Brist på tankeverksamhet möjliggjorde ny bok: Att bygga tänkande klassrum i matematik

Nya boken Att bygga tänkande klassrum i matematik är den första av professorn och författaren Peter Liljedahl som ges ut på svenska. Liljedahl vill uppmuntra både yrkesverksamma och blivande lärare att tänka nytt kring undervisning och inlärning av matematik. Att våga frångå den imiterande I do–we do–you do-strukturen och i stället – genom konkreta förändringar – främja elevernas eget tänkande. Peter Liljedahl är professor i matematikdidaktik vid Simon Fraser University i Vancouver, Kanada.

Why did this book come about?
– My journey into building thinking classrooms began when I was visiting a grade 7 classroom and I came to the realization that there was not a lot of thinking going on. There was activity. The students were very busy. But they weren’t thinking. At least not in ways that we know students need to think in order to be successful in mathematics. This led to more observations in 40 other classrooms where I saw the same lack of thinking.

– From these 40 classroom observations I also began to realize that the very structure of classrooms and the classroom routines that we use was actually the culprit behind the lack of thinking I was seeing. This began a 15 year journey into how we can change classrooms and classroom instruction so that we can not only get students to think, but make them want to think.

How and where can the book be used?
– The book is written for practicing teachers and student teachers who want a step-by-step approach to changing – or building – their teaching practice into one that promotes thinking, learning, and understanding. It can be used by the classroom teacher to shape their own practice, or a teacher education program as a course textbook for student teachers.

What is the "benefit" of the book?
– The book will give teachers concrete practices they can enact in their classrooms and see immediate changes in student thinking. Each chapter clearly lays out a practice, how to implement it, and provides the tasks that the teacher can use right away.

Why is this an important topic right now?
– Now more than ever, we need to be graduating students that can take on the varied demands that students will face in the real world. They need to be able to collaborate and problem solve and persevere in the face of challenge. And they need to be able to think.

What is unique about the book?
– There are a lot of books about how to improve students’ engagement, activity, and learning in the classroom. But all of these books take as an assumption that classrooms, and what happens in classrooms, needs to follow many of the same routines that have been with us for the last 200 years. Students are still sitting and teachers are still standing. Students are writing in their notebooks and teachers write on the whiteboard. And teaching still follows an I do-we do-you do structure that promotes mimicking over thinking. This book doesn’t make these assumptions and offers teachers and future teachers ways to re-construct and re-vision what teaching and learning mathematics can look like.

What do student teachers and practicing teachers find difficult in the field and how can the book help them?
– Student teachers and practicing teachers face the challenge of trying to envision an alternative way to teach mathematics without a clear roadmap for how to do this. This book provides the roadmap.

Läs också intervjun med bokens granskare Maria Johansson, biträdande professor vid Luleå tekniska universitet.