Confusion Sparks Curiosity
How often do you allow your kids to dwell on their confusion?
My guess is not much. We tend to see confusion as counterproductive to learning. But research tells us otherwise. Confusion is a powerful feeling. With the right approach, it can spark curiosity, which leads to motivation, engagement, and yes, learning.
In this chapter, we’ll explore the benefits of embracing confusion. We tend to see it as a universally bad sign, but when placed in the proper context, confusion can drive us to uncover new and surprising insights.
So, how can we help kids embrace their confusion and use it to their advantage?
Embracing Confusion
Consider this research study lead by professor Sidney D’Mello. She and her colleagues discovered that confusion can increase learning and problem-solving. D’Mello summarized their findings this way:
[We] find that confusion can be beneficial to learning if appropriately regulated because it can cause learners to process the material more deeply in order to resolve their confusion.
This doesn’t mean that all confusion in any amount is a positive thing. Not enough confusion and we get bored and tune out. Too much and we get frustrated and quit. Just right and we become curious and learn.
When we’re confused, we’re experiencing something psychologist Jean Piaget calls cognitive disequilibrium. We’re faced with new information that doesn't fit with our existing mental models. This drives us to dig deeper and move beyond our existing knowledge to gain a fuller understanding of how things work.
For example, imagine learning division when all we know is addition and subtraction. This new way of using numbers doesn’t immediately connect with what we know about math. It challenges us to expand how we look at the world and add new perspective to our mental toolbox.
We can either avoid these moments of cognitive disequilibrium or embrace them and seek them out. Most students avoid them because they’re uncomfortable and demand lots of effort, but when we embrace it, disequilibrium can spark curiosity and push us to look for new answers.
Learning through Connections
It’s really hard to embrace disequilibrium when new ideas are presented in isolation. This explains why students experience boredom and frustration in school so often. When we teach kids a subject like math alone and out of context, it’s hard for them to see how the pieces fit together. This makes math seem incomprehensible and pointless.
Real learning comes from understanding the relationships and interactions across different disciplines. If we were to teach math as an exploration of relationships, with guidance toward noticing patterns, the process would be creative and highlight its utility and relevance.
At first, this change to how we teach subjects might sound too difficult. How will teachers find the time? But small tweaks can make all the difference. Use examples from the real world that kids are already curious about. For example, instead of boring math problems, a teacher might challenge students to use new math techniques to analyze the YouTube channel of their favorite internet creator. When done right, kids would experience confusion, but in a way that sparks curiosity.
A Case Study: Synthesis
The goal of teaching should be to help kids change their perspectives so that they see difficult problems as exciting opportunities.
Think about how an innovator like Elon Musk responds to tough problems. Others might drown in all the details of car production, solar energy, and space travel, but Elon gets excited by the challenge. He has a unique ability to handle complexity, and it isn’t simply because of his intelligence, although he is a genius! As much as his IQ, it is Elon’s mindset that gives him such an advantage. He responds to confusion with curiosity.
Elon saw the value of this mindset and wanted to build a school that taught it to children. So, he hired his kids’ best teacher at their school, Josh Dahn, to design a new approach to education on the SpaceX campus. The result was a class called Synthesis.
The idea behind Synthesis was simple—and brilliant. If we want to help kids solve tough problems, let’s let them practice. Josh designed a series of extremely complex games and let kids join teams to see who could win. They competed to design the best Super Charger network for Tesla and the best moonshot investments to move the American economy forward. The outcomes from this class were astounding.
Synthesis became the students’ favorite pass time. They were confused and they loved it. It was a chance for them to embrace chaos, explore crazy ideas, and come up with solutions no one else had thought of.
Synthesis works because of the unique way it helps kids approach confusion. Let’s look at three of its principles, which anyone can use.
Three Principles for Exploring Confusion
First, expose kids to confusion. Encourage them to solve that harder math problem or read that challenging book. Let them explore complex ideas and help them understand that when they do, they are going to feel confused—and that’s OK. Over time, you will notice that they may even start to enjoy a certain amount of confusion.
Second, up-end the way you talk about confusion with kids. Make sure they understand that confusion is not synonymous with failure or incompetence. Highlight the importance and relevance of confusion in the learning journey and respond to “confusing” moments with excitement and curiosity.
Third, don’t jump to the rescue when kids get confused. We think we are helping them by making things easy and painless, but in reality, we are doing the opposite. Let kids engage in productive struggle and give them the chance to sort through their confusion. Be there to support them, but resist the temptation to jump in.
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The more we expose kids to confusion in the right context, the more they will be willing to wade through the feeling of not knowing—a key survival skill in today’s world.
By allowing kids to experience confusion, we’re letting them get a taste of the real world. We’re giving them the opportunity to learn how to handle complexity while the stakes are low so that later, they’re mentally prepared when it matters. We’re not letting them skate by with easy work, which feels good in the moment but hurts over the long term.
The truth is that we get uncomfortable when we watch kids struggle through confusion, but oftentimes, they actually enjoy it. Just watch them play one of their favorite video games. Most of the fun is figuring out how to solve a problem when it doesn’t seem to make sense. In fact, once they’ve figured everything out, they usually stop playing and move on to the next game.
A moderate amount of confusion is key to designing an engaging game.
I explore ideas like this in Fab Fridays, my newsletter on childhood education and new ways to learn.
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