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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Beghetto, Ronald A., 1969- author. Title: What if? : building students' problem-solving skills through complex

challenges / Ronald A. Beghetto. Description: Alexandria, VA : ASCD, 2018. | Includes bibliographical

references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2018017958 (print) | LCCN 2018019903 (ebook) |

ISBN 9781416626428 (PDF) | ISBN 9781416626411 (pbk.) Subjects: LCSH: Critical thinking--Study and teaching. | Problem

solving--Study and teaching. Classification: LCC LB1590.3 (ebook) | LCC LB1590.3 .B43 2018 (print) |

DDC 370.15/2--dc23 LC record available at

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Acknowledgments................................................................................................ viii Introduction............................................................................................................ 1 Part 1: Challenges: From Simple to Complex..................................................... 5

1. What Is a Challenge?............................................................................ 7 2. The Continuum of Challenges........................................................... 16 3. The Four Action Principles: Stop-Think-Do-Learn............................ 25 4. Lesson Unplanning............................................................................. 43 Part 2: Legacy Challenges: Going Beyond the Classroom................................ 53 5. Introducing Legacy Challenges.......................................................... 55 6. What Is the Problem?......................................................................... 67 7. Problem Refining................................................................................ 77 8. Why Does the Problem Matter?......................................................... 87 9. What Are We Going to Do About the Problem?............................... 98 10. Documenting Academic Learning in Legacy Challenges............... 110 11. What Lasting Contribution Will We Make?................................... 120 Final Thought...................................................................................................... 137 FAQs: Complex Challenges in and Beyond the Classroom.............................. 138 References............................................................................................................ 142 Index.................................................................................................................... 147 About the Author..................................................................................................XX

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Introduction

Toward the end of 3rd grade, my daughter got in trouble for passing a note in class.

The note read, "I hate this worksheet factory!" I found this somewhat humorous

and even beautiful in its resistance, but also a bit disconcerting. When we talked

about it, my daughter explained that she didn't like how she was asked to learn

in school. She preferred challenging herself to craft accessories for her dolls and

gifts for friends and family, seeking out and putting her own twist on information

she gleaned from YouTube videos and other resources.

I explained to her that the worksheets in school were practice exercises that

could help her learn important information and skills and that even if she didn't

see the value in what she was practicing now, she might someday realize its ben-

efit. Perhaps unsurprisingly, my daughter did not find my argument compelling

or persuasive.

I admit that weakly appealing to the Neverland of "someday" has never sat

well with me as a parent or as an educator--but neither has the idea that learning

should somehow always be easy, fun, or immediately applicable. Deep domain

knowledge is necessary for competence in any field, and developing that knowl-

edge takes guided practice, persistence, and a lot of hard work (Ericsson, Krampe,

& Tesch-R?mer, 1993). Like many important endeavors in life, the process isn't

always fun. Moreover, not everything we learn or know needs to have immediate

or even future practical value. There is beauty to be found from delving deeply

into a subject area; the process can be challenging and rewarding in itself.

Still, my daughter had a point. Schools are not giving students enough oppor-

tunities to grapple with complex challenges. Instead, we go to great lengths to

clearly define the problems that students will solve, how they should solve them,

and what the outcomes should be. Such assignments have their place--students

1

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WHAT IF?

do learn from working through routine assignments that have predetermined outcomes and ways of obtaining those outcomes (Lee & Anderson, 2013), and learning thrives in a supportive and structured environment (Reeve, 2009)--but relying too much on this type of learning experience has serious drawbacks.

The Power of the Unknown

Given that a fundamental goal of school is to prepare young people for the unknowable future, it makes sense that students should learn how to respond to uncertainty. Providing students with opportunities to learn how to respond productively to uncertainty will help prepare them for the kinds of real-world challenges they face now and will face in the future. Routine assignments fall short in this regard because they are designed to remove uncertainty, not insert it (Getzels, 1964). Further, such tasks offer limited opportunities for student initiative, or what motivational researchers call agentic engagement (Cheon & Reeve, 2015; Reeve & Tseng, 2011). Agentic engagement refers to students proactively contributing to their own learning and instruction by, for instance, identifying problems they want to solve and coming up with their own ways of solving them.

Not much of what students learn and do in school relates to actual problem solving. If you already know how to move from A to Z, then you don't have a problem; you have an exercise (Robertson, 2017) or, at best, a "pseudo-problem" (Getzels, 1964). A problem is not a problem unless it involves some level of uncertainty. The more uncertainty, the more complex the problem.

It may seem as if we are caught between two opposing aims. On the one hand, routine tasks play an important role in helping students learn academic subject matter, but they don't provide opportunities to engage with uncertainty. On the other hand, real problems encourage students to deal with the unknown, but we can't simply throw our students into the deep waters of complex challenges and hope that they will somehow learn to swim by themselves.

What's in This Book

What if we could provide opportunities for students to respond productively to uncertainty in the context of a structured and supportive learning environment? And what if we could use the routine tasks of school to prepare students to engage with more complex challenges in the classroom and beyond?

This book takes on the challenges issued in these two questions, providing the insights and tools necessary to help your students respond productively to uncertainty in a range of challenges both inside and outside the classroom.

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