Mastery Learning

Mastery learning is an instructional approach where students must master the content of one lesson before proceeding on to the next lesson. Mastery learning is focused on shaping, a component or operant conditioning. The lessons start out simple and become increasingly more difficult until the terminal level is reached. There are other factors of shaping that are the basis of mastery learning, including:

• small descrete units- content is broken up into separate units (lessons), with each covering a small segment of material
• logical sequence- basic concepts and procedures are taught first and more complex concepts or procedures that often build on the basic are learned later
• demonstration of mastery at the completion of each unit- students must show that they have mastered their current unit before being able to progress to the next unit
• concrete, observable criterion for mastery of each unit- mastery is defined in specific and concrete terms (i.e. 90% correct)
• Additional remedial activities for students needing extra help or practice- alternative instructional approaches, different materials, workbooks, study groups, and individual tutoring are available for students that need extra help mastering lessons

Mastery learning is beneficial in the classroom. For example, it is better to allow students to master one digit addition before moving onto two digit addition.