MASTERY LEARNING LAUNCHED ON PNG TV

The fortunes of Mastery Learning have risen exponentially in 2014. Over recent years, I have been quietly promoting and using the strategy of Mastery Learning.

With the problems this nation has been facing with Outcome Based Education, I have worked to show the educational world here that a worthy backstop is the strategy of Mastery Learning.

There has been mild success with my workshops at Kila Kila Secondary School and St Peters school. There have been classes conducted over one term for grade 8 students at Boreboa and Ward Strip schools with results that pleased all concerned.

But the strategy hit the jackpot when I started talking to Norman Sike of Port Moresby Institute of Matriculation Studies and Norman Sike Institute.

I have known Norman for over 15 years but had never before brought Mastery Learning to the point at which I presented the concept to Norman as a viable classroom strategy. But now several hundred happy grade 8 students from other schools gave a new picture.

Norman wanted to know more. He is an academic, teacher and successful businessman who was about to lift Mastery Learning to the skies. Unlike me, he is a diplomat and determined to know more and pass the concept to other schools.

He wanted me to work at his school and conduct lessons in Mastery Writing. He is doing the paper work to make that possible. I was in for the shock of my life. In other schools, I had been conducting one lesson a week for each of 6 grade 8 classes.

Now I was given the pre-diploma class and required to conduct 4 lessons a week. That is over 50 lessons for the course !!  Suddenly there was a need for new study material. But Norman had the answer for that. I was given a desk in an air-conditioned office and a desk top computer.

But the pre-diploma classes were unique. There were 6 students on the first course for the new college. All were fascinated by the Mastery patterns and have absorbed all the basics of writing within 8 weeks.

We show how complex sentences are flow charts that can set out (1) sequential steps (2) parallel steps (3) cause - effect (4) effect - cause (5) past - present (6) present -past and present - future. "With" is a key connector. "While" sets out parallel actions. "Having" introduces past actions. "To" introduces future actions.

The English teacher has joined the class as a student. All this work will be hers to teach in the future. The science teacher wants to join the class next term to improve his writing skill. I am talking to him about Mastery Learning in Science and Biology. Please click:
 

BRAIN STORMING MASTERY LEARNING IN SCIENCE

MASTERY LEARNING ON BODY HEAT

 

I had run out of complex patterns with over 800 mastery exercises for grade 6 to grade 12. But there were not enough exercises for the higher grades. So I sit at my desk with the morning paper and a highlighter pen and identify all the useful patterns from news reports and letters to the editor. Please click:
 

 MASTERY PATTERNS FROM NEWSPAPERS
 

In the last two days, I had 60 new patterns on work sheets for the students. These were solved in 45 minutes over two lessons one at a time with the teacher leading. The penny has dropped for students. It seems I may be the only teacher in the nation who can sit at his desk and read the newspaper.

But Norman did not leave it at that. He plans to set up Mastery Learning in Writing as a separate course with a certificate of its own. That will mean we can conduct courses for students in grades 9-12, diploma students, teachers and workers in business and Government.

I now find myself on Norman’s presentation on EM TV House and Home. This is amazing. Suddenly Mastery Learning is becoming a household word across the TV viewing nation.

After the last show, we were inundated with phone calls. Norman gives an introduction on all the skills that students need to acquire to succeed in reading and writing. Then I come on to talk about Mastery Writing.

I regard myself as an expert in Mastery Learning. But now that is not enough. Norman’s understanding is rising quickly. He explains Mastery Learning in new ways.

He sees Mastery Learning in mathematics and relates the parallels. In that subject, the sequences of problems are arranged from simple to complex to develop one concept at a time. Norman correctly sees the same in writing skills. He has borrowed the term practice makes perfect.

He says that Mastery Learning in science is an exercise in practical knowledge first - followed by the theoretical application. Many student insights come from common sense and own observation.

A chicken fluffs its feathers at night to trap air under the feathers that is then heated by the body. Feathers insulate the body from heat loss. We put on a blanket at night for the same reason. A grade 4 student could surely explain these basics but then need to be taught about insulation.

Norman explains that we explore all the practical aspects of a science concept and work out the theory later. This is inductive learning and requires the students to make explanations in their own words.

It is a pleasure to work with Norman Sike. He has a highly professional outlook on education and business and a silly sense of humour as well. We have never argued and never will, I am sure. But we are both going to lift Mastery Learning to the skies.