Definition: The act of engaging in difficult work with the knowledge that the challenging nature of it means we are learning and stretching ourselves. The concept at play here is that in order to learn, we must work through experiences that grow our skills, and so they are inherently challenging. As teachers, rather than step in to scaffold or support students immediately, we need to allow them to “struggle” in order to construct knowledge for themselves. When students use trial and error methods to figure out a problem or practice a complex new idea, they need time to grapple before we intervene.

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