Mastery Learning Versus Spiral Learning

In the past week or two, I have looked at both master learning and spiral learning but today, we'll look at the ways in which they are different and if one if better than the other.  In short, mastery learning is focused on having students master a specific concept before moving on while spiral learning encourages students to review concepts as they move on even if they haven't fully mastered it.  

Mastery learning takes each concept, breaks it down into smaller manageable chunks that the child masters before moving onto the more complex ideas.  In spiral learning, students are exposed to the big idea first, then revisit it multiple times, expanding knowledge and moving on to the more complex ideas.

Ideally, mastery learning allows the students to progress at their own pace so they can master each concept or topic before moving on the the other.  In mastery learning, the students begin with the simplest form such as one step equations with whole numbers.  Once they've mastered these, they will solve one step equations containing fractions and/or decimals.  From there they might solve two step equations only using whole numbers before solving them with fractions and/or decimals.  No matter what, they have to prove they have mastered one before they move on to the next.

Although it lets the student work at their own pace, use critical thinking skills when problem solving, it is more difficult to manage a large group of students.  In addition, since students are working on different lessons, there is less time for collaboration among the students. It also requires the teacher perform more detailed grading so they prove they have mastered each step.

On the other hand, spiral learning emphasizes the idea that learning is cylindrical in nature.  In this, they revisit previous topics, deepening their understanding, expanding their knowledge, and master it.  As they revisit the topic, they become more familiar with it and understand it better. 

In spiral learning, they may introduce students to solving one step equations but the class will move on before it is fully mastered because the teacher knows they will be revisiting the topic multiple times in the future.  When students are introduced to solving one step equations, they may be exposed to whole numbers, fractions, and decimals at the same time so they learn the procedure associated with solving these. The teacher can move on knowing students will be exposed to this again and again throughout the year so they build on the foundation while expanding their understanding.

One major disadvantage is they might get bored with revisiting the material again and again.  In addition, research has found that certain topics tend to get revisited more than others regardless of whether the students need the repeated exposure.

So which is better?  It really depends on the child but for me, I like breaking the material down into bite sized chunks that students work on mastering while providing multiple opportunities to revisit the topics they still need to work on.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.