...RESEARCH RESULTS AND IMPLICATIONS Few programs have been implemented as broadly or evaluated as thoroughly over the last four decades in education as those associated with mastery learning. Programs based on mastery learning principles operate today in nations throughout the world and at every level of education. When compared to traditionally taught classes, students in mastery learning classes consistently have been shown to learn better, reach higher levels of achievement, and develop greater confidence in their ability to learn and in themselves as learners (Guskey, 1997, 2001). THE DEVELOPMENT OF MASTERY LEARNING Although the basic tenets of mastery learning can be traced to such early educators as Comenius, Pestalozzi, and Herbart (Bloom, 1974), most modern applications stem from the writings of Benjamin S. Bloom of the University of Chicago. In the mid-1960s Bloom began a series of investigations on the variation that existed in student learning outcomes. He recognized that while Figure 1ILLUSTRATION BY GGS INFORMATION SERVICES. CENGAGE LEARNING, GALE. students vary widely in their learning rates, virtually all learn well when provided with the necessary time and appropriate learning conditions. If teachers could provide the time and more appropriate conditions, Bloom reasoned that nearly all students could reach a high level of learning. To determine how this might be practically achieved, Bloom first considered how teaching and learning take place in typical group-based...
Words: 3803 - Pages: 16
...Zero-Tolerance in Memphis The Memphis School District had a transformational change happen, when Superintendent Willie Herenton left his position to become the first black mayor of Memphis, the school district hired Dr. Gerry House, in 1992, from the outside because they felt that her experience in a school district that had already been restructured would lead Memphis school reform. It was noted in that case written by Ferrero (1998) that school board thought she could unite “progressive white and African-Americans, based upon an unassailable intellectual vision of high quality schooling” (p. 4). There was escalating violence against staff in the Memphis School District. They adopted the National Gun-Free School Act into their Student Code of Conduct and later added battery of school personnel and drugs possession as a Zero-Tolerance offense. The teachers looked at the revised policy and as a tool to get what they considered as problem students out of their classroom so they could concentrate on teaching the students that wanted to learn. This caused a conflict between Superintendent Gerry house and the Memphis Teachers Association. Superintendent Gerry House put incremental changes in place with her “Basics Plus” plan that allowed the schools to choose one of eleven school improvement models by 1999. The School Boards adoption of Zero-Tolerance reversed a long tradition of keeping...
Words: 2161 - Pages: 9
