Five Learning
Principles
Basic learning principles form the core of our programs. The psychology of learning is a field of empirical research that contains volumes of well designed studies. We have relied on the findings of many of these studies to design My Learning Partners. There are five conditions that, when present, will enhance learning. While these may appear to be quite basic, they are not always addressed by schools and many learning centers. We assure these conditions, as outlined below, are fundamental to this program.
1. Having a clearly defined mission statement
The mission statement of My Learning Partners is:
"To implement individualized and self-paced learning strategies with children based upon documented learning principles."
2. Having skills that are precisely defined and sequential
Text book publishers determine the skills in their texts. They are usually built on a spiral model where a number of skills are introduced in one lesson. The next lesson introduces more skills dropping some skills from the previous lesson. These omitted skills are reintroduced in subsequent lessons. This design helps maintain the student’s interest, but it unfortunately makes it difficult to differentiate between the skills a student has mastered and those that are problematic. While My Learning Partners can not rewrite texts we can clearly identify skill sets within texts and use those skill sets to measure progress. Dr. Matt's Math was designed in a linear fashion assuring clearly defined lessons and skills resulting in more sensitive progress measures.
3. Pre-testing each child to ensure proper placement in their appropriate skill lessons
Students at every age vary greatly in knowledge and experience. (To determine your child's expected achievement click here.) As a result, determining where to begin instruction can be difficult. Having clearly defined skills is helpful as it allows for pre-testing students. Without pre-testing, some students are instructed in material they have already mastered while others may be instructed in material too difficult for them. Through My Learning Partners, students are pre-tested for initial placement . When each skill level is mastered, students are pre-tested again to determine the next appropriate skill level.
4. Monitoring learning progress enabling you to make appropriate instructional adjustments
Typically in schools and many learning centers students are assessed weekly or monthly to monitor progress. With My Learning Partners students use daily one minute tests to monitor progress. One minute tests are not intrusive upon students' learning yet provide a wealth of information. Students typically are excited as they see their scores rise day after day.
5. Defining mastery in a manner related to long-term memory
My Learning Partners utilizes clear rules to determine
mastery. Students master a skill level by meeting the following
conditions: The correct score on the one minute test is above their mastery
level for two out of three consecutive days AND no more than two errors are made
on the one minute test. Unfortunately, when mastery is defined simply as a
percent correct, or accuracy, it has only a minimal relationship to learning and
long-term
recall. Using only accuracy to determine mastery results in the same skills
being taught year after year in
many schools. Repeating the same material year after year facilitates long-term
recall but is tedious and painful for most students. We want your students to avoid
this needless repetition. With My Learning Partners speed is added to accuracy
resulting in fluency. When mastery is defined using accuracy and speed the
need to "relearn" skills year after year is far less. When correct responses
are quick and automatic, without time spent pondering the answer, the resulting
information has been mastered. Once students reach a mastery level of skills
through My Learning Partners, it is expected that they will maintain this
knowledge for a life time.