Leveraging Productive Failure for Deepening Adult Teaching and Learning

Abstract

Rapid technological advances coupled with recent pandemic related disruptions have brought renewed attention to gaps between educational offerings and in-demand job skills. There is a strong impetus to shape learning approaches to better align with not only evolving workplace skills demands, but also with structural societal changes. Given this context, what should the strategy for learning design be?

A noteworthy contribution which is shaping learning design is from the field of learning sciences Productive Failure (PF), a comprehensive learning design approach that diverges from conventional Direct Instruction methods. It highlights the advantages of encountering and learning from failures, presenting a departure from traditional teaching methodologies. The Innovation Centre at the Institute for Adult Learning, Singapore successfully translated the principles of PF for Adult Learning. The aim was to leverage the PF principles to facilitate deep learning amongst learners and contribute towards building critical core competencies within the Training and Adult Education sector. These principles were tested and adapted by a select diverse group of Adult Educators who infused PF into their learning designs and piloted the same with real learners in real learning environments. Their insights and experiences were incorporated into the resulting framework and template to support Adult Educators keen to adopt PF into their learning design and lessons. In this presentation, we shall share about the ‘PF Developmental Framework’, the educators and their learners’ first-hand learning experiences as well as key design features in operationalizing PF for adult learning.