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
Reconsidering architecture and interior design supports significant and sustainable shifts in teaching and learning. The placement of walls, halls, doors, windows, outdoor spaces, and furniture has a significant impact on how, where, and what kinds of learning can take place. The P.K. Yonge elementary building, which opened in 2012, and the P.K. Yonge secondary building, which opened in 2021, are living examples of innovative school design and the teaching and learning made possible by reconsidering school architecture.
K-12 Curriculum & Instruction
At P.K. Yonge, we design and research the K-12 educational system as we dedicate ourselves to graduating students who not only “pass tests” but, more importantly, who can think, create, collaborate, and communicate thoughtfully, critically, and with evidence. P.K. Yonge is a place where interested educators can observe and consult with P.K. Yonge teachers as they put bold ideas, emerging theories, and research into PRACTICE.
Areas of Work Include:
- Blended Learning | Edutopia’s “Schools That Work” Making It Work in Your Classroom | Working with One iPad
- Collaborative Literacy
- Student-Centered Assessment
- Universal Design for Learning
Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS)
Optimizing available time, personnel, and funding to support the social, emotional, and educational needs of our students defines the framework of our Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS). Over the past ten years, we have found new pathways for aligning instructional support as we leverage IDEA, Title I, and Title II funding to create seamless systems to support our students.
Edutopia “Schools That Work”
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)
Online Literacy & Source Materials
- Online Resources & Information Literacy (Kohnen, UF Education)
Reading & Critical Literacy
- Reading Motivation (Almutwa, UF Education)
Computer Science
- Strategies for Inclusive Computer Science Education (Israel, UF Education)
- Collaborative Approaches to Computer Science Education (Boyer, UF Comp & Info Science & Engineering)
Inquiry-Based Science
- Effectively Implementing Inquiry-Based Science Practices to Engage All Learners (Pringle, UF Education)
- Video-Based Lesson Study to Publish Model Lessons in Elementary Inquiry-Based Science (Lord, UF Education)
- Integrated STEM via 3D Digitization, Printing, & Paleontology (Antonenko, UF Education & FL Museum of Natural History, NSF ITEST iDigFossils)
- Global Plant Diversity & Human “Blindness” To Non-Flowering Plants (Sessa, UF IFAS)
- Bone Biomaterials Engineering (James, UF Materials & Science Engineering)
Multi-tiered System of Supports
- K-12 Development of Academic Enablers (Anthony & Waldron, UF Education)
- Developmental Study of Children’s Grip Strength (Schneider, UF Occupational Therapy)
- Positive Behavior System of Supports (Gage, MacSuga-Gage, UF Special Education)
Universal Design for Learning
- Investigating the Role of Technology in Response to Learner Variability with Middle School Teachers (Dawson, Dana, & Kohnen, UF Education, Shewey Project)
- Moral Reasoning as a Framework for Professional Learning—Examining the Role of Implicit Bias in Decision Making via School-Based Case Studies (Kerr, UF Psychology)
K-12 Mental Health Program & Supports
- Social-Emotional Learning (Anthony, UF Education)
- Preparedness of High School Teachers to Identify/Respond to Mental Health Needs (Saunders, UF Education)
- Safer, Smarter Kids (Kerr, UF Psychology)
- Social Media Use & Self-Worth (Zollicoffer, UF Psychology)
- Language/Cognitive Development & Social Group Preferences (Sudo, UF Psychology)
- Middle School Cyberbullying & Parent Awareness/Education (Doty, UF Family, Youth & Community Services)
- Play-Based Therapy to Promote Positive Behavior (Swank, UF Counseling Education)
Other
- School Improvement through School-Wide Teacher Inquiry (Dana, UF Education)
- Modern Band Class (Haning, UF Music Education)
- School Yard Learning & Environmental Stewardship (Hostetler, UF Wildlife Ecology & Conservation; Ito, Japanese Fulbright Scholar)