Lesson higher education must learn

At the beginning of the new semester just a few weeks ago, a Sophomore from a US top university entered a chemistry laboratory class. A strong student, waited with a desire to find out more about the class goals. Instead, one of the first things that the teaching assistant in front of the camera immediately said and extinguished the enthusiasm: “This semester, the average note for this class will be a B.” Then, the didactic assistant told the students that they will be marked from 1 to 5, 5 being the best. And “he never gave 5s.”

Without knowing a thing about this student cohort, let alone each student, the teaching assistant has already decided to adjust the notes – up or down – to achieve an average B. Probably they would also become , a prophecy that is fulfilled among the students who received the message and concluded: “Why should we try a A?”

The attitude and mentality of the didactic assistant was probably a combination of two factors. For one thing, as a student himself, the teaching assistant was probably learned by “rigorous” teachers who never gave 5s -maybe because they got bored so much that they wanted every semester for an exceptional student, to stand out and illuminate their day. However, the second factor is more likely a deeper reason and was revealed when the student asked why the bell curve was applied: the college experienced a degree inflation (ie too many) and, in the effort to Reduces this trend, teachers were encouraged to limit the grades.

A bell curve is a measure that, in the best case, can be used to describe larger populations. However, its application in the class leads to a distorted classification system that discourages and disables students at all levels, from K-12 to post-secondary education. This is the wrong approach to the degree of degree management, which often results from “light” or test tests that help students make superficially for tests. Rather, what is requested is greater discernment on how learning must evolve in order to be less in terms of short-term memory and performing high-stakes, where the crushing and preparation of tests are rewarded. And much more about thinking and applying knowledge for real and long -term purposes.

Throughout the higher education, in which such ads about “no one receives in my class” are too common, there is an urgent lesson to learn: How can we make sure everyone reaches their maximum potential? Here is an indication: it starts with jeting the bell curve.

Wasting the myth of the bell curve

Despite many critics Over the years, the bell curve will not disappear. First of all, it is used in higher education as a selection tool that earns those who last longer or who are struggling in a certain field. This is especially true in “weed courses”, such as college math, which are meant to separate the values ​​in terms of performance towards everyone else. As a result, a college or university can use heavy courses to develop a selective, high performance cohort, and to be ranked as a “top college” in the USA, unfortunately, these highs are not cultivated by curiosity to explore the world around them and the desire to assume the global challenges that involve them. Rather, they are schooled in the “drilling and killing” of memory and tests, being guided and prepared from K-12.

In the same way, at work there is a mentality of the bell curve. People are employed and offer them tasks (often without proper training and support), and then their performance is evaluated. Those who perform the best are kept and trained for higher positions. Those who are only average will not take long at the company. It has all the motivational power of the saying (attributed to the different sources, from Captain Bligh to Monty Python), “the beats will continue until the morale will improve.”

However, the media is an absurd parameter that assumes that people can be grouped together with a certain extent as if they were coming from an assembly line or apples of the same size and state of maturity. As Todd Rose wrote in The end of the average: Unlocking our potential By hugging what makes us different“If you build a theory of thinking, perception or personality based on the average brain, then you have probably built a theory that does not apply to anyone … There is no average brain.“

Think about a second about the absurdity of using normal environments and distributions to decide on the patient’s diagnosis and treatments. As a doctor, I recognize the benefits of the drug a lot in population studies, such as highlighting health risks and to address smoking, obesity, mental illness and other factors. But obviously, it is absurd for a doctor to treat individual patients based on the average of the last 10 patients they treated.

Rose and many others see the so-called normal distribution as abnormal, because it assumes that only a few students could ever be expected to master the content, knowledge and skills learned. Moreover, the bell curve ignores the fact that, with a mastery learning approach, Basically all the students It can develop cognitive and character skills that they need both to acquire knowledge and, more importantly, to apply them. This makes learning mastery more motivating for students and instructors at the K-12 in colleges and universities and beyond.

Mastery in action

With a master’s approach, students are given time, resources and support they need to reach competence. In fact, with learning of mastery, there are only two possible notes: a or incomplete. The reason? Students do not stop after purchasing 70 or 80 percent of skills in a certain course, winning a C or, respectively, a B. they continue to work until they have achieved mastery. Until then, their learning is incomplete. This should not be confused with the mentality “everyone receives a trophy”, which is a participation prize – in other words the exact opposite.

Mastery transforms traditional education on its head into two important ways: first, in traditional education Constanta is the time spent in the classroom, with the variable that is the notes given at the end of that period of time. With the control, the note becomes constant with the final objective of all those who obtain skill; The time required for each student to achieve competence is now the variable. In other words, it is immaterial how long it lasts for someone to reach the control; What is more important is that I get there.

Secondly, the goals are different. Mastery is about learning to be able to be able to to do something With what you have learned-for yourself, your colleagues, your colleagues, your company, your family, your community (big or small), as well as to support your personal health and well-being.

There is increasing evidence of effectiveness Learning masteryHelping students not only to perform better, but also to increase their motivation. Evaluations are not punitive, but formative – an instrument for identifying what the student has already mastered and where there are gaps. Equally important, mastery breaks the test cycle, students cramming information in the short-term memory, as if it were human hard disks, so that they can regurgit it for an examination and then forget quickly.

With its emphasis on applying knowledge and skills to do something significant, learning mastery encourages students to engage in projects and other experiences in the real world that strengthen what they have learned and open them to us. It should be mentioned that the control does not undermine and does not reject the learning knowledge, but rather changes the perspective and the purpose of learning this knowledge.

Think about what to do mastery approach in postsecond education – and already do in colleagues as Olin College of Engineeringwhich uses a project based on the project that emphasizes the collaboration between the faculties and also between the faculties and the students. Or at Northeastern University, where all students make cooperation in real companies and organizations, as part of going to college. In such learning environments, students develop the attitude they can learn and be successful. With more involvement and motivation, students are more likely to become extremely competent in the knowledge and abilities they need today and motivated to become students that can take over the requirements of the future.

Now extend this thinking to work. People are truly motivated by a department or a company that aims to create a bell curve, so that they can solve who should remain (and be promoted) and who should go? Or would employees (current and potential) prefer a lot to apply their energy and talent that offers everyone to learn and succeed, provided they apply? The latter, clearly, is not only preferable, but also the only sustainable solution to the workplace, based on today’s AI. The need for people to be the sources of information has been damaged in the last 25 years, as the Internet has revolutionized our proximity to sources of information. Great language patterns such as Chat-gpt Represent a quantum jump to bring meaning and context to all this information, which further eliminates the need for human hard disks to store endless data.

Choice for higher education

The embrace of learning mastery and the mission behind it cannot come too soon at a time when many question the role of higher education and the value of university diplomas. In my native country of Denmark where the university is free for all (yes, free And the students are even paid a stipend that covers the life expenses), we must justify the value of higher education in a world of explosive changes. If this is a challenge in Denmark, then imagine -what a discouraging task is in the US, where higher education is strong. Conformable New York Times, Since 1992, the cost of participating in a four -year -old private college has almost doubled, and the costs for a four -year -old public college has been more than doubled. As the tuition costs increase, as well as the duty of the students – now more than 1.7 trillion dollars.

No wonder then that Many Americans ask The value of a four -year diploma, because people evaluate what they or their children leave classrooms and places like Chem Labs. Too many times, the opinion is that the first salary to have a four -year degree simply does not compensate for the task of the debt of students who can take decades.

In order to remain relevant to the next generation of students, colleagues and universities must change their vision on them. Instead of being sources of information, they must evolve into inspiration – for all students. This means that, instead of generating bell curves, colleges and universities must empower students – and not just a select cohort – with the competence and confidence they need to watch their career paths.