How do students develop mastery?

Mastery and transfer is often the goal of learning. Instructors want to bridge the knowledge gap for learners, but it can be difficult to do so when instructors have built up such sophisticated schemas and chunks of information. I have certainly been in a lot of classes where the teachers were some of the best in their field, but when it came to teaching material to a group of novices, everyone in the room was confused, including the instructor. Thinking about the stages of competence and how people develop mastery is important for personalizing learning experiences.

Stages of Competence

There are three keys elements that students must develop in order to achieve mastery:

1. Component Skills: Sometimes when an instructor asks students to complete a fairly simple task, students may fail to meet the instructor’s expectations. This could be because students are missing component skills, which are skills related and necessary for a larger task. Using whole task or isolated practice on those skills can help learners develop the competence needed for the task.
2. Integration of Skills: This is a key element to developing mastery. Although students may possess all the skills necessary for mastery, they may lack putting those skills together, which can be a skill in and of itself. Having students work and focus on certain skills will help them with their cognitive load until they become more fluent in their knowledge.
3. Application: Application is all about knowing when and where to use the skills they have acquired. It is not enough knowing how to perform certain skills, but knowing when to transfer the skills is a huge goal in learning.