Learning should 'burn' a little. Yes confusion is a good thing.

My wife shared a few quotes from Brene Brown’s new book titled ‘Atlas of the Heart’ based on how I teach my classes. I like to leave my courses open-ended enough, so the students have to decide how far they will go or which elements they will learn deeply. In my senior-level classes, even the material they are ‘required’ to read is up to them¹. The level of freedom I provide them is disorienting based on their previous schooling experience, but they see that making decisions on their own can empower them to learn more deeply. I hope it also invites an understanding that they can define their learning experience, which motivates life-long learning.

My summary

Confusion is an excellent epistemic emotion critical to learning. When we work through our confusion, we stop, think, engage in careful deliberation, develop solutions, and revise how we approach the next problem. Comfortable learning environments rarely lead to deep learning. Continued professional education demands that we learn strategies to get us out of confusion. If our schooling experience doesn’t push the boundary of ‘too confusing,’ we may never fully refine our ability to seek help, filter information, or plan a strategy.

Quotes on Optimal Confustion

The concept of optimal confusion is key to understanding why confusion is good for us and why its categorized as an epistemic emotion-an emotion critical to knowledge acquisition and learning.

It turns out that confusion, like many uncomfortable things in life, is vital for learning. According to research, confusion has the potential to motivate, lead to deep learning, and trigger problem solving. A study led by Sidney D’Mello found that when were trying to work through our confusion, we need to stop and think, engage in careful deliberation, develop a solution, and revise how we approach the next problem.

In an article in Fast Company, Mary Slaughter and David Rock with the NeuroLeadership Institute write, “To be effective, learning needs to be effortful. That’s not to say that anything that makes learning easier is counterproductive-or that all unpleasant learning is effective. The key here is desirable difficulty. The same way you feel a muscle ‘burn’ when it’s being strengthened, the brain needs to feel some discomfort when its learning. Your mind might hurt for a while-but that’s a good thing. Comfortable learning environments rarely lead to deep learning.

So, we have “the zone of optimal confusion” and “desirable difficulty”, but what happens when things get too confusing? Based on D’Mello’s research, too much confusion can lead to frustration, giving up, disengagement, or even boredom. Learning strategies most often used to help resolve confusion were seeking help, finding the most important information, monitoring progress, and planning a strategy.