The Productive Struggle

Program Overview

The ability to struggle, persist, and keep going when things get hard is profoundly human. Yet in classrooms, struggle is often something we rush to remove. The Productive Struggle invites educators to rethink challenge, not as an obstacle to learning, but as its engine. Drawing on human physiology and cognitive science, this webinar explores how attention, emotion, and motivation shape a learner’s capacity to stay engaged, and why learning thrives in a zone that sits between boredom and frustration. Participants will explore what it means to elevate practice by adopting a simplified model of human motivation, one that relies on well-designed tasks, intentional teacher moves, and the power of community.

ABOUT OUR PRESENTER

Jack Rice is a career educator and academic leader; he currently serves as the Director, Digital and Extended Learning at Acadia University and the Executive Director of the Maple League of Universities. Previously, he was the Director of the Centre for Online Learning, Graduate & Professional Studies at St. Francis Xavier University. His experience also includes appointments as the Dean of Graduate Programs at Elizabethtown College, a Director in the School of Education at Loyola University Maryland and several leadership positions in K-12 education in Canada and Australia.