Please read Peter Liljedahl’s work if you teach maths or science and “thinking” matters to you.

He is a Professor of maths education and a past president of the International Group for the Psychology of Maths Education.

And, aiming to increase students’ thinking, he has visited classrooms across 6 continents, sat in on lessons taught by teachers deemed “good” by traditional measures, and observed classes in both low- and high-socioeconomic settings.

But everywhere he went, he saw the same thing—students kept busy with “I-write-you-write,” “now-you-try-one,” or similar activities, but not thinking.

And he also observed behaviours called “studenting” which include: Mimicking, Faking, Stalling, Slacking, & Asking various “stop-thinking” or “proximity” questions when the teacher is close by.

And that led him to begin his quest to find the “optimal” practices for thinking.

He first compiled a comprehensive list of factors that impact thinking. Then, for 15+ years, he worked with 400+ teachers conducting thousands of micro-experiments to break any & all classroom norms—routines you & I might be doing right now that may seem totally fine or harmless to us but actually “enable & foster non-thinking behaviours.”

And he confined his experiments to the limits of the classroom & set bell schedule so that teachers could “act locally” & implement these practices within their existing control—with no need to wait indefinitely for schools, divisions, or countries to make changes.

Personally, I love his “Building Thinking Classroom” book, where he thoughtfully explains the effects of various practices. And I find it extremely noteworthy that, according to his findings, the normative practices we, as teachers, might be proud of doing, not only might not be the best option for thinking, but could be the worst among reasonable alternatives.

Accepting this may be hard for many of us, as it means we should look in the mirror instead of blaming children. But I hope someday we find the courage to do so…🌈

Hashtags

#PeterLiljedahl #ThinkingClassroom #BuildingThinkingClassroom #BTC #MathsEducation #MathEducation