A New Generation of Students = A New Education System
This past week I have watched many Ted Talks centered around the idea of education reform. Our current education system is relatively the same as it was 100 years ago even though every other aspect of society has changed.
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While there have been times in our history when the government has tried to change the education system, none of them ever really succeeded. If you are old enough, you may remember the No Child Left Behind Act, which was established in 2001 ("No Child..."). This act had 4 main pillars: accountability, flexibility, research-based education, and parent options ("No Child..."). President George W. Bush put this act into place to provide all children with fair and equal opportunities for high-quality education ("No Child..."). However, this attempt at a new system failed in 2015 because it required all students to make a mandatory score on standardized tests ("No Child..."). Since then, we still haven't made another attempt to fix the system.
Mastery-Based Learning
The TedTalk, "Let’s Teach for Mastery - Not Test Scores" was all about the proposed idea of a mastery-based learning system. Our current education system is basically a timeline that all students and teachers have to follow. Every student or adult reading this understands the stress of knowing you only have two weeks to learn a new concept before you have to take a test on it.
Our schools give us a specific amount of time to learn something, even though they are aware that not everybody's brain functions and learns at the same pace. When we take a test on those concepts, some people may get a score in the 70s and others in the 90s, but both of those scores mean that the students don't have a solid understanding of the material. In schools today, teachers often don't take the time to help students understand what they did wrong. Because of our strict timeline, we immediately have to move on to the next concept.
Sal Kahn, who's the founder of the highly known Kahn Academy, spoke in his TedTalk and used an analogy for our current school system that stood out to me. He said that learning is like building a house (Kahn). We don't take the time to teach students what they don't understand on a test, so they don't have a solid foundation when learning the next concept. Kahn said that as students keep learning 80 or 90 percent of a concept they begin to understand less and less (Kahn). It's like the whole structure they were building collapsed because each floor was only 80 percent complete (Kahn). Our education system is flawed.
In Kahn's TedTalk, he introduced his audience to the mastery-based learning system, also known as competency-based learning. With this new system, students will be allowed to structure their own timeline, and the only requirement would be what they need to learn. This is how competencies work, they don't provide a strict grade at a certain time in the year, but instead, they create a type of checklist for the students to look over. They can see which competencies they are meeting and which they have to work on. At my small-town school, teachers give us a list of competencies that they then use to say whether or not we have learned what was required by the end of the year. But they also use the traditional education system with set tests and grades that go on our report cards.
Speaking from experience, and thinking many of you reading this can agree, having set test dates and grades as well as competencies defeats the purpose. Mastery-based learning isn't a combination of the old system and the new, it's supposed to be a complete rewrite of how students are taught today.
In 2017, over 40 schools in New York City transferred to the mastery-based learning system and have been successful (Spencer). Why shouldn't other schools follow their lead? This next generation is the future of our country so we should provide them with the best education possible. Don't you agree?
Works Cited
Kahn, Sal. "Let's Teach for Mastery - Not Test Scores." TED, Nov. 2015, www.ted.com/talks/sal_khan_let_s_teach_for_mastery_not_test_scores. Accessed 17 Dec. 2020.
"No Child Left behind Act of 2001." Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, www.k12.wa.us/policy-funding/grants-grant-management/every-student-succeeds-act-essa-implementation/elementary-and-secondary-education-act-esea/no-child-left-behind-act-2001#:~:text=The%20No%20Child%20Left%20Behind,and%20once%20in%20high%20school. Accessed 16 Dec. 2020.
Spencer, Kyle. "A New Kind of Classroom: No Grades, No Failing, No Hurry." The New York Times, 11 Aug. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/08/11/nyregion/mastery-based-learning-no-grades.html. Accessed 17 Dec. 2020.
Unsplash. 6 Feb. 2020, unsplash.com/photos/n1LIveUPls4. Accessed 18 Dec. 2020.
"Women Sitting in Front of Macbook." Pexels, 3 Feb. 2017, www.pexels.com/photo/design-desk-display-eyewear-313690/. Accessed 17 Dec. 2020.
I agree 100%. Students and even teachers are caught in a continuous cycle that repeats itself 24/7. I really liked the house example that you used from the Ted Talk about how if you keep going without filling in the missing pieces your house will eventually collapse because it did not have enough resources to keep it up. Do you know if its an easy process to just switch to a mastery-based learning or will it take a lot of time to set up and convert the new "rules" over?
ReplyDeleteGood question! I've read about a few schools that already made the transition and it seems it's relatively easy for the teachers to switch to the mastery-based learning because of the new technologies available. Many teachers make videos for each concept that allow students to watch and learn at anytime. The hardest part of the transition is for the students, I believe. Most have gotten so used to the idea of getting good grades on tests and papers that it takes a while for them to grow accustomed to this new system. But overtime they'll begin to feel more accomplished because they'll see how much more they are learning, even without the grades to show it.
DeleteDo you think that students would be motivated enough to learn in this way? I'm trying to imagine keeping track of where 20 or so students are in 5 different classes. How are the teachers managing it in the schools you read about?
ReplyDeleteWith a Mastery based learning system do you see any potential flaws as some students could become discouraged over time if they aren't learning at the same rate as everyone else? Also, how do you feel something like this would help or hurt the social aspects of school?
ReplyDelete