Building Thinking Classrooms by

Podcast

tsamoyloff — 2023-11-27 17:44:44 UTC

To begin, have a listen to my podcast, "What Are You Thinking?"

In today's podcast, we take a deep dive into Peter Lijedahl's Building Thinking Classrooms Framework!

Through the various learning opportunities available on this padlet; the podcast, videos, infographics, research and activities, you will able to explain the following:

1) The research supporting implementation of Thinking Classroom.

2) The teaching practices in a Thinking Classroom.

3) The advantages on student learning in a Thinking Classroom.

4) How to get started using rich tasks.

Comments and discussion can be added to any section of the Padlet and is encouraged to promote professional development!

Note: Words and phrases that are underlined are links to the mentioned research or additional information.

The Chicken McNugget Problem

tsamoyloff — 2023-11-27 19:21:10 UTC

Have a go at this rich thinking task with your friends and family. While you do, consider the math thinking that emerges and the multiple ways of doing the problem conducive to the mathematical strengths of the doer.

Add your observations in the comment section of this post!

Teaching Practices of the Building Thinking Classrooms Framework!

tsamoyloff — 2023-11-27 22:07:14 UTC

Dr. Liljedahl would like educators to challenge the traditional classroom norms to get students thinking via the implementation of the following teaching practices.

1) Begin with a problem

2) Visibly random grouping

3) Vertical non-permanent surfaces

4) Provide oral instructions

5) De-front the classroom

6) Provide answering questions

7) Build autonomy

8) Provide hints and extensions

9) Level to the Bottom

10) Student Notes

11) Assessment

Detailed information is found by clicking on the infographic above or clicking here to access the Executive Summary of Dr. Liljedahl's book Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics.

Culturally Relevant Mathematical Teaching

tsamoyloff — 2023-11-27 22:12:32 UTC

According to Ellis (2021), culturally relevant mathematical teaching is all about creating a community of mathematics learners who value collaboration and see mathematics as a way of reasoning with and about quantities.

The Building Thinking Classrooms Framework, specifically, visibly random grouping, prepares students to work with any group they are placed in, removing social barriers and allowing for the fluid exchange of knowledge among students. Students learn to rely on each other for guidance. Research has shown that engagement in tasks and enthusiasm for math class increase in a thinking classroom.

Original research on visibly random groups can be found here.

Opportunities to Think

tsamoyloff — 2023-11-27 22:24:19 UTC

We know via our studies on thinking dispositions that students are not thinking in classrooms, not because they lack thinking skills by rather because they are not privy to situations that require thinking (Perkins, 2003).

Dr. Liljedahl concluded that “A thinking classroom is a classroom that is not only conducive to thinking but also occasions thinking, a space that is inhabited by thinking individuals as well as individuals thinking collectively, learning together, and constructing knowledge and understanding through activity and discussion” (Liljedahl, 2016).

Liljedahl, P. (2016). Building thinking classrooms: Conditions for problem solving. In P. Felmer, J. Kilpatrick, & E. Pekhonen (Eds.), Posing and solving mathematical problems: Advances and new perspectives. New York: Springer.

Teacher Efficacy

tsamoyloff — 2023-11-27 22:28:39 UTC

Teacher efficacy and student achievement are reciprocal. In other words, when teachers have a higher sense of efficacy, their students learn more, and when their students learn more, teacher efficacy grows (Woolfolk et al., 2020).

Teachers in thinking classrooms indicate that they feel more effective as teachers as their students began exhibiting the traits of collaborative thinking that they had been striving for but were unable to achieve through nuanced changes to their initial teaching practice (Liljedahl. 2016). Teachers noticed that because of the constant and rapid feedback students were receiving from their peers, less teacher instruction was required allowing them to be actively learning along with their students. Lesson preparation time is spent on designing high-level thinking problems rather than creating visually stimulating documentation and copying hand outs (Winters & Lynn, 2020).

Winters, S. & Lynn, L. (2020) The thinking classroom: An exciting transformation for math instruction. Childhood Education, 96(4), 50-53.

Woolfolk, A., Winne, W., Perry, N. (2020). Educational psychology (7th Canadian ed.). Pearson Canada Inc.

Podcast Transcript

tsamoyloff — 2023-11-28 14:24:45 UTC

Don't have time to listen to a podcast? The transcript is available here!

Social-Emotional Learning

tsamoyloff — 2023-11-28 17:40:19 UTC

Did you know that Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs was originally the “Ladder of Motivation”? Maslow concluded that if the social and emotional needs of our students are not being met, they are unable to adequately learn. Sound familiar? In fact, Maslow’s theory is the model for social-emotional learning in classrooms (Mindprint Learning, 2022).

The case study presented in my podcast reflects my personal observation of the Marvellous Mr. Markus, a student with autism in a Thinking Classroom and solidifies my position that a thinking classroom is one that enables social-emotional learning to happen seamlessly via the natural attainment of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

Equity and Inclusion

tsamoyloff — 2023-11-28 17:42:07 UTC

Ensuring equity is a central goal of Ontario's education system. By ensuring equity, educators increase student achievement and promote the well-being of students and staff. By ensuring equity in our school, we help all students achieve excellence, regardless of their lived experiences (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2009).

Interestingly, although there is limited research conducted on the subject and it was not part of Dr. Liljedahl’s focus, teachers are starting to blog (Grostic, 2022; Wheeler, 2023) about the idea that the Thinking Classrooms framework affords a more equitable classroom (Liljedahl, 2021). Click on the image above to read more about the pathways to equity and inclusion in the Thinking Classroom Framework.

Liljedahl, P., Clarke, A., & Morrison, N. (2021). Building thinking classrooms: A conversation with Dr. Peter Liljedahl. Journal of Mathematics Education at Teachers College, 12(1), 1–7.

Dr. Lijedahl's Research

tsamoyloff — 2023-11-29 14:12:12 UTC

Dr. Liljdahl's initial observations suggested, that in a typical Canadian classroom, on average 20% of students spent less than 20% of their class time thinking while the remaining 80% spent almost no time thinking at all (Liljedahl, 2016). He emphasizes that this non-thinking behavior explains a lot of why we have troubles teaching and learning mathematics and he blamed traditional classroom norms. Dr. Liljdahl set out to not only increase the number of students thinking in the math classroom but increase the number of minutes during which students were thinking (Liljedahl, 2020).

Dr. Liljedahl's research emphasizes that non-thinking behaviour explains a lot of why we have trouble teaching and learning mathematics and he blames traditional classroom norms (Liljedahl, 2020). Thus, Dr. Lijedahl, after 14 years of research, developed the Building Thinking Classrooms framework to get our students thinking in our math classrooms.

Liljedahl, P. (2020). Building thinking classrooms in mathematics, grades K-12. Corwin Mathematics series. Sage Publications.

Making Thinking Visible

tsamoyloff — 2023-11-29 14:43:23 UTC

The research of Ritchhart and Perkins (2008) saw positive changes in school culture and student learning in schools implementing the Visible Thinking approach. Classroom activities become learning oriented rather than work oriented. Students who previously believed they lacked a voice or that their ideas weren't valued, including students with learning disabilities, participate more actively and confidently. In fact, students' awareness of thinking strategies dramatically increases at all grade levels. Additionally, teachers emphasize that making thinking visible enables them to assess students’ understanding more accurately.

The video above demonstrates how effective and effortlessly the thinking classroom makes learning visible.

Rich Tasks

tsamoyloff — 2023-11-29 15:34:07 UTC

The hardest part of making a change is taking the first step. In the thinking classroom, that is beginning with the problem. In the video, Dan Finkle explains the implications of using rich tasks. Dr. Lijedahl explains that rich tasks evolve in complexity and that there are two types of rich tasks in the thinking classroom. As we start to implement the framework with our students, educators use non-curriculum specific problems to drive student motivation and promote their curiosities. But not all is lost. Research has shown that even rich tasks without a direct link to the curriculum will end up touching on many of the expectations via collaboration and consolidation. Once students are comfortable with the new norms of the thinking classroom, it is time to move into curricular connected tasks. You can listen to the podcast here.

Below is a sample of the many resources available offering rich task ideas.

Resources

Dr. Liljedahl's Good Problems

Math for Love

Open Middle

Problems Worth Solving

University of Cambridge

Same But Different