OBE AND MASTERY LEARNING

Many teachers and students do not understand OBE. It does not mean that students work at all times without guidance.

There are two parts to OBE. One is teacher-centred learning while the other is student-centred. Both can occcur in the same lesson. Teachers demonstrate and guide. Students master.

Not all subjects can be based on research. We have can research based learning in English, Social Science, Physics, Chemistry and History, as long as resource material is available. These subjects can mainly involve mastery of the basics.

Research usually does not happen in Mathematics, Physics or Chemistry. This is where teacher designed  Mastery Learning is the key. Students master an extended series of exercises. Perhaps in any one area of study, there will be 5 exercises for teacher demonstration, 5 for student mastery and 5 for revision.

The exercises should be made available by the Curriculum Unit. Mastery exercises should be trialled and validated for parallel skills and progression of skills. These should not be left to every grass roots teacher who is taking the subject. That would be a key weakness in the OBE strategy.

Founder of AIDS Holistics was the first educator to apply OBE and Mastery Learning in PNG. It began in the Papua New Guinea Defence Force in 1976 and was part of the training of several senior officers who graduated and been promoted since that time.

In 1976, as an Australian Army officer at the Joint Services College at Igam Barracks, he designed and implemented a Program in Problem Solving (PIPS). This was a key part of training for several years in PNGDF officer training. The program is not used now as the training of instructors no longer exists.

6 - Welcome to Australian Defence Force Journal

Military Officer as a Problem Solver, Decision Maker, Planner and Policy Maker,
The - TOPIC: Leadership - By Furry, R.C. Captain ... By Copeland, B.D. Major ...
Systems Approach to Mastery Learning, A - TOPIC: Education and Training ...

www.adfjournal.adc.edu.au/site/journal_index.asp?page=6 - Cached - Similar

Defence force journal 14 1979 Jan_Feb
34 A Programme in Problem Solving. Captain B. D. Copeland. 43
Some Thoughts on ADFA (Australian .... of the war, I was responsible for
over 500 major ...... be that the skills of this program could be incorporated
into any service course in PNG and Australia. ..... to the Systems Approach
to Training, selective ...
www.adfjournal.adc.edu.au/UserFiles/issues/14%201979%20Jan_Feb.pdf
- Cached - Similar

FAMILY POSITIVE LIVING - AIDS HOLISTICS: August 2011

26 Aug 2011 ... in Problem Solving. Captain B. D. Copeland. ... use of Bruce

Copeland's Mastery Learning ... I also share Major Copeland's ...
familypositiveliving.blogspot.com/2011_08_01_archive.html - Cached - Similar

He had the task of teaching decision making to officer cadets. So to make the mastery relevant, he identified 126 scenarios that could face a young army officer in work to come that involved double-checking, drawing conclusions, fault finding and planning.

He introduced Time Management exercises for the first time in the PNGDF. Over the year of study, officer cadets had grown older and more experienced heads on their shoulders.

Mastery Learning is basic to Mathematics, Chemistry, Physics and Biology where practical exercises are required.

Teachers can never escape from the need for Mastery Learning. It is basic to OBE and any other form of learning. Difficult in preparation is the task of devising for an area of study, a practical and sequential series of exercises, the mastery of one leading to success in the next and so on.

There are teachers in Papua New Guinea who are too lazy to do that or prefer to see students fail in the work set. Within reason, Mastery Learning does not allow students to fail.