Productive Failure: Unlocking Deeper Learning Through the Science of Failing, India Edition (An Indian Adaptation)
Description
How do we design failure experiences in ways that promote more effective learning? While total, inexplicable failure can be intensely frustrating and can push students to drop a subject altogether, repeated experiences of intriguing, constructive failure can develop resilience, creativity, and resourcesfulness when carefully curated. In Productive Failure, the author describes evidence-based principles for how readers can curate experiences in a manner that is safe and affirming, so that failure is the norm, not the exception--a signal for learning, not the noise detracting from it.
These principles are not just for designing learning in formal schooling contexts: they are just as powerful for taking charge of and designing one's own learning. From learning a new language or skill to setting up goals that get a reader out of their comfort zone, from designing specific kinds of tasks that push the boundaries of a reader's current abilities, to developing a mindset that supports growth, the author will describe the full set of design principles to harness Productive Failure for one's own deep learning.
These design principles then inspire and guide specific strategies that can be used for learning. Retrieval practice, generating analogies, category building, and counterfactual reasoning, amongst others, are strategies readers will learn how to harness to deepen their learning experiences.
This book will not only appeal to the individual learner, but also to teams, groups, and organizations who can apply the Productive Failure framework to reach new levels of innovation and success.
Table of Contents
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
Chapter 9 Jugaad Meets Productive Failure 205
From Jugaad to a Proof 206
Teachers’ Voices from Indian Classrooms 207
The Doon School: Micro-Productive
Failure Cycles 208
From Classrooms to a Community:
The Teachers Academy and
Good Schools Alliance 209
Beyond Education: From Spacecraft to
Sight and Steps 212
Designing Around What Can Go Wrong 212
When a Price Wall Becomes a Design Brief 213
Field Failure as a Feedback Engine 213
Turning Jugaad into a Strategic Advantage 214
Conclusion 205
References 211
Acknowledgments 221
About the Author 223
Index 225