Productive Failure

Foreword xiii Introduction: My Forays into Failure 1 Soccer Dreams 2 Struggling Through My Engineering Studies 3 Into the Classroom 5 Venturing into Academia 6 Finding the Cause and Its Solution 8 Connecting the Dots 10 Part I The Problem and Its Solution 13 Chapter 1 The Problems of Learning 17 Failing to Remember 19 Failing to Understand 22 Failing to Transfer 27 Chapter 2 The Solution: Productive Failure 35 Direct Instruction vs. Discovery Learning 37 Searching for a Problem 38 Designing for Failure 41 The Ideas of a Novice 43 Turning Direct Instruction on Its Head 47 Setting Up the Experiment 48 The Battle: Productive Failure vs. Direct Instruction 52 Part II The Science of Failure 59 Chapter 3 Activation 63 The Activation Spectrum 66 Failure-based Activation 69 Why Does Failed Generation Work? 77 Chapter 4 Awareness 91 From Socratic Dialogue to Tutoring 93 Intentionally Designing Impasses 94 When Intuition Failure Builds Awareness 97 Humbled By a Six Year Old 101 The Warmth Above the Clouds 104 In Awe of Awe 106 Chapter 5 Affect 109 The Zeigarnik Effect 110 The Need for Closure 113 Situational Interest and Curiosity 117 Mastery Orientation 127 Emotional Rollercoaster 131 Chapter 6 Assembly 139 Identify the Lego Blocks 141 Assemble the Lego Blocks 145 The Danger of Learning the Wrong Things Is. 159 Part III Designing for Productive Failure 165 Chapter 7 Designing for Others 167 Designing the Task 169 Designing the Participation 174 Designing the Social Surround 178 Iterate and Calibrate 181 Chapter 8 Designing for Self 185 Entering the Zone 185 Harnessing the Productive Failure Design Principles 187 Conclusion 205 References 211 Acknowledgments 221 About the Author 223 Index 225