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Mastery learning (or, as it was initially called, "learning for mastery"; also known as "mastery-based learning") is an instructional strategy and educational philosophy, first formally proposed by Benjamin Bloom in 1968. Mastery learning maintains that students must achieve a level of mastery (e.g., 90% on a knowledge test) in prerequisite knowledge before moving forward to learn subsequent information. If a student does not achieve mastery on the test, they are given additional support in learning and reviewing the information and then tested again. This cycle continues until the learner accomplishes mastery, and they may then move on to the next stage. In a self-paced online learning environment, students study the material and take assessments. If they make mistakes, the system provides insightful explanations and directs them to revisit the relevant sections. They then answer different questions on the same material, and this cycle repeats until they reach the established mastery threshold. Only then can they move on to subsequent learning modules, assessments, or certifications. Mastery-based learning methods emphasize that instruction should be tailored to the individual time needed for each student to master the same content. This is very much in contrast with classic models of teaching that focus on varying student abilities and allocation of equal time and instructions irrespective of the students' unique needs. Mastery learning shifts the perspective, attributing student challenges to instructional methods rather than inherent abilities. This underscores the importance of individualized teacher-student interactions over group evaluations. Therefore, the task in mastery learning is to ensure sufficient time and employ effective instructional strategies so that all students can achieve the same level of learning. 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. Since its conception, mastery learning has empirically been demonstrated to be effective in improving education outcomes in a variety of settings. 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. Definition Mastery learning is a set of group-based, individualized, teaching and learning strategies based on the premise that students will achieve a high level of understanding in a given domain if they are given enough time. Motivation The motivation for mastery learning comes from trying to reduce achievement gaps for students in average school classrooms. During the 1960s John B. Carroll and Benjamin S. Bloom pointed out that, if students are normally distributed with respect to aptitude for a subject and if they are provided uniform instruction (in terms of quality and learning time), then achievement level at completion of the subject is also expected to be normally distributed. This can be illustrated as shown below: Mastery Learning approaches propose that, if each learner were to receive optimal quality of instruction and as much learning time as they require, then a majority of students could be expected to attain mastery. This situation would be represented as follows: In many situations educators preemptively use the normal curve for grading students. Bloom was critical of this usage, condemning it because it creates expectation by the teachers that some students will naturally be successful while others will not. Bloom defended that, if educators are effective, the distribution of achievement could and should be very different from the normal curve. Bloom proposed Mastery Learning as a way to address this. He believed that by using his approach, the majority of students (more than 90 percent) would achieve successful and rewarding learning. As an added advantage, Mastery Learning was also thought to create more positive interest and attitude towards the subject learned if compared with usual classroom methods. Related terms Individualized instruction has some elements in common with mastery learning, although it dispenses with group activities in favor of allowing more capable or more motivated students to progress ahead of others while maximizing teacher interaction with those students who need the most assistance. Bloom's 2 Sigma Problem is an educational phenomenon observed where the average student tutored one-to-one (using mastery learning techniques) performed two standard deviations better than students who learn via conventional instructional methods. Competency-based learning is a framework for the assessment of learning based on predetermined competencies. It draws inspiration from mastery learning. History In the 1920s there were at least two attempts to produce mastery in students' learning: the Winnetka Plan, by Carleton Washburne and associates, and another approach by Henry C. Morrison, at the University of Chicago Laboratory School. Both these projects provided school situations where mastery of particular learning tasks - rather than time spent - was the central theme. While these ideas were popular for a while, they faded due primarily to the lack of technologies that could sustain a successful implementation. 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. Underlying programmed instruction was the idea that the learning of any behavior, no matter how complex, rested upon the learning of a sequence of less-complex component behaviors. Around that same time, John B. Carroll was working on his "Model of School Learning" - a conceptual paradigm which outlined the major factors influencing student success in school learning and indicating how these factors interacted. Carroll's model stemmed from his previous work with foreign language learning. He found that a student's aptitude for a language predicted not only the level to which they learned in a given time, but also the amount of time they required to learn to a given level. 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). As such, Carroll's model implies that, if each student is given the sufficient time they needed to learn to any particular level, then they would be expected to attain it. Later in the 1960s Benjamin Bloom and his graduate students were researching individual differences in school learning. They observed that teachers displayed very little variation in their instructional practices and yet, there was a lot of variation in student's achievements. Bloom used Carroll's conceptual model to create his own working model of Mastery Learn.... Discover the Language Learning Mastery popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Language Learning Mastery books.