The Mastery approach

My experience as a student likely mirrored that of many others. Seated among peers of the same age in class, I was tasked with assimilating information. After spending some time on a given subject, I would face an assessment measuring my understanding of the topic. Regardless of the outcome, whether I succeeded or failed, the curriculum pressed on, swiftly transitioning to the next subject. Assessment scores— from homework, quizzes, tests, and at times more subjective measures like ‘class participation’—were aggregated into an average. By the year’s end, my performance was distilled into a letter grade—A, B, or C—and I advanced to the subsequent year, where the same evaluative cycle would begin anew.

To many, this aforementioned process will seem customary, rooted deeply in traditional evaluative approaches. The grade received on an exam (or assignment, or essay) was a direct corollary of the effort invested, or lack thereof; or perhaps it was an indicator of an innate disposition to aptly navigate the subject matter at hand. In this traditional construct, the act of learning per se was sidelined: the notion that a 90% could misrepresent a true understanding of the topic was inconceivable, just as the idea of gleaning a deeper comprehension post-examination was equally disregarded.

Consider my experience: during my secondary education, I opted to study German, a curious choice given my New England locale, where my only conversation partner in Goethe’s tongue was my teacher, Mrs. Lincoln. Despite my best efforts, academic excellence eluded me—I loathed rote memorization of vocabulary and grammatical rules. My peers fared better, diligently studying and achieving higher exam scores. Yet, I found that conversational exchanges with Mrs. Lincoln facilitated learning more effectively than dissecting decontextualized vocabulary lists. A poignant memory from this time was Mrs. Lincoln, tears of joy streaming down her face, announcing the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. The subsequent discourse ignited not just a lesson in history but a surge in linguistic prowess, and I recognized the kind of student I was: a learner, not a studier.

Against this backdrop, the pedagogy of mastery emerges. Re-envisioning the school as a bastion of learning rather than a testing ground, the pedagogy of mastery contests the traditional scholastic method. A teacher’s mandate is not solely to teach a subject but to ensure its comprehension, its mastery by the students.

In a mastery-driven educational setting, instructors perpetually gauge students’ comprehension. Grades denote specific concepts students have mastered, rather than what they ‘deserve.’ Students who haven’t grasped certain concepts aren’t abandoned; rather, mastery pedagogy insists on continual teaching and re-teaching of concepts until all students understand, until all have achieved mastery.

Fundamentally, educational institutions have a duty to instruct rather than to condition students to ace tests. Moreover, in an environment that promotes mastery learning, we ensure genuine progression for every student, affirming the belief that all can succeed. A mastery learning approach guarantees that every concept is understood by each student—no settling for 90% or 75%, ambiguous figures that fail to truly measure understanding.

Reflecting on my experience, a “C” grade in German class—corresponding to 75%—invokes the question: “75% of what?” What about the missing 25%? What’s the worth of my knowledge if that 25% encompassed critical aspects of the course? Or conversely, were those missing points deducted merely for lateness, despite my ability to communicate in German effectively?

Throughout the last decade of my career, I’ve endorsed this pedagogical stance. Previously, as a high school teacher within the conventional American system, I grappled with assigning numerical value to every task since it was ingrained in the percentage-based grading regime.

As an instructor of writing—a subject notoriously challenging to master—I urged my students to revise and refine their essays, even post-submission, echoing the practices of authentic writers who tirelessly polish their work to perfection. Regrettably, the system I operated within didn’t foster this mindset; instead, it pushed students to settle for their grade and regard their assignment as finished.

The pedagogy of mastery allowed me to teach more organically, to focus on meaningful outcomes rather than merely striving for a higher grade. This is the essence of my conviction in mastery learning—it focuses on education as a transformative process to cultivate genuine understanding, rather than a mere chase for academic accolades.