Turning Direct Instruction on its Head

Masterclass Session with Sandeep Dutt

As educators, we often face a dilemma: Should we pursue direct instruction or embrace the uncertainty of productive failure?

Pressed for time, and sometimes driven by the belief that students can't learn without explicit guidance, many of us default to direct instruction. But in doing so, are we boxing their thinking, limiting their potential to explore, connect, and construct meaning independently?

Can productive failure truly work in all situations?

Which approach actually leads to deeper, transferable learning?

We will explore these questions together as we delve into Chapter 2, "The Solution—Productive Failure,"  from Manu Kapur's acclaimed book Productive Failure.

The dynamic book discussion will help you reflect, rethink, and redesign learning that empowers students to think beyond instructions.

Summary of the session

Sandeep introduced the Teachers Academy Blog and discussed the concept of productive failure in learning, contrasting it with direct instruction and explaining its potential benefits for students' conceptual understanding and problem-solving abilities. He outlined the key elements of designing robust experiments to compare teaching methods and emphasised the importance of statistical significance and effect size in research findings. The session concluded with a discussion on the effectiveness of combining inquiry and direct instruction for deep learning, and the importance of how foundational knowledge is acquired for creativity and understanding.

Key Takeaways

Chapter 2: THE SOLUTION: PRODUCTIVE FAILURE 

1. Direct Instruction trumps pure discovery learning. But that does not make Direct Instruction the most optimal learning model.

2. Productive Failure designs for and bootstraps failure for learning. Even though students fail at solving problems targeting concepts they have not learned yet, the failure is designed to prepare them to learn from subsequent instruction.

3. Productive Failure trumps Direct Instruction. Robust evidence shows that Productive Failure produces significantly better understanding and transfer outcomes than Direct Instruction.

4. Making learning easy does not necessarily make it easy. There is a time for failing and a time for telling.