Teaching for Mastery with Mark McCourt

Could you tell listeners about your career to this point and what you are working on at the moment?

Your new books is called ‘teaching for mastery’ and you begin it by highlighting those that have influenced your thinking in this book. Who were these early players and what influence did they have on the mastery model for a schooling ?

Follow up : Bloom has had a mixed reception recently but you highlight his work here , I also talked with Tom Guskey earlier this week , how influential has his work been ?

What are the core elements of a mastery model?

What is the conveyer belt approach to curriculum and why is it so prevalent in England?

Is this model applicable outside of the teaching of mathematics?

Chapter 3 discusses learning from cognitive science , what are the key lessons we should take from that field?

Ben Gordon wanted to discuss mixed ability vs mixed attainment vs setting , so if listeners are thinking of changing what should they be aware of ?

In the chapter on implementation, you talk about embedding the mastery model for schools that want to change their current model . What advice would you have for leaders looking to begin this long and complex process?

What do you mean by a learning episode ?

How do you phase learning in a mastery approach ?

What conclusions did you draw from writing this book?