June 2015

E-Article
from ES4S

Our e-articles are written as a stimulus to

promote professional dialogue. We hope
they can be used in professional learning
communities, staff meetings and other
similar CPD situations.
Further possible questions to support
dialogue from this article:
How different is Mastery Learning to how
we currently teach our curriculum?
Does this Mastery Learning approach occur
more in some curriculum areas/year groups
than in others?
If so, why?
How confident are all our staff, teachers
and T.A.s, with levels of thinking?
In which ways are we planning higher-order
thinking experiences and how could this
become more embedded?
Do we have a curriculum that is broken into
clear and specific learning units and do we
have appropriate assessment tasks for
each units?

Professional development for next

year
Have you planned your CPD for
2015/2016?
If this article interested you, we are able
to offer you CPD around
Understanding Mastery Learning
If you would like any further information
on this programme, or other aspects of
outstanding classroom practice, please
contact Kate using the contact details
Our quote of the month .......
Children have to be educated, but they
have also to be left to educate
themselves.
Abb Dimnet (Art of Thinking)
Recommended book ......
An excellent book that considers issues
around educational neuroscience.
The Brain at School
(John Geake)
ISBN - 0-335-23421

Its here - Mastery Learning!

First of all, the Mastery of learning theory is nothing new and has
been around for decades. Simply put, mastery learning is an
approach to teaching that requires pupils to reach a certain, predetermined level of proficiency before they are able to move
forward in an area of study or topic. The most effective learning
has always occurred when a pupil has the chance to build on
prior learning, making connections to previous understanding and
learning in small chunks or units.
Where Mastery Learning might be different to more traditional
models of teaching and learning will be in the way the teachers
(and teaching assistants) plan experiences that will support the
children assimilating the learning through a deeper level of
thinking. Children will need to be supported in moving beyond
the input level of thinking, requiring them to simply remember
and recall and more towards process and output thinking,
involving the higher-order skills of applying, synthesising,
evaluating and creatingamongst others.
The responsibility will be on teachers to plan, clearly, for specific
types of thinking, ensuring every child receives a balance across
the three levels.
For mastery learning to be effective, it is essential that the
curriculum is be broken into clear learning units that would last a
week or two. During these units, the pupils must have the
chance to engage in a higher-order challenge, a pre-learning
challenge, which enables them to use previously learnt concepts
whilst also beginning to allow them to consider the next learning
intention. This must be followed by high-quality instruction that
allows the teacher/T.A to demonstrate the new skills, before the
children then have the chance to practice the taught skills/
concepts. It is during this practice stage that the regular,
formative assessment tasks are administered. Children who have
mastered the learning are provided with further, higher-order
enrichment tasks whilst those who experienced learning
difficulties are provided with corrective activities before taking a
second, parallel formative assessment task.
Every description of Mastery Learning, along with similar teaching
approaches, emphasise the importance of engaging pupils in
high-quality, high-order developmental challenges that involve
significant aspects of collaboration and cooperative learning. If
Mastery learning is to have a significant impact on the quality of
learning experienced by every child, there is a greater need than
ever to consider how effective classroom dialogue is being
established in every classroom. Effective collaborative and
cooperative learning will require children to be developed in the
art of questioning, analysis, evaluation, making connections and
critical thinking. These are taught learning behaviours and will be
an essential element of mastery learning if this approach is to
have a real effect on the quality of learning in our classrooms.

ES4S
e-mail : office@es4s.co.uk.

Call us : 01202 267066.

Web : www.es4s.co.uk

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