![]() ![]() ![]() You immediately start to realize how strange this is – I didn’t know 25% of the foundational thing, now I’m being pushed to the more advanced thing. And on that test, maybe I get a 75%, maybe you get a 90%, maybe you get a 75%… even though that test has identified gaps in our knowledge, the whole class will then move on to the next subject, probably a more advanced subject like negative exponents. The teacher will give a lecture on exponents, then we’ll go home and do some homework… and that will continue for about 2 or 3 weeks, and then we get a test. “Let’s say we’re in middle school pre-algebra. If you get a C in 5th grade science, you still move to 6th grade science. Students are grouped by age, and all move together at the same pace, irrespective of their level. In standard school, students advance based on time. In all areas, except the standard school system, people advance based on skill or results. If you build a house, you build the first floor after you are done with the foundation. If you play soccer, you advance to Varsity after you do well enough on JV. If you learn guitar, you try to play a song after you learn the chords to it. In all other areas of life, when you are required to complete a task, or learn a skill, you do it when you have mastered the preceding material. Eventually, many students start believing ‘they are just not good at math’ and stop trying. These gaps accumulate over time, so that math becomes harder and harder. Or they are in a calculus class, but they are a little bit shaky on the algebra” – Sal Khan “They are in an Algebra class and they might have been a little bit shaky on the pre-algebra, and because of that they thought they didn’t have the math gene. Many students struggle not because they are “not good at math,” but just because they had gaps in their learning. As Sal Khan of Kahn Academy explains in this TED talk on mastery learning, in his decades of tutoring students he found a similar pattern. It’s based on the fact that all learning builds on itself. ![]() Mastery learning is the concept that students must master the foundational subjects or concepts before moving on. ![]()
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