Mastery Learning - Defining Characteristics

"The principal defining characteristic of mastery learning methods is the establishment of a criterion level of performance held to represent "mastery" of a given skill or concept, frequent assessment of student progress toward the mastery criterion, and provision of corrective instruction to enable students who do not initially meet the mastery criterion to do so on later parallel assessment (see Bloom, 1976; Block & Anderson, 1975). Bloom (1976) also includes an emphasis on appropriate use of such instructional variables as cues, participation, feedback, and reinforcement as elements of mastery learning, but these are not uniquely defining characteristics; rather, what defines mastery learning approaches is the organization of time and resources to ensure that most students are able to master instructional objectives."

Source: "Mastery Learning Reconsidered", Robert E. Slavin, Center for Research on Elementary and Middle Schools, Johns Hopkins University, 1987, p. 1.

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