ARTICLE/RESEARCH: The best way to learn math is to learn how to fail productively

[Ryan Goble]

From QZ.com...

Singapore, the land of many math geniuses, may have discovered the secret to learning mathematics (pdf). It employs a teaching method called productive failure (pdf), pioneered by Manu Kapur, head of the Learning Sciences Lab at the National Institute of Education of Singapore.

Students who are presented with unfamiliar concepts, asked to work through them, and then taught the solution significantly outperform those who are taught through formal instruction and problem-solving. The approach is both utterly intuitive—we learn from mistakes—and completely counter-intuitive: letting kids flail around with unfamiliar math concepts seems both inefficient and potentially damaging to their confidence.

Kapur believes that struggle activates parts of the brain that trigger deeper learning. Students have to figure out three critical things: what they know, the limits of what they know, and exactly what they do not know. Floundering first elevates the learning from knowing a formula to understanding it, and applying it in unfamiliar contexts.

Full article HERE.

[Joan Axthelm]

The folks at https://www.youcubed.org/ have some great videos meant for kids on this very topic! Mainly, teaching kids that mistakes help us learn, but only if we embrace a growth mindset - accepting that failure is part of learning rather than a character trait.  These videos even get to the brain science of it all.

Joan