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Mastery Learning in High School Chemistry

By rallain on December 14, 2008.

I saw this over at ScienceGeekGirl which links to a video from two high school chemistry teachers in Colorado. The two teachers describe how they modified their chemistry courses. ScienceGeekGirl gives an excellent summary of their changes and motivations, so here is the short and dirty version:

  • They realized that their traditional lecture based course was not very effective.
  • They made video podcasts of their lectures and used class time for the students to work on problems and do demos and stuff.

Really, that is it. It seems so simple, but it is very interesting. The part I find interesting is that they actually did it. I am not a high school teacher, but I am familiar enough with high schools that I know this is a difficult change to make. The cool part is that they didn't actually do away with the lecture, they just moved it to homework and moved homework to class.

Curious what would happen if more teachers did this. Would it be better for them all to make their own video lectures or would it be better for all teachers to use one set of video lectures?

One thing that was not mentioned by the two teachers in the presentation was - what about the textbook?

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I don't teach chemistry, but in physics I usually forget to even use the textbook. I find the idea of switching lecture and HW intriguing...Do the kids really watch the podcasts? And are there kids who can't access them at home? Oh wait, I guess I should ask them, not you. Sorry.

Public education worked from 1836 (McGuffey's Eclectic Primer) through 1970 (end of IQ and other standardized testing for being Officially racially discriminatory? Waves of loathsome Irish, Italians, Asians, Eastern Europeans... were socialized and educated under the meanest of conditions without statisical White Papers, carpeted floors, air conditioned buildings, Jesse Jackson, or psychopharmacutical smorgasbords. They lived in slum hovels without Welfare, Medicaid, or social counseling - and often without heat, light, adequate calories, or indoor toilets.

What transpired in 1970 that destroyed American public education? One posits that reversing it rather than impressing more of it constitutes the empirical solution. How many US residents under the age of 20 can define "eclectic"?