Teaching & Learning in the 21st Century

Reflection

The simple shift of leveraging available digital resources to create a more iterative, mastery-based learning experience for students shows enormous potential. In many ways this is a transformative learning experience where students have been authentically empowered as learners. The previous model was “I got this wrong, I wonder why?”, which was an important step in the learning process, but just as traditional assessment and grading practices have a tendency to cut off learning, the old version of this type of lesson did not provide opportunities to learn from the feedback.

With the new model, students receive instant feedback which they use to continue along the path towards finding a solution and mastering content standards. They can then take the same question, “I got this wrong, I wonder why?” and go straight into more learning. They may immediately recognize the reason for their error and correct it, they may more carefully study course materials to engage the problem, or, if they cannot figure out why they made the error or what a good solution would be, they can then bring those issues to the teacher so that the teacher can leverage his or her expertise to guide students according to their individualized needs.  

This is mastery-based learning in a nutshell: regular feedback, multiple opportunities to learn from one’s mistakes, and multiple chances to attain and demonstrate mastery. 


SAMR Level: Redefinition

This lesson provides an example of how effectively leveraging digital resources can truly revolutionize what is possible in class.
The ability to have immediate, automated, and consistent feedback is simply not possible without the digital resource of a code compiler. The educational value of this feedback is that it guides students towards practice in exactly those areas where more work is needed to attain mastery. 

The new procedure of the lesson dramatically changes the conversation and interaction between teachers and students as well.  Students can share images of their work and explain exactly where they are having trouble. The teacher can, in turn, copy code and experiment with their own solutions before providing guidance to the student.

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