{"id":55549,"date":"2022-09-09T14:50:16","date_gmt":"2022-09-09T18:50:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/edtechteacher.org\/?p=55549"},"modified":"2022-09-29T15:41:26","modified_gmt":"2022-09-29T19:41:26","slug":"are-your-students-as-far-behind-as-mine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/edtechteacher.org\/are-your-students-as-far-behind-as-mine\/","title":{"rendered":"The Benefits of Mastery Learning"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Guest Post by Jon Bergmann<\/a><\/em><\/strong> (Keynote of the Mastery Learning Summit<\/a> on Oct. 21st, 2022)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pandemic has been hard on schools, students, and yes us teachers. One of the most devastating and demoralizing results of the pandemic has been that so many of our students are significantly behind. The Brookings Institute did a study and found that math and reading scores dropped significantly and that this disproportionately impacted students from marginalized communities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my high preforming school I have noticed significant gaps in student preparation. And I imagine you are all seeing the same things as you are back in school full-time with students. Many suggestions have been made as to how to catch students up. Some are encouraging students to take summer school while others are working on systems where there is ongoing tutoring. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But is there another way? A way that the average teacher can implement without huge expenditures of time and money? In 2007 I helped pioneer the flipped classroom model and that model laid the groundwork for what I am doing now in my classroom. I am not flipping my class per se anymore, but rather I am teaching using Mastery\/Competency-Based Learning in my class. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mastery Learning is defined as: An approach to classroom instruction that empowers every student at every level to progress with confidence. The teacher uses flexible pacing to guide students through a cyclic process of preparation, demonstration of knowledge, and feedback until there is a mutual agreement between the teacher and individual student that the student is read for the next cycle to begin. (Bergmann, 2022)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The approach is not new and has proven to be successful with students with a wide range of abilities and levels of achievement. And it is not terribly difficult to implement in the average teachers classroom. Their curricular materials only need to be tweaked to deliver the content via the best practices of mastery learning. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The big idea of mastery learning is that at the end of a unit\/chapter, students take a summative assessment and if they pass, they move on to the next unit. If they don\u2019t, they receive remediation and then continue to work on mastering the content until they pass the summative assessment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Challenges to Mastery Learning<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, moving to Mastery Learning will also come with a few challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n