Mastery Teaching and Mastery Learning

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Mastery Teaching and Mastery Learning

• A Model for Instructional Effectiveness

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Mastery Learning

• Mastery learning suggests that the focus of
  instruction should be the time required for
  different students to learn the same material.
• This contrasts with the classic model (based upon
  theories of intelligence) in which all students
  are given the same amount of time to learn and
  the focus is on differences in ability.
• Indeed, Carroll (1989) argues that aptitude is
  primarily a measure of time required to learn.

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Radical Shift

• The idea of mastery learning amounts to a radical
  shift in responsibility for teachers the blame
  for a student's failure rests with the
  instruction not a lack of ability on the part of
  the student.
• In a mastery learning environment, the challenge
  becomes providing enough time and employing
  instructional strategies so that all students can
  achieve the same level of learning (Levine, 1985
  Bloom, 1981).

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Key Elements

• The key elements in mastery learning are
• clearly specifying what is to be learned and how
  it will be evaluated,
• allowing students to learn at their own pace,
• assessing student progress and providing
  appropriate feedback or remediation, and
• testing that final learning criterion has been
  achieved.

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Planning

• Objectives
• Before the lesson is prepared, the teacher
  should have a clear idea of what the teaching
  objectives are. What, specifically, should the
  student be able to do, understand, care about as
  a result of the teaching.

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TEKS and Performance Standards

• State Standards and Performance Standards
• The teacher needs to know what standards of
  performance are to be expected and when pupils
  will be held accountable for what is expected.
• The pupils should be informed about the
  standards of performance--what knowledge or
  skills are to be demonstrated and in what manner.

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Mastery Teaching Model

• Madeline Hunter
• Eight Steps for Instruction

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Steps 1, 2, and 3

• Getting students set to learnStep 1 Review --
  Typically at the beginning of the lesson, review
  previous material that is relevant to this
  lesson.Step 2 Anticipatory Set -- Getting
  students to focus their attention on the material
  to be presented -- getting them interested or
  prepared for what they are about to learn.
• Step 3 Objective -- State the objective for the
  lesson.

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Step 4

• InstructionStep 4 Input and Modeling --
  Presenting new information to students,
  modelingwhere appropriate as one form of
  instruction.

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Steps 5 and 6

• Checking for understandingStep 5 Checking
  Understanding -- Determining whether or not
  students are making sense of the material as the
  material is being presented.
• Step 6 Guided Practice -- Immediately after
  instruction students are given the opportunity to
  apply or practice what they have just learned and
  receive immediate feedback.

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Differences Between Steps 5 and 6

• How are checking understanding and guided
  practice different?
• Checking understanding occurs in the process of
  instruction. Checking for understanding is often
  a whole-class process by observing body language
  or asking a simple question to the whole class.
• Guided practice takes place just after
  instruction has occurred. Guided practice may be
  done individually.
• Both involve quickly assessing whether students
  understand what has just been presented.

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Step 7

• Independent practiceStep 7 Independent
  Practice -- After students appear to understand
  the new material they are given the opportunity
  to further apply or practice using the new
  information. This may occur in class or as
  homework, but there should be a short period of
  time between instruction and practice and between
  practice and feedback.

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Step 8

• Closure
• Step 8 Closure -- Actions or statements by a
  teacher that are designed to bring a lesson
  presentation to an appropriate conclusion. It is
  used to help students bring things together in
  their own minds, to make sense out of what has
  just been taught. "Any questions? No. OK, let's
  move on" is not closure.

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Walkthrough and Focus

• 3-5 Minutes
• Contentcorrect information (in TEKS)
• ContextHow the Learning is Provided (Same format
  as test, etc.)
• Cognitive LevelVerb required in TEKS (See
  Blooms Taxonomy)

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Mastery Teaching and Mastery Learning

• A Model for Instructional Effectiveness