Productive Methods of Struggle for Students

In partnership with Model Teaching, an industry leader in supporting educators, this course teaches you how to design activities that foster productive struggle in students. Model Teaching's mission is to improve student performance by directly supporting teachers with quality content and resources. You will also learn about specific strategies you can use to help students overcome challenges and practice their skills for success.

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3 Months / 1 Course Hrs
Open Enrollment
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Stephen F. Austin State University

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Productive Methods of Struggle for Students

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Course code: T14739

In this teacher professional development course, you will learn about the importance of allowing your students to engage in productive methods of struggle so that they can learn skills and strategies to overcome challenging tasks. You will be provided with activities and strategies to support your students and help foster productive struggle.

The course comes with a downloadable PDF of the content and a reference guide that helps you eliminate unnecessary hurdles in your challenging activities so that you can set your students up for success.

What you will learn

  • Define and learn about struggle and why it is important
  • Build a plan for designing activities that promote and foster struggle
  • Evaluate simple strategies you can use to support students during productive struggle

How you will benefit

  • You will be able to allow your students the freedom to work through challenging tasks on their own after they begin utilizing the strategies you teach
  • Your classroom dynamic will improve because you can offer increasingly challenging yet interesting, activities for students to grapple with
  • These activities will allow students to work on increasingly complex cognitive skills, ultimately elevating your classroom and improving your student's academic performance

How the course is taught

  • Self-Guided, online course
  • 3 Months access
  • 1 course hours
  1. Productive Struggle Course Content
    1. The video and article will provide you with an understanding of productive struggle, teaching you strategies to support students throughout challenging tasks. The course also includes some "Reflect or Discuss" prompts to help you connect with the course content and ends with a "Try This Task" to guide you explicitly on how you might implement the ideas into the classroom.
  2. Quiz
    1. You will answer questions related to productive struggle. Quizzes are automatically scored and provide feedback on answer choice rationale.
  3. Implementation Reflection
    1. The reflection prompt requires you to plan for use of the "try this task" by either reflecting on the content yourself or discussing them with the colleague. You will then discuss a new concept you can attempt to implement in the future based on something you learned in the course.
  4. Considerations for Implementation
    1. This short statement helps you reflect on your ideas and assess whether you might be successful in your implementation.
  5. Videos and Further Reading
    1. Additional content suggestions are provided to enhance and expand your understanding of productive struggle.
Self-Study

Prerequisites:

There are no prerequisites to take this course.

Requirements:

Hardware Requirements:

  • This course can be taken on either a PC, Mac, or Chromebook.

Software Requirements:

  • PC: Windows 10 or later.
  • Mac: macOS 10.6 or later.
  • Browser: The latest version of Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox is preferred. Microsoft Edge and Safari are also compatible.
  • Microsoft Word Online
  • Editing of a Microsoft Word document is required in this course. You may use a free version of Microsoft Word Online, or Google Docs if you do not have Microsoft Office installed on your computer. Model Teaching can provide support for this.
  • Adobe Acrobat Reader
  • Software must be installed and fully operational before the course begins.

Other:

  • Email capabilities and access to a personal email account.

Instructional Material Requirements:

The instructional materials required for this course are included in enrollment and will be available online.

Your course begins immediately after you enroll.​

You have 3 months of access to the course. After enrolling, you can learn and complete the course at your own pace, within the allotted access period. You will have the opportunity to interact with other students in the online discussion area.

There is no time limit to complete each lesson, other than completing all lessons within the allotted access period. Discussion areas for each lesson are open for the entire duration of the course.

Because this course is self-guided, no extensions will be granted after the start of your enrollment.

Assessment Tools to Support Online LearningFundamentalsPractical Action Research in the ClassroomFundamentalsRecitation Through Rote Memorization of TextFundamentalsSocial-Emotional Support for Gifted StudentsFundamentalsStudent-Led Classroom ManagementFundamentalsSupporting Reading Instruction for K-5 StudentsFundamentals
Fundamentals
Assessment Tools to Support Online Learning
Fundamentals
Practical Action Research in the Classroom
Fundamentals
Recitation Through Rote Memorization of Text
Fundamentals
Social-Emotional Support for Gifted Students
Fundamentals
Student-Led Classroom Management
Fundamentals
Supporting Reading Instruction for K-5 Students