Is Mastery the Way to Go?
This week, I watched Sal Khan, let’s teach for mastery-- not test scores, which is a TedTalk that focuses on teaching mastery learning. The main idea of this TedTalk is that mastery learning is a lot more beneficial than the learning most schools use. One idea that I found interesting was that not a lot of teachers don't like teaching the mastery system because it's too much work sometimes. I thought it was interesting because being a high school student that struggles with taking tests when I don't understand something it annoys me that teachers don't want to teach in a way that students will understand.
I disagree with this idea because I feel like teachers and school boards should require this type of learning. But doesn't because it could be too much work for the teachers. One piece of evidence that supports my view comes from Sal Khan’s TedTalk. It states that “It was logistically difficult. The teacher had to give different worksheets to every student, give on-demand assessments.” This supports my view because he says that it's too difficult but if you are looking at it from the students when you fall behind in classes, it's super hard to get caught up. So if the teachers try to teach mastery the test scores could be different and everyone could have higher grades.
Works Cited:
Boone, Leah. Mastery learning. The Rooster, 26 Aug. 2020, reaganrooster.com/5252/news/mastery-learning-a-new-approach-to-grading/. Accessed 22 Dec. 2020.
Khan, Sal, performer. Sal Khan: Let's teach for mastery -- not test scores. TED Talks Live, 2015. TED, www.ted.com/talks/sal_khan_let_s_teach_for_mastery_not_test_scores. Accessed 22 Dec. 2020.
While there are certainly great benefits to teaching for mastery, there are so many things beyond a teacher's control. For example, what would happen to the quarterly grading system? How do you teach upwards of 90 students in possibly 5 different classes when they are all in different places? Our class has 24 students in it. Might all 24 be in a different place? Do you think that a smaller class size would have the same kind of benefit as teaching for mastery? Also, why do you think that the current reassessment plan isn't serving the same kind of need, since it is requiring students to reassess if they haven't mastered a topic yet? There are a lot of elements of this that you haven't fully developed, as the post is a little short.
ReplyDeleteOn a separate note, the font is a bit small, so maybe make it a little bigger next time?
i agree with what you said. but i am wondering how a teacher could keep up with amount of students greater than ten. Have you Found any way that could make it more efficient for the teachers like shrinking class sizes or some thing?
ReplyDeleteI feel like teachers could keep up with more than 10 students is because most schools do an advisory or a study hall so during those times teachers could meet with students to see if they need help and if all students don't need the help they can move on with the class. But, overall this would be a really hard thing to get used to but if everyone was willing to give it a try it would work.
Delete