Essay on Mastery Learning

Derek Schetselaar

Dr. Smith

English 2010

31 July 2017

Are Grades Failing Us?

John F. Kennedy once said “Our progress as a nation can be no swifter than our progress in education. The human mind is our fundamental resource.” (Satyamsuarezdash) Education has been a huge part of society ever since the beginning of time. It causes us to think about famous educators like Aristotle, Plato, Ann Sullivan, Einstein and many others, these great teachers changed aspects and thinking in their societies. As JFK said education has a profound effect on the progress of the nation. It’s interesting to think about how the United States is such a powerhouse by the world, yet has a sub-par education system compared to the rest of the world. Although it’s a controversial debate where exactly the United States education program falls in comparison to the world, one study that focused on measuring 15-year old’s in 72 countries in math, reading and science---said that the United States did not rank in the top ten in all three categories and was ranked 35^th in mathematics. (Kiersz) The reasons why the United States are so low are argued about endlessly with many different opinions and sides. A major problem that keeps coming up is the effectiveness of the current grading system.

            It seems like the current grading system has been around for forever. A, B, C, D, and F have become so ingrained in our culture that they have started to affect things outside of education. Restaurants, movies, and many other things have all started to be graded using some form of this style. The fact is however that there [TS1] are many other unique styles and ways to grade and evaluate how a student is learning the material. There have been many educators that have implemented the curve method as a way to make grades less subjective. There has even been a big push at times in history to implement the pass/fail method, as a way to lower student stress. An examination of each grading style finds pros and cons of each, but overall, mastery-based grading seems to be able to solve some of the problems found in our current education system. Mastery-based grading will provide for a better learning environment than traditional grades for students in college, because of its emphasis on key factors of successful learning.

What is Mastery Learning?

            Mastery based learning is a system that helps students become proficient in the various subjects in school. The system achieves this by focusing on mastering various learning objectives set by the teacher or administration. The main purpose of mastery learning is to emphasis practice, persistence, and the opportunity for all students to succeed. In a true mastery based learning style, grades such as A, B, C, D, and F are not included in the report cards, but the report cards instead focus on what principles the students did or didn’t master. This style has recently been being pushed by famous educators including Sal Khan, an educator with his own mastery based online school. Khan mentioned this approach in a recent TED talk titled “Lets Teach for Mastery, Not Test Scores.” Mastery based learning has a lot of benefits, and provides ways for students to learn to their full potential.

Allows Students to Challenge Themselves

             Mastery based learning can solve the problem of students dropping hard classes after they get a bad grade. This problem was addressed by Joesph Holtgreive, a Northwestern professor, in an essay titled Too Smart to Fail. Holtgreive addressed a story of a student coming to him asking to drop the class, because of a poor grade on a mid-term exam. Although the student enjoyed the content of the class, she had believed that the class would take minimal effort to achieve an “A” grade[TS2] . It’s interesting how many students are similar to this student, they are so afraid of getting a bad grade in a class, that when they struggle to grasp a concept or struggle on a test they run away from the challenge. The issue with this is that students learn to take the easy way out, instead of working through challenges or weaknesses. Unfortunately, this is a very easy trap to get trapped in with the current grading system. Grades affect your future job opportunities, scholarships, parent’s happiness, self-worth, GPA, and many other things. The pressure placed on students in college is enormous, it’s no wonder that many students seek to find the easiest path. The frustrating and confusing thing for Holtgreive was this student enjoyed the class discussions and reading materials. Mastery-based learning can solve this problem by allowing students to take risks in their education. The University of Singapore implemented a mastery based learning curriculum with their freshman class in August 2014. After it was implemented a group of authors took a study of what the students thought about the program. A major strength, mentioned by the students, with the mastery-based learning curriculum was that students felt like they can take more risks. (McMorran) Why should students feel that like they must do one thing? Often the way[TS3]  we are successful in life is by taking risks, and growing outside of our current comfort zone. If a student gets a poor grade on mid-term test in Mastery based learning, as long as the student keeps trying, and practicing they can still succeed in the class. Mastery learning focuses on the amount of knowledge they have at the end instead of mistakes in the middle. This allows for Mastery based learning to provide an effective avenue for helping students enjoy even the hard classes.

           

Focus of College

Mastery based grading provides a more pinpoint focus on learning compared to the traditional method. I recently conducted a survey that interviewed 69 high school and college students about what they thought about the current grading system. A question I posed was—what is your biggest focus in school. The results showed[TS4]  that 44.9% or 31 participants said good grades, while 43.5% or 30 participants focused on learning the material. Although this is a close gap of only one individual, it shows that many students are focused on the wrong objective. As Holtgreive puts it, “while students think they are keeping their eyes on the ball, they are actually just staring at the scoreboard” (Holtgreive). Mastery-based learning shifts the atmosphere back to learning and on mastering the topic. It takes time and practice to show your mastery in a principle. Critics of mastery learning may say that because grades help students to learn by motivating them put effort in. But, in a study conducted in 1993 a group of educators examined if grades have an impact on students learning. They found no correlation between students learning more when they were graded or ungraded. Also, it’s interesting that we apply this principle of mastery to other aspects of our lives, but not education. We apply it in sports, musical instruments, future employment, spiritual learning, and character development.

Let’s compare if we used grades in learning an instrument compared to the way we do it now with mastering the instrument through practice. A student makes multiple mistakes while playing for his teacher in his lesson. The teacher ends up giving him a D grade on the piano piece, then they move onto the next piece. The student works hard to please their parents and gets an A grade on the next piece. At their recital the teacher announces that overall the student had gotten a C grade over the term. Compare that to how we currently teach music---the student practices, practices, and practices some more. When the student makes several mistakes in a piece at the lesson, a wise teacher will encourage them to continue to practice. They work on the music till they don’t mess up, and they perform it in a recital. Mastery based learning would apply principles we already use while learning music, that it would be natural for students, and provide them with an effective avenue to their highest potential.

Not Ready for Workplace

            Mastery learning will provide students with the skills needed to thrive in their careers. A main role of college is to prepare students for their future employment. Commonly we hear that students who attend college are able to make more money, and have more options after they graduate. But, an increasingly growing number of employers are disappointed in the readiness of the college graduates. While Mel Levine was preparing to write a book on life after college, he repeatedly heard from employers that students were unable to delay gratification, think long term, and to do the grunt work. (Levine) The current grading system is not providing students the ability to gain skills like hard work, and practice. Although the paper by Levine was published in 2005, educators have been hesitant to change from the comfortable traditional grading platform. In a recent study by the Association of American Colleges and Universities, the study showed that students and employers had very different opinions on how well college prepared the students for the real world. Students felt that they were very well prepared in the skills necessary, while employers felt that students and colleges had a long way to go. In summary, employers in various industries feel that the current system is not preparing students properly. If it’s not working, why are we so afraid of change? Mastery learning can help students learn more about working till the job is done. Students are not able to take a poor grade on one unit and then just move on to the next unit in mastery learning. They are required to show they mastered the subject, focusing them on pushing through failure. This is beneficial because in the work place, you are unable to leave a job at 80%. Also, mastery learning can help students to work harder for their mastery, instead of taking the easy way out. The gap is large from college to the workplace, but mastery learning can help students be more prepared than the current system.

            In Conclusion, mastery based learning has been proven to provide opportunities for students to learn to their fullest potential. It allows students the ability to develop skills such as challenging themselves, developing skills and learning how to love learning. College is a critical time for students, it’s the start for their development and future careers. Consequently, it’s important that students learn right early on to help facilitate a successful future. The world is changing more and more by the day, and students need to be prepared for the changes. Mastery based learning is the future of success in college education. The question should not be---Does mastery grading work? But instead should be focused on how we can apply the principles of mastery based learning into the education system.