Hi, I've been working on an instruction theory called "Feather in the Cap" from the idiom "another feather in the cap" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_feather_in_your_cap)
Why?
I was inspired by the lack of effectiveness of textbooks and universities to really address the problems of learning. Particularly scantrons (multiple choice bubble tests) and assignments from universities made me realize that as people grew older and acquired degrees, the amount of material they absorbed was a fraction of what they were taught, the material they were taught was a fraction of the material in the books, and although many of them pass with Bs and As, the majority of these same people do not really retain or understand large portions of material they claim degrees in.
Of course, most of you knew this already. What many miss, is why. When you, or any student is given an exam, especially in the west, your ability to pass or fail is based on total points accumulated the majority of the time.
Different grading techniques include:
Attendance
Improvement Ratios
Percentage of Material Memorized
Final Projects
Oral Exam or Presentation
Teaching Ability
These last three tend to be very effective tools, but a large portion favors a mix of the first three. So if you have five sections, such as a math test, and your child is being tested on multiplication, division, powers, negatives, and common square roots, your child could get an 80% overall, and completely bomb the division section.
Worse still, the class average could be 55% with a high of 82% and a curve could turn that 80% Into an A+
While this looks good on a transcript, your Child does not know how to divide.
eek To make matters worse, you child could continue like this for years, completely missing major points and ideas that forever alter their decisions in the future. Perhaps they have an interest in science and good grades, but gaps in their rudimentary skills scare them away.
How it works
What you know is what you know, and that's how it is. You don't "sort of know" 2+2 = 4, you either know, you don't, or you can guess. A feather in the cap is the idea that a physical object or demarcation, such as a feather or merit badge, is awarded for demonstrating understanding of a specific concept within a subject. Over time, the colors and designs of the demarcations change or evolve, like martial arts belts or military ranks. I chose feathers because they tend to come in a huge variety of colors and patterns.
for example:
tropical birdsThis is a variation of unschooling, in that a person not only learns at their own pace, but masters concepts instead of "classes". More advanced concepts build on previous concepts would be merited with a similar but more elaborate decal. A university level principle might be striped with myriad colors representing the prerequisite principles to approach the subject, which would mean in theory, a person could estimate what a subject was about just by looking at the feather/merit badge. Larger feathers for example could represent more depth in a subject, such as the difference between multiplying and multiplying 5 digit numbers.
Again, I just happened to choose feathers, but just about any symbol would do.
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