Mastery, Deeper Learning & the Greater Depth Standard explained
Achieving…..Greater Depth Standard.
This is a summative assessment made by teachers about a child’s journey through age related expectations/objectives. To be working at greater Depth standard in maths you are working above the expected age expectations as proposed by National Curriculum guidelines.(independently and confidently) In Yr1, 2 and EYFS the term “exceeding” on reports to parents mirrors this assessment.
Einstein was working at greater depth standard!
Mastery:
Mastery is a bit like winning a medal in something that you excel in.
Mo Farah has mastered running! Mary Berry has mastered baking.
To master a concept or skill you have to know it inside out and be able to represent things in lots of different ways, different situations(i.e pictorially, orally, using symbols and written methods.) You are embedding what you have already learnt.
You should be able to make connections, reason, justify and explain your thinking and answers.
Mastery should see you solving problems of greater complexity where an approach is not directly obvious.
Deeper learning
This is a process…deeper learning is a journey that gets you to mastery.
It is NOT age related…anyone can be given opportunities to explore learning deeply. It has been referred to as challenge as well.
What does it look like?
A pupil really understands when they can:
- Describe the maths (or subject) in his or her own words.
- Represent a problem in a variety of ways (using concrete resources, pictures or symbols.)
- Explain it to someone else.
- Justify why they think they have the correct answer/explanation.
- Make up their own examples.
- See connections between it and other concepts or ideas.
- Recognise the idea/concept in different situations and contexts.
- Make use of the subject in various ways, including new situations.
“I know this so I now can do that”
- A good deeper learning task should be accessible to all students who can approach it in a variety of ways. A deeper learning task should make students think deeply and make connections to different areas of that subject.
- Deeper learning should be challenging and embed concepts met so far.