Learning for Mastery. Instruction and Curriculum. Regional Education Laboratory for the Carolinas and Virginia, Topical Papers and Reprints, Number 1.

Most students, perhaps over 90 percent, can master what teachers have to teach them, and it is the task of instruction to find the means which will enable students to master the subject under consideration. A basic task is to determine what is meant by mastery of the subject and to search for methods and materials which will enable the largest proportion of students to attain such mastery. That is, the basic task in education is to find strategies which will take individual differences into consideration but in such a way as to promote the fullest development of the individual. The thesis of this paper is that, to promote mastery learning, 5 variables must be dealt with effectively: (1) aptitude for kinds of learning, viewed as the amount of time required by the learner to attain mastery of the task; (2) quality of instruction, viewed in terms of its approaching the optimum for a given learner; (3) ability to understand instruction, i.e., to understand the nature of the task and the procedures to follow; (4) perseverance, the amount of time one is willing to spend in learning; and (5) time allowed for learning, the key to mastery. (Author/TA)