Desirable Difficulties

In education, we value and acknowledge learners’ struggles: “A little hard work and I know you’ll get there!” or “You can do it!” We teachers want to help, to support, to scaffold - we clearly want our learners to succeed. Yet are we making it too easy? Are we spoon-feeding learners who can already use a fork? Are we encouraging “shortcuts” and creating “lazy” learners due to our constant scaffolding and support?

It might sound counter-intuitive, but if you think about it - it makes sense!

Learners like puzzles and games, they like challenges. Though we don't want to overtax them in ways that make them want to give up, we want to challenge them enough to make them learn and we want them to learn to learn, regardless of the situation they are in! The world of Desirable Difficulties (coined by Bjork ) can take us places we hadn't thought of before!