Toward A "Thinking Classroom"

Last year, I began studying (not just reading, truly studying) the book Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics by Peter Liljedahl.

In the introduction to the book, Liljedahl explains that he visited 40 classrooms in great depth and observed the actions of students very carefully.  He provides this wonderfully succinct summary of what he saw:

"Everywhere I went, I saw students not thinking and, as a result, teachers having to plan their teaching on the assumption that students either can't or won't think" (p. 12).
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He primarily contrasts thinking against mimicking, which is both the primary way he sees students attempting to please their math teachers and the primary action that teachers wish to see from their math students.  Mimicking is "I'll show you how, then you do what I did until it is committed to memory."  Thinking, on the other hand is "what you do when you don't know what to do" (p.19).  Since mimicking is doing exactly what you've been shown to do, it requires no thinking.

As someone with a website stocked with hundreds of video lessons exquisitely crafted to teach students to mimic, Liljedahl's ideas have my attention, my interest, and my horror.

What Liljedahl observed students doing while working on a math task in a typical classroom instead of thinking (p. 10)

​Liljedahl's style of research is original in both content and presentation - I've never read a teaching book like it before.  A thinking classroom, he concludes, involves consideration of fourteen variables:
1. The types of task we use
2. The way we form collaborative groups
3. Where students work
4. How we arrange the furniture
5. How we answer questions
6. When, where, and how tasks are given
7. What homework looks and sounds like
8. How we foster autonomy
9. How we use hints and extensions
10. How we consolidate a lesson
11. How students take notes
12. How we choose to evaluate
13. How we use formative assessment
14. How we grade

Last year, I implemented his advice regarding about half the items on this list with great success, but admittedly, I only did "the easy" ones - practices that could easily be changed in a day or practices that were already very close to what I was already doing.

This year, I'm going all the way.  I'm trying to make the move to a truly, genuinely, authentically Thinking Classroom.  If it interests you, I'll be documenting the journey here on this blog.  I've got a lot to learn.  True to form, I'll be thinking; "thinking is what you do when you don't know what to do," and there will be a lot of times when I don't know what to do.  

Last year Liljedahl's idea of a "thinking classroom" had my attention.  This year it'll have my time and energy, too.  Here goes nothing!

Last year, I implemented the "easy" thinking classrooms strategies, like standing work areas and playing cards to assign visibly random groups.

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Want to read more right now?  You're in luck - this is my 59th post! You can browse past posts by category:

• ​Building A Thinking Classroom
• Leaning Into The Science and Engineering Practices
• Classroom Practices
• Classroom Stories
• Ideas and Opinions
• Pandemic-Related Issues​