Mastery-Based Learning
Over several years and through various research pathways, efforts have been underway to identify the required content knowledge and skills that are essential for students graduating into today’s and tomorrow’s world.
A mastery-based design means that students are in the driver’s seat of their own learning and are supported as they work to achieve mastery of essential content and skills.
Areas of focus include:
- Identifying and presenting clear learning goals.
- Developing multiple methods and opportunities for students to demonstrate knowledge and skills.
- Designing personalized learning pathways.
- Making important shifts that separate measures of knowledge and skill from grades for behavior, compliance, and task completion.
In 2018, P.K. Yonge was included in the State of Florida’s Mastery-Based (Competency-Based) Learning Pilot—Senate Bill 1035.
Specific initiatives connected to the Mastery-Based Learning at P.K. Yonge include:
Architecture & School Design
K-12 Curriculum & Instruction
Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS)
Research Partnerships
Active partnerships are essential to achieving P.K. Yonge’s mission to design, test, and disseminate innovations in K-12 education. P.K. Yonge’s 90-year history of research and development partnerships has resulted in contributions such as:
- Florida’s First Reading Lab
- The Florida Writing Project
- The Florida Reading InitiativeThe University of Florida Literacy Initiative (UFLI)
- Summer Adventures in Literacy (SAIL)
- U-FUTuRES Science Teacher Leaders & Online Graduate Certificate in Inquiry-Based Science
- Response-to-Intervention/Multi-Tiered System of Supports Model/Demonstration Site
- Classrooms of the Future Technology Integration Project
P.K. Yonge partners with researchers from the University of Florida and other institutions, to address critical issues in learning. As a laboratory for designing, testing, and disseminating promising practices, research partnerships and annual cycles of practitioner inquiry by every P.K. Yonge faculty member are integral to achieving the school’s mission. Today’s research opportunities are dedicated to designing, testing, and examining a collaborative, inclusive, personalized, tech-enriched, inquiry-driven, mastery-based learning experience for today’s and tomorrow’s learners.
Technology Tools for Learning
- Wearables & Science Learning (Chu, UF Comp & Info Science & Engineering)
- Touchscreen R & D (Anthony, UF Comp & Info Science & Engineering)
- VR Simulation & Climate Science (Pimentel, UF Journalism)
- Personalized Reading Apps & Reading Achievement (van Dijk, UF Education)
- 1:1 Chromebook Implementation (Dogan, UF Education)
- Personalized Math App & Impact on Achievement (Li, UF Education)
- Computational Thinking & Integrated Math/Fractions (Antonenko, Israel, Luo, UF Education)
- Codebreakers: Explorations in Morphology to Engage Underrepresented Students in STEM, Cryptography, & Cybersecurity (Antonenko,
- UF Education, NSF ITEST)
- Blended Learning for Mastery in Band Class (Peasant, UF Music Education)