This booklet contains over 35 sample student activities designed by teachers to support the development of prerequisite skills for reading comprehension and to offer opportunities for mastery learning. Activities are suggested in the areas of letter/sound relationships, word recognition, experiential concept development, cognitive concept…

If colleges were to accept the mission of helping each student to learn as much and as well as possible, the organization of education would change. In that the three fundamental practices of education--classes, semesters, and grades--are counterproductive to the goal of maximizing student learning and exist only to meet administrative and fiscal…

This study is an assessment of the effect of three criterion mastery levels and aptitude on the achievement, retention, and attitude of seventh grade students using a population geography text. The three criterion levels used were 90 percent, 80 percent, and 70 percent of the correct responses on each of 41 lessons in "Population Growth in…

This study examined the relationship between two independent variables, mastery and aptitude, on two dependent variables, achievement and retention. Aptitude was measured by administering the word meaning section of the Iowa Test of Basic Skills. Achievement and retention were measured by a researcher-constructed test. The study involved 17…

Final course grade expectations of students in two models of instruction (mastery and nonmastery) were investigated. The intent of the study was to examine expectations between groups and to analyze within-mastery effects on self-perception of performance. Using preinstruction grade expectation, postinstruction grade expectation, Grade Point…

Contains six abstracts of papers from the National Educational Computing Conference of 1986. Topics of the papers focus on the effects of teacher involvement, computer programs in applied mathematics and physics, microcomputer labs in science, graphing misconceptions, science simulations, and mastery learning with computers. (ML)

Discusses alterable elements of classroom organization, traditional approaches to instructional improvement, and "component building," an alternative approach to education. The component-building approach involves an extensive program of field experimental research on classroom practices that are or could become components of complete…

Offers annotated citations for several recent ERIC documents concerning how children think and learn and how those involved with them can assist in the development of these processes. (RH)

Argues that educators should be proactive in building computer-based curricula that place technology in a facilitating role, have sound educational objectives that are measureable, and reflect awareness of how students learn from computer interaction. The educational theories of reinforcement, closure, short-term memory, and mastery learning are…

This study investigated the motivational and performance consequences of two features of task-mastery learning structures: retesting opportunities and criterion-referenced grading. College students were assigned either to a norm-referenced (competitive) or a criterion-referenced grading system, and to either a single-test or retest condition.…

This paper describes the theories and social factors that contributed to the development of competency-based training (CBT). These include behaviorism (Edward L. Thorndike), scientific management (Frederick Taylor), progressive education (John Dewey), and derivative theories including operant conditioning (B.F. Skinner), objectives-based…

This study investigated the cognitive and affective student learning outcomes of 36 semesters (equivalent to 18 years) using the mastery learning approach in high school distributive education classes (n=7,179 students). Student achievement in the cognitive area is reported by increasing grade point averages, and test scores are presented to show…

A city-wide elementary school reading program that emphasizes mastery learning and continuous progress in Chicago, Continuous Progress--Mastery Learning, is blamed for the declining reading test scores of high school students there. The program's origins and evolution are described along with a new program, Chicago Mastery Learning Reading, which…

The effects of an individualized mastery instructional system similar to the Keller plan was compared with a conventional lecture-discussion-recitation system in mathematics courses. In general, the superiority of achievement and attitude outcomes claimed for the Keller plan in many reports was not observed in this study. (Author/RL)

The central question for this study is whether the improvement of group instruction can increase achievement to the same level as or even higher than that produced by the feedback-corrective process used in mastery learning. It is hoped that the findings can be of interest to developing countries. (RL)