I’ve been thinking about lately about the value of struggle and failure when it comes to improving students’ standardized test scores.
Contrary to what many assume, oftentimes the more students struggle to master new information, the better they are able to understand and apply it later.
In a paper published in the Journal of the Learning Sciences, Manu Kapur applied the principle of productive failure to mathematical problem-solving.
With one group of students, the teacher provided strong “scaffolding” — instructional support — and feedback. With the teacher’s help, these pupils were able to find the answers to their set of problems. Meanwhile, a second group was directed to solve the same problems by collaborating with one another, absent any prompts from their instructor. These students weren’t able to complete the problems correctly. But in the course of trying to do so, they generated a lot of ideas about the nature of the problems and about what potential solutions would look like. And when the two groups were tested on what they’d learned, the second group “significantly outperformed” the first.
The apparent struggles of the floundering group have what Kapur calls a “hidden efficacy”: they lead people to understand the deep structure of problems, not simply their correct solutions. When these students encounter a new problem of the same type on a test, they’re able to transfer the knowledge they’ve gathered more effectively than those who were the passive recipients of someone else’s expertise.
Kapur argues we need to “design for productive failure” by building it into the learning process.
In the process of his work he has identified three conditions that promote a beneficial struggle:
1. Choose problems that “challenge but do not frustrate.
2. Allow students to explain and elaborate on what they’re doing.
3. Compare and contrast both good and “better” solutions to the problems.
It’s a simple but powerful idea – students need to struggle (and fail!) to learn new material. In fact, I would argue that struggling with a challenging ACT or SAT problem is learning.
This is why at Test Prep Gurus, we encourage our students to do the following:
· Struggle with problems that don’t come easily to them.
· Explain and elaborate on what they’re doing when they struggle.
· Struggle with their homework problems before they bring them to us for help.
The last one is key because students must struggle with their homework problems to succeed. It’s not simply a matter of doing the assigned problems and looking up the answers. They need to identify the problems in their homework they missed (or guessed on) and retry them without a time constraint. If they still can’t answer those problems, they should look up the answer, and retry them again. Only if they still can’t answer the problems should they bring them to their instructor for help.
Remember, a struggle doesn’t have to be a bad thing. In fact, it’s often one of the keys to making a big leap forward.
At Test Prep Gurus we teach students how to raise their ACT and SAT scores so they can reach their goals for college and beyond.
It all starts with 3 easy steps:
1) Complete free mock ACT and SAT exams.*
(Learn where your student is scoring today and whether their current scores will help or hold back their applications to their first-choice colleges.)
2) Schedule a free 15-minute consultation to review your exam results.
(ACT and SAT scores must be understood in their proper context, taking into account the specific tests, when they were taken, and how they stack up against your student’s goals for college.)
3) Create a 1-on-1 test prep plan to reach your goals for college and beyond.
(We work with students of all levels. Whether you’re shooting for a perfect score, simply want to be more comfortable with standardized exams, or anywhere in between, Test Prep Gurus is here to help you reach your goals.)
