The idea of desirable difficulties has always appealed to me. In my teaching I’m partticularly in favour of applying Vygotsky’s concept of the zone of proximal development. According to WestEd, this is defined as the space between what a learner can do without assistance and what a learner can do with adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers.
As it happens, Desirable Difficulties in Action does not mention Vygotsky as far as I can tell, and defines “desirable difficulties” as strategies which slow down performance but enhance long-term learning.
One example is the practice known as “interleaving”, which is the mixing of several kinds of challenge within the same session, as opposed to blocked practice, which involves repeating the same kind of exercise over and over.
This sounds like the kind of thing I do in my teaching. It also sounds like the sort of thing I do as I’m trying to learn hoiw to play the saxophone. Instead of confining myself to playing different scales over and over again, I also throw in a few improvisations and challenge myself to try to play a few tunes by ear. That’s to alleviate boredom as much as anything else.
Well, that just seems like common sense to me, but this is early days. I’ve only had a quick look through as a sort of advance organiser for when I review this book for Teach Secondary magazine, so I’m not giving a verdict just yet.
Mind you, I have to say I’m disappointed that the concept of working memory, and by implication Cognitive Load Theory, has made its way into these pages because in my opinion it provides little, if any, practical guidance to teachers. (Where’s my flak jacket? I suspect I might be needing it.)
Still, this is just a quick look, and on that basis I have to say I like the ease of reading and the many and varied examples provided, and bullet points. I always love bullet points!
My full review will appear in Teach Secondary magazine in due course, probably September.