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

by Peter Liljedahl

What we found was that answering a question with a question (and only a question) was only effective when it was immediately followed by the teacher walking away from the students, with no other statements or suggestions being made. In fact, this was so clear that we decided to try this strategy on its own. We would just walk away. This turned out to be infuriating to students and did cause some negative backlash. But after two weeks we also noticed it caused a sharp decrease in the number of proximity or stop-thinking questions being asked by students—in some cases reducing the number to fewer than 30 questions a day. As students began to realize that their questions weren’t going to be answered, they stopped asking them … except in the primary grades. If a six-year-old asks a question and it is not answered, they ask it again. If it is still not answered, they ask it again. And if it is still not answered they do something that a 16-year-old does not. They reach out and touch the teacher—tap them on the arm or pull on their clothing. And if the teacher walks away, they follow. I have multiple videos of kindergarten and Grade 1 teachers walking around the room with a row of little ducklings following them. As soon as the teacher stops walking, they are immediately surrounded by these little ducklings tapping and tugging at them. These hilarious episodes of primary teachers trying to not answer students’ questions by walking away prompted us to explore some nuances of this...

2 week z pack Walk away and expect two weeks of pushback ! PBIS Admin Mits