Low Floor High Ceiling Meaning

The concept of low floor high ceiling was first formulated in the 1970s by seymour papert a professor at mit heavily influenced by piaget as a design principle for a programming language called logo.

Low floor high ceiling meaning. A low floor is inviting. Low floor high ceiling math problems have multiple entry points so they are accessible to all students but they can also be solved at higher levels. When discussing technologies to support learning and education my mentor seymour papert often emphasized the importance of low floors and high ceilings. Low floor high ceiling tasks are those that all students can access but that can be extended to high levels.

These tasks are important because all classes are heterogeneous. Do not have a predetermined solution pathway in advance. Lfhc tasks allow students work at different paces and take work to different depths at different times. Low floor high ceiling tasks work for everyone.

For example someone with a low floor and a high ceiling could either turn out to be a bust or a superstar whereas someone with a high floor and a low ceiling is probably going to be at worst a solid nba player but will probably not turn into a star. A high floor is a barrier. The way i see it is that the floor is the worst case scenario and the ceiling is the best case. Tasks present possibilities for the participants to do much more challenging mathematics.

These rich problems have the following characteristics. We want tasks with low floors so many students can get started easily. Chess s floor appears so high that they just never got going. Chess has a high floor evidenced by how many college educated adults i ve met who cannot play.

By definition a lfhc task is a mathematical activity where everyone in the group can begin and then work on at their own level of engagement. Low threshold high ceiling tasks are activities that everyone in a group can begin and then work on at their own level of engagement but which has lots of. The low floor high ceiling tasks preferred are those that are also. If the floor s too high some kids can t get started.

The idea was to make programming accessible to young children while simultaneously being usable at a more complex level by adults. Ceiling is discussed in terms of a specific number of points similar to floor. High ceiling players are obviously more valuable than low ceiling players. In our article low threshold high ceiling an introduction we outline what we mean by low threshold high ceiling and why we like low threshold high ceiling tasks in this article we build on those ideas to discuss the key features of a low threshold high ceiling classroom.

Low floor high ceiling tasks are those that all students can access but can be extended to high levels taken from you cubed. But like floor making use of this metric isn t quite that simple. A low threshold high ceiling lthc task offers the opportunity for everyone to get started and everyone to get stuck. Low floor high ceiling tasks.