“It’s my job to make sure you are not struggling.” These are words that, when overheard in a classroom a decade ago, would have made most people smile and feel as if the kids in this class will be alright. So, why is it that when I heard , “It’s my job to make sure you are not struggling” recently uttered in a classroom, did it make me shudder instead of smile? I think I am starting to be able to point to why that statement shouldn’t sit well anymore for any educators focused on preparing young people for life.
Struggling in itself should not automatically be thought of as something bad. There are many benefits when young people have their thinking stretched. Such struggles can be an opportunity to dive more deeply into understanding of a particular concept and can, with some support from the teacher, lead to young people being more able to apply their learning to new problems or situations. (See also They Do Not Understand Shallowness, Because They Do Not Experience Depth.) The key is to be sure the struggle the young people are experiencing is productive rather than being unproductive. In order for that to happen, teachers must be cognizant of the concepts the young people should be familiar with and understand the learning progressions both prior to and following those particular concepts.
Having an understanding of these learning trajectories will help teachers to know what to look for when collecting evidence (formative assessments) and where to go based on the evidence collected. “The gathering of evidence should be neither left to chance nor gathered sporadically” (Leinwand, 2014, p.53) and as a result careful planning ahead of time must take place. In other words, teachers need to be diagnostic in their approach to assessing and then meeting the needs of the young people in their classroom. In order to do this the right questions need to be asked in order to make the thinking of the young people and therefore their current understanding more visible to the teacher.
The “right” questions can not always be preplanned, but without understanding of the progressions of learning and some prior planning the appropriate purposeful questions will not be asked. Purposeful questions include the types of questions asked as well as the pattern of questioning that takes place. The questions should not “funnel” students to the right answer, but instead must promote the opportunities for young people to make connections to what they already know. If the young people in class come in with low prior knowledge, the questions teachers ask should help them to see patterns or relationships within the information presented which will then help them to make their own connections. Pre-planning of questions allow for teachers to develop some “information gathering” questions, but it is even more important for teachers to be able to go “off script” and ask probing questions or questions that make the students thinking more visible in order to gather evidence which will uncover what students actually understand. A key piece to asking questions is to listen to the response and consider the answer provided. Too often, we are guilty of not allocating time to think about a question asked or to give ourselves or the young people in class time to process an answer given.
So, I think that is why I shudder when I hear, “It is my job to make sure you are not struggling.” I am sure it is well intended, but if we provide so much support for students that they never or rarely do the “heavy lifting,” then we also deprive them of the excitement that comes from making those connections themselves. (See also Energizing Our Schools Through Thinking). It is challenging to pose purposeful questions and to keep the various young people in our classroom in the zone of proximal development (productive struggle). This is a near impossible challenge if a teacher doesn’t have an understanding of the progressions of learning for their particular content area. However, I do believe that is our challenge. How well we accomplish this will depend on how well we work together. Districts must provide, and teachers must experience, continuous and embedded professional development (PD) through PLCs, a variety of PD in the form of training such as co-teaching and Cognitive Based Assessments as just two examples, classroom support via coaching, and a belief that by working together we can meet the needs of each of the young people in our classrooms (collective teacher efficacy). All this together, I believe, is “our job” which will ultimately help us prepare young people for life.
References
Leinwand, Steven (2014). Principles to Action: Ensuring Mathematical Success
for All. Reston,VA: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM).
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