MASTERY LEARNING AT WORK

At present I am conducting a night course for the family of a senior officer of a company. He has three teenage daughters in grades 9 and 10. They have friends who come to the course to be held for 4 weeks in the company conference room.

There are also students attending who are in upper primary school. So the tuition in Mastery Writing had to be spaced over 4 grades. Too easy. Every student starts at the start. But at the higher levels, allowance needs to be made for the younger students. They reach a ceiling with the basic patterns.

The first exercises were the basic drills to introduce the students to the format of writing by converting simple sentences to complex sentences.

He looked out the window. He saw a ship. It was on the horizon.

He looked out the window and saw a ship on the horizon.

Looking out the window, he saw a ship on the horizon.

He opened his eyes. He smiled. He went back to sleep.

He opened his eyes, smiled and went back to sleep.

Opening his eyes, he smiled and went back to sleep.

We went through each drill as a Mastery Learning teacher is supposed to do. Once the students are guided to the right answer, the complex sentence is written down and the teacher moves to the next and so on. Please click:

LOCK-STEP IS THE WAY

On the first night we completed 25 exercises. On the second night 53. On the third night 62. The students were moving faster as they mastered the basic connectors. The end point is their capacity to use the patterns in their own writing.

This is pure Mastery Learning.

Their approach to writing is being fundamentally changed. There are about 200 more patterns to be completed in the next fortnight of 10 sessions of 2 hours.

Exercises below are basically the same, changing only in the subject matter. Students master the first which gives the key to the second pattern and the third and so on. Please click:

WRITING SKILLS FOR MIDDLE SCHOOL

MASTERY WRITING FOR SCHOOLS

WRITE SWEET ENGLISH

WRITING SKILLS FOR HIGHER GRADES

The focus slowly changes with students working in Mastery Learning style through a series of stories prepared in Mastery format.

They complete each exercise one at a time with the teacher guiding them to make an accurate response. In the exercises below, the responses have been inserted. Please click:

TEACH STUDENTS TO WRITE COMPLEX SENTENCES

MASTERY WRITING FROM WORLD HISTORY 1

MASTERY WRITING FROM WORLD HISTORY 2

MASTERY WRITING FROM WORLD HISTORY 3

For further resource insight on Mastery Learning, please refer to our archive blog. Please click:

ARCHIVE ON MASTERY LEARNING

There is considerable interest in Papua New Guinea on the Mastery Learning strategy. We have friends in the National Department of Education, Provincial Education, church education and schools who accept that Mastery Learning will take the place of Outcome Based Education.

It focuses on the basics. Research is beyond most students. They have no background knowledge. Libraries are empty and computers are not available.

Most students have no background knowledge on which to make a reasoned statement. Who is the Prime Minister of Australia? Nilson Mandeela. Most students do not value knowledge. Please click:

EDUCATION IS NOT EDUCATION IN PNG

FRUSTRATION OF AN EXPATRIATE TEACHER
 

There is considerable confusion in PNG schools about writing skills. Teachers promote grammar and think this develops writing. No. Only writing develops writing. Please click:

CONFUSION IN TEACHING ENGLISH

We offer a word of caution that the design of sequences of exercises must not be left to the individual teacher as Mastery Learning will become a dog's breakfast across the nation within a matter of weeks. 

Mastery sequences must be designed by a selected team to be accurate, comprehensive and validated. All subjects can be converted to Mastery Learning format.

There needs to be strict logical order to the patterns and progression of skills from simple to complex. There should not be confusion caused by skills set down out of order.

Exercises in mathematics run to strict one step, two step and three step exercises and more. Any mastery exercise that is too large should be broken down to component exercises. Then it can be built up again as part of the Mastery progression. Please click:


MASTERY LEARNING IN MATHEMATICS


With the aid of a modem, all schools could convert their computers to internet for access to a specialized website such as this one. 

There is no place for elitist teachers on the team who want to make the work difficult. That is not the aim of Mastery Learning. 

It is not meant to allow slow students to struggle forever. Nor clever students to be bored forever. Exercises can become increasingly challenging at the higher levels.

Education is not simply preparation for university. It is to prepare all for living. We do not have to be Einstein to live. We do not have to be discriminated against by elitist teachers. We all have the right to master as much as we can in the time allowed. Please click:

KEEP ACADEMICS AWAY FROM CURRICULUM

All students must work through the same exercises across every primary and high school in the nation. This will require constant input to and from the design teams subject by subject. Below are sequences from science for the middle grades. Please click:

MASTERY LEARNING ON BODY HEAT

MASTERY LEARNING IN FRICTION

BRAIN STORMING MASTERY LEARNING

WORK PROGRAM FOR GRADE 10

We plan to make a submission for a resource book of mastery exercises for schools to be presented to the Department of Education for authorization to publish.