“Talent is not something to be found in the few; it is to be developed in the many.”

Dr. Benjamin Bloom’s research is known by everyone in the educational community. Dr. Bloom was one of the first experts to encourage teachers to require their students to learn and think at a higher, more critical level rather than the low level memorization work that occurs in most classrooms. His research regarding 1-1 instruction is a landmark study that still stands today.

Bloom’s 2 Sigma Problem

Thursday, December 1st, 2011

Bloom’s 2 Sigma Problem is an odd name for educational psychologist Benjamin Bloom’s discovery, first reported in 1984, that one-to-one tutoring isn’t just a little bit better than conventional classroom teaching:

Bloom found that the average student tutored one-to-one using mastery learning techniques performed two standard deviations better than students who learn via conventional instructional methods — that is, “the average tutored student was above 98% of the students in the control class”. Additionally, the variation of the students’ achievement changed: “about 90% of the tutored students… attained the level of summative achievement reached by only the highest 20%” of the control class.

The two-sigma part refers to average performance of ordinary students going up by two standard deviations when they received one-to-one tutoring and worked on material until they mastered it, and the problem part refers to the fact that such tutoring doesn’t come cheap.

My first reaction is surprise at the degree of the effect, but it should be obvious that advancing 30 students in lock-step means that many will be bored, a few will be in the sweet spot, and many will fall further and further behind, as the material builds on previous material they never learned.

So, my conclusion would be that conventional classroom teaching is largely a waste of time — but that’s not where educational experts place their emphasis:

Although much recent attention has focused on gaps in the achievement of different groups of students, the problem has been with us for decades. This paper presents the problem as one of reducing variation in students’ achievement, and reviews the work of renowned educator Benjamin Bloom on this problem. Bloom argued that to reduce variation in students’ achievement and to have all students learn well, we must increase variation in instructional approaches and learning time.

I suppose they see it as Bloom’s Paradox.

In his original paper, Bloom notes that a full-size classroom can get one-sigma results by switching to mastery learning, where students are tested not just for a final grade on a unit but to uncover where they need to do further corrective work, so they keep at it until they get it right.

It is odd, when you think about it, that we give students As, Bs, and Cs, and then advance them all to the next course, when they really should study the material until they earn a solid A before moving on — unless the goal of education isn’t conveying information but ranking students.

Read more: B. S. Bloom (1913–1999) – Educational, Learning, Objectives, and Characteristics – StateUniversity.comhttp://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/1791/Bloom-B-S-1913-1999.html#ixzz2BbBierHi

In science, the term “paradigm shift” applies to throwing out theories (Kuhn) that can no longer stand because research has shown them to be flawed or wrong. For a long time we thought the atom was the smallest particle possible. It’s all we could “see” with the tools that were available. New technology and science proved that theory wrong. This created a paradigm shift in world view for everyone. We’ve known for years that there are better and more effective ways to educate our children than the current school model. It takes a long time for institutions such as schools to change from the status quo, even when everyone can see that there is a desperate need to do so. Personal computers and the Internet are playing an influential role in the current paradigm shift in education but so is brain research, which started this paradigm shift over 50 years ago.

Research has shown clearly for years that many of the practices that are held tightly by traditional schools are flawed and even harmful to continue. We have the ability to do brain scans and collect data on how the brain learns. We know more about how memory works and how people process information than any other time in our history. Yet most people continue to embrace traditional education models as the “right” way.

These are the characteristics of the new educational paradigm, which began to emerge in middle of the 20th century. Compare the old paradigm with the new. What do you think about the new paradigm?

Emphasis on content, acquiring a body of right information
Emphasis on learning how to learn, how to ask questions. Pay attention to the right things, be open to and evaluate new concepts have access to information. Context is important.

Learning as a product, a destination
Learning as a process, a journey

Relatively rigid structure, prescribed curriculum
Relatively flexible structure, belief that there are many ways to teach given subjects

Lockstep progress emphasis on the appropriate ages for certain activities. Age segregation
Flexibility and integration of age groupings, individual not automatically limited to certain subjects

Priority on performance
Priority on self image as the generator of performance

Guessing and divergent thinking discouraged
Guessing and divergent thinking encouraged as part of the creative process

Emphasis on analytical linear left brain thinking
Strives for whole-brain education

Labeling contributes to self-fulfilling prophecy
Labeling used only in minor prescriptive role and not as a fixed evaluation

Concern with norms
Concerned with the individual’s performance in terms of his potential

Primary reliance on theoretical abstract knowledge
Theoretical and abstract knowledge heavily complemented by experiment and experience

Everyone is taught the same thing at the same time, by age. Emphasis on teaching
Everyone learns when they are ready, developmentally. Emphasis on meaningful learning

Classrooms designed for efficiency, convenience
Concern for the environment of learning-lighting, colors, physical comfort, needs for privacy and interaction, quiet and exuberant activities

Education seen as a social necessity for a certain time to train for a specific role
Education seen as lifelong process. One only tangentially related to schools

Increasing reliance on technology
Human relationships, teachers and learners, are of primary importance. Appropriate technology

Teacher imparts knowledge, one-way street
Teacher is a learner too, learning from students

The old assumptions generate questions about how to achieve norms, obedience and correct answers.
The new assumptions lead to questions about how to motivate for lifelong learning, how to strengthen self-discipline, how to awaken curiosity, and how to encourage creative risk

Child is passive
Child is a thinking, self-propelling,well adjusted individual

Grades as the reward/consequence
Learning as the reward, grades are secondary

“The larger paradigm looks to the nature of learning rather than methods of instruction. Learning after all is not schools, teachers, literacy, math, grades or achievement. It is the process by which we have moved every step of the way since we first breathed, a transformation that occurs in the brain. Whenever new information is integrated, whenever a new skill is mastered, learning is kindled in the mind of the individual. Anything else is mere schooling”. Marilyn Ferguson

When we think about school safety we think about things like guns and bullying. The problem is so much greater in scope. Our children are showing signs of anxiety and depression at a very young age. The following passages are from the book  Creating Emotionally Safe Schools, by Jane Bluestein, PhD.

 “Safety in schools is about more than violence. It’s an issue for the student terrified of being called on in class or the child afraid of being harassed on the playground. It’s an issue for children who don’t test well, for children who learn by touching and moving, for children whose strengths lie in areas not assessed or valued in schools. It’s an issue for the child who is not noticed, the child nobody will play with, and for the child that looks different. We sacrifice safety when we fail to notice a child in distress or ignore hurtful behavior or when we use tests or grades to punish.

A safe environment is one that reduces these and other stressful occurrences. Under stress our bodies cannot function at their best. If students always have their defenses up to protect themselves there is very little energy left for schoolwork or any other meaningful activities. Stress and anxiety block learning. When responding to stress or a perceived threat, chemicals, such as cortisol, are released into the system. This causes mental static, sabotaging the prefrontal lobes, keeping them from maintaining working memory. You have probably experienced what it feels like to not be able to “think straight” when you are upset. Many other physiological symptoms may occur including dry mouth, increased heart rate, intestinal distress, and dizziness, just to name a few.

Daniel Goleman has stated that even one exposure to a traumatic incident can bring about a Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Students with PTSD are constantly in a state of hyper vigilance. They are always surveying their environment for danger. Other symptoms may include lying, aggression, sleep problems, impulsivity, fear, confusion and unhappiness. It’s no wonder they are unable to concentrate on anything else.”

Supporting Learning Is Not Cheating

We all have unique ways of learning, most often referred to as style. We have preferences for how we take in new information and how we relay that information to others. Sometimes a student’s struggle in a traditional school setting is a matter of style. Most students are flexible and can work and learn in a variety of styles. But it may be difficult to impossible to work in a style that is not the student’s natural style when under stress of any kind or because of a physical limitation.

It’s important that the child’s teacher understand the student’s unique style, build on the strengths of this style, and begin to stretch the student’s style when he/she is ready. Everyone has a unique way of gaining and processing information. Our brains have unique connections, memories and experiences that affect how we add new information. So how we do that is different for everyone. Some people have a lot of flexibility; no matter how information is presented to them, they find it easy to store it and retrieve it for others. Some lack that flexibility. There are many reasons that we lack flexibility and the reasons are unimportant. What is important is that we listen when a child tells us what they need. Some children need to talk things out. Some children need to run around in circles while they listen to you. Some children spend a lot of time thinking or writing.

If your child needed glasses to see the board to read, you would not hesitate to get the glasses. But if your child needed someone to help them write down their ideas, because it’s difficult for them to write and hold onto that idea at the same time, would that seem like cheating to you? However, that is exactly what should be done. It isn’t any different than wearing glasses to see the board. All of the assistance we give a student helps them achieve at a higher level, working harder than they would without it. Without the assistance, they give up and actually put forth less effort. Maybe the question we should be asking ourselves is, are we cheating them if we don’t help them?

I have found over the years that children are very clear about what their learning needs are. They demonstrate by moving when you read to them or asking you to be quiet while they’re concentrating or breaking pencils when trying to do a worksheet that’s too hard. They communicate in the ways that they know, to get adults to pay attention to what they need. We need to find a way to help them get their needs met. They desperately want to learn. They want to do what the adults around them want them to do. They want to grow up and do the things that you do. You only have to listen and pay attention.