Struggling vs. Not Struggling

The title says it all, some students struggle while others do not. I should point out that effort is not saying the same thing, many students that struggle / don't struggle put forth a great deal of effort, while some of the students that struggle / don't struggle put forth little or no effort. The focus of the topic for this blog is not effort, but whether or not a student struggles beyond the average with learning concepts. I had the occasion to observe multiple students that were at varying levels of learning. The common thread shared by most that were observed is that they all seemed to have a positive outlook on life in general and liked school. That said there were observable differences in learning styles and overall achievement. In most cases the high achieving learner was able to grasp new concepts relatively easy. It was also worth noting that these students generally asked different questions from the same prompts, which suggests that their learning experiences were and are quite different from students at lower levels of achievement. Students in general want to learn more about their environment and possible future professions or vocations, but approach the this learning from different perspectives. It is likely that experience opportunities have played a key role in defining those perspectives. Even if all students were given the exact same experience opportunities it is likely that there will still be disparity between perspectives because how an individual experiences the "experience" is largely determined by temperament and socialization. Both of these characteristics are completely individual in nature and constantly in a state of "flux" or development. Each new experience reinforces or alters the current stage of development, while I agree this process could become more stable and less influential over time. In students, under the age of 25, overall mental, physical, and emotional development is changing and evolving at high rates. What I am really trying to state in a positive way is that even struggling students learn and are part of this development path that one day may cease to be as big of a struggle for them as they finally find the connections that have eluded them in the past. The goal is is to provide meaningful relevant learning experiences to all students.

Flow

This is a great little game, very simple and sometimes multiple ways to solve the puzzle and sometimes there is only one way to solve the puzzle. Try it!! The free version has plenty to offer before you have to buy an up-grade pack. It is great tool to help kids learn problem solving skills and in order to earn a perfect score all the boxes in the grid must be filled and dots connected using the least number moves.


You can free play or see how many solve in the "time trials." The 5 X 5 are the easiest progress through to 9 X 9, which are harder.