Work For Humans What Classrooms Reveal About Designing Better Work | Peter Liljedahl, Revisited
Feb 3, 2026
Peter Liljedahl, a math education professor who created the Thinking Classrooms approach, recounts redesigning classrooms to spark real thinking. He explores switching norms, using vertical whiteboards, random groups, and shared materials to boost engagement. Conversation covers how environment, evaluation, and power structures shape collaboration and creativity in learning and work.
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Design Classrooms By Asking If It Increases Thinking
- A Thinking Classroom is built by removing normative assumptions and asking if each practice increases student thinking.
- Peter tested furniture, grouping, surfaces, timing, hints, notes and only kept items that reproducibly raised thinking.
Removing All Furniture Sparked Unexpected Thinking
- Peter and eight teachers removed all furniture one day and unexpectedly increased student thinking.
- It took two years to explain the effect via systems theory: overwhelming the system forced a new stable point supportive of thinking.
Stand At Vertical Surfaces To Make Thinking Visible
- Standing at vertical, erasable surfaces dramatically increases visible engagement, which Peter used as a proxy for thinking.
- Vertical surfaces remove start-up risk, equalize visibility, enable knowledge mobility, and extend time-on-task.
