THE DOCTOR IS IN. Ji Son on the “Kata” Approach to Improving Learning, and Why Grades and Passing Are Not Enough
Learning Lab Director Lark Park sat down with Ji Y. Son, professor of psychology at Cal State LA and co-founder of the CourseKata Project, a nonprofit that builds new models for teaching, learning, and education research with a focus on introductory statistics.
CourseKata is often first encountered as intro stats courseware, but Son describes the underlying idea differently: a routine for improving a course over time using data on student motivation, engagement, and learning, borrowed from the continuous-improvement practice used in manufacturing. Rather than asking every instructor to do everything, the model brings researchers, instructors, designers, and developers together so each contributes the part they do well.
“Graduation and grades and passing are easy. You know what’s hard? Learning.”
— Ji Son
Also in the conversation:
– Why the 1.5 million students who take intro stats each year are untapped national infrastructure for AI literacy
– How Learning Lab funding let CourseKata test across a UC, a Cal State, and a community college from the start
– Why professional development shifted from individual early adopters to whole departments
– Son’s concern about what happens to education now that AI can make the deliverables
– Why better measurement alone will not fix student learning
– CourseKata’s role in the Area C dispute over which courses can validate Algebra 2