Building thinking classrooms in mathematics: A conversation with Peter Liljedahl

Peter Liljedahl, a professor of education at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, studied math classrooms and students for 15 years. His book, Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics, Grades K-12: 14 Teaching Practices for Enhancing Learning, is the result of that research. He found that by disrupting the norms of the classroom – having students work in small, randomized groups at vertical whiteboards or other erasable surface – students are more engaged and more likely to think, not simply mimic back what the teacher is saying.