Learning Mastery
What is it?
In learning mastery, students are motivated and define success as mastering the content they are learning. Students with a learning mastery goal orientation are less concerned about how they are perceived by their peers and rather focus on the learning process and reaching content mastery (Ames and Archer 260). Ames and Archer go onto explain that mastery goals enable students to view learning as a process that they get out of what they put in. In other words, these students understand that success in mastering a particular content or task is dependent on the level of effort they give. Because of this, this would be considered a 'task' involved goal, where students are again more concerned about learning and mastering the task or content at hand.
Influences on Learning
The learning mastery influence the learning of students both negative, positive, and/or both. When assigning students with difficult tasks students may have towards feeling towards the task as the student(s) like to be challenged. On the downside it may cause the opposite effect, some students do not enjoy difficult tasks, this may risk setting students up for failure. Students view on themselves also affect how they will take on tasks, those who seek difficult task will enjoy it while those who do not will succeed better with easier tasks.
How the teacher set up their classroom environment also influences the students influences on learning. The students experiences in their classroom affects the way they use efficient learning strategies and how they adapt their motivation.
Knowing how students approach tasks will help students become more successful, while making assignments achievable but also challenging the students who like challenges will help the students be set up for success. Students are influence by how goals are set up for them and what type of strategies they use, as higher-mastery students tend to use more learning strategies,
Cause
Students use learning mastery as a skill to improve their learning and become successful in their overall education. Learning mastery is a way that students can advocate for themselves and their learning success.
Avoidance state: In the avoidance state, students focus on avoiding misunderstanding, avoiding not learning or not mastering a task. Students want to avoid not understanding the subject at hand fully and to the best of their ability. The Student uses standards of self-improvement, progress, and deep understanding of the task
Approach state: In the approach state, students focus on mastering the task, learning, and fully understanding. they want to master the task. The students uses self standards of not being wrong or incorrect.
Teaching Methods
In order to best support students with a learning mastery goal, it is important to give students a purpose as well as control. Tasks that are given in class should be varied and diverse as well as challenging. Giving students a reason for why they are doing a task, will help them engage in the activities and find more of an interest. In order to make students feel like they are in control of their own learning, giving them choices can be beneficial. With this, students should be picking based on interest and not what choice is less effort (Ames 1992).
One other component teachers should include in their instruction is the social component. The soical component will help with giving students different judegements and cognitive engagement patterns. Students can then be able to learn more from the help of their peers (Ames 1992). Two good ways to allow students to socialize is having jigsaw activities or activities with a base group. These groups allow students to gain information in a more unique and engaging way (Deemer 2004).
When recognizing students, teachers should make sure to avoid rewarding mistakes when they are absent, recognize students for stretching their capabilities, and recognize the quality of a student's work. This helps students realize that they are growing and learning the material. Students should be involved in the feedback process in order for them to know what they need to work on which will help them individually grow as a learner(Deemer 2004). Another important way to support students is having them create a learning portfolio. This allows for students to have evidence of their mastery and how they are going throughout the year. (Deemer 2004).
One thing to keep in mind with grades, is that teachers should grade based on how the student did and not in comparison to other students. (Deemer 2004).
Teachers should be using the target goal theory in order to help students maintain mastery goals. These are broken down into task, authority, recognition, grouping, evaluation, and time. This is described more in the table to the right.
