Mark McCourt, the UK’s leading authority on teaching for mastery, is the guest on this episode of Mind the Gap. In the discussion, Mark shares his perspective on mastery and also addresses some of the misconceptions. In particular, he shares that mastery, by definition, means “Bloom’s mastery,” and also explains “Mastery is not a curriculum. It is a model of schooling.”

Among other ideas discussed, Mark warns the education community not to equate anecdotal experience with true evidence of efficacy, explains why it should be the norm that schools “try to understand what students know and don’t know, and teach them the stuff they don’t know,” and describes his belief that early grades teachers must be the most skilled.

Visit edCircuit.com to watch this episode.

Mind the Gap is produced by MindRocket Media Group and presented by John Catt Educational, a leading independent publisher that has supported teachers and school leaders with research-based, easy to use professional development publications since 1959. Learn more from world-class authors at us.johncattbookshop.com (US) or johncattbookshop.com (International). 

About the participants:

Mark McCourt is the UK’s leading authority on teaching for mastery. He has trained over 2,000 schools in mastery models for schooling and his latest book is Teaching for Mastery (John Catt Educational). A leading figure in mathematics education, Mark has led many large-scale government education initiatives, both in the UK and overseas. Mark was a Director at the National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics (NCETM) and has also been a school leader, an Advanced Skills Teacher, a school inspector and a teacher trainer. He founded and was Chairman of the Teacher Development Trust. Follow Mark on Twitter @EmathsUK

Tom Sherrington has worked in schools as a teacher and leader for 30 years and is now a consultant specializing in teacher development and curriculum & assessment planning. His books include Rosenshine’s Principles in Action and The Learning Rainforest Fieldbook.  Tom is a regular contributor to ResearchEd events and other conferences for teachers and policymakers. He regularly contributes to conferences and CPD sessions locally and nationally and is busy working in schools and colleges across the UK and around the world. Follow Tom on Twitter @teacherhead

Emma Turner is currently the Research and CPD lead for Discovery Schools Academy Trust, devising and writing training for staff at all career stages, but specializing in continuous professional development (CPD) for early career teachers.  Turner is author of Be More Toddler: A Leadership Education From Our Little Learners. Follow Emma on Twitter