Mastery Based Learning

In this short TED talk video, Salman Khan pitches for Mastery learning Mastery learning is an instructional strategy and educational philosophy that emphasizes the importance of students achieving a high level of competence (e.g., 90% accuracy) in prerequisite knowledge before moving on to new material. This approach involves providing students with individualized support and repeated opportunities to demonstrate mastery through assessments. If a student does not initially achieve mastery, they receive additional instruction and support until they do. Mastery learning is based on the idea that all students can learn effectively with appropriate instruction and sufficient time, and it contrasts with traditional teaching methods that often focus on covering a set amount of material within a fixed timeframe, regardless of individual student needs. . It means that if there is a bar (say 100%) for mastery, then the variable in the learning should be how many hours one spends to attain that bar. Until the bar of 100% mastery is attained, the student should not be considered the master of the subject, and should not just move on the next class/course.

We adopted the current system because it was impractical for mastery based learning previously, but given our computational resources, mastery based learning is very much practical today.