Mastery Learning
Mastery learning was originally developed by Morrison in the 1930s. His formula for mastery was "Pretest, teach, test the result, adapt procedure, teach and test again to the point of actual learning." (Morrison, 1931, in Saettler, 1990). Mastery learning assumes that all students can master the materials presented in the lesson. Bloom further developed Morrison's plan, but mastery learning is more effective for the lower levels of learning on Bloom's taxonomy, and not appropriate for higher level learning (Saettler, 1990)
Mastery Learning
Bloom's method is based on the idea that the learner will succeed in learning a task if given the exact amount of time he or she needs to learn the task. Bloom was a passionate opponent of the common educational practice of assuming that only about a third of the class will learn the material taught suggesting "this set of expectations, which fixes the academic goals of teachers and students, is the most wasteful and destructive aspect of the present educational system" (Bloom, Madeaus and Hastings, 1981, p. 51). Bloom suggested a variety of strategies that can be used in classrooms to provide conditions for mastery learning including the use of tutors, small group study, peer tutoring, programmed instruction, audiovisual materials and games. Research by Bloom and others in many countries demonstrated that slow learners can indeed achieve as much as faster learners when given the opportunity( Block & Anderson, 1975; Bloom, 1976; Yildiran, G. ,1977
