Who Benefits from Optimizing Mathematically Productive Struggle? Initial Insights from Prospective Elementary Teachers' Mathematical Justifications

Abstract

This exploratory qualitative study used 26 prospective elementary teachers’ (PTs’) mathematical justifications before and after they participated in a whole-class discussion of a high-leverage PT contribution to provide insight into who benefits from optimizing mathematically productive struggle. We used their own words to code and analyzed the 52 written responses, and identified five types of understanding: Robust, Substantial, Emerging, Preliminary, and No Evidence. We learned that, regardless of the PTs’ initial type of understanding and whether they expressed struggle, 85% demonstrated progress after the discussion, and 69% evidenced an increase in their type of understanding. We conclude that optimizing productive struggle may be a particularly productive approach for developing PTs’ flexible thinking.

Keywords

Productive StruggleWhole-Class DiscussionMathematical JustificationsFractionsUnderstanding

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