I have been having a fabulous week here at the Phillips Exeter Academy Math, Science and Technology conference in New Hampshire. I have two sections of my course running on “Moving Forward with Problem-Based Learning” and it really seems like there’s a huge increase in the interest in the Exeter Teaching Materials here this year. Many teachers are finding ways to talk about the curriculum and pedagogy and learn as much as they can while they are here. I am impressed with the depth of the questions and the way people are sharing ideas and experiences.

In my course, some of the participants were sharing stories about how students and parents were resistant initially and continually to the idea of having PBL in their classrooms, specifically with the Exeter materials. I asked the class, “Why do you think parents are so emotionally invested in the way their children learn math?” For a few minutes many of them looked at me and really thought about it. It does seem that parents care deeply about their kids’ education or they wouldn’t even be saying something to the teacher or administrator. Or maybe it’s that they care about the grade – getting into college is a huge process this days, so every little thing helps and they may see this as an obstacle instead of something positive. Others even replied that the parents are frustrated that the learning isn’t clear and they don’t really understand what’s going on in the classroom.

I believe that is one of the closest reasons. It seems to me that parents want their children to learn the way that they learned in school. It is how they remember their experience and how they feel comfortable. It is safe – if they do poorly, they know why (or at least can claim they now why), if they do well, they can be proud and know why they did well. However, in this type of pedagogy, it is clear that parents do not have any frame of reference for how they can assess their child’s work.

I believe the basis of this is the fact that the traditional mathematics classroom in the U.S. is based on a very disconnected learning system. Students are in the classroom in order to listen to the teacher and make sure they understand. Any responsibility for the learning of their classmates is nonexistent and definitely not assumed. Any questions that the student asks when raising her hand is to clarify her own understanding generally. You are necessarily isolated from the rest of the class and by sitting passively and being a receiving learner, there is no mutual relationship with the teacher. In a PBL classroom, the whole way of learning is based on relationships – relationships between students, between the student and the material, the student and the teacher and the teacher and the material. If these relationships aren’t open and mutual, not much learning will occur. Responsibility for learning is everyone’s and the need for active engagement by all is paramount.

This type of classroom is so foreign to parents it scares them. The idea of placing so much of the success of learning on the relationships in the classroom is extremely foreign in a mathematics class. Are teachers capable of this? Are students able to make this switch? No wonder they are freaking out? Some students remember with fear the idea of speaking up in a mathematics class and being wrong and how embarrassed or humiliated it made them feel. One student that I interviewed relayed to me, in a sarcastic tone something like,”Sure we could ask questions, but they had to be her questions. The one she knew the answers to in order to move on, not the ones we really wanted to ask.” It is pretty clear that the culture clash of what society is afraid of and what must be done in mathematics classes needs to be addressed.

On Monday,Grant Wiggins spoke about what he thought needed to change in mathematics education in the U.S. He actually cited PBL as something that would push us in the right direction of having students practice and be more prepared to be better problem solvers in their life. Although I may not have agreed with all that Mr. Wiggins had to say that evening, I do believe that he was a great supporter of reform and the PBL curriculum that should prove to be one way that teachers can move students into being more empowered in their own learning in math.

I plan to spend the rest of the summer hopefully finishing up my dissertation and submitting in September. Any well wishes would be appreciated!