Mastery Learning

Mastery learning is a method of learning and teaching that involves the student reaching a level of predetermined mastery on units of instruction before being allowed to progress to the next unit. Proponents of mastery learning affirm that all students can learn and achieve the same level of content mastery when provided with the appropriate learning conditions in the classroom but within individual or personal time frames.

Introduced into American education in the first quarter of the twentieth century, mastery learning has its genesis in the work of Henry Morrison and Carleton Washburne. While Morrison developed scales to study instructional time and student attention, which led to the mastery system of teaching and learning now associated with Benjamin Bloom, Washburne developed the Winnetka Plan, a movement away from the classic model of learning based on theories of intelligence in which all students are given the same amount of time to learn and the focus is on differences in ability. Washburne urged a departure from recitation as the primary form of classroom instruction. Students worked individually on assignments with a focus toward specific skill attainment and promotion based on individual subject achievement rather than grade placement. Interest in the mastery system waned in the 1940s due, most likely, to the lack of technology to sustain program development and implementation. Then, in the late 1950s, partly derived from B. F. Skinner's emphasis on individualized learning and the importance of feedback and reinforcement, a revival of mastery learning began with programmed instruction, an attempt to provide students with instructional materials that would allow them to move at their own pace and receive constant feedback on mastery level.

Although the work of others preceded them, John Carroll and Benjamin Bloom are generally acknowledged as the architects of mastery learning. Carroll posited that aptitude is the amount of time it takes someone to learn any given material, rather than the capability to master it, the traditional focus. His new theory was based on the idea that all students have the potential to learn material, but take different amounts of time to learn. Two factors identify the learning rate of a student: perseverance or motivation, the amount of time a student is willing to spend on learning (controlled by the student) and the opportunity to learn (controlled by other persons or factors). A student's aptitude determines how much time is needed to master a unit, not the likelihood that one will ever be able to master it. Carroll's theoretical shift in focus places more responsibility on the teacher, so the blame for a student's failure becomes instructional, a notion also embraced by Bloom. In a mastery learning environment, the challenge becomes providing enough time and appropriate instructional strategies so all students can achieve similar levels of learning.

Bloom closely followed Carroll, and is considered the creator of mastery learning. With attention toward “learning for mastery,” Bloom believed that given sufficient time and quality instruction, nearly all students could learn. His mastery approach is based on three fundamental conditions: (1) the teacher provides initial instruction; it is group-based, whole-class, more or less conventional classroom teaching, (2) instruction is to be mastery-oriented, and students do not go [Page 646]on to new material until they demonstrate mastery, (3) help is to be available when needed; in order to help students achieve mastery, aid is provided, for example, in the form of test feedback, tutoring, supplemental materials, or small group instruction.

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