Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics, Grades K-12: 14 Teaching Practices for Enhancing Learning (Corwin Mathematics Series)

by Peter Liljedahl

These sorts of mismatches arise from the tension between the individual goals of students concerned with themselves, or their cadre of friends, and the classroom goals set by the teacher for everyone in the room. Couple this with the social dynamics often present in classrooms, and a teacher faces a situation where students not only wish to be with certain classmates, but also disdain to be with others. In essence, no matter how strategic a teacher is in their groupings, when there is a mismatch between their goals and students’ individual goals, it means some students will be unhappy and will disengage. This disengagement is antithetical to a thinking classroom. I would venture to say that most teachers are familiar with this challenge. No matter how strategic a teacher is in their groupings, when there is a mismatch between their goals and students’ individual goals, it means some students will be unhappy and will disengage.