The Breakthrough
Learners have the ability to catch-up 4-6 grades of knowledge in Mathematics within a single year. Personalised diagnostic assessment can be used to actively engage learners in their own learning process. The building of knowledge along logical learning trajectories helps learners make sense of the subject they are learning. The catching-up of learning gaps can take place concurrently to other grade-level support.
Mind the Gap
When major learning gaps build over time, there is little difference in knowledge between Grade 9 and Grade 11 learners. The learning gaps are evident in Mathematics are possibly even worse in Science.
Scaling for the Future
The personalised catch-up approach can be scaled across multiple schools and provinces to achieve significant results with only the weekly support of a facilitator. The approach lends itself to an implementation that assures student engagement to a greater degree. Students engaged more deeply with their mathematics, working slower with better precision and greater perseverance when a part of the catch-up process.
Renewed Maths Hope
The learning trajectory of the Students for Excellence programme (catching up 4-6 grades over a single year) can be replicated using a more scalable approach using personalised content guided by a facilitator. By focusing on the most fundamental concepts (the Numbers thread), some students experienced a knock-on effect other, more advanced, concepts creating an accelerated impact. Student engagement was observed to be a significant moderator to improvement, with the family circumstances contributing toward decreased levels of motivation.
The Learning Plateau
Learning gaps widen over time, from a four-year gap in Grade 9 to a six-year gap in Grade 12. Without intervention, learning plateaus at Grade 6 level, creating a ceiling beyond which students cannot advance.
Students even in Grade 12 are missing even the most foundational understandings within Numbers and Fractions.
A Beacon of Hope
Students have the ability to catch-up as much as 4 years of knowledge within a 3 month period. Consistency in implementation and support improves outcomes. On average, this cohort improved by 44% in class based assessments after catching up their backlogs.