MASTERY – vs – MEMORY
More than two decades ago, at one of the annual mathematics conventions of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), John Saxon and I were walking the floor looking at the various book publisher’s exhibits, when we encountered a couple of teachers manning the registration booth of the NCTM. When I introduced John to them, they instantly recognized him as the creator of the Saxon Math books and, after gleefully mentioning that they did not use his math books, they proceeded to tell him that they felt his math books were nothing more than mindless repetition.
John laughed and then in a serious note told the two teachers that in his opinion it was the NCTM that had denigrated the idea of thoughtful considered repetition. He quickly corrected them by reminding them that the correct use of daily practice over time results in what Dr. Benjamin Bloom of the University of Chicago had described as “Automaticity.” Dr. Bloom was an American educational psychologist who made contributions to the classification of educational objectives and to the theory of mastery-learning.
Years earlier, John Saxon had taken his Algebra 1 manuscript to Dr. Benjamin Bloom (known for Bloom’s Taxonomy) at the University of Chicago. John wanted to find out if there was a term that described the way his math book was constructed. Dr. Bloom examined the book’s content and then told John that the technique used in his book was called “automaticity,” which describes the ability of the human mind to do two things simultaneously – so long as one of them was overlearned.
If you think about it, every professional sports player practices the basics of his sport until he can perform them flawlessly in a game without thinking about them. By “automating” the basics, players allow their thoughts to concentrate on what is occurring as the game progresses. Basketball players do not concentrate on their dribbling the basketball as they move down the floor towards the basket. They have overlearned the basics of dribbling a basketball and they concentrate on how their opponents and fellow players are moving on the floor as the play develops.
The great baseball players practice hitting a baseball for hours every day so that they do not spend any time concentrating on their stance or their grip on the bat at the plate each time they come up to bat. Their full concentration is on the movements of the pitcher and the split second timing of each pitch coming at them at eighty or ninety miles an hour. How then does the term “automaticity” change John’s math books from being called “mindless repetition” to math books that – through daily practice over time – enable a student to master the basic skills of mathematics necessary for success?
The two necessary elements of “automaticity” are “repetition over time.” If one attempts to take a short cut and eliminate or shorten either one of these components, mastery will not occur. Just as you cannot eat all of your weekly meals only on Saturday or Sunday—to save time preparing meals and washing dishes every day—you cannot do twenty factoring problems one day and not do any of them again until the test in five weeks without having to review just before the test.
Both John and I taught mathematics at the university level. And we both encountered freshman students who could not handle the freshman algebra course. These students had failed the entrance math exam and were forced to take a “no-credit” algebra course before they were allowed to enroll in the freshman algebra course for credit. In my book, I refer to them as “at risk adults.” I tell about asking for and receiving permission from the university to use John’s high school Algebra 2 textbook for this “no-credit” course and adjusting the instruction to enable covering the entire book in a college semester.
The results were astounding. More than 90% of those who received a “C” or higher passed their freshman algebra course the following semester.
They had all taken an Algebra 2 course in high school and they had all passed the course. They could not understand why they had failed the math entrance requirement. The day John and I had encountered the NCTM teachers at the registration booth, I would have given anything to have had some of these “at risk adults” tell those teachers just what they thought of their teaching the test, rather than requiring them to master the concepts. They would also have given them a piece of their mind about their teachers using “fuzzy” grading practices that allowed them to pass a high school Algebra 2 course while failing the university’s basic entrance exam several weeks later. They would have also given these NCTM representatives an earful about the difference between being taught the test and receiving a warm fuzzy passing grade and mastering the necessary math concepts to be successful in math at the collegiate level.
There are some new math curriculums out there today using the word “mastery” in their advertisements—attempting to show that their “fun” curriculum is as good if not better than John’s—but to date, I know of none of them that use a cumulative review of the math concepts coupled with weekly tests to reflect mastery by the student rather than re-packaging what my “at risk adults” encountered more than a quarter of a century ago.