September 14, 2022

Mastery Learning is hard work—really hard work! I believe that the most important part of teaching a successful Mastery Learning class is how it is structured and communicated to students. Students need to buy into the idea, and they need to take ownership of their learning. 

This will mark my fourth year implementing mastery at my school. Even though I wrote the book on Mastery Learning, I still have room to grow and improve. 

Students Not Learning As Well As They Might

As I reflected on last year’s Mastery Learning, I realized there were a few things I needed to change. The most important issue is that many students were not taking the time to learn deeply from the independent-space learning objects. These were either videos or readings. My students might watch a video, but the quality of their notes and other learning objects was lacking. And for those students who tried just to get by, their level of mastery suffered. I feel a bit like a hypocrite as I teach others how to do mastery well, and this is something I always emphasize. 

Because of this issue, I am going to change a few…