, lead to true success. 

Unfortunately, in schools we typically applaud successes and discount, even criticize, failure. Failure is seen as something to avoid despite its potential to lead to learning breakthroughs, new understanding, and lasting knowledge. When respected and valued, failure can be the starting point for what propels learning forward.  

Productive failure in our work with students can take multiple forms. Students may often experience failure as they attempt to apply new learning in response to direct instruction. Failure that is followed by denial, disinterest, and disregard is unproductive and typically offers little learning value. Failure only becomes productive when it is followed by examination, reflection, the search for new information, and additional informed attempts. Obviously, what happens after a learning attempt has a greater impact on long-term learning than does how well or poorly an initial attempt might have gone. 

Productive failure has also been shown to be a powerful learning driver when it precedes instruction. A study reported in the Journal of Learning Sciences found that ninth-grade students who unsuccessfully tried to solve math problems on their own before receiving instruction achieved levels of comprehension following instruction that were nearly double those achieved by students who received only the direct instruction. Another study involving seventh-grade math students found that even though students were unable to generate correct answers on their own prior to instruction, following instruction they significantly outperformed students who were introduced to the problems and solutions via direct instruction.  

While productive failure has not received significant attention in elementary and secondary education, its power to stimulate and support learning is well known and respected in other fields. In fact, productive failure is such a powerful approach to learning that it is commonly used in medical schools to prepare future medical professionals.   

So, what are some ways we can tap and leverage the power of productive failure to increase learning success for our students? Here are some places to start. 

We can reinforce with students that: 

• Failure is feedback. The experience contains important information about how to succeed.  
• Failure only lasts until the next attempt is made. Continued learning effort erases any negativity in the experience. 
• Struggle in learning can be a powerful teacher regarding the nature, structure, and resolution of problems. Struggle can also lead to lengthened retention of new learning. 

• Successful learning attempts still deserve examination to determine whether they were the result of luck or chance or resulted from understanding and insight. They can also contain hints about how to achieve even higher levels of success.  
• Instruction does not always have to precede efforts to learn. In fact, trying to solve problems before instruction can uncover unique and creative learning strategies and insights. 
• When we learn or create something truly new, we must almost always engage in productive failure. Consider Thomas Edison’s one thousand failed attempts before inventing the light bulb.  
• What matters most is not whether we try and fail; it is what we have learned from and do with the experience.  

Failure should not be a “dirty” word in learning. In fact, it is a crucial and unavoidable part of challenging learning experiences. We would do well to honor, respect, and value learning attempts that fall short, especially when they are mined and when they lead to new insights, opportunities, and discoveries.   

Source:  

Kapur, M. & Bielaczayc, K. (2012). Designing for productive failure. Journal of the Learning Sciences. 21(1), 45-83. https://doi.org/10.1080/10508406.2011.591717  

The world for which we are preparing today’s students will be filled with problems that are complex, not well-defined, and unlikely to lend themselves to a single, simple solution. They will require creative and novel approaches. In fact, the success of our students will likely depend more on their ability to engage with problems of this nature than their ability to recount facts, follow directions, or apply established processes and procedures.

Unfortunately, problem-solving skills do not often develop naturally, especially when challenges cannot be solved by traditional, single-path, multi-step strategies. We need to be intentional and strategic in our efforts to introduce, nurture, and hone problem-solving skills and strategies with our students. Here are six strategies we can employ to help our students develop the attitudes, skills, and flexibility necessary to be effectives independent problem solvers.

We can start by presenting problems worth solving. For some students, the presence of a problem alone is enough incentive to search for a solution. However, for most students to fully invest their time and mental energy requires a problem that is relevant to them, interesting enough to pursue, and challenging enough to be worthwhile. Just because a skill or concept is in the formal curriculum does not make it compelling to learners. We may need to find another entry point, a positioning strategy, or presentation frame that meets one or more of these criteria. Creating a scenario, sharing an experience, devising a dilemma, or contextualizing the problem in their life experiences are good places to start.

We do well to prioritize understanding over finding the “correct” answer. Correct answers are only as good as the understanding that supports them. Understanding and insight make solving the next and other future problems less scary and more likely to lead to success. We can support students to reflect on the path they took, recount and name the strategies they tried, describe what worked, and detail what they learned from the process.

We need to give students space to struggle. Of course, we need to limit the amount of time and struggle according to the maturity, commitment, and skill level of our students. We also need to provide appropriate scaffolding for students who may need additional support. Meanwhile, our feedback and coaching are better focused on effort, strategy, and use of resources than on a student’s perceived or innate ability.

We can teach students to “grapple” with problems. Grappling implies trying different approaches, looking for leverage, and finding promising next steps over simply persisting and repeatedly trying the same approach. We can encourage students to look for patterns and hints that suggest something new they can try, and we can teach them to not fear struggle by demystifying challenges and even failure. Additionally, we can—and should—coach them to see problems as opportunities to learn and grow. Our goal is for students to see solving problems as a sign that they are building valuable tools and strategies, which in turn would help grow their confidence.

We need to lead with questions rather than just provide answers. We might ask questions such as “What have you tried?”, “What have you noticed that might be familiar?”, “What might be the significance of…?”, or “How else might you look at/approach the problem?” Providing answers, especially early in the problem-solving process, can remove the challenge and deprive students of their ownership of the solution.

Finally, we need to honor and value the role of mistakes and missteps. When efforts fall short, we can ask questions like “What did you observe that might be useful?”, “Is there a partial answer in what you tried on which you can build?”, or “What still seems to be missing?” Mistakes and missteps are crucial elements in discovery and solution-building. We need to be careful to avoid undermining this element through the feedback we offer and the grades we assign.

The challenge of solving problems without direct adult guidance and direction can be a new and unsettling experience for many students. Our patience, wisdom, and encouragement may be the support they need to trust themselves enough to persist and prevail.

We know that giving students even a few seconds of “think time” after asking a question can make a big difference in the quantity and quality of the responses we receive. Using “wait time” (waiting at least three to five seconds) gives students time to recall, connect, and analyze information that can lead to better responses. However, like with most instructional strategies, there is more we need to consider if we hope to maximize the impact and increase the learning that results from wait time.  

Of course, there are times when wait time is less crucial to achieving our purpose—for example, when we are working with students to increase automaticity with core facts and processes. Similarly, students typically require less time to formulate yes-or-no or true-or-false responses.  

When we want students to consider, reflect, and genuinely think, wait time can be a powerful tool. It can help us to level the playing field for students who may understand key content but need more time to process information and formulate a response. Even students who typically volunteer an answer can benefit from a few seconds of additional thinking time to fully consider what has been asked. Here are seven tips for making the most of the additional thinking time. 

Ask questions that are worthy of thought. The best questions for wait time are complex, thought-provoking, and personally relevant to students. They are questions that invite students’ thinking, reflecting, and responding. 

Be comfortable with silence. Time to process information and formulate responses can feel uncomfortable at first. Resist the temptation to rephrase, paraphrase, or restate the question too quickly. Allow at least three to five seconds of silence before interrupting it or calling on a student for a response. Consider counting the seconds to yourself until you become comfortable with the time lapse and can sense when five seconds have passed. 

Signal students that you will be “cold calling” rather than selecting a volunteered response. Here, wait time is positioned so that everyone has an opportunity and reason to consider the question and formulate a response. Consider avoiding eye contact with students during wait time to avoid students concluding that you have decided on whom you intend to call. Additionally, consider spending a few seconds jotting a note or reading a few words to signal that you have yet to decide on whom to call. We can assume that some students will initially try to read our behavior to determine whether they will be called upon or whether they can stop thinking and relax. Some students and circumstances might even warrant you providing a heads-up the day before; consider pulling certain students aside and telling them the question you will be asking so that they know you intend to call on them the next day. Not only will this allow the students time to think of how they will respond, but committing to this will result in more students’ voices being heard.  

Resist collecting a single response and moving on after giving students time to think. Rather, collect multiple responses before providing your own comments, reinforcement, or follow-up question(s). This approach signals to students that just because someone has answered, that does not mean that the discussion will move forward. Everyone needs to remain engaged and ready for additional responses.  

Be patient and persistent. Students are likely to come with limited experience with wait time. They may be accustomed to routines where the students who raise their hands are promptly called on and correct answers are signals that the discussion will move forward. Some students may assume that by not raising their hands, they will not be called upon. You may need to extend your patience and resist giving in and moving on when too few volunteer responses. Inform students that you are comfortable with silence and are willing to wait. However, be careful not to get into a power struggle. Usually, a little nudging is enough to communicate that you are serious in your expectations. 

After students have a few seconds to contemplate a response, ask students to turn to a partner to discuss their thinking; you may have heard of this being called “think-pair-share.” You might even pose questions with more than one obviously correct answer to add energy and variety and intensify the discussion. Challenge students to develop a response with which they both can agree. Once students have decided on their response, you might collect several responses before adding your perspective. You might also note consistencies among responses. You may even inquire whether any of the pairs were unable to agree on a response and collect both perspectives before commenting. The discussion might conclude by inviting students to comment on what they have heard and where they note common themes.  

Create time for everyone to think about what has been said once responses have been offered. This step is often called “Wait Time 2.” Rather than immediately providing reinforcement, commentary, or interpretation, wait a few seconds to allow students to think. Again, eye contact and other nonverbal behaviors matter. Just staring at the student who responded or immediately moving on to look at another student can be uncomfortable and be read as indicative that the answer was not satisfactory. However, nodding slowly and allowing your eyes to drift or focus elsewhere as though you are thinking, too, can signal to students that the question and response are still active. After a few seconds, and before you weigh in, you might even turn to another learner and ask their thoughts on the question, what they might add, or to comment on the response. Here, too, wait time can encourage additional thought and more extensive analysis. 

Wait time is a powerful tool to support reflection, discussion, and deeper learning. However, it requires intentional discipline, patience, and strategic thinking in order to be effective. Still, the benefits of wait time, once it becomes routine and well thought out, can empower all learners and build better thinkers.  

In part 1 of this two-part series, we discussed ways in which we can reduce the time and energy we invest in instructing and supporting students without undermining or sacrificing their learning. However, the sources of pressure and stress we feel are not always confined to our instructional practices. We can create stress through the expectations we hold for ourselves. We can form habits and engage in behaviors that sap our energy without our realizing the price we are paying. We can even become stressed by how we view situations and circumstances over which we do not have control.  

Often, just becoming aware of the source of our stress and frustration can help. At times, though, we need to step it up and give ourselves permission to let go of or at least adjust the expectations that are getting in the way of our success and satisfaction. Here are five opportunities for examination, reflection, and modification.  

Opportunity #1: Stop stressing over minor interruptions and unexpected changes.  

We frequently spend our energy fretting over deviations and distractions that get in the way of our plans and expectations. In response to something we could neither foresee nor control changing our day, we can either let ourselves be shadowed by a negative mood, or we can choose to adjust, refocus, and make the best of the situation. The energy we save can be reallocated to areas of greater benefit and satisfaction. 

Opportunity #2: Stop overthinking.  

It is inevitable that we will occasionally do or say something we regret. We will make mistakes and experience setbacks. When we do, we have a choice. We can keep replaying the situation in our minds, figuratively beating ourselves up, and wishing we could have a “do over.” Or, instead, we can make the choice to accept what happened, apologize if needed, and ask ourselves what we can learn from the situation. The time we spend regretting and replaying the situation yields little benefit; on the other hand, deciding what to learn and letting go frees us to shift our attention and energy in the direction of things we can do something about.  

Opportunity #3. Stop associating with negative people.  

It is true that not everyone with whom we work may be positive, optimistic, and pleasant to be around. However, we can choose to limit the time we spend with them and avoid spending any time with negative people when we have a choice. Negative people drain our energy, poison our outlook, and create frustration. The less time we spend with them, the more time and energy we have available to associate with others who feed our energy and leave us feeling better.  

Opportunity #4: Stop being constantly available during evenings, weekends, and holiday breaks.  

In the aftermath of the pandemic, expectations for teacher availability have become blurred and, in many cases, out of control. Students and parents may feel free to reach out during evenings or weekends with questions and requests and expect to have a response before school starts the next day. While in emergencies we want to be reachable, we can choose to provide structures and establish expectations for our work hours and times when we are available. We want to be responsive, of course, but we also can and need to set limits.  

Opportunity #5: Stop maintaining the perfectly decorated classroom.  

There is no question that classrooms with attractive and relevant decorations are pleasant places to be. There is even some evidence that they can help students to feel welcomed and give them a sense of belonging. However, wall-to-wall decorations and too much splash and color can become distracting. Additionally, classroom decorations do not have to be changed weekly or monthly. Giving some thought to decorations that will support learning and make students feel comfortable can be a good investment. However, classroom decorations are not the most important element in support of learning. We can afford to spend less time (and money) decorating and reallocate our energy to tasks with more learning impact.  

Like the opportunities we discussed in part 1 of this series, some of these opportunities may not be sources of pressure and stress for you, or you may have already made adjustments that serve you well. It might be that your reflection on these opportunities has surfaced other sources of pressure and stress that you may want to address. If so, now is a good time to make changes and find what works for you.  

It seems in education that we are constantly adding. Rarely do we identify and abandon significant tasks and activities. Yet, if we were able to do so, we could create time for other important activities. We could preserve energy to make life more satisfying and successful. However, we want to be certain that anything we might abandon does not disadvantage or undermine the learning of our students.  

The good news is that there are several common tasks, habits, and preoccupations which we can choose to abandon that can make our lives better while not sacrificing learning. Here are five things to consider.  

Opportunity #1: Stop doing things students can do for themselves.

Like mother birds, we sometimes “pre-chew” what we give to students. We may even “digest” the information for them and then tell students exactly what they need to do with it. Yet, confusion and challenge can be useful to learning experiences. We may also find ourselves constantly reminding and nudging students to plan, prepare, and perform when they can do so themselves, if given the responsibility and allowed to experience the natural consequences that come when they are not constantly being reminded. We may think that we need to set goals for our students; however, students are more likely to own and seriously pursue goals they set for themselves. Rather than defaulting to our judgment, we might provide students with rubrics to evaluate the quality of their work. The list could go on. Beyond the time we spend doing things our students could do, we risk fostering dependence and learned helplessness.  

Opportunity #2: Stop being the sole driver of learning.

It has been said that the person who gives the most effort in a classroom is the person who learns the most. When we spend all or most of a class period talking, we risk cutting off opportunities for students to engage, discuss, examine, debate, and learn. Further, learning that comes from reflection, effort, and challenging thought tends to be valued more highly and retained longer. When students play a more active role, we move from driving every activity to facilitating, monitoring, and redirecting.  

Opportunity #3: Stop stepping in too quickly when students struggle.  

Of course, while we do not want students to engage in excessive struggle that leaves them feeling defeated and unwilling to try in the future, we must note that some of the most important learning students encounter comes with struggle. Struggle forces students to focus, think, and explore new strategies. If we step in too early when our students are grappling with a challenge, they are more likely to see us as a quick solution rather than discover or develop the solution on their own. 

Opportunity #4: Stop piling up our feedback.  

When grading student work, providing analysis and guidance, or coaching students, we need to be careful to limit and focus the feedback we give. The truth is that more feedback is not necessarily better. We may feel that we need to point out every area that could be improved, but when we do this, we risk overwhelming students, and the result can be the rejecting or disregarding of everything we have offered. On the other hand, feedback that is specific, targeted, timely, and actionable is more likely to lead to the improvements we seek. Meanwhile, we will have avoided spending our evenings and weekends preparing feedback that will not be applied.  

Opportunity #5: Stop assigning excessive homework.  

Homework provides no benefits if students choose not to do it. Further, practicing problem solutions is only effective in small amounts. We do better when we assign moderate levels of work that is worthy from the perspective of students. The greatest benefits accrue when we assign purposeful tasks that encourage independent thinking and application of knowledge. If we don’t have a meaningful task for students to do outside of class, we need to consider not assigning homework. Of course, brief, meaningful, targeted homework—or no homework at all—requires less of our time, too.  

Not every opportunity for the abandonment of the tasks discussed may feel right for you. Feel free to adopt those that will serve you best. Also, please note that this list is not exhaustive. As you read and reflect, you may discover additional opportunities that will serve you and your students well. If so, now is a good time to put them into practice.  

Note: Tune in next week to learn five more things we can stop doing! 

Seeing students become ensnared by misconceptions and slowed by learning barriers can be among the most disappointing and disheartening experiences we confront in our role as educators. Our disappointment is only further compounded when our students are otherwise interested, engaged, and committed to their learning.  

Fortunately, there are several steps we can take to help students avoid predictable misconceptions and sidestep common learning barriers. However, we need to anticipate potential problem areas and learning traps, and then we need to develop plans to help our students avoid them before they are encountered in order for our efforts to be effective.  

A good place to start is sorting through our experiences with student struggles in the past and refreshing our knowledge of how our students learn. We might think about what has worked and where students have been challenged with past learning, especially with the learning that parallels what they are about to learn.  

We can pre-assess our students to measure their current understanding and recall of the key content and skills necessary to be successful with the planned new learning. However, we must remove any hint or intention of consequences for their not knowing or recalling. In short, we need an accurate assessment of what students know—and what they are ready to learn.  

Using the information from our prior knowledge and pre-assessment activities, our next step is to coach and support students to activate their prior knowledge. We might use practice problems, reteaching, or simply a discussion with students to bring what they have learned into an active state that can be employed to support new learning.  

Next, we can design scaffolding to support students to find success as they approach the next learning challenge. The scaffolding design might include key vocabulary words students will need to know, important concepts and skills to employ, strategies to consider, and background information that might be helpful. 

Depending on the nature, scope, and challenge of the new learning, we might develop a more comprehensive preview guide to create interest, stimulate curiosity, and build confidence in our students. The guide might include questions that students will find compelling, provocative statements to consider, and hints regarding the value and purpose of what students will be learning. Any scaffolding and supports we have designed can be included in the guide, as well as reminders of the prior learning and skills that students already possess, that will be useful to their new learning.  

Of course, we want our preparation to help students avoid needless and distracting barriers and missteps as they learn, but our purpose is not to remove all the challenges and struggles students may encounter. Learning that comes through effort, and even mistakes, is also important to our students’ development, competence, and confidence to take on future learning challenges. The bottom line is this: Our goal is not to prevent all mistakes and setbacks that will occur as students learn. We want students to experience enough success to create learning momentum, but we also want to build learning resilience and flexibility that will serve them long after they leave our classroom.