How do I help students who like to stick with easy work?
You can explain to them the science behind desirable difficulty. Here鈥檚 something I wrote about the topic for as a :
When my daughter Amanda was young and still taking piano lessons, I鈥檇 half-listen from the second floor while she practiced down below.
Typically, she鈥檇 get pretty good at the opening measures of a new piece. But eventually she鈥檇 get to a part she didn鈥檛 know as well. At that point, music became noise.
Involuntarily, as Amanda clawed her way through the rough bits, I winced and cringed. And I bet she did, too, particularly because trying things we can鈥檛 yet do is especially effortful.
Very soon, there would be a pause. And then Amanda would begin again at the beginning鈥攚here she felt comfortable, where it was easy, where the touch of her fingers generated music instead of noise.
If I noticed that Amanda spent too much time repeating the fluid measures and not enough on what was obviously difficult for her, I鈥檇 come downstairs and, as gently as I could, prompt her to get back to the hard stuff.
Why do kids need grownups to encourage them through what cognitive scientists call 鈥渄esirable difficulty鈥�?
A recent shows that students often misinterpret the feeling of 鈥淭his is hard!鈥� to mean 鈥淚 must not be learning much!鈥� However, the truth is that more effortful strategies, like quizzing yourself rather than just rereading notes, produce greater long-term learning gains. Difficulty is desirable ... but it鈥檚 not always desired.
顿辞苍鈥檛 assume that kids avoid effort because they鈥檙e lazy. Instead, they may be misreading the sensation of effort as a signal that they鈥檙e failing to make progress.
Do teach students that learning often requires struggle (and use these ). Share stories of times you, too, felt confused and frustrated and how persisting through difficulty helped you improve more than sticking to what you already knew. And, when their practice sounds and looks truly awful, tell them that the sound of struggle is music to your ears.
