Information and digital literacy in education via the digital path

In the 1970s, educator Benjamin Bloom found that students fared better when they were allowed to master each course topic before moving on to the next. This is called mastery learning, and it stands in stark contrast to the traditional method of forcing students to move on whether they’ve mastered a course topic or not. The former has been found to lead to better long-term learning outcomes, and has recently been revived as a popular approach in classroom settings around the world. In this post we’ll cover what mastery learning has looked like in the past, what it looks like now, and how to use the approach yourself.

A lot of times when I talk about Mastery Learning with teachers, I can see them slowly start back away and sometimes even getting noticeably scared. I’ll be honest, it can be scary, but it doesn’t have to be. Giving up control, managing a self-paced classroom, and transitioning to Mastery Learning can be done if you take it one step at a time.