I received an email from a colleague a few weeks ago, that was amazingly touching. She had been meeting with an advisee and asked the thoughtful question, “Can you think of a course or a moment that changed your academic experience in a significant way.” One would think that most high school sophomores would either take that question lightly, or would at least need to pause and reflect on the depth of this question. My colleague said that her advisee responded without hesitation, “Geometry last year. I hated it at first because I couldn’t do what I had always done and do well. But by the beginning of the second semester, I had started to figure out what it was all about. And this year in my other classes, like English and history, I’m THINKING better, I’m analyzing differently because of that Geometry class.” This student seemed to be able to connect improvement in her critical thinking skills in other disciplines to the work she had done in her problem-based learning class. Did she have empirical evidence that this was the cause? Of course not, but something in her intuition and learning process was telling her that the struggle she had undergone to move through a course that challenged her in so many different ways, allowed her to grow intellectually like no other course had. For this student to even recognize this was very mature, and for her to attribute her success and skill in other courses to the learning that had occurred in this course was remarkable.

Throughout the year when teaching with PBL, I struggle with the comments I receive from students. I often wonder when they ask me to go up to the board and give more direct notes, “Why don’t I just go up and make them happy” instead of asking another scaffolding question? Why do I continue to push them out of their comfort zone and let them sit with the unknown for just that extra amount of time grappling with their peers, instead of relieving the tension and anxiety by giving them want they desire? And then a moment comes when they realize something on their own, and clarity, true understanding takes over. It is a moment of true joy on both our parts, because I know not only did they come to that understanding through their own agency and empowerment, but the way they came to it has allowed them to be the relievers of their own anxiety. They have transformed their vision of what is possible in coming to make meaning in mathematics. It is in that moment that we are together changing their understanding of what a mathematics classroom is, just a little more.

And then the next week, they are back to asking me for more direct instruction, while at the same time there is just a glimmer of increased curiosity and I know that by the end of the year, there will be a changed student sitting in front of me who may have a different belief system about learning mathematics.