Judy Yero
Judy Yero
Aug 23, 2017 · 1 min read

A critical, but unexamined question is what content is worthy of mastery. The first step we must take to truly transform learning is to reassess so-called “essential” concepts. What do we want every learner to know and be able to do? To “master”? Why? At the height of the standards movement, the list contained nearly 5,000 “things” (specific skills and easily testable factoids) in 14 different subject areas. And those “things” were largely chosen because they could be easily evaluated on a multiple choice test!

I once worked in textbook development. One of the publishing tasks was to adapt a general science textbook to different state standards. In one state, children had to build a battery using a potato. In another, they had to use a lemon! In neither state was there a standard based on an understanding of the scientific principle behind these “skills.” The essential was bypassed in favor of easily testable behaviors.

What if we spent the time to identify a handful of truly essential abilities and skills that are the foundation of effective living? Literacy — the ability to read, write, and communicate effectively — has been parsed into an infinite number of specifics on which learners are evaluated. The same is true for numeracy. As long as “mastery” involves knowing and doing a specific list of “things” chosen by adults and easily “assessed” on standardized tests, will anything really change?

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    Judy Yero

    Written by

    Judy Yero

    educator, educational change agent, author of Teaching in Mind: How Teacher Thinking Shapes Education, and general troublemaker. judy.yero@learninginmind.com