Do students tend to set similar types of goals throughout the school year, or do their goal orientations shift over time? If students become more oriented toward mastery or performance over the course of the year, do they improve in their academic achievement, have a more positive affect toward class, and develop the cognitive propensities that…

Online versions of statistics courses have been taught for some time, but more information is needed on the effectiveness of using different approaches to teaching statistics online. The present paper describes a mastery-based approach to teaching an online introductory statistics course and presents data suggesting that the course is effective.…

A description is given of the development, implementation, and evaluation of the Curriculum Management System (CMS), a computer managed system that utilizes input from research findings on effective schools. The goals and objectives of instruction are clearly delineated and effectively communicated to students and their parents. Each student,…

This paper explores what has been reported by several researchers in an attempt to make recommendations on the most effective method of introducing basketball to elementary school age children. Based on this review the following observations are brought forward for consideration. Factors which significantly affected student success include: height…

Effective teaching is a multifaceted endeavor comprised of process, product, artistic, and scientific aspects. The scientific dimension pertains to that multidisciplinary accumulation of systematic knowledge which makes possible the prediction and control of human behavior as it relates to the events comprising instruction and learning. This paper…

Grouping students to facilitate instruction alone, instructional delivery systems which maintain student dependency on teachers, the practice of teaching to disseminate information without mastery, class norm-referenced grading practices, and study habits which focus on getting grades, help produce the educational dilemma faced today. In mastery…

The Chicago Mastery Learning Reading (CMLR) program provides a model of instruction and a set of instructional materials for teachers and students, from kindergarten through eighth grade, in Chicago Public Schools. An analysis of CMLR progress records for more than 240,000 students in June 1983, found that compared to 1982 and earlier years, (1)…

A general framework is presented to help understand the relationship between motivation and self-regulated learning. According to the framework, self-regulated learning can be facilitated by the adoption of mastery and relative ability goals and hindered by the adoption of extrinsic goals. In addition, positive self-efficacy and task value beliefs…

This investigation was structured to determine if the acquisition of higher order intellectual processes is tenable for teaching candidates when the independent variables are unit pacing and different remediation strategies for mastery learning. Teaching candidates enrolled in a generic teaching methods course constituted the sample. Nearly half…

The work reported culminates research by the Project on the Assessment and Analysis of Word Identification Skills in Reading. The Word Identification Test battery was designed for elementary school children, with attention to the major issues pertaining to skills mastery and assessment that are raised in the review of mastery learning. Five…

This plan is designed to review and revise the educational program of the Hicksville School District (New York) by means of a systematic approach to curriculum revision, instruction geared to learning, and the monitoring of student progress. Baseline information obtained from a curriculum inventory is a starting point for an analysis of the…

This study examines the longitudinal relationships between mastery motivation and differentiated measures of intellectual development assessed at 1 and 3 1/2 years of age in a sample of 35 children (21 boys and 14 girls). At one year three types of mastery motivation were assessed using structured tasks: (1) producing effects (engaging in…

Mastery Learning, a learning strategy which denies the inevitability of the normal grading curve, holds promise in skill-building courses. For a composition course using this strategy, course objectives must first be established and stated behaviorally, after which the course may be broken into learning units, each lasting perhaps two weeks. At…

Varied attempts by educators to individualize the instructional process in a classroom setting are quite frequently hindered or facilitated by the vertical pattern of organization--graded or nongraded--under which a given school functions. The nongraded school allows for the progression of a student through the contents of a given subject…

Briefly traces the history of science curriculum development in the United States. Explains learning contracts and mastery learning as two techniques for humanizing science instruction. Summarizes the main objectives for science teaching, the rationales, and the claims that must be satisfied. (GS)