Newsletter #30: Creating Cognitive Conflict

My siblings call me the Likes-to-Fight Girl. I have three brothers who taught me how to catch snakes, hit a fastball, and put someone in a headlock. No one needs to come for me because this princess can save herself. I learned to do hard things by sweating, scraping my knees, and getting back up.

So why do I hate metaphorical knee-scraping in my classroom? There is a tendency in education to over-scaffold and “teach to the test” through direct instruction rather than let our students feel the stretch and burn of intellectual challenge. We provide worksheets and answers instead of problems.

I’ve noticed this rescue approach in my parenting, too. It’s not that I don’t see the benefit of my children struggling—I just don’t want them to struggle. It’s time to embrace the burn, the pain, and the growth that comes with the struggle.

If what Ron Ritchhart says is true, that “learning occurs at the point of challenge,” I need to make my art classroom (and home) into the most interesting obstacle course ever! (Cultures of Thinking in Action)

I want students to learn resilience, persistence, and grit. I want my students to grow through experimentation. I want to challenge students by placing them in the Zone of Proximal Development, the difference between what a learner can do without help and what they can achieve with guidance.

What can we do to create cognitive conflict in the classroom?

• Emphasize process over product. Mistakes will be made; what matters is growing and learning, not necessarily the outcome.
• Teach students that intelligence is learned, that they can “grow their brains.” See each of your students as powerful learners. They won’t believe it if you don’t.
• Plan and provide points of challenge in lessons. Are there opportunities for persistence rather than ability or skill?
• Provide feedback that acknowledges attempts, saying things like, “I see you’ve tried this; what will you do next?”
• Use routines like “I used to think. . . . Now I think...” Find opportunities to reflect on growth and flexibility.
• Celebrate mistakes as opportunities for learning. Make those oops-es beautiful!
• Model the learning cycle, acknowledging mistakes and making failure a step on the journey, not the destination.
• Ask yourself, “Do I tend to rescue students when they struggle, or do I encourage their initiative and invite them to do the thinking?”

When the walls of our classroom celebrate the messy and complex nature of learning through the display of reflections, analysis, and ongoing learning rather than simple products, we reinforce the message that this is how we view learning, that the process is as important to celebrate as the product, perhaps even more so (Ron Ritchhart).