{"id":165,"date":"2012-01-19T21:17:00","date_gmt":"2012-01-20T03:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/people.brandonu.ca\/cockerlineg\/?page_id=165"},"modified":"2015-05-29T14:01:46","modified_gmt":"2015-05-29T19:01:46","slug":"on-grades-mastery-learning","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/people.brandonu.ca\/cockerlineg\/course\/on-grades-mastery-learning\/","title":{"rendered":"On Grades & Mastery Learning"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Brandon University subscribes to the historic letter grade system.\u00a0 Letter grades are not inherently bad, but many departments superimpose a normative grading policy on top of the letter grade system.\u00a0 This latter aspect I find incompatible with the constructivist \/ mastery learning approach to which many in the field of education subscribe.\u00a0 However, what I do find more troubling is that our educational system has created students whose self-esteem is grade-driven; students who are externally driven by grades rather than internally driven by learning. “How can I do well if you don’t tell me what you want me to know and just how to say it?<\/em>”<\/p>\n

I find the students’ grade-driven tendencies to be a distraction from true learning.\u00a0 If something isn’t for marks, it is seen as being less important.\u00a0 In such an environment, activities and group work are seen as a waste of time because they aren’t for marks!\u00a0 In an effort to promote mastery learning, the undergraduate courses I teach are graded on a Pass \/ Fail basis.\u00a0 It is unfortunate, however, that many equate the ‘Pass’ portion of the ‘Pass\/Fail’ grading scheme to the meager 50% required to ‘Pass’ a traditionally graded course and the associated connotation of mediocrity.\u00a0 Bluntly stated, I will not enable mediocre teacher candidates becoming classroom teachers!\u00a0\u00a0 To this end, most courses I teach are mastery based, which many letter grade scales equate to a standing of approximately 80%.\u00a0 As such, a \u2018Pass\u2019 in these courses is more akin to a minimum<\/span> B+\/A- achievement.<\/p>\n

In order to achieve a ‘Pass’ in courses I teach, you must not only demonstrate mastery of individual skill sets, but inculcate them as part of your teaching repertoire as exhibited via course tasks.\u00a0 My expectation is that individuals will strive to hone both their teaching skills and their pedagogical knowledge. Moreover, in that each person has unique teaching strengths and weakness, the emphasis each individual places on the various components of a course may vary.\u00a0 But while the course path individuals take may differ, the destination will be the same for all \u2013 master teachers!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brandon University subscribes to the historic letter grade system.\u00a0 Letter grades are not inherently bad, but many departments superimpose a normative grading policy on top of the letter grade system.\u00a0 This latter aspect I find incompatible with the constructivist \/ mastery learning approach to which many in the field of education subscribe.\u00a0 However, what I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"parent":9,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-165","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.brandonu.ca\/cockerlineg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.brandonu.ca\/cockerlineg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.brandonu.ca\/cockerlineg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.brandonu.ca\/cockerlineg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.brandonu.ca\/cockerlineg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/people.brandonu.ca\/cockerlineg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/165\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":394,"href":"https:\/\/people.brandonu.ca\/cockerlineg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/165\/revisions\/394"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.brandonu.ca\/cockerlineg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.brandonu.ca\/cockerlineg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}