Teachers’ Voices Season 4 Episode 6
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Join educational researcher Nina Alonso for this podcast series as she shares powerful stories from teachers around the world, talking in their own words about their own experiences.
Should learning be easy or effortful? What’s the zone of failure and why is it useful for learning? How can teachers design tasks for deep learning?
In this episode, Nina talks to Manu Kapur, Professor of Learning Sciences and Higher Education at ETH Zurich in Switzerland. When Manu was a teacher of grade 12 mathematics he noticed that student understanding was quite shallow, even when explanations were very clear. This inspired him to study why that happens, and what can be done about it. The science shows that deep learning happens “in that zone which is beyond your current skill sets and abilities”, Manu says. Tasks need to be in that zone of failure for students to learn something new.
Next Nina hears from primary school teacher Katharine Young who works in Spain. Katherine sees a move away from teachers simply passing on information. “We have to present meaningful learning situations”, she says. Katherine focuses on active, project-based learning, where students learn by doing.
Nina also meets Toyin Awofeso from Rwanda DOS International Montessori School in Rwanda. In Montessori classrooms, lots of autonomy is given to the students, but teachers plan for every child. Toyin lets her students figure things out on their own in their projects, leading to aha moments. “Having them discover the concept you are trying to teach them makes the memory everlasting for them”, Toyin says.
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Listen out for
- Designing problems for exploration and failure.
- Making sure failure doesn’t make students anxious.
- Giving students autonomy while guiding their learning.
Find out more on BOLD
“We can take this powerful mechanism and deliberately design it to learn” – Manu Kapur on designing for failure.
“Productive Failure produces learning outcomes for the 21st century” – Manu Kapur on the ‘Goldilocks Zone’ – where learning is challenging but not too hard.
Desirable difficulties in learning – Annie Brookman-Byrne says some ways of learning may feel less effective but be better long term.
Guests and resources
Manu Kapur: website, book, PDF book chapter, LinkedIn, Instagram
Katharine Young: LinkedIn
Toyin Awofeso: LinkedIn
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