Research tells us that introducing challenge in the classroom can significantly enhance metacognitive development among pupils.
By grappling with complex problems or unfamiliar tasks, pupils are pushed out of their comfort zones and develop critical thinking skills, problem-solving abilities, and self-regulation strategies – all vital for academic and personal success.
And there is much research out there – Sweller’s Cognitive Load Theory (Lovell, 2020; Sweller et al, 2011), Bjork’s desirable difficulty (Bjork & Bjork, 2020), Dweck’s growth mindset (Dweck, 2016), and Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development (1978). So the question is – where do we begin?
What is challenge?
We spend so much time thinking about setting challenging tasks that we lose sight of what challenge actually is. As Robbie Burns said in his recent three-part series on challenge in the classroom for Headteacher Update: “We do not think deeply enough about the meaning of challenge.”
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