FairPlay Publications

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" width=200 BGCOLOR="#660000" TEXT="#F7F7FF"> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="11" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" WIDTH="11">   <A HREF="id30.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Toward the Integration of Knowledge"><U><IMG SRC="0400b0b0.png" border=0 width="11" height="11" ALT="next" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A>       <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="11" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" WIDTH="11">   <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="11" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" WIDTH="11"></div> <div> <A HREF="id30.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Toward the Integration of Knowledge"><U><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c8ffffff00.png" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Toward the Integration of Knowledge</U></A></div> <bR> <div> "A system of feedback to the teacher and students can reveal errors in learning shortly after they occur, and if appropriate corrections are introduced as they are needed, the educational system can be a self-correcting system so that errors made at one time can be corrected before they are compounded with later errors."</div> <div> Benjamin S. Bloom, Human Characteristics and School Learning, 1976.</div> <div> ______________________</div> <bR> <div> "Cease dependence on mass inspection. American firms typically inspect a product as it comes off the line ….  Defective parts are either thrown out or reworked.  In effect a company is paying workers to make defects and to correct them.  Quality comes not from inspection but from improvement of the process."</div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> Point Three of W. E. Deming's Fourteen Points echoes </div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" BGCOLOR="#FFFBF0" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B>FairPlay Publications</B></FONT>     |     <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="FairPlay Publications"><U>home</U></A></div> <div> FairPlay Publications</div> <bR> <div> Dear FairPlay visitor, welcome to our main website.  Please approach it as a sequential, step-by-step explanation of FairPlay's Knowledge Matrix program and how it works. </div> <div> You may then wish to browse our "FairPlay Publications  <A HREF="id22.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="FairPlay Publications Catalog "><U>Catalog</U></A>."  Here you will find several documents and programs relating to the The Knowledge Matrix.  </div> <bR> <div> <B>_____________________________________________________________________________</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>I</B><B>n</B><B> 1984 a group of educators formed FairPlay Services and Publications. </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Our chief focus has been to: </B></div> <bR> <div> Develop a model that elegantly integrates mathematical reasoning into all academic disciplines </div> <bR> <div> FairPlay found the conceptual DNA for such a model in Benjamin S. Bloom's familiar cognitive taxonomy. Based on the taxonomy, FairPlay developed the <B>Knowledge Matrix.</B>  The Matrix also incorporates quality control notions of <I>continuous improvement</I> and <I>constancy of purpose</I>. </div> <bR> <div> Using the Matrix we spent  five years--1996-2001--developing a mastery learning program that  elegantly integrates mathematical reasoning with reading and writing. This power of this pedagogy comes from Bloom's statement that:</div> <bR> <div> A system of feedback to the teacher and students can reveal errors in learning shortly after they occur, and if appropriate corrections are introduced as they are needed, the educational system can be a self-correcting system so that errors made at one time can be corrected before they are compounded with later errors.</div> <div> Benjamin S. Bloom,<I> </I><I>Human Characteristics and School Learning,</I><U> </U>1976.</div> <bR> <div> Since Bloom the desktop computer has become commonplace.  Rather than making Bloom's pedagogy available to only 20% of the students, the computer enables the Matrix to make it available to <B>all</B> students.  </div> <bR> <div>   Gradually, as all instruction becomes individualized, the teacher's office area becomes the "helpdesk." Instead of a group of students reporting to a classroom, each student comes for personalized instruction as needed. The helpdesk, in fact, could be any friendly place in the building. The Matrix:</div> <bR> <div> 1. <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#660000" FACE="Arial" ><B> Reduces</B></FONT> a teacher's classroom management responsibilities. This means that those non-teaching duties of a teacher--maintaining order, taking roll, signing medical excuses, issuing bathroom passes, collecting papers, distributing papers, assigning homework, rule making, giving quizzes, tests, midterms, and finals, hall duty--all of these duties no longer monopolize the day. The Matrix enables a teacher to spend far more time managing learning and far less time managing the classroom.  </div> <bR> <div> FairPlay was able to provide a full regimen of instruction to approximately 400 pre-college students, 1996-2001. We used the classroom for general orientation, which took three class sessions each semester. Thereafter, instead of a classroom, we used  the <I>help desk </I>and the <I>Matrix.</I></div> <bR> <div> 3.<FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#660000" FACE="Arial" ><B>Eliminates</B></FONT> the need for tutoring as an academic support system. A student in a FairPlay Matrix program has no need for extra homework, alternative schooling, or "catch-up" tutoring.  The helpdesk, essentially, becomes it own blue-ribbon tutoring program.</div> <bR> <div> 4. <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#660000" FACE="Arial" ><B>Eliminates</B></FONT> the need for substitute teachers.  With no classroom the need for classroom management evaporates. This eliminates hall duty, writing passes, giving make-up assignments, taking roll, and managing discipline problems. </div> <bR> <div> The student's Matrix sheet provides a continuous update of his or her assignments and academic needs.  When not at the helpdesk the student can be involved in other school activities or attend study hall.  The teacher is free, now, to teach and the student is free to learn.</div> <bR> <div> 5.  <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#660000" FACE="Arial" ><B>Causes </B></FONT>the student, not the teacher, to initiate all assignment related questions.  Each student must initiate helpdesk visits and must come with questions.  </div> <bR> <div> 6.<B> </B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#660000" FACE="Arial" ><B> Enables</B></FONT> a teacher to develop an individualized curriculum for each student and to provide real time, personal guidance.  Each school day a given student enrolled in the Matrix program will have the opportunity to visit personally with an adult professional. <B> </B></div> <bR> <div> 7.  <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#660000" FACE="Arial" ><B>Assures </B></FONT><B>constancy of purpose and continuous improvement.</B>  The Matrix uses Bloom's cognitive taxonomy as the continuum for improvement.  The more a student improves his cognitive skills regarding the subject at hand the more he or she advances on the cognitive continuum. Cognitive mastery, in turn, becomes the constant purpose of all instruction. <B>The frequency of a student's assignments and of his or her visits to the help desk measures the student's constancy of purpose.</B></div> <bR> <div> 8. <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#660000" FACE="Arial" ><B> Provides</B></FONT> a continuously updated progress report for each student. This replaces tests, quizzes, midterms, finals, report cards and grade sheets.  In brief, it serves as the student's academic resume. </div> <bR> <div>  <A HREF="id30.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Toward the Integration of Knowledge"><U>Toward the Integration of Knowledge</U></A> </div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div>  </div> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>