ABSTRACT
The most recent evaluation of the implementation of a ‘mastery’ approach, by Sheffield Hallam University, is inconclusive, suggesting little effect at the upper primary level, with any benefit limited to the earlier years. With the introduction of the Programme for International Student Assessment tests, which compares the attainment of students across 79 countries, there has been an increased interest in the teaching methods adopted by those countries which perform particularly well. Mark Boylan, a member of the team of researchers from Sheffield Hallam University in Sheffield, England, who carried out the initial evaluation of the implementation of teaching for mastery has written a history of mastery approaches for Mathematics Teaching, the journal of the Association of Mathematics in the UK. There are many definitions of teaching for mastery.
