Mastery learning
Mastery learning is an instructional strategy and educational philosophy that emphasizes the importance of students achieving a high level of competence (e.g., 90% accuracy) in prerequisite knowledge before moving on to new material.
Mastery-based learning methods emphasize that instruction should be tailored to the individual time needed for each student to master the same content.
This learner-centered approach also aligns with andragogy principles as well, recognizing that adult learners benefit from tailored instruction and assessments that are inclusive and supportive, fostering a fair and non-oppressive learning experience.
[4] Its effectiveness is influenced by the subject being taught, whether testing is designed locally or nationally, course pace and the amount of feedback provided to students.
[4]Research has identified an average effect size of 0.59, which demonstrates moderate to substantial improvements in academic performance with Mastery Learning.
Some contributing factors to this average effect size includes the subject matter, the use of locally developed vs. nationally standardized assessments, the pace of instruction, and the nature, and frequency of feedback provided.
[4] Higher mastery thresholds have been associated with greater improvements in examination performance, and the use of targeted feedback has been shown to address learning gaps and misconceptions effectively.
These attempts were centered around student proficiency rather than course completion which helped pave the way for modern mastery learning models.
[5] The idea of mastery learning resurfaced in the late 1950s and early 1960s as a corollary of programmed instruction, a technology invented by B.F. Skinner to improve teaching.
[5] At the core of programmed instruction was Skinner's belief that even the most complex behaviors could be taught by breaking them into smaller, manageable components, each learned sequentially with guided reinforcement.
Carroll then suggests that aptitudes are actually a way to measure the amount of time required to learn a task up to a certain level (under ideal instructional conditions).
In this plan, Keller expands on how each student progresses at their own pace with no risk of complete failure, since they can retake the assessments until they have achieved full mastery.
[12] Despite those mostly positive research results, interest in mastery learning strategies decreased throughout the 1980s, as reflected in publication activity in professional journals and presentations at conferences.
Many explanations were put forward to justify this decline, like alleged recalcitrance of the educational establishment to change,[13] or the ineffective implementations of mastery learning methods,[14] or the extra time demanded in setting up and maintaining a mastery learning course[13] or even concerns that behavioristic-based models for teaching would conflict with the generally humanistic-oriented teachers and the surrounding culture.
[17] Several studies show that majority of students can achieve mastery in a learning task, but the time that they need to spend on is different.
[21][22] The quality of instruction is defined as the degree to which the presentation, explanation, and ordering of elements of the task to be learned approach the optimum for a given learner.
He recommends that teachers use frequent feedback accompanied by specific help to improve the quality of instruction, thus reducing the perseverance required for learning.
Bloom postulates that the time required for a learner to achieve mastery in a specific subject is affected by various factors such as: LFM curricula generally consists of discrete topics which all students begin together.
[16] The operating procedures are the methods used to provide detailed feedback and instructional help to facilitate the process of mastery in learning.
The main operation procedures are: Formative Evaluation in the context of mastery learning is a diagnostic progress tests to determine whether or not the student has mastered the subject unit.
Bloom argues that when the society (through education system) recognizes a learner's mastery, profound changes happen in his or her view of self and the outer world.
Bloom places the blame on teaching settings where students aren't given enough time to reach mastery levels in prerequisite knowledge before moving on to the new lesson.
[29] A four-year longitudinal study by Arlin (1984)[30] found no indication of a vanishing point in students who learned arithmetic through a mastery approach.
By using tests designed for the experiment, the mastery instruction intervention may have been able to better tailor the learning goals of the class to align with the measurement tool.
It's important to consider the length of time students were immersed in a mastery learning program to get a greater understanding of the long-term effects of this teaching strategy.
Universities would have to make selections from a pool of applicants with similar grades, how would admission requirements have to change to account for uniform ratings of intelligence?
[37] Another large-scale meta-analysis conducted by Kulik et al. (1990)[32] investigated 108 studies of mastery programs being implemented at the elementary, secondary, and post-secondary level.
Despite the empirical evidence, many mastery programs in schools have been replaced by more traditional forms of instruction due to the level of commitment required by the teacher and the difficulty in managing the classroom when each student is following an individual course of learning.
[38] However, the central tenets of mastery learning are still found in today's teaching strategies such as differentiated instruction[39] and understanding by design.
Bergmann and Sams show that the logistical problems associated with setting up a mastery learning program are now solved by technology.
