Date of Award

2026

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Education (MEd)

Department

Education

First Advisor

Ted Kalmus

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to learn how to more effectively engage students in productive struggle and specifically how student feedback and choice could enhance their level of engagement and future achievement. This study was conducted over a 2-week period between April 17 and May 1. Students were given a pre-survey, followed with 3 assignments with options of problem sets to solve that had varied levels of challenge, and then finalized with a post-survey. Among the results were that there was diversity of reasoning as to why they made their choices, there were students who chose to do multiple options of the assignments to get more practice and that those who selected the more “challenging” options were more likely to complete the assignment in full. It seemed from my experience of the study, observations and survey responses of the students that offering options was a positive for the learning experience of many students because it allowed them to consistently choose what method of learning that they thought worked best and to work within their reasonable capacity. It also seems that a key goal for the teacher should be to empower as many students as possible to believe in themselves to take on more “challenging” problem sets.

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