April 2015 Learning is Challenging! "It is too hard, I don't want to do this anymore." "Ohhhhh....not balancing equations again!" "...but I am no good at..." These student comments have really struck me...and made me look further afield. How can I help students realise that learning can and is tough at times; that you don't necessarily "get it" straight away; that all of the greatest thinkers and doers had to persist through challenge? A colleague suggested reading Karen Boyes' blog and post on Modern Learning Environments - the underlying philosophy to success. , especially: ' Explain to your students that your job is to cause learning to happen and this will not occur if you give them easy work. However you must also give them the skills to cope with the hard. Can your student persist, think flexibly, be creative, take responsible risks?' I took Helen's advice, and the following day my co-teacher and I ...