What is Mastery?
Mastery refers to the acquisition of a high level of competence in a particular area. The teacher's level of mastery in an area can have great impact on the attainment of mastery for their students.
Is Expertise Necessary for Great Teaching?
At first one may think that the ideal teacher would an expert in a field of study. While their knowledge is great, their ability to convey their knowledge to others may not be so great. Ambrose et al. believe (as cited in Sprague and Stuart, 2000) that there are four developmental stages of mastery for teachers and students:
While knowledge increases at each stage of mastery, levels of consciousness rise and fall. Because of this some believe that a teacher in the conscious competence level of mastery may be better suited to teach novice learners since they too are dependent upon thinking out problems and using basic steps that may be easier to understand. On the other hand, an expert in their field (unconscious competence) has a high level of knowledge, but may lack the ability to teach a novice learner. Because they are an expert, they don't require conscious thought to perform a skill, or they have "short cuts" that they use that may confuse a novice student who is trying to learn. Ambrose et al. refer to this inability to understand the needs of novice students by expert teachers as expert blind spot. (Nickerson, 1999; Hinds, 1999; Nathan & Koedinger, 2000; Nathan & Petrosino, 2003). Those who are experts can overcome their "blind spot" by focusing on student component skills, integration of these skills, and application of these skills.
Mastery refers to the acquisition of a high level of competence in a particular area. The teacher's level of mastery in an area can have great impact on the attainment of mastery for their students.
Is Expertise Necessary for Great Teaching?
At first one may think that the ideal teacher would an expert in a field of study. While their knowledge is great, their ability to convey their knowledge to others may not be so great. Ambrose et al. believe (as cited in Sprague and Stuart, 2000) that there are four developmental stages of mastery for teachers and students:
- Unconscious Incompetence - Underdeveloped knowledge or skill. They don't know that they don't know. These students are just beginning to learn about a topic.
- Conscious Incompetence - They know what they don't know, and what they need to learn. They are aware of basic concepts, and understand that they need to continue to learn new information about a topic.
- Conscious Competence - Have an adequate amount of knowledge or skill, but must focus and concentrate on steps in order to perform correctly.
- Unconscious Competence - High level of knowledge or skill, able to perform skill with little to no thought.
While knowledge increases at each stage of mastery, levels of consciousness rise and fall. Because of this some believe that a teacher in the conscious competence level of mastery may be better suited to teach novice learners since they too are dependent upon thinking out problems and using basic steps that may be easier to understand. On the other hand, an expert in their field (unconscious competence) has a high level of knowledge, but may lack the ability to teach a novice learner. Because they are an expert, they don't require conscious thought to perform a skill, or they have "short cuts" that they use that may confuse a novice student who is trying to learn. Ambrose et al. refer to this inability to understand the needs of novice students by expert teachers as expert blind spot. (Nickerson, 1999; Hinds, 1999; Nathan & Koedinger, 2000; Nathan & Petrosino, 2003). Those who are experts can overcome their "blind spot" by focusing on student component skills, integration of these skills, and application of these skills.
Component Skills
Mastery begins with students attaining component skills. Component skills are those abilities that are essential to the basic understanding and performance of a topic or activity. For example, in order to create this website, I have to have the component skills of reading (the text), understanding what is important, be able to use the keyboard to type, and know the workings of Weebly in order to publish this site. If I did not possess these component skills, this page would not exist as it does.
It is important that teachers are able to break down complex tasks into small step-by-step instructions for students in order to provide targeted practice for weak skills. It is also important that students have an opportunity to apply these skills to the whole task. The decision that the teacher needs to make is whether or not, or when to teach a skill in isolation or as part of the whole task. Research is inconclusive about which method is better. As a rule, the decision should be based on the context of the skill and how applicable it is to target individual skills as part of the whole task.
Integration
Once component skills are attained on an individual basis, students may then be ready for integration of these skills to perform more complex tasks. Research (Kahnemann, 1973; Navon & Gopher, 1979; Wickens, 1991) indicates that individuals have a limit to how many tasks or how much information they can process at one time, referred to as cognitive load. In order to not overload students, it is important to decrease the amount of tasks introduced at once, and allow students to work on one at a time. This is especially important if a skill or task is not clearly understood or is new. Another approach to help students is to provide pre-solved problems and have them analyze how the problem was solved. This is an example of the worked-example effect as part of a process known as scaffolding. As one becomes more of an expert on performing a task (unconscious competence), there are less cognitive resources used to complete a task, thus they will have an increased ability to integrate more tasks together at one time.
Application
After students have attained the necessary skills and can integrate them effectively, the final stage of mastery is application of skills. Appropriate knowledge is knowledge used correctly for the purpose of solving a problem. Similarly, application requires students to know when and where it is appropriate to use the skills they have learned. Being able to use skills between contexts is called transfer. There are two types of transfer: near and far. Near refers to similar contexts, far applies to unlike contexts. Near transfer occurs within or between different classes or courses, but stays within the confines of school. Far transfer goes beyond school walls and happens less frequently. There are a variety of reasons why this occurs ranging from students inability to disassociate the skill from school use, to incomplete understanding of the skills application outside of school.
Mastery begins with students attaining component skills. Component skills are those abilities that are essential to the basic understanding and performance of a topic or activity. For example, in order to create this website, I have to have the component skills of reading (the text), understanding what is important, be able to use the keyboard to type, and know the workings of Weebly in order to publish this site. If I did not possess these component skills, this page would not exist as it does.
It is important that teachers are able to break down complex tasks into small step-by-step instructions for students in order to provide targeted practice for weak skills. It is also important that students have an opportunity to apply these skills to the whole task. The decision that the teacher needs to make is whether or not, or when to teach a skill in isolation or as part of the whole task. Research is inconclusive about which method is better. As a rule, the decision should be based on the context of the skill and how applicable it is to target individual skills as part of the whole task.
Integration
Once component skills are attained on an individual basis, students may then be ready for integration of these skills to perform more complex tasks. Research (Kahnemann, 1973; Navon & Gopher, 1979; Wickens, 1991) indicates that individuals have a limit to how many tasks or how much information they can process at one time, referred to as cognitive load. In order to not overload students, it is important to decrease the amount of tasks introduced at once, and allow students to work on one at a time. This is especially important if a skill or task is not clearly understood or is new. Another approach to help students is to provide pre-solved problems and have them analyze how the problem was solved. This is an example of the worked-example effect as part of a process known as scaffolding. As one becomes more of an expert on performing a task (unconscious competence), there are less cognitive resources used to complete a task, thus they will have an increased ability to integrate more tasks together at one time.
Application
After students have attained the necessary skills and can integrate them effectively, the final stage of mastery is application of skills. Appropriate knowledge is knowledge used correctly for the purpose of solving a problem. Similarly, application requires students to know when and where it is appropriate to use the skills they have learned. Being able to use skills between contexts is called transfer. There are two types of transfer: near and far. Near refers to similar contexts, far applies to unlike contexts. Near transfer occurs within or between different classes or courses, but stays within the confines of school. Far transfer goes beyond school walls and happens less frequently. There are a variety of reasons why this occurs ranging from students inability to disassociate the skill from school use, to incomplete understanding of the skills application outside of school.
Strategies for Success with Mastery
#1. Expert teachers continue to look at steps and basic information that students need to attain component skills. Speak with colleagues and those outside of your subject area about their approaches. Do not assume students know what you do!
#2. Focus students on only necessary skills and tasks to avoid cognitive overload.
#3. Look for weak or missing component skills and practice them in isolation whenever applicable.
#4. Provide practice and state specific expectations for skill acquisition.
#5. Start with small tasks and work toward more complex ones when appropriate.
#6. Be sure that students are aware of the applicability of skills for appropriate uses. Give students chances to use skills in a variety of ways.
#7. Help students to recognize the features of a problem by using structured comparisons of problems, cases, scenarios or tasks, and be able to identify important details from superficial ones. This ability leads to more successful transfer later.
#8. Specify context and ask students to identify relevant skills or knowledge.
#9. Specify skills or knowledge and ask students to identify contexts that they apply.
#10. Provide prompts to relevant knowledge.
#1. Expert teachers continue to look at steps and basic information that students need to attain component skills. Speak with colleagues and those outside of your subject area about their approaches. Do not assume students know what you do!
#2. Focus students on only necessary skills and tasks to avoid cognitive overload.
#3. Look for weak or missing component skills and practice them in isolation whenever applicable.
#4. Provide practice and state specific expectations for skill acquisition.
#5. Start with small tasks and work toward more complex ones when appropriate.
#6. Be sure that students are aware of the applicability of skills for appropriate uses. Give students chances to use skills in a variety of ways.
#7. Help students to recognize the features of a problem by using structured comparisons of problems, cases, scenarios or tasks, and be able to identify important details from superficial ones. This ability leads to more successful transfer later.
#8. Specify context and ask students to identify relevant skills or knowledge.
#9. Specify skills or knowledge and ask students to identify contexts that they apply.
#10. Provide prompts to relevant knowledge.
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