What Thinking Classrooms Look and Feel Like

As teachers, we make many choices in how we design our learning spaces. Ultimately, we want our students to think and engage in content deeply, actively, and autonomously. We want them to collaborate productively and question meaningfully. We want them to develop into capable citizens ready to learn and act flexibly and with reason. We don’t always see this in our rooms even when we try out the most exciting activities. Why is this so, and how can we build a space that occasions both individual and collective thinking in our classrooms? Dr. Peter Liljedahl has spent the past 15 years researching this in hundreds of classrooms, developing conditions we can use as teachers to occasion such spaces. In my work with him over the past number of years, I have experienced the fruit of his findings in not only my own teaching, but also in the teaching practices of many of my colleagues in whom I find both support and inspiration. The most transformative effect for me has been feeling the difference between when a classroom is thinking and when it isn’t. In this webinar, I will share examples and observations from a variety of classrooms, and we will think together about the implications and pragmatics that Dr. Liljedahl’s work can have on students. I welcome both those who have tried some of these strategies and those who haven’t. If you have not heard of this work, you may consult Dr. Liljedahl’s webinar “Building Thinking Classrooms”, his short article “Building a Thinking Classroom in Math” on Edutopia, or links included in my “Thinking Classrooms” Twitter moment prior to the session.