Starting a Mastery-Based Learning Class: A Few Lessons From Experience | Jon Bergmann | 4 Min Read

Starting a Mastery-Based Learning Class: A Few Lessons From Experience | Jon Bergmann | 4 Min Read

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 things.

  • Interactive Notebooks: I am going back to something I did many years ago. Students will create involved interactive notebooks. Since these notebooks are involved, just the process of creating them will help them to interact at a much deeper level.
  • Significant Accountability: The tool I used last year to host my pre-learning activities (readings and videos) didn’t make it easy to determine who did and did not do the pre-work. So I plan to change my tool so that the pre-learning activities are better tracked.
  • Starting Class Differently: Recently, I talked with Dr. Helaine Marshall, a leader in the Flipped Learning world. She starts all her online classes with an interactive question tied to the pre-work from the night before. Students post responses to a prompt that is visible to all students. Students then look for themes and discuss trends and questions. Doing this will also increase the number of students who do the prework as those who have not done the work will clearly have little to add: There is nothing like a little healthy peer pressure. 
  • Better Reflection at the End of Class: Dr. Marshall does something similar to the start…
THIS IS PREMIUM CONTENT FOR REGISTERED USERS
Register Now
OR
You may use your member school or partner discount code !!!

Pop-Up

This is an example pop-up that you can make using jQuery.

Jon Bergmann

Jon Bergmann is one of the pioneers of the Flipped Class Movement. Jon is leading the worldwide adoption of flipped learning by working with governments, schools, corporations, and education non-profits. Jon is coordinating or guiding flipped learning initiatives around the globe including China, Taiwan, Korea, Australia, Singapore, Thailand, the Middle East, Iceland, Sweden, Norway, the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, Mexico, Canada, South America, and the United States. Jon is the author of 10 books including the bestselling book: Flip Your Classroom which has been translated into 10 languages. He has been an educator since 1986. He has served as a middle and high school science teacher, the lead technology facilitator for a school district in the Chicago suburbs, as well as a consultant/public speaker. He currently is teaching science and leading staff development at Houston Christian High School.