What is Productive Struggle?
Productive struggle involves developing habits of mind, such as perseverance and flexible thinking, rather than just seeking instant solutions. You should expect not to know how to solve a problem at first. The goal is to work through it, encourage creative thinking, and reassure students when their initial strategies fail, as outlined in Renaissance’s article Productive Struggle.
Now that we’ve defined productive struggle, it’s important to understand why it works in educational settings.
Why Does It Work?
According to What is Productive Struggle in Education? “, research has shown that when students engage in productive struggle, they develop critical thinking skills, perseverance, and a growth mindset. As teachers, we can create opportunities for productive struggle in the classroom to empower students to become more confident, self-reliant learners. Unlike passive learning, where information is delivered to students, productive struggle requires learners to actively tackle complex concepts or tasks just beyond their reach. This planned challenge triggers cognitive engagement as students face obstacles, make mistakes, and persist. Productive struggle transforms challenges into learning opportunities, deepening understanding.
Unlike passive learning, where information is delivered to students, productive struggle requires learners to actively tackle complex concepts or tasks just beyond their reach. This planned challenge triggers cognitive engagement as students face obstacles, make mistakes, and persist. Productive struggle transforms challenges into learning opportunities, deepening understanding.
To better understand how productive struggle appears in practice, please take a look at these real classroom scenarios.
What Does Productive Struggle Look Like?
Deanna Senn, author of Fostering Deeper Learning, provides an example of Kindergarten students engaging in productive struggle as they work to identify the beginning, middle, and end of a story. Senn paints what academic rigor and productive struggle can look like in the classroom:
• Students are trying out new ideas and informally debating with each other.
• Students connect their thinking to others’ and expand their own based on those ideas.
• Students defending their stance with evidence they had not considered before.
You can imagine what a classroom looks like and sounds like if this is what is happening during learning.
Senn explains that productive struggle may look chaotic and noisy at first. Students, including kindergarteners, need time for discussion, exploration, and access to resources. Collaboration and resource-seeking are key. Teachers must provide tasks that invite debate and productive struggle.
Senn emphasizes that “Productive struggle looks different almost every time students experience it based on variables such as grade level, subject, and background knowledge.” Senn notes, “Not all struggles are productive.” Rather than listing “must-haves,” it’s helpful to consider what unproductive or absent struggle looks like in a classroom. The key is to recognize when students are not struggling or are struggling unproductively. Senn stresses, “Struggle isn’t productive without support to resolve it.”
Senn notes, “Not all struggles are productive.” Rather than listing “must-haves,” it’s useful to consider what unproductive or absent struggle looks like in a classroom. The key is to recognize when students are not struggling or are struggling unproductively. Senn stresses, “Struggle isn’t productive without support to resolve it.”
Signs of Productive vs Unproductive Struggle
Senn provides a table to help teachers identify productive struggle when used in the classroom and to distinguish between no struggle and unproductive struggle, so changes can be made to help students get into productive struggle.
| No Struggle | Productive Struggle | Unproductive Struggle |
| In order to arrive at the answer … | In order to arrive at the answer … | Students do not arrive at an answer because … |
| Students recall answers from memory | Students try out new ideas in the process | Students struggle to understand the directions |
| Students can look up the answer | Students make connections between their thinking and other students’ thinking | Resources are not provided or do not support learning |
| Students quickly discover or solve the one correct answer | Students spend time determining how best to proceed | Students have no options to get help other than to ask the teacher to explain |
| Student interactions are not set up for equal participation, allowing some students to stay quiet | Students discover new thinking | The students have not learned the skills they need and do not have a way to learn them during task |
Senn notes in the chart that there is no productive struggle when a student or a resource can quickly provide the answer. Senn explains that for productive struggle to occur, there must be struggle—not impossible struggle, not frustrated struggle, but expanding and exploring as part of learning.
Senn also notes that unproductive struggle is sometimes mistaken for productive struggle when teachers are not used to listening to understand what the battle is about. When students do not understand the directions and spend time and energy figuring out what they should do, this is not productive.
Having explored productive struggle, let’s turn to the concept of a rigorous task.
What is a Rigorous Task?
The Importance of Rigorous Task Video
A task is an activity that a student engages in to show progress towards achieving the learning goal. The word “task” does not imply a specific level of complexity or challenge; it simply indicates that there must be evidence of learning.
A rigorous task challenges students to think critically and face meaningful challenges. It guides students to use resources and collaborate as they demonstrate learning.
When designing a rigorous task, educators should look beyond the questions and consider how students will demonstrate their knowledge and skills.
Educators should connect standards, objectives, success criteria, tasks, student interactions, resources, and expected student work. This careful planning ensures every student can show understanding individually while learning together.
It is only with this level of planning that we can be purposeful in ensuring that all students have the chance to show their individual understanding while participating in rigorous, shared learning experiences.
Example of a Low-Rigor vs. High-Rigor Task
Standards: 11-12th Grade ELA (CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.11-12.1, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.11-12.5, CCSS.ELALiteracy.RL.11-12.6)
Learning Target: Distinguish what is directly stated in the text from what is really meant using strong and thorough text evidence.
Success Criteria: • • • •
I can understand what the text explicitly says.
I can draw inferences from the text.
I can grasp the point of view from what is stated in the text, from what is really meant.
I can cite text evidence to support the analysis of the text.
Traditional Low-Rigor Task
Read: Students read “Entropy” by Andrea Rinard.
Identify: Students find two literary elements used in the story.
Write: Students write 2–3 sentences explaining what each element means.
Why it’s low rigor: Students identify elements but do not analyze how they interact with other elements or how they affect the meaning of the piece as a whole.
High-Rigor Team Task
Read: Students read “Entropy” by Andrea Rinard and consider the prompt: “How does Rinardʼs use of literary elements impact the meaning of the story? Use text evidence to support your answer.”
Think: Individually, students identify a powerful literary device from the story to analyze (even if they don’t yet understand it) and write it on their team’s shared Summarizing Mat (resource from the Model of Instruction for Deeper Learning).
Share: Students take turns sharing chosen quotes. After each person shares, the team works together to use context to make meaning about what the author is conveying.
- What is explicitly stated?
- What do you understand about the quote?
- What evidence around the text can you use to make meaning of the quote?
- What conclusions can you glean from the information you have?
Summarize: As a team, students answer the prompt: “How does Rinardʼs use of literary elements impact the meaning of the story? Use text evidence to support your answer.”
Why it’s rigorous: Students are required to think deeply and independently, engage in peer discussion, and refine their understanding collaboratively. The task challenges students to synthesize multiple ideas and produce meaningful evidence of learning.
Source for rigorous task: Resources Model of Instruction for Deeper Learning Teacher Suite Resource Library
Resources
4 Steps to Help Students Learn the Standards Tool
The 4 Step tool provides a simple way to plan tasks aligned to learning target(s) and standard(s). Source: Foster Deeper Learning by Deana Senn (pg. 60).
Senn reminds educators that when planning rigorous academic tasks, remember that the heart of the task must align with how we use the knowledge and skills of the standards in everyday life. Senn mentions coaches who support teachers in planning rigorous academic tasks, and finds success when the conversation centers on the nuances and meaning of the standards before jumping into how to assess them. The taxonomy is a tool that can help this conversation, but it is not the point of the conversation.
Taxonomy 4 Steps to Refine Our Tasks Tool
Source: Model of Instruction for Deeper Learning Toolkit 201: First Step to Team Autonomy (Foster Deeper Learning) (pg. 61)
Senn explains that the Taxonomy 4 Steps tool is another resource that can help educators reflect on the standard(s) ‘ intentions and how they are used in everyday life. The Taxonomy 4 Steps tool includes four easy steps to think through the purpose of the standard(s) as you are creating a task aligned to them.
Reference
Productive struggle. Renaissance. (2024, December 12). https://www.renaissance.com/edword/productive-struggle/#:~:text=Productive%20struggle%20is%20developing%20strong,the%20outset%20should%20be%20expected
What is productive struggle?. Progress Learning Blog. (2024, April 15). https://progresslearning.com/news-blog/what-is-productive-struggle/#:~:text=Furthermore%2C%20productive%20struggle%20fosters%20resilience,their%20learning%20journey%20and%20beyond
Sean, D. (n.d.). The Ultimate Guide to Academic Rigor. https://instructionalempowerment.com/library/academic-rigor/. https://instructionalempowerment.com/library/academic-rigor/
Senn, D. (2025a). Fostering deeper learning | instructional empowerment store. https://instructionalempowerment.com. https://store.instructionalempowerment.com/product/fostering-deeper-learning/