“Mastery” has become something of a buzzword in education and can mean different things in different circles.
First developed in the 1960s, “mastery learning” approaches originally involved teachers chunking subject matter into units with specific learning objectives and outcomes. Pupils are then required to demonstrate “mastery” in one unit before moving to the next.
This approach is not the same as “teaching for mastery”, which was developed in East Asian countries in the 1980s and now underpins many maths mastery programmes used in the UK.
How does mastery learning work in the classroom?
One question that often arises around mastery approaches is what exactly does “mastery” look like?
In the original approaches, learners were usually required to demonstrate mastery by scoring at least 80 per cent on unit tests. If they did not reach this, they would be provided with extra support but had to continue the cycle of studying and testing until the threshold was met.
Today, many approaches have dropped this specific threshold, opting instead for more qualitative demonstrations of “mastery”; what this looks like will vary by subject.
Education Endowment Foundation guidance says that, when implementing mastery learning in a classroom, teachers should design units of work so that each task has a clear learning outcome, which pupils must master before moving on to the next task.
Core components of the mastery approach that schools should be careful to implement include:
Effective diagnostic assessment to identify areas of strength and weakness.
Carefully sequencing topics so that they gradually build on foundational knowledge.
Flexibility for teachers on how long they need to spend on any particular topic.
Monitoring of pupil learning and regular feedback so that pupils can master topics prior to moving on to the next
Additional support for pupils who struggle to master topic areas.
The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) is an independent charity dedicated to breaking the link between family income and educational achievement.
To achieve this, it summarises the best available evidence for teachers; its Teaching and Learning Toolkit, for example, is used by 70 per cent of secondary schools.
The charity also generates new evidence of “what works” to improve teaching and learning, by funding independent evaluations of high-potential projects, and supports teachers and senior leaders to use the evidence to achieve the maximum possible benefit for young people.
