ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the climate of educational theory and practice over the past several decades that nurtured the continuing interest in the model of school learning (MSL). The MSL has had, a consistent and perhaps increasing influence in many areas of education, not only in the USA but also in a number of both developed and developing countries abroad. Of course the model did not rely solely on learning time as such. It suggested that only time that the student was actively engaged in learning really counted toward achievement. Over the subsequent years Benjamin Bloom's ideas on mastery learning developed and flourished. The MSL postulated that time-on-task would be a function of the amount of time the student is 'willing' to spend on learning, and that the amount learned would depend on the amount of time actually spent, regardless of whether the student 'liked' this learning.
