WHO BENEFITS FROM MASTERY LEARNING

Much previous research has associated mastery learning teaching strategy with optimal tested performance, but the conditions of teaching and testing suggest that this success might be bought at the expense of learning quality. In the present study, mastery learning was used to teach biology to three grade nine classes, with two parallel control classes. The mastery classes were superior to the control classes in a summative test, students with a bias towards a surface approach to learning achieving comparatively better than others. When the performance of the mastery groups in units 1 to 4 of the mastery program was examined, that of surface-biassed students, initially lower than deep-biassed on unit 1, progressively improved, while the performance of deep-biassed students progressively deteriorated from units 1 to 4. Interview data threw light on the cognitive strategies used by these different groups of students. The results create a dilemma for educators planning to use mastery learning if they wish to maintain learning quality. © 1994 Academic Press, Inc.