MASTERY LEARNING IN MEDICAL TRAINING

Brilliant doctors will save lives but as long as they are professional, caring, methodical and well read on latest research. Doctors need not be brilliant to do that.

For several years, there has been a program in mastery learning at the University of Papua New Guinea Medical College. It promotes in student doctors the skills of diagnosis and treatment over a wide range of illnesses.

 

I have not examined the program but would guess that a well organized program would set down several hundred illnesses for the students to examine on paper or computer.

 

They would master the diagnosis, causes and treatment of the illnesses. They would practise before going out to treat patiuents for real.

 

It raises the question of whether or not the universities have to lower the level of difficulty of their studies and raise the level of mastery. It may be that many of the best doctors are not brilliant but good practical average.

 

Universities should not seek to weed out students. There are fallacies about so-called intelligence. In my young years, I gained from high school a certain paranoia about not being intelligent enough. There seems to be a degree of smart-arse snobbery among some teachers and university lecturers..

 

But in the years that followed to the present, I recognise in myself a high degree of analytical ability and ability to put ideas together. I recall a nerd lecturer at University saying that intelligence is the capacity to think in high level concepts.

I have always thought that highly intelligent people can read higher level concepts if they have to. But the real mark of intelligence is the capacity to explain in simple terms. Some people hide behind big words.

 

The same lecturer told me I probably did not have the intellect to succeed in university studies. Yet in my two degrees, I gained many Distinctions and Credits assignments and exams. Would I have made an effective doctor? Probably..

 

Universities have to practise mastery learning. They need to identify and train the best. Many of these may not be brilliant.  

 

The secret is to raise the level of learning in primary, secondary and tertiary education. Education should not be made to become a barrier. Gaps should not exist in learning that allow only the smarter students to bridge.

MASTERY LEARNING WILL OVERTAKE OUTCOME BASED EDUCATION

The world has been struggling with Outcome Based Education. The problem has been that it is all too theoretical and difficult.

 

Outcome Based Education started with another name. It was Mastery Learning as designed and refined by Dr Benjamin Bloom from 1955.

Mastery learning was spurned by the so-called academics as it was seen as not theoretical and complex enough. It did not sort out the dummos from the high level students. They said that Mastery Learning was dumbing down the process of education.

It had to be made more complex if the USA was to overtake the USSR in the cold war space race. Already the USA had been horrified in 1956 by the launching of the satellite Sputnik by the USSR.

But Mastery Learning had the focus of promoting skill in the basics for all students. Not good enough.

The academics thought that education should focus on the intelligent students. The dummos could work for the local meat works, supermarkets and city councils.

The new approach was called Outcome Based Education and the world sank into confusion. No basics meant that students were being required to run before they could crawl.

Mastery Learning proceeded from the simple to complex, concrete to abstract and known to unknown. Outcome Based Education went from complex to complex, unknown to unknown and abstract to more abstract.

This is the problem that faces Papua New Guinea The elitist consultants introduced the Outcome Based mode with limited focus on the basics. The focus was on research which was quite useless in schools with no libraries and few computers.

But a new breath of fresh air has come to Papua New Guinea with a basics focused program of Mastery Learning. Problems of students are taken into account as they practise the basics daily. Please click:

MASTERY LEARNING BROUGHT ME TO PAPUA NEW GUINEA

Interested students will achieve up to 100% accuracy in writing, science and mathematics. But that is not good enough. There has to be a failure rate of at least 20% of students.

The overriding criterion has become entry to university. If the low average students can achieve high grades by Mastery Learning, does this mean they will clog up the universities by being stupid and unable to perform the tasks?

The early assessment was called Norm Referenced Learning. Education had to separate students into boxes of brilliant, average and dummo.

Mastery Learning brought Criterion Referenced Learning by which students were graded by achievement.

It seems that PNG education allows internal assessment by Criterion Referenced Learning and external assessment by Norm Referenced Learning.

That keeps the dummos out of university. The system is unfair if students do not have the opportunity to practise the Norm Referenced skills in school. They are being set up for failure.
 

HOUSE STEALERS ON RUN FROM POLICE

Beware of Housestealers Alan and Cathy Baragu of Raluana Village in East New Britain.

The house at 83 Garia Street is strangely quiet. The house stealers have gone on the run from police. There is no more raucous screaming from the woman, no vulgar swearing at the caretaker. There are no more threats of violence from the man Alan Baragu, house stealer and criminal..

The caretaker was harrassed and intimidated by accusations of being an AIDS carrier, infector of women and violent. He had abused his wife Grace who he was helping with TB treatment and looking after with love and caring.

 

Last time they were there after an illegal occupation of 5 months, they stole whatever they could. The container in the back yard was broken into and the old man's tools and engineering equipment taken.

 

They tried to put blame on the caretaker. They broke into the old man's room and stole his housing file.  Now they have his lease document they would have copied into a forgery to sell the house.

 

On the last night the house stealer came, the doors and gates had been chained and locked. But he forced his way in and tried to smash the front door with a sledge hammer. But he failed badly. Please click:

HOUSE STEALER SMASHES DOOR WITH SLEDGE HAMMER

On that night, he came with two other men. We have been advised that they came to take possession of the house once he had forced his way in and changed the locks. They were from Wabag. The house stealer sells mainly to highlanders who will evict tenants with violence.

The caretaker would have been forced out and the house taken, all before the old man was due to come back from overseas within a few days. He would have been locked out too.

The house stealer may have taken the new tenants's money and is now on the run from police and new tenants. There may have been no refund of upwards of K40,000. Never do business with a con-man.

But now the old man is back and complained to  the  6 mile police who are looking for Alan and Cathy Baragu and their son Julian. The Baragus are on the run. They thought it was going to be so easy.

They also have a case to answer on the murder of Grace. Only her father knows why he came and took her away to her death. He was tricked by the house stealers.


Daily Hit Tally   144, 657




 

HOUSE STEALER SMASHES DOOR WITH SLEDGE HAMMER

Why have the police ignored the murder of Grace Gulu?

The housing shortage in Port Moresby is such that stealing houses is becoming a common practice. I have been caretaking a house that a couple Alan and Cathy Baragu have decided to steal. Their method has been quite brutal and still quite unsuccessful. Please click:

HOUSE STEALERS USE VIOLENCE AND INTIMIDATION

HOUSE STEALER IMPERSONATES CID POLICE

KEYNOTE REPORT ON UNSPEAKABLE EVIL

 

We are told that the man has been experienced in stealing houses. The technique is to force their way in to a house, change the locks and evict the tenants. Two weeks ago, I was told to move out and not come back as the locks were to be changed and the house to come to them.

 

But they had another think coming. The family was moved out probably to make way for new tenants. But the housestealer man did not guess that I would change all the locks and deny him entry from that time on.

 

Last week, he came twice ready to bash the door down. On the second time he arrived at midnight and demanded entry but was refused. So he proceeded to smash the front door with a sledge hammer, heard by all the neighbours.

 

I was on the other side of the door with an iron bar. He was told that if he smashed the door and entered the house, he would have a broken collar bone. He decided to stop. But the door has many deep dents from the impact of a sledge hammer.

 

He came back next day and hack sawed the front gate lock. But I had another heavy lock and chain that he has not been able to break. So here we are. He will not find the task easy. 

 

He has another problem too. That is that these housestealers had murdered my PNG wife to remove her and then remove me.

 

They gave false advice to the father that she was being bashed and abused. He came and took her away in her 5th month of TB treatment. She died 5 weeks later. She may have died alone. If they had left her to complete her treatment, she would be still alive. Please click:

HOUSE STEALER RESPONDS TO MURDER

WHERE IS JUSTICE IN MURDER OF GRACE GULU?

TO THE PEOPLE OF KEMABOLO

But the police have ignored a blatant murder that was carried out as part of the stealing of a house. The matter will not go away. There is no statute of limitations on murder. I have sought an interview with Grace's father a Chief Inspector of Police.

He will be asked to confirm the boast of the house stealer man that he had regularly advised the police and father of my violence towards Grace. There is a neighbourhood of people and family who will call him a liar.

It may explain why the house stealer wife has moved out and disappeared. She knows she was the key to the murder of Grace. She knows that the father knows. It is just a matter of time. What father will allow his daughter to die and not seek the truth? Please click:

VALE DARLING GRACE


Daily hit tally:   144, 125



 

MASTERY LEARNING BROUGHT ME TO PAPUA NEW GUINEA

The Australian Army sent me to Papua New Guinea in 1975 to work as a training officer at the Joint Services College of Papua New Guinea.

Mastery Learning was the key to my posting and it has stayed in this country to the present time. Please click:

archive on mastery learning for schools - family positive living - aids ...

familypositiveliving.blogspot.com/.../archive-on-mastery-learning-for-sc...‎

Dec 21, 2012 - ARCHIVE ON MASTERY LEARNING FOR SCHOOLS.

Resource ideas for the Department of Education in Papua New Guinea.

My involvement with Mastery Learning goes back to my school days. I was having problems with grade 12 physics in 1963.

Our text book written by one Mr Barrell has about 12 chapters with about 10 exercises at the end of every chapter. There were 120 problems in the book. The last 3 exercises were to be solved by the class genius. That was not me.

These were the days of Norm Referenced Assessment when the testing process in schools was to identify the class genius, average students and the dummos. I was average. My parents sent me to Hubbard Academy in Brisbane to be coached in Physics.

It was an awakening. Our text book had about 12 chapters. At the end of every chapter were about .....wait for it ..... 250 problems. That was about 3000 problems for the year of coaching. Each was arranged in simple to complex order and known to unknown. Physics became easy.

THIS WAS MASTERY LEARNING AS I WAS LATER TO LEARN.

I applied the strategy to classes when I became a high school teacher. Then I joined the Australian Army as an Education Officer of the Royal Australian Army Education Corps (RAAEC).

At the same time I studied for my Bachelor of Education at the University of Queensland and met for the first time, the writings of Dr Benjamin Bloom with his Taxonomy of Educational Objectives and a new old friend Mastery Learning.

I was critical of Army Education and the way the assessment required the soldiers to understand complex theoretical questions in the Australian Army Certificate of Education (AACE 1).

As an idealistic young lieutenant, I wrote to the RAAEC journal on how studies could be made less complex for soldiers. It must have worked as I became subject master for at least 4 army education subjects over the next 10 years.

But I had been noticed. The question was how to best employ Copeland or how to get rid of him. I was posted to the Joint Services College of Papua New Guinea in 1975. Recommendation was made by Major Wolf Fladun who came with me. He had been a boy soldier in the Germany army.

Over the next two years, an amazing course developed in Mastery Learning. It was a course called a Program in Problem Solving (PIPS). Please click:

MASTERY LEARNING FOR PNGDF TRAINING

Senior officers in the PNGDF today say that PIPS is the only training they can remember from 40 years ago. It was a process of gentle brain washing in the basics of decision making. Did you check? How did you check?

I wrote extensively in the Australian Defence Force Journal on Mastery Learning. Over a decade, the basics became well known in the Defence Force. Please click:

SETTING UP MASTERY LEARNING

After Papua New Guinea, I was posted to the RAAF School of Languages to teach Tok Pisin. Over a 14 year period, language training was based on Mastery Learning. Please click:

MASTERY LEARNING OF TOK PISIN PATTERNS

MASTERING TOK PISIN AT PT COOK

After retirement, I came back to PNG to work in Education. Slowly Mastery Learning found a place particularly in the suggestion at higher levels that Mastery Learning was the replacement for Outcome Based Education.

I have demonstrated to the Education Department the use of Mastery Learning at Boreboa and Ward Strip schools, Kila Kila High school and Port Moresby Institute of Matriculation Studies.

Grade 8 classes were taken for Mastery Writing over one term for one lesson a week. Results in the Written Expression exam were quite spectacular.

Each lesson, exercises were completed one at a time with support of the teacher. Twenty would be completed every lesson in lock-step. There are more in the archives above. Please click:

WRITING SKILLS FOR HIGHER GRADES

WRITE SWEET ENGLISH

MASTERY WRITING FROM WORLD HISTORY (3)

Mastery Learning is on its way back from the 1950s when Dr Benjamin Bloom first promoted the Strategy.

The exercises below would be for the lower grades upwards. It may be that up to grade 12, there would be 1200 exercises on heat. Please click;

BRAIN STORMING MASTERY LEARNING IN SCIENCE

MASTERY LEARNING ON BODY HEAT

GAYS AND LESBIANS CRY OVER RUSSIAN LAW

The world is witnessing the paedophile arm of the gay and lesbian community in seeking to change the world view over the Russian law against non-traditional propaganda to minors. Please click:

 

PUTIN SPEAKS OF PAEDOPHILES AND CHILDREN

 

The impression is being given that this is a denial of gay and lesbian rights. But it is really a denial of paedophile crime. Gays are coming out in support of the paedophiles in their ranks.

 

It is not just a matter of telling children about homosexuality. It is about seduction in chat-rooms, gay and lesbian curriculum in schools, programs in the Boy Scouts and Girl Guides and teaching in churches.

The gay, lesbian and paedophile activists work to turn children against their parents. They tell them that parents are homophobic if they do not support the gay and lesbian lifestyle. Teachers are not educating children but recruiting them to the homosexual lifestyle.

 

The gay and lesbian activist community wants a free hand to subvert children. But that is being stopped in Russia. Without such a law, there would be banners about gay rights in the Winter Olympics.

 

Gays and lesbians have only themselves to blame. They want control of the children. That is why they are ANTI-FAMILY and ANTI-FAITH.

A programme for schools in Massachusetts was supported by President Obama. In the study guide, there was even advice for young boys on the best gay bars in Boston. Special days were set aside in the school year for gay and lesbian appreciation. Please click:

GAY AND LESBIAN APPRECIATION DAY 

PAEDOPHILE NOT GAY AND LESBIAN

There was a report in the media of the words of Mr Vladimir Putin on the laws on homosexual information given to minors. The report stated that Mr Putin was clumsy in saying that gays and lesbians molest children.

 

Good try. That is not the point. The point is that children are molested by paedophiles. Many paedophiles are gay and lesbian. Please click:

WORLD ISSUE IS PAEDOPHILE CRIME NOT GAY RIGHTS

So Mr Putin is spot on in his words. Gays and lesbians lose credibility because they never speak out on paedophiles. That is because many paedophiles are hiding behind being gay and lesbian.

 

I TRUSTED GRACE

In my 20 years in PNG, I have found that there have been only two women I have trusted. One was Grace who died in November 2014.

 

My criterion for trust was to consider how the woman would act if I were sick and had to give her my ATM card to take out money for the family.

 

So many women could not be trusted and would withdraw all the money to be distributed to family. Grace used to complain about not getting enough money. But often I would give her my card to take money out of my account.

 

She never took the money. I used to give her the fortnight money and she would hide the wallet and look after it. I miss Grace very much.

 

NOT A HEART ATTACK AFTER ALL

With the loss of Grace in the last three months, I have started to suffer deep chest pains that seemed to be a series of heart attacks. As soon as I was stressed, a deep pain would well up from my upper abdomen. Please click:

 

DEEP CHEST PAINS

 

The pain did not seem to come from the heart. I worked out that it may have been from the gastric juices burning my oesophagus. It took a visit to the private hospital to show that I was suffering from gastric reflux or heart burn.

 

When ever I became stressed, the burning would start. My only worry today is that there is still gentle ache in my upper arms which is a symptom of heart attack.

 

I now discover that there are simple rules I have to follow. I do not take acidic food or drink which includes Coca Cola and coffee.

 

I took the antacid tablets Mylanta for the first two weeks as prescribed on the packet. A need longer than that indicates deeper trouble.

 

My problem was that after Grace left, I was no longer eating regularly. So I ate and drank whenever I wanted to. I usually had take away food and not the fruit and vegetables I used to bring home daily.

 

So I have gone back to eating regularly so as not to confuse my gastric juices.  My body was confusing stress with food on the way down my oesophagus.

 

There would be a squirt of gastric juices into my stomach but no food. The burning would start and move up to my throat.

 

TWO TYPES OF TUBERCULOSIS

I am not an expert in tuberculosis but will tell what I know. I suffered from tuberculosis in 2010 and spent three weeks in the Intensive Care Unit of the Port Moresby Hospital misdiagnosed as having a heart attack. Please click:

CRUELTY OF TUBERCULOSIS

I felt quite ashamed as I thought this would indicate poor hygiene on my part. But the doctor advised that we can contract TB from any social source - on a bus, in a bank queue or in a restaurant.

I was told that large numbers of people have TB infection but it only bursts forth when the immune system is low.

I was told there are two kinds of tuberculosis. There is intro-pulmonary infection (inside the lungs) and extra-pulmonary infection (outside the lungs).

I had extra -pulmonary infection which meant I did not cough mucus and could not pass the infection to other people. But I found difficulty in breathing. It may have been the fluid pressing on the lungs from the outside cavity.

Others have intro-pulmonary infection with mucus inside the lungs to be coughed up at any time. The infection can now be transmitted in coughing to other people.

Grace had intro-pulmonary infection which meant that she had to cough up mucus at any time. A person becomes non-infectious after 2 weeks of TB medicine according to the doctor.