Food for thought:
(Notes from Benjamin Bloom lecture, ACSA, April, 1987 http://www.humboldt.edu/~tha1/mastery.html)
Rank order is already fixed by third grade for the next 8 years for 90% of kids. Similarly, self-concept drops grade-by-grade for the bottom 20% while it rises year-by-year for the top 20%. This is true of most countries, not just the US.
There is a difference between "80% of students will master the
material" and "each student will master at least 80% of the material" before proceeding.
Mastery learning is the notion that kids will be given multiple opportunities to master one unit of material before moving on to the next. In mastery learning, there are virtually no D's or F's. The goal is success for every student.
Here's a framework:
1. Major objectives representing the purposes of the course or unit define mastery of the subject.
2. The substance is divided into relatively small learning units, each with their own objectives and assessment.
3. Each unit is preceded by brief pre-tests (for diagnostic purposes, not for grades).
4. The results of pre-tests are used to target your instructional methods and class activities. Students are empowered and hopefully motivated because they get specific feedback about their strengths and weaknesses.
5. Students are given multiple chances to demonstrate mastery and pass the final tests. Bloom said even two chances are acceptable, but ideally the student re-tests until mastery is demonstrated. You can take the better of the two tests or average them.
[Personal anecdotes from Nancy: I actually give as many retests as necessary for the student to score a C or better. The student's final grade for that test remains a C even if he or she got an A on the retest because that's what my students agreed was fair. It's fair, for instance, to the kid who studied the first time and got a B (and didn't take a retest). I give tons of attention and praise for drastic improvement, however, and the kids buy into it and are proud of themselves.
I have also given kids a test and let them decide, having finished it--but before I grade it--whether they want it to be the real test or a practice, in which case they'll take a similar test the next day. If they get a D or an F on the 'real test', they still have to retake it until they pass, but I like this method because it takes the pressure off the first test and gives students a greater sense of control over their results.]
It seems to work. For more info and meta-analyses see http://chiron.valdosta.edu/whuitt/files/mastlear.html
Comments (7)
mnovak said
at 9:22 pm on Mar 8, 2006
I am all in favor of this method of mastery learning. How do you make the specifics work though (this is where I throw up excuses for myself). When do students do the retests... do they reschedule out of class? Do you stop instruction for them? Is there an mandatory review they need to do before the restest?
nirvin said
at 2:57 pm on Mar 9, 2006
I usually give them up to a week to retake a test. There's no mandatory review, but I make sure parents know they'll be retaking a test. After we've gone over the test as a class, I have a short conference with re-takers and ask them if they understand their mistakes and what kind of help they need from me. If they need tutoring from me, I'll do that during in-class homework time. If there's a small group I need to reteach, I'll schedule computer lab time and have the rest of the group work on Math Arena or math web sites for enrichment while I reteach the small group up at the white board. They can also elect to have classmates tutor them, and I'll provide extra practice sheets or web site links. It helps that my retests are the same format as the original, just with different numbers in them. They take the tests during class if there's time or else in their homerooms or during lunch.
nirvin said
at 3:05 pm on Mar 9, 2006
I have to admit that when a student is determined to fail (as if they're trying to prove a point or something), I sometimes let them. If I've tried to engage the student and she just wants nothing to do with me or my subject, I try to enlist the help of the parents or other teachers. If that doesn't seem to work and the student still refuses help (and it isn't just that the student needs a self-confidence boost), I move on. I don't always reach every student.
nirvin said
at 3:12 pm on Mar 9, 2006
Must add one more thing: In the event that I let a student fail, like I was talking about above, I absolutely try to maintain the 'whole child' connect with him or her and hope for better results the next time.
mnovak said
at 8:07 pm on Mar 9, 2006
I like a lot of this implementation. When I think of using with more conceptual mathematics questions (like in Connected math), doing another test of the same format is very problematic, since no question really looks like any other (including like the homework questions).
I keep trying to imagine the approach I would take with connected math that would work at my grade with this. As it is the grade is very heavily weighted to homework, inclass work, and take home assessments, with at most 20% of the grade being tests and quizzes. Part of this reform based curriculum argues that this greater focus on engaging in class and homework related work build more mastery than any test would show... but I do love the idea of layering a mastery test environment on top of that. I want to develop a plan for that next year in math.
mnovak said
at 8:09 pm on Mar 9, 2006
maybe homework hall could also support a "mastery retest" day or area of some sort to handle some the logistics if a teacher didn't want to use class time for the actual retesting part...?
Jen said
at 1:04 am on Mar 15, 2006
To this point, with the exception of Michael's second to last comment, much of the discussion on assessment is based on tests. I am not a strong believer (right now) in the value of tests in subjects such as social studies. I don't know that mastery of content is the goal in this subject, at least it's not in my opinion. Hence, approximately 95% of each student's grade is based on in class and homework. Would you still want to see some sort of mastery here? What might that look like? Your thoughts?
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