The Challenge of Challenge: What Does It Mean in Primary Schools?

What does challenge actually mean in primary teaching?

It sounds like a straightforward question. Sometimes challenge means pitching learning appropriately so that pupils have to think hard and learn something new. Sometimes it means providing something additional for pupils who have already met the intended learning, particularly pupils working at greater depth. If a school doesn't distinguish between these meanings, conversations about challenge can quickly become confused.

Starting With Three Questions

I recently started off a teacher training session with the following questions:

1. What do we mean by challenge?

2. Who should we be challenging?

3. How often should we challenge them?

I'd asked roughly the same questions of senior leaders earlier in the day and it led to some interesting discussions.

When Challenge Means Different Things

We realised that there was a chance that when talking about challenge we could be talking at cross-purposes.

When I asked the leaders the questions, I was trying to clarify the purpose of my work with them: when they invited me in to work with them on 'challenge', what exactly did they mean? And what were we aiming for?

The conversations went like this:

Question 1 was given many and various answers.

Question 2 had a unanimous answer.

Question 3 had a limited number of answers.

Which led us back to reconsider the answers to Question 1.

Working Towards a Shared Definition

Everyone agreed that all children should be challenged. There was some discussion around whether or not children should be challenged at all times. So we had to talk again about what we meant by challenge.

As we talked, we realised that perhaps we had two main ideas of what challenge was:

• The most prevalent one, the one that sprung to mind for more teachers: 'challenge' means additional, over and above, depth challenge (challenges set once key objectives have been met)

• Least prevalent, but an idea that definitely existed: 'challenge' means pitching work correctly, getting children in the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), ensuring work isn't too easy or too hard, making sure that children are thinking hard so that they learn

Because we decided that all children should be challenged, we had to have the second definition as the key definition of challenge. But because we agreed that all children should be challenged, we also needed the first definition - if we acknowledge that in the children in any given class there are a range of starting points, and a varying degree of 'speeds' at which children work, we also need the depth challenge definition (although it is actually incoporated in the second definition).

So, as we progressed in the staff meeting, we used 'challenge' to mean the right level of challenge for the child at that time and began to refer to 'depth challenge' to describe the kind of thing we provide for children working at greater depth, for example.

Once we'd nailed this down, we returned to Question 3 and couldn't think of many reasons why we wouldn't want to challenge children all the time. We did discuss breaks and downtime, and we also talked about ensuring more broadly that confidence isn't knocked and that other aspects of mental health are cared for. We mentioned how experiencing success should be a part of getting the level of challenge right. However, by and large, we decided that when learning is taking place, all children should be being challenged all of the time.

So, a key consideration when planning and teaching children is that they should be appropriately challenged. By 'appropriately' we mean that they should have explanations, models, examples, questions, practice and feedback which meets them where they are - but which isn't too easy, and isn't too hard. This includes for pupils who perhaps had a higher starting point, and worked quickly, achieving the intended outcomes for the lesson, who then needs some sort of 'depth challenge' to ensure that they continue to be challenged.

But the real takeaway from this, because that previous paragraph seems a little obvious, is that there needs to be some agreement as to what is meant by 'challenge'. Because, as obvious as that last paragraph sounds, it is very easy to be talking at cross-purposes.

Two Definitions of Challenge

So, to be very clear: there are two useful meanings of challenge in primary education.

The first is appropriate challenge: learning that requires a pupil to think, practise, retrieve, apply, reason or otherwise work beyond what they can already do independently, while still being achievable with appropriate teaching and support.

The second is additional or depth challenge: what we provide when a pupil has already secured the intended learning and needs further opportunities to deepen, extend or apply their understanding.

The first applies to everyone. The second is particularly relevant when thinking about pupils working at greater depth.

Should All Pupils Be Challenged?

Yes. But that doesn't mean every pupil needs the same task, the same level of independence or the same degree of difficulty. A pupil's prior knowledge, understanding, confidence and independence all affect what constitutes appropriate challenge.

So the question shouldn't be "How are we challenging the more able?" It should first be: "How are we ensuring that every pupil is appropriately challenged?"

Only once we've answered that second question should we ask what additional challenge might be appropriate for pupils who are already working at greater depth.

This distinction between challenge for everyone and additional challenge for pupils working at greater depth is explored further in 'Challenge for All vs. Challenge for Children Working At Greater Depth'.

Challenge Is Not the Same as Giving Harder Work

Challenge isn't synonymous with something you might consider to be difficult for a child at a given age and stage. Giving a pupil more questions, harder numbers, a longer text or an extension activity doesn't automatically mean that you've provided meaningful challenge. I've written more about this in 'Greater Depth: More Than Harder Tasks', where I explore why challenging pupils working at greater depth isn't simply about making the work harder.

The important question is: what is the pupil being required to think about or do that they couldn't already do easily?

Sometimes the challenge comes from the task. Sometimes it comes from the level of independence expected. Sometimes it comes from the questions we ask, the support we remove, the complexity of the context or the requirement to apply knowledge in a new way.

What Does Appropriate Challenge Look Like?

So, what does appropriate challenge actually look like in the classroom? It isn't necessarily about giving pupils harder work, adding an extension task or making things more complicated. Often, the challenge comes from the teaching itself: the questions we ask, the examples we choose, the amount of support we provide and, ultimately, what we expect pupils to think about and do for themselves.

There are a number of ways we can create this kind of challenge:

Challenge through knowledge

Pupils need to learn something they don't already know.

Challenge through thinking

They need to retrieve, explain, compare, reason, evaluate, apply or make connections.

Challenge through independence

The teacher gradually removes support as pupils become more secure.

Challenge through application

Pupils have to use what they've learned in a new context.

Challenge through expectations

Pupils are expected to produce accurate, thoughtful or sophisticated work rather than simply complete an activity.

What About Pupils Working at Greater Depth?

If we accept that all pupils should experience appropriate challenge, what does that mean for pupils who are already working at greater depth? The answer isn't simply to give them harder work. Pupils working at greater depth still need to learn new knowledge, develop their understanding and be taught things they don't yet know. They may also need opportunities to apply their knowledge in increasingly complex ways, work with greater independence and produce work to a high standard. In other words, greater depth doesn't mean that pupils have somehow reached the end of the learning.

This is important because it is easy to equate challenge with difficulty. A pupil who has quickly completed the expected work doesn't necessarily need a harder worksheet. They might need to do something different with what they know, encounter more complex knowledge, have some support removed or be challenged to work in an area where they are less secure.

I've written more about this in Greater Depth: More Than Harder Tasks, where I explore why challenging pupils working at greater depth isn't simply about making the work harder.

There are a number of general principles that can help us think about this. These include providing more and more complex knowledge, giving pupils opportunities to do something with their knowledge, teaching new knowledge explicitly, gradually removing scaffolds, communicating high expectations and personalising the challenge. I explore these in more detail in Greater Depth: General Principles of Challenge for Higher Prior Attaining Pupils.

The final point is particularly important. Once we stop thinking of challenge as something that is simply added to a lesson for particular pupils, we can start thinking more carefully about what an individual pupil actually needs next.

A pupil might already be highly successful at writing stories, for example. Giving them another, harder story-writing task might not be particularly challenging. Perhaps they need to write in a genre they are less familiar with, develop their ability to edit and refine their work, or apply their writing skills in a completely different context.

This is why I have been concentrating much more on thinking about personalising challenge for pupils working at greater depth. The starting point isn't the label of 'greater depth' but what we know about the individual pupil: what they know, what they can do, where they are secure, where they are less secure and what might move their learning on.

For more on this, see Personalising Challenge for Pupils Working at Greater Depth.

So, while challenge for all and challenge for pupils working at greater depth aren't quite the same thing, they shouldn't be treated as completely separate ideas either. The principles of good teaching still apply. The difference is that, for some pupils, the appropriate next challenge will involve greater depth, complexity, independence or personalisation.

How Can a School Define Challenge?

Ask your colleagues these questions:

1. What do we mean by challenge?

Can everyone in the school give roughly the same answer?

2. Who should experience challenge?

Is challenge something reserved for pupils who finish their work quickly, or is appropriate challenge part of every pupil's learning?

3. What creates challenge?

Is it task difficulty, cognitive demand, independence, application, questioning, complexity, or something else?

4. How do we know that pupils are being challenged?

What evidence would we expect to see in classrooms and pupils' work?

5. What happens when pupils have already mastered the intended learning?

What does meaningful depth challenge look like?

Need to develop challenge in your school?

If your staff aren't yet working from a shared understanding of what challenge means, it can be difficult to know what you should be looking for in classrooms and how to develop practice.

I can work with you to explore what appropriate challenge looks like in your school, including how you can challenge all pupils while developing effective provision for pupils working at greater depth.

Find out how I can help your school

1. Get in touch to tell me about your school.

2. Have a phone call to talk through what you're trying to achieve.

3. We'll work together to make challenge more purposeful, manageable and effective.