Journal of the Mathematics Council of the Alberta Teachers’ Association
Volume 49 Issue 1, December 2011
10 – 15
Breaking Silence: Initiating Conversations in Mathematics Classrooms
Gregory Belostotski
The character of the boring economics teacher played by Ben Stein in John Hughes’s 1986 film Ferris Bueller’s Day Off briefly crosses my mind as Mr Paavi (all names used here are pseudonyms) first asks the class “Any questions?” and moments later inquires if students have heard of a recent “pay it forward” advertising campaign by a local bank:
