Productive Failure

Conclusion

When my elder son, Dev, was in kindergarten, he would make me lie down so he could sit on my stomach and play games. One of our favorites was the number counting game, which would go something like: If you have three toy cars and I gave you five more, how many would you have? His natural impulse would be to start counting using his fingers. He would count to three to denote the three cars he already had. And then count on five more to get to eight. At least that is what most kids would do – except this kid had me as his father, and I was testing my theory of how making things harder to the point that we fail can be beneficial for learning. Therefore, every time my son would start using his fingers, I would playfully grasp his hands ...