Thinking Allowed
medical / technology / education / art / flub
Bloom's 2 Sigma Problem
I've been looking for another way of presenting evidence for instructional design that is more efficient than simple lectures. The data collected by Benjamin Bloom and published in 1984 seems useful and I've redrawn the graph so it looks more modern than the line drawings of the original.
Learning as part of a class is analogous to a 'lecture' and Bloom demonstrated that if students were given 1:1 tuition then the average performance was increased to 2 standard deviations above the norm. 1:1 tuition for everyone is impossible but techniques (such as the mastery learning he described) can get us some of the way there.
The past few decades have seen a great development in these techniques (including a lot of elearning). With it has come improvement in learner outcomes. School classes are very different to what they were in the 1970s and 80s. However, more traditional and conservative areas such as much of medical education at congresses involves broadcasting expertise from the stage - not guiding individual learners from the sides.
Bloom BS. The 2 sigma problem: The search for methods of group instruction as effective as one-to-one tutoring. Educational researcher. 1984 Jun;13(6):4-16.
Source: en.m.wikipedia.org
Redrawn from original paper
bloom 1 tuition techniques way inseems drawings redrawn
RSS feed