Jean Piaget

He became intrigued with the reasons children gave for their wrong answers to the questions
that required logical thinking. He believed that these incorrect answers revealed important
differences between the thinking of adults and children.
Piaget (1936) described his work as genetic epistemology (i.e. the origins of thinking). Genetics
is the scientific study of where things come from (their origins). Epistemology is concerned with
the basic categories of thinking, that is to say, the framework or structural properties of
intelligence. What Piaget wanted to do was not to measure how well children could count, spell
or solve problems as a way of grading their I.Q. What he was more interested in was the way in
which fundamental concepts like the very idea of number", time" quantity", causality", justice"
and so on emerged.
Piaget (1936) was the first psychologist to make a systematic study of cognitive development.
His contributions include a theory of child cognitive development, detailed observational studies
of cognition in children, and a series of simple but ingenious tests to reveal different cognitive
abilities.
Before Piagets work, the common assumption in psychology was that children are merely less
competent thinkers than adults. Piaget showed that young children think in strikingly different
ways compared to adults.
According to Piaget, children are born with a very basic mental structure (genetically inherited
and evolved) on which all subsequent learning and knowledge is based.
Piaget's Theory Differs From Others In Several Ways:
It is concerned with children, rather than all learners.
It focuses on development, rather than learning per se, so it does not address
learning of information or specific behaviors.
It proposes discrete stages of development, marked by qualitative differences, rather
than a gradual increase in number and complexity of behaviors, concepts, ideas, etc.
The goal of the theory is to explain the mechanisms and processes by which the infant, and then
the child, develops into an individual who can reason and think using hypotheses.
There Are Three Basic Components To Piaget's Cognitive Theory:
Schemas
Piaget (1952) defined a schema as 'a cohesive, repeatable action sequence possessing
component actions that are tightly interconnected and governed by a core meaning'.
In more simple terms Piaget called the schema the basic building block of intelligent behavior
a way of organizing knowledge. Indeed, it is useful to think of schemas as units of knowledge,
each relating to one aspect of the world, including objects, actions and abstract (i.e. theoretical)
concepts.
Wadsworth (2004) suggests that schemata (the plural of schema) be thought of as 'index cards'
filed in the brain, each one telling an individual how to react to incoming stimuli or information.
When Piaget talked about the development of a person's mental processes, he was referring to
increases in the number and complexity of the schemata that a person had learned.

When a child's existing schemas are capable of explaining what it can perceive around it, it is
said to be in a state of equilibrium, i.e. a state of cognitive (i.e. mental) balance.
Piaget emphasized the importance of schemas in cognitive development, and described how
they were developed or acquired. A schema can be defined as a set of linked mental
representations of the world, which we use both to understand and to respond to situations. The
assumption is that we store these mental representations and apply them when needed.
For example, a person might have a schema about buying a meal in a restaurant. The schema
is a stored form of the pattern of behavior which includes looking at a menu, ordering food,
eating it and paying the bill. This is an example of a type of schema called a 'script'. Whenever
they are in a restaurant, they retrieve this schema from memory and apply it to the situation.
The schemas Piaget described tend to be simpler than this - especially those used by infants.
He described how - as a child gets older - his or her schemas become more numerous and
elaborate.
The illustration (above) demonstrates a child developing a schema for a dog by assimilating
information about the dog. The child then sees a cat, using accommodation compares existing
knowledge of a dog to form a schema of a cat. Animation created by Daurice Grossniklaus and
Bob Rodes (03/2002).
Piaget believed that newborn babies have a small number of innate schemas - even before they
have had much opportunity to experience the world. These neonatal schemas are the cognitive
structures underlying innate reflexes. These reflexes are genetically programmed into us.
For example, babies have a sucking reflex, which is triggered by something touching the baby's
lips. A baby will suck a nipple, a comforter (dummy), or a person's finger. Piaget therefore
assumed that the baby has a 'sucking schema'.
Similarly the grasping reflex which is elicited when something touches the palm of a baby's
hand, or the rooting reflex, in which a baby will turn its head towards something which touches
its cheek, were assumed to result operations: for example shaking a rattle would be the
combination of two schemas, grasping and shaking.
Assimilation and Accommodation
Jean Piaget (1952; see also Wadsworth, 2004) viewed intellectual growth as a process
ofadaptation (adjustment) to the world. This happens through:

Assimilation
Which is using an existing schema to deal with a new object or situation.

Accommodation
This happens when the existing schema (knowledge) does not work, and needs to be
changed
to
deal
with
a
new
object
or
situation.

Equilibration

 This is the force which moves development along. Piaget believed that cognitive
development did not progress at a steady rate, but rather in leaps and bounds.
Equilibrium occurs when a child's schemas can deal with most new information through
assimilation. However, an unpleasant state of disequilibrium occurs when new information
cannot be fitted into existing schemas (assimilation).
Equilibration is the force which drives the learning process as we do not like to be frustrated
and will seek to restore balance by mastering the new challenge (accommodation).
Once the new information is acquired the process of assimilation with the new schema will
continue until the next time we need to make an adjustment to it.

Example of Assimilation
A 2 year old child sees a man who is bald on top of his head and has long frizzy hair on the
sides. To his fathers horror, the toddler shouts Clown, clown (Siegler et al., 2003).
Example of Accommodation
In the clown incident, the boys father explained to his son that the man was not a clown and
that even though his hair was like a clowns, he wasnt wearing a funny costume and wasnt
doing silly things to make people laugh.
With this new knowledge, the boy was able to change his schema of clown and make this idea
fit better to a standard concept of clown.
Stages of Development
A child's cognitive development is about a child developing or constructing a mental model of the
world.
Imagine what it would be like if you did not have a mental model of your world. It would mean
that you would not be able to make so much use of information from your past experience, or to
plan future actions.
Jean Piaget was interested both in how children learnt and in how they thought.
Piaget studied children from infancy to adolescence, and carried out many of his own
investigations using his three children. He used the following research methods:
Piaget made careful, detailed naturalistic observations of children. These were mainly his own
children and the children of friends. From these he wrote diary descriptions charting their
development.
He also used clinical interviews and observations of older children who were able to understand
questions and hold conversations.

Piaget believed that children think differently than adults, and stated they go through 4 universal
stages of cognitive development. Development is therefore biologically based and changes as
the child matures. Cognition therefore develops in all children in the same sequence of stages.
Each child goes through the stages in the same order, and no stage can be missed out although some individuals may never attain the later stages. There are individual differences in
the rate at which children progress through stages.
Piaget did not claim that a particular stage was reached at a certain age - although descriptions
of the stages often include an indication of the age at which the average child would reach each
stage.
Piaget (1952) believed that these stages are universal - i.e. that the same sequence of
development occurs in children all over the world, whatever their culture.
Stage
Development

of

Key Feature

Research Study

Sensorimotor
0 - 2 yrs.

Object
Permanence

Blanket & Ball Study

Preoperational
2 - 7 yrs.

Egocentrism

Three Mountains

Concrete
Operational
7 11 yrs.

Conservation

Conservation of Number

Formal Operational
11yrs +

Manipulate
ideas in head,
e.g.
Abstract
Reasoning

Pendulum Task

Educational Implications
Piaget (1952) did not explicitly relate his theory to education, although later researchers have
explained how features of Piaget's theory can be applied to teaching and learning.
Piaget has been extremely influential in developing educational policy and teaching practice. For
example, a review of primary education by the UK government in 1966 was based strongly on
Piagets theory. The result of this review led to the publication of the Plowden report (1967).
Discovery learning the idea that children learn best through doing and actively exploring - was
seen as central to the transformation of the primary school curriculum.
'The report's recurring themes are individual learning, flexibility in the curriculum, the centrality of
play in children's learning, the use of the environment, learning by discovery and the importance
of the evaluation of children's progress - teachers should 'not assume that only what is
measurable is valuable.'

Because Piaget's theory is based upon biological maturation and stages, the notion of
'readiness' is important. Readiness concerns when certain information or concepts should be
taught. According to Piaget's theory children should not be taught certain concepts until they
have reached the appropriate stage of cognitive development.
According to Piaget (1958), assimilation and accommodation require an active learner, not a
passive one, because problem-solving skills cannot be taught, they must be discovered.
Within the classroom learning should be student centred a accomplished through active
discovery learning. The role of the teacher is to facilitate learning, rather than direct tuition.
Therefore, teachers should encourage the following within the classroom:
Focus on the process of learning, rather than the end product of it.
Using active methods that require rediscovering or reconstructing "truths".
Using collaborative, as well as individual activities (so children can learn from each
other).
Devising situations that present useful problems, and create disequilibrium in the child.
Evaluate the level of the child's development, so suitable tasks can be set.

Evaluation of Piaget's Theory

Support

The influence of Piagets ideas in developmental psychology has been enormous.

He changed how people viewed the childs world and their methods of studying children. He
was an inspiration to many who came after and took up his ideas. Piaget's ideas have
generated a huge amount of research which has increased our understanding of cognitive
development.

His ideas have been of practical use in understanding and communicating with
children, particularly in the field of education (re: Discovery Learning).

Criticisms

Are the stages real? Vygotsky and Bruner would rather not talk about stages at
all, preferring to see development as a continuous process. Others have queried the age
ranges of the stages. Some studies have shown that progress to the formal operational
stage is not guaranteed.

For example, Keating (1979) reported that 40-60% of college students fail

at formal operation tasks, and Dasen (1994) states that only one-third of adults ever
reach the formal operational stage.
Because Piaget concentrated on the universal stages of cognitive development
and biological maturation, he failed to consider the effect that the social setting and culture
may have on cognitive development.

Dasen (1994) cites studies he conducted in remote parts of the central

Australian desert with 8-14 year old Aborigines. He gave them conservation of liquid
tasks and spatial awareness tasks. He found that the ability to conserve came later in the
aboriginal children, between aged 10 and 13 ( as opposed to between 5 and 7, with

Piagets Swiss sample). However, he found that spatial awareness abilities developed
earlier amongst the Aboriginal children than the Swiss children. Such a study
demonstrates cognitive development is not purely dependent on maturation but on
cultural factors too spatial awareness is crucial for nomadic groups of people.
Vygotsky, a contemporary of Piaget, argued that social interaction is
crucial for cognitive development. According to Vygotsky the child's learning always
occurs in a social context in co-operation with someone more skilful (MKO). This social
interaction provides language opportunities and language is the foundation of thought.
Piagets methods (observation and clinical interviews) are more open to biased

interpretation than other methods. Because Piaget conducted the observations alone the
data collected are based on his own subjective interpretation of events. It would have been
more reliable if Piaget conducted the observations with another researcher and compared
the results afterwards to check if they are similar (i.e. have inter rater reliability).

Although clinical interviews allow the researcher to explore data in more

depth, the interpretation of the interviewer may be biased. For example, children may not
understand the question/s, they have short attention spans, they cannot express
themselves very well and may be trying to please the experimenter. Such methods meant
that Piaget may have formed inaccurate conclusions.
As several studies have shown Piaget underestimated the abilities of children
because his tests were sometimes confusing or difficult to understand (e.g. Hughes, 1975).
Piaget failed to distinguish between competence (what a child is capable of doing) and
performance (what a child can show when given a particular task). When tasks were altered,
performance (and therefore competence) was affected. Therefore Piaget may have
underestimated childrens cognitive abilities.

For example a child might have object permanence (competence) but still
not be able to search for objects (performance). When Piaget hid objects from babies he
found that it wasnt till after 9 months that they looked for it. Whilst Piaget relied on
manual search methods whether the child was looking for the object or not later
research such as Baillargeon and Devos (1991), reported that infants as young as 4
months looked longer at a moving carrot that didnt do what it expected, suggesting they
had some sense of permanence, otherwise they wouldnt have had any expectation of
what it should or shouldnt do.
Johann Friedrich Herbart

Johann Friedrich Herbart, (born May 4, 1776, Oldenburgdied Aug. 14, 1841, Gttingen,
Hanover), German philosopher and educator, who led the renewed 19th-century interest in
Realism and is considered among the founders of modern scientific pedagogy.
After studying under Johann Gottlieb Fichte at Jena (1794), Herbart worked as a tutor at
Interlaken, Switz., from 1797 to 1800, during which period he made the acquaintance of
Pestalozzi. Becoming a licentiate of the University of Gttingen in 1802, he was appointed
extraordinary professor there in 1805. At the close of 1808 he became Kants successor as
professor at Knigsberg. There he also conducted a seminary of pedagogy until 1833, when he
returned as professor of philosophy to Gttingen, where he remained until his death.
Herbarts position in the history of philosophy is due mainly to his contributions to the philosophy
of mind. His aims in this respect are expressed by the title of his textbookPsychologie als
Wissenschaft neu gegrundet auf Erfahrung, Metaphysik, und Mathematik, 2 vol. (182425;
Psychology As Knowledge Newly Founded on Experience, Metaphysics, and Mathematics); of
central importance is the inclusion of Mathematik. He rejected the whole concept of faculties (in

Kantian terms) and regarded mental life as the manifestation of elementary sensory units or
presentations (Vorstellungen). These he conceived as mental forces rather than as mere
ideas in Lockes sense. The study of their interactions gave rise to a statics and dynamics of
the mind, to be expressed in mathematical formulas like those of Newtonian mechanics. Ideas
need not be conscious; and they might either combine to produce composite resultants or
conflict with one another so that some get temporarily inhibited or repressed below the
threshold of consciousness. An organized but unconscious system of associated ideas formed
an apperception mass; such a system could apperceive a new presentation and thus give it
richer meaning. On this basis Herbart developed a theory of education as a branch of applied
psychology.
His theory of educationknown as Herbartianismwas set out principally in two
works, Pestalozzis Idee eines A B C der Anschauung (1802; Pestalozzis Idea of an A B C of
Sense Perception) andAllgemeine Pdagogik (1806; Universal Pedagogy), which advocated
five formal steps in teaching: (1) preparation, a process of relating new material to be learned to
relevant past ideas or memories in order to give the pupil a vital interest in the topic under
consideration; (2) presentation, presenting new material by means of concrete objects or actual
experience; (3) association, thorough assimilation of the new idea through comparison with
former ideas and consideration of their similarities and differences in order to implant the new
idea in the mind; (4) generalization, a procedure especially important to the instruction of
adolescents and designed to develop the mind beyond the level of perception and the concrete;
and (5) application, using acquired knowledge not in a purely utilitarian way, but so that every
learned idea becomes a part of the functional mind and an aid to a clear, vital interpretation of
life. This step is presumed possible only if the student immediately applies the new idea, making
it his own.
Herbart maintained that a science of education was possible, and he furthered the idea that
education should be a subject for university study. His ideas took firm hold in Germany in the
1860s and spread also to the United States. By the turn of the century, however, the five steps
had degenerated to a mechanical formalism, and the ideas behind them were replaced by new
pedagogical theories, in particular those of John Dewey.
Benjamin Bloom
(February 21, 1913 - September 13, 1999) was an American educational psychologist who
made significant contributions to the classification of educational objectives and the theory of
mastery learning. His research, which showed that educational settings and home environments
can foster human potential, transformed education. Bloom developed a "taxonomy of
educational objectives" which classified the different learning objectives and skills that educators
set for students. Bloom divided educational objectives into three "domains:" Affective,
Psychomotor, and Cognitive. It is hierarchical, like other taxonomies, meaning that learning at
the higher levels is dependent on having attained prerequisite knowledge and skills at lower
levels. Bloom intended that the Taxonomy motivate educators to focus on all three domains,
creating a more holistic form of education.
Bloom also carried out significant research on mastery learning, showing that it is not
innategiftedness that allows one to succeed, but rather hard work. His studies showed that the
most successful in their fields all put in at least ten years of dedicated effort before achieving
significant recognition. Bloom's work stressed that attainment was a product of learning, and

learning was influenced by opportunity and effort. It was a powerful and optimistic conception of
the possibilities that education can provide, and one that Bloom was able to bring into practice.
Based on his efforts, evaluation methods and concepts were radically changed. His activism
also supported the creation of the Head Start program that provides support to pre-school age
children of low-income families, giving them opportunities to begin a life of learning and
consequent achievement. However, his research led him to realize that early experiences within
the family are the most significant in providing a good foundation for learning.
Life
Benjamin S. Bloom was born on February 21, 1913, in Lansford, Pennsylvania.
As a youth, Bloom had an insatiable curiosity about the world. He was a voracious reader and a
thorough researcher. He read everything and remembered well what he read. As a child in
Lansford, Pennsylvania, the librarian would not allow him to return books that he had checked
out earlier that same day until he was able to convince her that he had, indeed, read them
completely.
Bloom was especially devoted to his family (his wife, Sophie, and two sons), and his nieces and
nephews. He had been a handball champion in college and taught his sons both handball and
Ping-Pong, chess, how to compose and type stories, as well as to invent.
He received a bachelors and masters degree from Pennsylvania State University in 1935, and
a Ph.D. in Education from the University of Chicago in March 1942. He became a staff member
of the Board of Examinations at the University of Chicago in 1940 and served in that capacity
until 1943, at which time he became university examiner, a position he held until 1959.
He served as educational adviser to the governments of Israel, India, and numerous other
nations.
What Bloom had to offer his students was a model of an inquiring scholar, someone who
embraced the idea that education as a process was an effort to realize human potential, and
even more, it was an effort designed to make potential possible. Education was an exercise in
optimism. Blooms commitment to the possibilities of education provided inspiration for many
who studied with him.[1]
Benjamin Bloom died Monday, Sept. 13, 1999 in his home in Chicago. He was 86.
Work
Benjamin Bloom was an influential academic educational psychologist. His main contributions to
the area of education involved mastery learning, his model of talent development, and his
Taxonomy of Educational Objectives in the cognitive domain.
He focused much of his research on the study of educational objectives and, ultimately,
proposed that any given task favors one of three psychological domains: Cognitive, affective, or

psychomotor. The cognitive domain deals with the ability to process and utilize (as a measure)
information in a meaningful way. The affective domain is concerned with the attitudes and
feelings that result from the learning process. Lastly, the psychomotor domain involves
manipulative or physical skills.
Bloom headed a group of cognitive psychologists at the University of Chicago who developed a
taxonomic hierarchy of cognitive-driven behavior deemed to be important to learning and
measurable capability. For example, an objective that begins with the verb "describe" is
measurable but one that begins with the verb "understand" is not.
His classification of educational objectives, Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, Handbook 1:
Cognitive Domain, published in 1956, addresses cognitive domain versus the psychomotor and
affective domains of knowledge. It was designed to provide a more reliable procedure for
assessing students and the outcomes of educational practice. Blooms taxonomy provides
structure in which to categorize instructional objectives and instructional assessment. His
taxonomy was designed to help teachers and Instructional Designers to classify instructional
objectives and goals. The foundation of his taxonomy was based on the idea that not all learning
objectives and outcomes are equal. For example, memorization of facts, while important, is not
the same as the learned ability to analyze or evaluate. In the absence of a classification system
(a taxonomy), teachers and Instructional Designers may choose, for example, to emphasize
memorization of facts (which make for easier testing) than emphasizing other (and likely more
important) learned capabilities.
Taxonomy of educational objectives
The Bloom's Wheel, according to the Bloom's verbs and matching assessment types. The verbs
are all feasible and measurable.
Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives is a classification of the different objectives and
skills that educators set for students (learning objectives). Bloom divided educational objectives
into three "domains:" Affective, Psychomotor, and Cognitive. This taxonomy is hierarchical,
meaning that learning at the higher levels is dependent on having attained prerequisite
knowledge and skills at lower. Bloom intended that the Taxonomy motivate educators to focus on
all three domains, creating a more holistic form of education.
Affective
Skills in the affective domain describe the way people react emotionally and their ability to feel
another living thing's pain or joy. Affective objectives typically target the awareness and growth
in attitudes, emotion, and feelings. There are five levels in the affective domain moving through
the lowest order processes to the highest:
Receiving
The lowest level; the student passively pays attention. Without this level no learning can
occur.

Responding
The student actively participates in the learning process, not only attends to a stimulus,
the student also reacts in some way.
Valuing
The student attaches a value to an object, phenomenon, or piece of information.
Organizing
The student can put together different values, information, and ideas and accommodate
them within his/her own schema; comparing, relating, and elaborating on what has been
learned.
Characterizing
The student has held a particular value or belief that now exerts influence on his/her
behavior so that it becomes a characteristic.
Psychomotor
Skills in the psychomotor domain describe the ability to physically manipulate a tool or
instrument like a hand or a hammer. Psychomotor objectives usually focus on change and/or
development in behavior and/or skills.
Bloom and his colleagues never created subcategories for skills in the psychomotor domain, but
since then other educators have created their own psychomotor taxonomies.[2] For example,
Harrow wrote of the following categories:
Reflex movements
Reactions that are not learned.
Fundamental movements
Basic movements such as walking, or grasping.
Perception
Response to stimuli such as visual, auditory, kinesthetic, or tactile discrimination.
Physical abilities
Stamina that must be developed for further development such as strength and agility.
Skilled movements
Advanced learned movements as one would find in sports or acting.
No discursive communication
Effective body language, such as gestures and facial expressions.[3]
Cognitive
Categories in the cognitive domain of Bloom's Taxonomy (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2000)

Skills in the cognitive domain revolve around knowledge, comprehension, and "thinking
through" a particular topic. Traditional education tends to emphasize the skills in this domain,
particularly the lower-order objectives. There are six levels in the taxonomy, moving through the
lowest order processes to the highest:
Knowledge
Exhibit memory of previously-learned materials by recalling facts, terms, basic concepts
and answers

Knowledge of specificsterminology, specific facts

Knowledge of ways and means of dealing with specificsconventions, trends

and sequences, classifications and categories, criteria, methodology

Knowledge of the universals and abstractions in a fieldprinciples and

generalizations, theories and structures

Comprehension
Demonstrative understanding of facts and ideas by organizing, comparing, translating,
interpreting, giving descriptions, and stating main ideas

Translation
Interpretation
Extrapolation

Application
Using new knowledge. Solve problems to new situations by applying acquired
knowledge, facts, techniques, and rules in a different way
Analysis
Examine and break information into parts by identifying motives or causes. Make
inferences and find evidence to support generalizations

Analysis of elements
Analysis of relationships
Analysis of organizational principles

Synthesis
Compile information together in a different way by combining elements in a new pattern
or proposing alternative solutions

Production of a unique communication

Production of a plan, or proposed set of operations
Derivation of a set of abstract relations

Evaluation
Present and defend opinions by making judgments about information, validity of ideas or
quality of work based on a set of criteria

Judgments in terms of internal evidence

Judgments in terms of external criteria

Some critics of Bloom's Taxonomy's (cognitive domain) admit the existence of these six
categories, but question the existence of a sequential, hierarchical link. [4] Also, the revised

edition of Bloom's taxonomy moved Synthesis to a higher position than Evaluation. Some
consider the three lowest levels as hierarchically ordered, but the three higher levels as parallel.
Others say that it is sometimes better to move to Application before introducing Concepts. This
thinking would seem to relate to the method of Problem Based Learning.
Studies in early childhood
In 1964, Bloom published Stability and Change in Human Characteristics. That work, based on a
number of longitudinal studies, led to an upsurge of interest in early childhood education,
including the creation of the Head Start program. He was invited to testify to the Congress of the
United States about the importance of the first four years of the childs life as the critical time to
promote cognitive development. His testimony had an impact in promoting and maintaining
funding for this program. He argued that human performance was often a reflection of social
privilege and social class. Children who enjoyed the benefits of habits, attitudes, linguistic skills,
and cognitive abilities available to the more privileged members of society were likely to do well
at school. To confer additional privileges on those who already had a head start was to create an
array of inequities that would eventually exact extraordinary social costs. He further stated that
since environment plays such an important role in providing opportunity to those already
privileged, it seemed reasonable to believe that by providing the kind of support that the
privileged already enjoyed to those who did not have it, a positive difference in their performance
would be made.
Bloom showed that many physical and mental characteristics of adults can be predicted through
testing done while they are still children. For example, he demonstrated that 50 percent of the
variations in intelligence at age 17 can be estimated at age four. He also found that early
experiences in the home have a great impact on later learning, findings that caused him to
rethink the value of the Head Start program.
Bloom summarized his work in a 1980 book titled, All Our Children Learning, which showed from
evidence gathered in the United States and abroad that virtually all children can learn at a high
level when appropriate practices are undertaken in the home and school.
In the later years of his career, Bloom turned his attention to talented youngsters and led a
research team that produced the book,Developing Talent in Young People, published in 1985.
Mastery learning
In 1985, Bloom conducted a study suggesting that at least ten years of hard work (a "decade of
dedication"), regardless of genius or natural prodigy status, is required to achieve recognition in
any respected field.[5] This shows starkly in Bloom's 1985 study of 120 elite athletes, performers,
artists, biochemists, and mathematicians. Every single person in the study took at least a
decade of hard study or practice to achieve international recognition. Olympic swimmers trained
for an average of 15 years before making the team; the best concert pianists took 15 years to
earn international recognition. Top researchers, sculptors, and mathematicians put in similar
amounts of time.

Some of the effects of mastery learning include:

Increased student self-assurance

Reduced competition and encouraged cooperation among students;

that is, students were enabled to help one another

Assessments as learning tools rather than official grades

Second chance at success for students

Legacy
Bloom was considered a world guru of education. He was first involved in world education when
the Ford Foundation sent him to India in 1957, to conduct a series of workshops on evaluation.
This led to a complete revision of the examination system in India. It was also the beginning of
his work as an educational adviser and consultant to countries around the world. He also served
as educational adviser to the governments of Israel and numerous other nations. In the U.S. and
abroad, Bloom was instrumental in shifting the instructional emphasis from teaching facts to
teaching students how to use the knowledge they had learned. He revolutionized education
through his thinking that, backed by significant research evidence, that what any person can
learn, all can learn, except perhaps for the lowest one or two percent of students.
Blooms scholarship in education was complemented by his activism. He played a major role in
creating the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) and in
organizing the International Seminar for Advanced Training in Curriculum Development, held in
Granna, Sweden, in the summer of 1971. His work in the IEA, since its inception over thirty
years ago, has had a significant impact on the efforts being made internationally to improve
students learning in the dozens of countries that are members of the IEA.
In the Department of Education at the University of Chicago, he developed the MESA
(Measurement, Evaluation, and Statistical Analysis) program. This program was designed to
prepare scholars who had the quantitative and analytical skills to think through in great depth
what needed to be addressed in order to design genuinely informative and educationally useful
evaluation practices. His commitment to the possibilities and potential of education as an
exercise in optimism infused his views about how young scholars should be prepared in the field
of evaluation. He also served as chairman of the research and development committees of the
College Entrance Examinations Board and was elected President of the American Educational
Research Association in 1965. Scholars recognized the stature of this extraordinary man and
honored him with appointments, honorary degrees, medals, and election to office. Elliot W.
Eisner wrote of Benjamin Bloom: