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What If? Building Students' Problem-Solving Skills Through Complex Challenges

Ronald A. Beghetto

Table of Contents

About the Author

About This Book

If a fundamental goal of schooling is to prepare young people for the unknowable future, why do we assign students so many clearly defined tasks with predetermined solutions?

According to educator and creativity expert Ronald A. Beghetto, the best way to unleash students' problem solving and creativity—and thus prepare them to face real-world problems—is to incorporate complex challenges that teach students to respond productively to uncertainty. In this thought-provoking book, Beghetto explains

  • How to foster "possibility thinking" to help students open up their thinking in creative, sometimes counterintuitive ways.
  • The process of lesson unplanning, a way of transforming existing lessons, activities, and assignments into more complex classroom challenges.
  • Four basic action principles that teachers and students can use to design and solve complex challenges both inside and outside the classroom.
  • The steps for creating legacy challenges, which require students to identify a problem, develop a solution, and ensure that their work makes a lasting contribution.

With planning forms and detailed sample activities, this practical guide will enable teachers at every grade level to design a full range of challenges in any subject area. Invite uncertainty into your classroom—and discover what your students are capable of.

See the book's table of contents and read excerpts

Listen to an ASCD Learn Teach Lead Radio interview with Ronald Beghetto, Teaching Students to Solve Overwhelming, Complex, and Uncertain Problems.

Watch a Webinar!

Thursday, September 20, 2018, 3:00 p.m. eastern daylight time

If a fundamental goal of schooling is to help prepare young people for the unknowable future, then how might we provide our students with learning experiences that prepare them to creatively respond to uncertainty? Author Ronald Beghetto provides K–12 educators with practical strategies for addressing this question in a one hour webinar on September 20.  Register now

What If? Building Students' Problem-Solving Skills Through Complex Challenges

What If? Building Students' Problem-Solving Skills Through Complex Challenges

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Book Details

Table of Contents

Study Guide

Related Resources

Product No: 
118009

ISBN-13: 
978-1-4166-2641-1

Availability:
August 2018

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About the Author

Ronald A. BeghettoRonald A. Beghetto is an internationally recognized expert on creativity in educational settings. He is professor of educational psychology in the Neag School of Education and director of the Innovation House at the University of Connecticut. He is editor-in-chief of the Journal of Creative Behavior and a fellow of the American Psychological Association and the Society for the Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts.

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Keywords

Other Books by Keyword

Designing Learning Experiences

Other Resources by Keyword

21st century learning | active and project-based learning | critical thinking | college and career readiness | curriculum design and lesson planning

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