4. One-on-One Mastery Learning
Quick summary: Bloom’s 2 Sigma problem revealed that one-on-one mastery learning leads to significantly better outcomes than group instruction. High-quality adaptive learning apps can generate similar results. In a mastery-based approach, learning is personalized, students learn at their own pace, students master one level concept before moving on to the next, and the educator takes responsibility for the outcomes. Homeschool is the ideal setup for this type of learning since students learn 1-1 with a parent, tutor, or caregiver. 1-2 hours a day of focused “Mastery Hours” is all students need to excel, making homeschooling an efficient form of education.
Mastery Learning
Bloom’s 2 Sigma Problem
Homeschooling vs. Traditional School for Mastery Learning
Educational Software and Mastery Learning
Improving instructional quality in Mastery Learning
What is 1-1 Mastery Learning, and why is it relevant to homeschooling?
No guide to homeschooling would be complete without a discussion of Mastery Learning and one-on-one tutoring. Indeed, the effectiveness of mastery learning and Bloom’s 2 Sigma problem have been a deciding factor in many a family’s decision to homeschool.
Mastery Learning
The concept of Mastery Learning has been around since the 1960s, when educational psychologist Benjamin Bloom first coined the term. Bloom demonstrated that children learn better when they are able to move ahead at their own pace and master one concept before moving on to the next. This proves to be especially true in subjects like math and science.
Bloom found the benefits of mastery learning to be both cognitive and affective. Students learned material more deeply, and they also developed more confidence, autonomy, and motivation as their mastery was recognized and rewarded.
Bloom’s 2 Sigma problem
Many of us at Modulo have been tutors ourselves, so we’ve seen first-hand the unfair advantage 1-1 tutoring can bring to students. In 1968, Benjamin conducted a study that demonstrated just this. When students pair one-on-one tutoring with a mastery-based approach, the impact of mastery learning is significantly amplified. In fact, students learned 90% better than peers learning in a group, two standard deviations above the norm. He was then able to replicate these results.
It’s very challenging to offer one-on-one mastery learning in the classroom setting
Learning at the group’s pace: In a classroom environment, even if a mastery-based curriculum is used, students have to wait until their work is graded before they know if they’ve mastered the concept and can move on to the next. In a group setting, accelerated students can get bored, tune out and start performing poorly at school. Students who need more time to master a given concept are forced to rush ahead without fully learning the foundational concepts, and then get completely left behind. Bloom’s studies show that most students can master a concept if given enough time. Faster is not necessarily brighter.
1-1 tutoring is unfeasible: Since Mastery Learning works best through 1-1 tutoring, offering the most effective mastery learning to all students at school would involve hiring a tutor for every student in the United States. The cost would be exorbitant. Given the teacher attrition rate in an already overcrowded, under-resourced school system, this is not realistic. Private schools that offer 1-1 tutoring generally charge $100/hr. The total cost can run as high as $70-100k per student per year.
Homeschooling is the ideal setup for mastery learning
One-on-one tutoring: In homeschooling, students already have a tutor: their parent, caregiver, or peer.
Learning at an ideal pace: Since mastery learning through 1-1 tutoring is so effective, it only requires 1-2 hours a day of 1-1 tutoring for students to learn far faster and better than they would in a group setting where learners have to take turns and delay or rush timing based on the timetable of other learners.
Personalized learning: In homeschooling, families can choose the ideal mastery-based curriculum and customize it to their child’s learning as they go. If the student is using a high-quality adaptive learning app, the curriculum may customize itself to the student.
Homeschooling vs. Traditional School for Mastery Learning
Let’s take a closer look at how homeschooling and school measure up to Bloom’s four conditions for successful Mastery Learning:
1) Learning at your own pace
2) Clear Instruction
3) Quality 1-1 instruction
4) Motivating Learning.
Learning at your own pace
Bloom believed any student could master a subject if given enough time. The time it takes is impacted by the student’s talent, quality of teaching instruction, the degree to which they’re helped, and clear guidelines as to what constitutes mastery. The amount of time they spent on the subject was not important, but spending enough time to master it was what mattered.
In school, students learn at the same pace. A student who learns more quickly will have to wait for the others to catch up. A student who learns more slowly might not achieve mastery before they have to move on to the next concept.
In homeschooling, students have all the time they need to master a concept. When they’ve reached a deep understanding of the subject matter, they can move forward to the next concept with confidence.
Quality one-on-one instruction
Bloom demonstrated that when a student had a good tutor, they mastered the material better. He defined a good tutor as someone who paid attention to their needs and personalized learning to help them understand.
In school, even the best and most qualified teachers have to tailor learning to fit 30 to 50 students. As deeply as they care, they may only get 2-3 minutes a day to spend one-on-one time with a student and explain concepts in the unique way that best fits their learning. After a year, the student generally moves on to a new teacher who has to get to know them all over again.
We saw numerous examples in teacher groups on Reddit of teachers trying to apply mastery-based principles through independent study, not 1-1 tutoring: letting kids take exams as many times as they need, letting students turn in assignments late (so they could “learn at the ideal pace) or do independent projects…without the instructor taking real responsibility for the student’s outcomes, which was a pivotal recommendation coming from Bloom’s original teaching.
In homeschooling, students have access to a personal teacher who cares, their parent or caregiver, who can ideally tailor the curriculum to fit the way they learn. By observing a student over several years, through trial and error, the parent gains an in-depth understanding of how they learn best. Even if the parent or caregiver is not a trained teacher, which is usually not the case, simply giving this kind of individual attention to the student can far outperform the best classroom teacher in a group setting who has to cater to multiple students with different learning abilities and ways of thinking all at once.
Clear instruction
Bloom found that students' learning was highly impacted by their verbal and linguistic abilities. If they understood what the teacher was communicating, they were likely to learn better.
In a classroom setting, it is much more difficult for a teacher to track if each individual student is listening and processing information. They have to be exceptional communicators. Even if they have the best intentions, they may not even be aware that a student can’t read what they’ve written on the board because they’re illiterate - or possibly have a visual impairment. This problem is exacerbated for recent immigrants who may not even speak English. As teachers have to cater to an entire class, they may not have time to slow down and explain concepts to children who are behind in reading or understanding English.
In homeschooling, the parent or caregiver is having a one-on-one conversation with the student while they are teaching. They can easily see if a student is listening, paying attention, and has grasped the concept they are trying to convey. All they have to do is look at them or ask, “do you understand?” “Can you explain this back to me?” Homeschooling parents have the luxury of giving their students long periods of silence while they process information before they reply.
Motivating learning
Bloom emphasized that a student’s perseverance is a huge factor in their success in learning.
In classrooms, success is often most measured on quizzes and exams. Students are rewarded for results, not processes. It’s impossible for a teacher in a group setting to observe and reward every stage of a student’s mastery and the trials and errors that went into attaining that goal when there are thirty students in class.
Families are uniquely positioned to motivate learning by praising the learning process, rather than the outcomes. For example, a parent might say, “I love how hard you worked at solving that addition problem until you got it right.” In this way, they’re cultivating grit and a growth mindset, critical ingredients to success in learning and life. Students gain a deep understanding and appreciation for the process that led them to a positive outcome. This cultivates self-efficacy and healthy self-esteem. It inspires them to push past frustration and keep learning no matter the odds.
4. Educational Software and Mastery Learning
In a recent review of Bloom’s research and other studies on digital software, José Luis Ricón made a compelling case that well-designed digital software can outperform a human tutor in helping a student achieve mastery. However, he noted that digital software was extremely complex to build and that the best human tutors almost always outperformed the software.
At Modulo, we’ve been pairing adaptive learning apps with human tutors, and observed students jump several grade levels in a matter of months. The advantage of having a human tutor work with a student using an adaptive learning app is that the app can adapt to gaps in their knowledge and come up with new problems to deepen their understanding. Simultaneously, the human tutor can ask pointed questions and offer lessons more tailored to the student when they get stuck, making sure they understand. The human tutor can praise their hard work, good questions and encourage perseverance. The app amplifies this through built-in rewards and incentives. The human tutor can also engage in learning with the app alongside the student, modeling learning and perseverance. With an app, the human tutor doesn’t need to develop curriculum or check answers. They can focus on the more nuanced aspects of learning and the individual student that are difficult for software to identify and adapt to. If the student gets stuck or frustrated with the program, the human can provide encouragement to help them keep going.
This method is especially effective for our college student volunteers at Mastery Hour, our free mastery-based online tutoring program. These students have little formal teaching experience, but lots of experience caring for children and helping peers. They bring empathy, inspiration, good questions and can model effective learning. The adaptive learning app provides curriculum, personalizes instruction, measures, and adapts to students' strengths and weaknesses as they answer questions and move along the customized journey.
Another advantage of adaptive learning apps is that mastery-based apps can help students, tutors, and parents stay aligned with where a child is learning. One of our favorite adaptive learning apps is Beast Academy. Whenever the child opens the app, they start at the level where they last left off. The tutor or parent helping them knows exactly where they are and doesn’t need to play catch-up. The child can move ahead between sessions or pick up exactly where they stopped with the last tutor.
Mastery-based apps provide the ideal balance of self-directed and guided learning. Kids can ask for help as needed or work through problems on their own. When families are working with multiple siblings at the same time, kids can work independently and ask for parents for help as needed, minimizing the need for parents to be fully focused on one child all the time to ensure they learn at their ideal pace.
Technology has made it easier to do mastery learning at scale
When Bloom published his research in 1968, there was not the abundance of adaptive learning apps and online tutors we have today. Online marketplaces and free tutoring platforms give students access to the best teachers in the world, no matter where they are located.
Educational software, and adaptive learning apps in particular, have made it easier for anyone to teach using mastery learning, regardless of their background in education by providing curriculum and individualized, mastery-based learning that tailors learning to individual students as they go - and provides the rewards and incentives at every stage which Bloom believed to be critical to encouraging perseverance.
If you’re curious to learn more about mastery-based apps and physical curriculum to use with your child, make sure to check out our complete guide to homeschool curriculum, where we feature our favorite mastery-based tools.
Improving instructional quality in 1-1 Mastery Learning
It would be naive to suggest that teaching quality makes no difference on the impact of 1-1 mastery learning. As might be expected, research by the Annenberg Institute reveals that when it comes to one-on-one tutoring, trained teachers and paraprofessionals get slightly better results in a 1-1 setting than trained volunteers (given the same amount of time and same curriculum).
If families are in a position to hire a trained teacher to tutor, how to find and vet homeschool teachers will support you in finding a high-quality teacher who cares about your child’s outcomes.
If a family doesn’t have time to teach and can’t afford a tutor, there are lots of organizations that provide free, live online tutoring with trained tutors, including schoolhouse.world, and our own non-profit, masteryhour.org.
We’ve thought a lot about the qualities that make an effective 1-1 educator in the 21st century.
With some simple strategies and an effective mastery-based curriculum or learning app, we believe any parent or caregiver can achieve equal or greater learning outcomes tutoring their child than a certified teacher. Our next section on family involvement in education includes simple strategies that can help parents and caregivers easily improve their teaching. It will also help families in avoiding common pitfalls like being a “helicopter parent” or trying to re-create school at home.
