Daniel Adibi ’26
In October, Dr. Tom Goebeler won the University of Chicago’s Outstanding Educator Award after being nominated by EA graduate and University of Chicago student Aryav Dhar ’24. The award recognizes high school teachers who have had a profound impact on a member of the university’s rising freshman class.
After committing to Chicago, rising freshman class members have the opportunity to nominate a teacher they had during their time in high school for the award. Regarding the award nomination process, Dhar recounts, “A few weeks after I committed to Chicago, they emailed us and asked us to nominate a teacher who we thought impacted us throughout our high school career. I nominated Dr. Goebeler and had to write a couple sentences on how he influenced me. I then found out in the fall that he won the award and was obviously quite excited.”
Goebeler teaches a variety of math courses at EA including Pre-Calculus and several college-level courses. After having Goebeler for his Honors Pre-Calculus BC class, Dhar was specifically drawn to Goebeler’s teaching due to its in-depth nature and analytical approach. Dhar recalls, “Dr. Goebeler’s teaching resonated with me as it was very scholarly and intellectual. Rather than simply asking for an answer, Dr. Goebeler pushed his students to understand the reasoning behind concepts and apply that reasoning to other related concepts … My experience was filled with highs and lows, but by the end, my understanding of the material was excellent and I had [a] newfound interest in math.”
Photo courtesy of Kamau Kegler ’27
Echoing this idea, Lilian Wang ’26, who has taken Honors Pre-Calculus BC and several higher-level math courses with Goebeler, says, “Dr. Goebeler, even though he might be hard sometimes, really cares for his students and wants to help them succeed. His classes are fun and engaging, always forcing you to wrestle with the material and think in different ways analytically.”
Such critical thinking is what Goebeler consciously tries to promote in his classroom. He explains, “Each discipline offers models of thought. Each discipline helps hone thinking and broadens our views and enriches us, math included. I ask myself what can I do to help a student think more deeply, consider questions more carefully, hone their logic, hone their analysis, and I try to create experiences that give that opportunity for students to get better.”
After taking several higher-level courses with Goebeler, including Abstract Algebra and Real and Complex Analysis, David Ding ’25, affirms this aspect of his teaching philosophy, saying, “Dr. Goebeler’s teaching style is pretty unique … I think the most special part of his teaching style is the way he encourages his students to really think deeply and critically. Often, we’ll sit in silence for a [while] as we process material, and when he thinks a student is on the verge of a realization, he coaxes it out and lets the student articulate their thoughts. I like it because math should be about critical thought, not plug-and-chug, which was the way I was taught throughout school previously.”
Lawson Cale ’26, currently taking Pre-Calculus BC with Goebeler, also has a similar view, saying, “Dr. Goebeler uses a teaching method distinct from any other math class that I’ve taken at EA. He walks you through the problem all the way up [to] the solution and then leaves it to you to actually draw the necessary connections. In the end, you leave with a deeper understanding of the topic and a great deal of satisfaction, assuming you could figure it out.”
In addition to the University of Chicago Outstanding Educator Award, Goebeler has been the recipient of nine similar high school educator awards from colleges including MIT, Stanford, Yale, Amherst, and Williams, all of which were awards from an EA graduate nomination. Regarding how he views his reception of these awards, Goebeler says, “There are lots of good teachers. Different teachers reach different students. But there are many great teachers who never get formally recognized, so I don’t want to put too much stock on what an award means or doesn’t mean. All I want to say is that when a student looks back on their experience and says that was a good experience, … that it meant something to [them]—that’s actually the best reward.”