Anglophone group

Sometimes student thinking is loud: ideas collide, opinions clash, reasoning unfolds out loud.

Other times, it’s almost invisible, happening slowly, unevenly, or only for a few learners at once.

And sometimes what looks like engagement is really careful following.

These distinctions are easy to miss in the flow of teaching.

What, in your experience, seems to open space for students to think — and what, looking back, might quietly close that space without meaning to?

You could:

Lately, I’ve been sitting with a question that keeps resurfacing in very different classrooms and conversations.

It’s not a problem to solve, but more a noticing that gently changes how we see our teaching once it’s there. I’m curious what it stirs for you, in your own context.

Most lessons start with good intentions.

You ask a question.

You wait.

And when the silence stretches just a little too long, you step in — not because students can’t think, but because the lesson needs to move forward.

Good morning,

I hope your first week went well.

Yesterday, I read an interesting post about bribing students. It was saying that it is especially efficient with Middle School students because it activate quick compliance without requiring understanding, trust, or intrinsic interest when attention is low. It ended by asking who uses it in their classroom.

It made me think. In my classroom, I use reward. For example, when students perform well in a task, I give them a “free homework pass” that they can use anytime. For example, if they did not have time to do a homework, if they did not like a homework, or if they just wanted a break.

I realise this is an extrinsic motivation, which can shift attention away from meaning, curiosity, and effort and risk teaching students that learning is something done for a reward target than because it matters.

What is your…