Jason Gulya's response to transactional model of education

Here’s the game plan for disrupting the transactional model of education.

First, I’ve been researching and writing a lot about this model of education.

These are its essential moves.

1️⃣ Students create educational products.

2️⃣ Students trade in those products for grades.

3️⃣ Students trade in those grades for degrees and certificates.

4️⃣ Students trade in those degrees and certificates for jobs.

I’m only going to focus on 1 and 2, because those are in my immediate focus.

So, here’s the plan.

Attack the idea behind educational products.

Design assignments that privilege process as much as process. This means no one-and-done and two-and-one assignments. Lean towards process-folios, Project-Based Learning assignments that document process, and regular reflection.

Redesign assessment around this ideas. Assess clusters (which include a multi-step process) rather than single assignments.

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De-emphasize points and percentages

Use Specifications grading instead of traditional grading. This means setting a baseline for achieving a B, based on work and effort.

Assignments will be assessed on a Complete/Incomplete system, encouraging students to try again as they practice skills.

Students will also regularly self-assess, and that self-assessment will be the foundation of our conversation about what they’ve learned.