Mastery Based Learning

Great ideas don’t always meet their argued potential when implemented. Reality has a way of adding complexity that reduces potential. Here are some examples of this effect I am aware of that apply to mastery learning. Variability in time to learn Individual learners vary in their speed of learning. Any…

I became familiar with the idea of learning personalization for mastery in the 1970s. Even though there are recent applications of mastery concepts making use of technology, I continue to point to the early mastery work because of the research base associated with that time period. …

I explained what I considered the essential components of a mastery system to my educational psychology and educational technology students for years. I used the following list based on my reading of multiple sources and explained using terminology I hoped would be easy to understand. …

Since the early 1900s, the American education system has operated eerily similar to a factory in the Industrial Age, from bells that essentially notify children when to change “shifts,” to top-down management structures. Just as factory workers are expected to conform to a strict set of expectations, the modern K-12…

A piece of art is created from the imagination. Its result is either miraculous, beyond the realm of what man is believed to be capable of, or underwhelming, it does not live up to expectation. If it turns out exactly how it is expected, if the art is of a…

What I learned about learning by teaching my daughter to ride — During the spring of this year, my not quite four-year-old daughter learned to ride a bike. The process was remarkably quick and painless. It was also training-wheel free! …

How can we expand our minds to be super-human masters of every science and field of work? Masters of their arts, are almost always specialists. …

Salman Khan is a true pioneer of online education. The Khan Academy videos he started making in 2005 have been viewed over 1.8 billion times, and his work has helped to accelerate the learning of more than 100 million people. …

Or, How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Trust the Process. When I started prep work for Launch School in January 2021, I had no idea how important the routine of daily practice would become. I knew I had stumbled across something special; I have always considered myself a lifelong…