Mastery learning and classroom management staff development program for secondary mathematics teachers¶

Element · All elements
Evidence · 3 claims (3 for) · 1 study (1 causal), q2 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 3 claims rest on one study

Description¶

A staff development program combining mastery learning principles with research-based classroom management strategies, delivered to 21 volunteer high school mathematics teachers randomly assigned by school to treatment. It included "a five-day summer seminar, three monthly follow-up sessionsduring the first semester of the following academic year, peer observations and coaching,and an administrators' seminar." Participants designed formative tests, corrective and enrichment activities, and exchanged teaching ideas in team planning and peer observations. An administrators' seminar drew on effective-schools research to build support.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Follow-up assistance and collegial planning opportunities, since one-shot staff development without support results in low implementation in quality and duration

Constraints¶

• Findings generalize only to a similar sample of high school mathematics teachers; effectiveness in other content areas or grade levels is undetermined

Target Learners¶

• secondary school mathematics teachers (inservice)

Target Learning Goals¶

• implementing the feedback-corrective/enrichment loop
• classroom management and academic engaged time

Claims¶

• Mastery learning implementation did not reduce material covered or instructional pace, contradicting the Robin Hood contention [+W]
• Student off-task behavior is lower in trained teachers' classrooms than in control classrooms after adjusting for baseline off-task rates [+W]
• Trained teachers allocated about 20 percent of class time to the feedback-corrective/enrichment loop after staff development, having devoted virtually none before [+W]

Related Elements¶

Examples¶

• Design professional development that is intensive, on-site, peer-based, responsive, and grounded in teachers' real classroom experiences

Key Sources¶

• Fitzpatrick, Kathleen A. (1985). Group-Based Mastery Learning: A Robin Hood Approach to Instruction? Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago, Illinois. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED255556