FIAE Chapter 2

In class, we talked about how many of us have simply memorized the information the day before the exam, take the exam, and then forget it immediately after. I have done this so many times. If you asked me to recall the information from memory a week after a test, I probably could only tell you about half of it. If you had me take the test again without looking at the information and cramming beforehand, I would probably fail it. Students like me do not understand the knowledge on a deeper level, and only know it for the test, but would not be able to explain it on a deeper level. We are not masters of this knowledge. Do not own this knowledge, we rent it for the time we need it and then move it out of our minds.  To fix this, we need to interact with the knowledge more, pick it apart, use it in different ways, and apply it to our lives. This working definition of mastery from the chapter presents this well: “Students have mastered content when they demonstrate a thorough understanding as evidenced by doing something substantive with the content beyond merely echoing it. Anyone can repeat information; it’s the masterful student that can break content into its component pieces, explain it and alternative perspectives regarding it cogently to others, and use it purposefully in new situations.” This is why alternating teaching styles is so important. Only when students interact with the information do they really start to know it and understand it for the long term, not just know it for the test on Friday.