- Year 2023
- NSF Noyce Award # 1748400
- First Name Elaine
- Last Name Bond
- Institution Worcester State
- Role/Position Scholar
- Workshop Category Track 1: Scholarships and Stipends
- Workshop Disciplines Audience Mathematics
- Target Audience Noyce Master Teachers, Noyce Teaching Fellows, Undergraduate and/or Graduate Noyce Scholars
- Topics STEM Content Area and/or Convergent Description Skills Development
- Session Length 45 minutes minutes
Goals
Goals are to (1) Use research-based ideas to encourage their students to think more critically, (2) understand the basis of a thinking classroom, and (3) Understand the importance of vertical learning.
Evidence
Research done by Peter Liljedahl.
Proposal
Albert Einstein once said, “Education is not the learning of the facts, but the training of the mind to think.” In the book “Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics” by Peter Liljedahl, he describes research-based techniques that are designed to promote deep thinking to engage students in rich mathematical tasks. As a result, these techniques stimulate independent thinking. This includes encouraging students to think critically and question everything. Teaching students to think rather than to mimic math problems ensures success while supporting students’ ability to reason, communicate their thinking, and develop confidence in mathematics. A Thinking Classroom invites multiple perspectives and different answers, creating a diverse environment. A thinking classroom starts with a low floor, giving all students, regardless of experience or background knowledge a place to start, building their confidence, and ensuring an equal opportunity for every student. This presentation will be a demonstration of how to create a thinking classroom vs the traditional classroom using the vertical learning technique. One example of this is the modified gallery walk where students do not represent their work but rather the other students think about the students’ thought process. The presentation will also include research conducted by Noyce Scholars using these techniques in their secondary mathematics high school and practices that other Scholars may want to consider implementing.
