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Why it is struggle, not acceleration we should be aiming for.




The word acceleration has been one that has irked me since it became the catch phrase of the Ministry and ERO.

In my opinion it is productive struggle we should be aiming for, not acceleration.

I got thinking more about this after a conversation I had with a group of learners identified as Maori and working below their expected stage in mathematics.

Our data had thrown up some interesting patterns and I wanted to hear first hand what might be going on with mathematics for some of these children.  If in doubt, I always turn to student voice...I absolutely always learn something and am presented with ideas I wasn't expecting.

So I gathered together this group, posed myself as an investigator, wanting to know more about maths in our school and proceeded to ask them about maths.    I was prepared for them to tell me they were bad at maths, found it hard and wanted more teacher support.

Not only did these so called 'lower' level learners not do this but they talked about their love of maths.  They could also speak eloquently of how they behave if things are hard...they spoke of loving challenge and knowing what to do if it was just out of their reach.  When asked how they would feel if all maths was abolished tomorrow and the never had to do it again, they all responded very loudly "NO."  They spoke of loving the challenge of problem solving and the 'surprise' of the answer at the end.

This conversation got me to thinking.  These children that struggle, really learn a lot about themselves as learners.  In an environment where the process of learning is made visible, where children are well supported in productive struggle, where challenge and mistakes are embraced....these learners flourish.   They are heavily involved in the process, it does not come easy, they have to develop many strategies and in turn they don't shy away when things are hard.  They are also working with teachers who have actively worked to improve their mathematical pedagogy over the years and in my opinion are doing a top notch job!

I would hypothesise that in an environment such as the one I describe, children are well served by the struggle and don't need us to accelerate them through this process.  What they do need from us is the time to struggle and work through this.

In fact as a parent I would rather my child was engaged daily in productive struggle than find things easy or be so supported/scaffolded that little learning was going on.

If they are not, what happens?  Well in my opinion I don't think they ever truly understand themselves as a learner and when things get hard, they are much more likely to give up.   I am sure we all know those children or young adults, or even adults, full of potential, full of ability, that never truly achieve what we expect, or even shy away from what they are truly capable of.

In my opinion it is our job as teachers to give all children this gift...the gift of failure, mistakes and challenge and the absolutely amazing feeling of getting back up again and having success because they didn't give up on themselves!

Productive, supported struggle - the gift we can give all of our learners.

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