## Key Ideas > [!abstract] Core Concepts > > - **Success foundation over struggle emphasis**: Success builds motivation more effectively than constant struggle and failure experiences > - **Productive struggle requires foundation**: Students need necessary tools and knowledge before engaging in challenging tasks to avoid frustration > - **Growth mindset replication issues**: Several studies have failed to replicate Dweck's original findings on growth mindset interventions ## Definition **Struggle**: Challenging learning experiences that can be productive when students have foundational knowledge and tools, but counterproductive when leading to cognitive overload and frustration. ## Connected To [[Non-Explicit Teaching]] | [[Motivation]] | [[Explicit Teaching]] | [[Cognitive Load Theory]] --- Curiosity appears universal in humans, and the brain rewards problem-solving with dopamine. However, the process of thinking becomes frustrating when students lack the necessary tools to overcome a challenge. Struggle without foundation produces frustration, not growth. Jo Boaler (2016) explains in a YouCubed video that "a research study found that when people make mistakes their brains grew more than when they got work right", attributing this to the dual-firing of synapses. This concept of "productive struggle" has been integrated into some primary mathematics curricula, suggesting that making mistakes can be beneficial for learning. ![[AnonymousPostStruggle.png|400]] ## Struggle and motivation Mistakes, struggle, and failure are not inherently keys to learning. Whilst they play a role, they can also have the opposite effect if not managed correctly. A crucial element of [[Motivation|motivation]] is the feeling of success or the belief that success is within reach (Garon-Carrier et al., 2016). Students tend to enjoy activities they are good at or believe they can become good at, this represents human psychology, not character flaw. Presenting students with tasks that are too complex and lead to [[Cognitive Load Theory|cognitive overload]] can result in frustration and disengagement (Sweller et al., 2019). Teachers structure tasks to present an appropriate level of challenge for students. For novices, this often means employing [[Explicit Teaching|explicit teaching]] to ensure that students have the foundational knowledge required to tackle more complex problems later. Struggling, failing, making mistakes, and learning from them are elements of mathematical development, but a curriculum should focus on ensuring success, not failure. Success builds capacity for productive struggle; failure without foundation builds avoidance. ## Growth mindset The idea that instilling a growth mindset in students can help them cope with challenges and view failures as learning opportunities has gained widespread popularity in education. According to Carol Dweck's concept (Dweck, 2006), students with a growth mindset do not give up easily; they embrace challenges, work hard, and see mistakes as opportunities to learn. However, several studies have failed to replicate Dweck's original findings (Sisk et al., 2018). Dweck has suggested that these failures might be due to the researchers not creating the right experimental conditions. This raises questions about the practical application of growth mindset interventions in real-world classroom settings, if interventions only work under highly specific conditions, their usefulness for typical teaching is limited (Li & Bates, 2019). ## Implications for teaching The work of Boaler and Dweck does not say students should struggle and fail all the time, but this is how it has been interpreted in many schools. Emphasising the importance of struggle in the mistaken belief that educators can produce gritty, determined students with growth mindsets overlooks the importance of success. Success is the foundation upon which motivation is built (Bandura, 1997). ## References Bandura, A. (1997). *Self-efficacy: The exercise of control*. W. H. Freeman. Boaler, J. (2016). *Mathematical mindsets: Unleashing students' potential through creative math, inspiring messages and innovative teaching*. Jossey-Bass. Dweck, C. S. (2006). *Mindset: The new psychology of success*. Random House. Garon-Carrier, G., Boivin, M., Guay, F., Kovas, Y., Dionne, G., Lemelin, J. P., Séguin, J. R., Vitaro, F., & Tremblay, R. E. (2016). Intrinsic motivation and achievement in mathematics in elementary school: A longitudinal investigation of their association. *Child Development*, 87(1), 165-175. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12458 Li, Y., & Bates, T. C. (2019). You can't change your basic ability, but you work at things, and that's how we get hard things done: Testing the role of growth mindset on response to setbacks, educational attainment, and cognitive ability. *Journal of Experimental Psychology: General*, 148(9), 1640-1655. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0000617 Sisk, V. F., Burgoyne, A. P., Sun, J., Butler, J. L., & Macnamara, B. N. (2018). To what extent and under which circumstances are growth mind-sets important to academic achievement? Two meta-analyses. *Psychological Science*, 29(4), 549-571. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797617739704 Sweller, J., van Merriënboer, J. J. 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