a good kind of struggle

Cognitive dissonance is a discomfort caused by

holding conflicting ideas, beliefs, values, or emotions simultaneously.

 Some educational activities have been designed to

foster dissonance in students by increasing their awareness of conflicts between prior beliefs and new information. For example, by requiring students to defend prior beliefs while simultaneously guiding students to new explanations may sometimes resolve the conflicts, or may at least bring the conflicts to light for students.

 Describe an example of cognitive dissonance.

When you realized there was a conflict, how did you

feel about it? Articulate what the conflicting ideas were. How can cognitive dissonance help learning?