Designing learning tasks for productive failure
Manu Kapur
Manu is a learning scientist whose work on productive failure offers teachers a powerful framework for designing tasks that lead to deep learning.When students are allowed to initially struggle with problems before formal instruction, they become more invested and better able to grasp the underlying concepts. This approach only works when students understand the teacher’s expectations and are given space to explore and problem-solve. His research shows that the frustration of not getting it right immediately primes learners for deeper understanding later.
Listen to Manu
“When I give you a task and you struggle to do it correctly, it’s really then that you try to enter a zone where you know the limits of your own knowledge.”
Manu Kapur
Manu Kapur
Manu Kapur is currently the Director of the Singapore-ETH Center, and Professor for Learning Sciences and Higher Education at ETH Zurich, Switzerland, where he also directs The Future Learning Initiative (FLI). Manu is also the Founding Chair of the ETH Zurich – EPFL Joint Doctoral Program in the Learning Sciences. His research on Productive Failure has been taken up by the Singapore’s Ministry of Education for wide-scale redesign and implementation of its pre-university mathematics (statistics) curriculum and pedagogy.
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