From Understanding Challenge to Navigating It

Teacher resources to accompany Challenge: Building Students’ Relationship with Challenge

From Understanding Challenge to Navigating It: Teacher Resources is a practical companion resource for teachers participating in the live workshop Challenge: Building Students’ Relationship with Challenge.

Many students do not step back from learning because they lack motivation. They step back because challenge feels risky. This workshop helps teachers rethink challenge — not as something that tests students, but as something that builds their capacity to learn.

Using clear models, shared language, and practical classroom examples, the session explores how students experience challenge, why avoidance is so common, and how everyday classroom practices can unintentionally keep learners comfortable or performing rather than growing.

At the centre of the workshop is the Zones of Learning framework, which gives teachers a practical way to recognise where learning is — and is not — happening, and how to begin reshaping students’ relationship with difficulty.

These companion resources are designed to support reflection and implementation after the session. It helps teachers build on the workshop’s key ideas and take the next step in applying them in their own classroom context.