Challenging Your Students

1. CHALLENGING
YOUR STUDENTS
Breanna Gomez
SOE115 Psychology of Teaching and Learning
Kendall College

2. Why Challenge Your Students?
◦ My strategy to help students achieve is to challenge them in the classroom. When children are too familiar
with a topic they become uninterested and therefore don't pay attention. When you challenge your students
with activities they have to try harder which helps them develop their skills and achieve more. When I say
challenge your students, I don't mean give children extremely hard worksheets or activities that will frustrate
them. When you challenge them you want to provide activities and work that is slightly more advanced than
what they currently know so their brain is being engaged. When students are being taught information they
already know they are not learning anything. So as a teacher you need to make your students challenge
themselves to learn and grow more.
◦ I chose this strategy because it has been something I have observed in my own educational journey and in the
students in my daycare. When I was in elementary school I would get bored learning things I already knew so
I would stop paying attention. I needed to be challenged with things I wasn’t familiar with to help me become
a better student.

3. Challenging Promotes Problem Solving
◦ According to the article on Pearson Learning News, challenging students is vital
to their success. The article contained a short clip of Jeff Baxter, Kansas Teacher
of the Year 2014, speaking about how challenging your students helps them
improve their skills and problem solving abilities.
◦ Baxter says that "as teachers we are not gas pumps just filling students up with
knowledge, we are teachers." He states that the more you challenge your students
it helps them overcome obstacles. He says that when children are faced with
problems that they don't know how to solve right away the process they go
through to solve the problem is how they learn.
◦ He states that rigor is an important quality for teachers. Teachers should give their
students challenges that they will have to work to solve which will improve their
learning ability.

4. Challenges Need to be Balanced
◦ In the article Teaching Strategies: The Balance Between Challenge and
Frustration, they explain the importance of challenging your students but not
giving them things that are too hard.
◦ In the article the author says that "classrooms that are too easy
create boredom and a classroom that is too difficult creates frustration".
◦ The article explains that children have a difficult time learning when things are
too easy and too difficult. Teachers need to find the fine line between those two
things to help their students achieve in the classroom. The article explains that a
curriculum that is too easy it doesn’t help the child develop appropriately. A
curriculum that is too hard creates a frustrating environment which is also hard
for students to achieve.

5. It's Important to Demand More
◦ In the article Demand more from students and they will learn more, they claim that sometimes
teachers under challenge their students without even knowing they do it. The article says that
sometimes teachers are afraid to be challenging because they don’t want their students to feel like
they're failing.
◦ In the article they distinguish "doable demands" and "undoable demands". Doable demands are
things that the child is able to complete but challenges them and an undoable demand is
something that is too difficult to complete.
◦ The article says "Demand-High does not mean "making things more difficult". It's a demand that
comes precisely at the point where the learner is capable of taking the next steps forward – and
helping the learner meet that demand, rather than ignore it.". When you challenge your students
you are not making things impossible you are just encouraging them to look ahead.

6. Analysis
◦ I think all of the sources I used said very similar things. They all explained the
importance of challenging and expecting more from your students. Two of the
articles I chose explained that it's important to find the right way to challenge
them so that you won't make your class too difficult. They all emphasized that
teachers should look at the way they teach and adjust to how their students learn.

7. Connections
◦ I think my strategy is connected to how children develop. In week 3 we learned about how each
child develops differently and how teachers need to develop a curriculum that can help all of the
children. When teachers know how their children learn they are then able to create a curriculum
that can challenge their students. It is the teachers responsibility to create a challenging
environment for all of their students.

8. Conclusion
◦ I believe that it is important to challenge your students because I think it helps them become better students.
I know from personal experience that challenging students works. If you can find that fine line between a
curriculum that is not too easy but not too hard then your students will greatly benefit. The way you
challenge your student should be balanced so that you don’t affect their development. I also believe that
challenging your students promotes problem solving because when your students have to try and try to figure
out an answer they are learning more than just finding it easily. I also believe that demanding more from your
students is important. When you encourage your students to try you are helping them achieve.

9. Communicating with Families
◦ If I were to talk to families about challenging students in the classroom I would assure them that they would
not be given things that will set them up for failure. Challenges are supposed to help them push forward not
fall back. I would also explain to them that when children are given things that are too easy they can actually
delay their development. I would encourage the parent to try and do this at home so they can see how this
stragety actually works.

10. Refrences
◦ What Makes a Great Teacher: Challenge Your Students . (2017, April). Retrieved November, 2017, from
pearsonlearningnews.com
◦ Catapano, J. (n.d.). Teaching Strategies: The Balance Between Challenge and Frustration. Retrieved
November 14, 2017, from http://www.teachhub.com/teaching-strategies-balance-between-challenge-and-
frustration
◦ Underhill, A., & Scrivener, J. (2012, October 16). Demand more from students and they will learn more.
Retrieved November 14, 2017, from https://www.theguardian.com/education/2012/oct/16/demand-high-
teaching-challenge-students