Unlocking True Learning with Instant Explanations: A Mastery Learning Pedagogy

Traditional learning has long relied on lectures, textbooks, rote memorisation, and written exams. Too often, this approach prioritises grades over genuine understanding of concepts, limiting students’ ability to think critically, logically reason with problems, and apply knowledge beyond the classroom.

In response to these shortcomings, educators have increasingly begun to rethink how learning should be structured, placing deeper understanding and skill development at the centre of the learning process. One such approach is Mastery Learning Pedagogy.

Mastery Learning Pedagogy is an approach that focuses on helping students achieve complete mastery through a deeper understanding of concepts/topics before progressing on to the next. The pedagogy prioritises competency rather than just covering the syllabus or scoring grades, breaking learning into smaller, focused units, each aimed at developing specific skills. Through regular formative assessments, students can identify gaps in their understanding and strengthen their learning, building a strong foundation for future topics.

mySecondTeacher’s pedagogy follows the Mastery Learning approach, ensuring students truly master every topic before moving on. Students begin with an Interactive Video, attempt the End-of-Lesson Quiz, and receive a Diagnostic Report that highlights their strengths and areas to improve, and guides them to reinforce their understanding. However, identifying the gaps alone is not always enough to help students achieve complete mastery; they also need to know why they made mistakes. To support the approach of our pedagogy,

mySecondTeacher brings an additional feature, Instant Explanations, designed to help students understand the “why” behind their mistakes, ensuring they grasp overall concepts to ensure students achieve complete mastery.

What is Instant Explanations?

Instant Explanations (IE) is a feature integrated into the End-of-Lesson Quiz of the Interactive Video. This feature provides students with detailed and conceptual explanations of what the question is asking, why their answers are incorrect, and delivers a clear explanation for correct answers instantly. Instant Explanations supports the Mastery Learning Pedagogy by ensuring students achieve full comprehension of each topic before moving forward, encouraging students to research and dive deeper into understanding the concept.

How does Instant Explanations work?

The Mastery Learning Pedagogy focuses on helping students progress from not understanding the initial objective to mastering (or becoming fully competent in) it. Mastery is achieved when students demonstrate a strong grasp of the learning objectives, typically reflected by scoring 80% or above in formative assessments or final exams. mySecondTeacher helps students achieve Complete Mastery by providing clear and detailed explanations instantly, helping them fill learning gaps and understand concepts better.

Here’s how it works:

1. 100% Score: A perfect score indicates Complete Mastery of the topic. Students have successfully understood all key concepts, and no additional explanations are required.

2. 80% or Above: When a student scores 80% or higher, Instant Explanations can be accessed. Clear, detailed explanations are provided for the questions answered incorrectly, helping students fill small learning gaps and strengthen their understanding.

3. Below 80% Score: When a student scores below 80%, they are encouraged to revisit the lesson and retake the quiz. This ensures foundational concepts are reinforced before moving forward.

This structured approach ensures that Instant Explanations are used meaningfully, reinforcing learning and guiding students toward mastery.

Currently, the Instant Explanations feature is available for the A Levels curriculum. This feature is accessed using the Tutor Credits (in-app currency). Students can simply purchase the TC using PayPal or Stripe as payment options.

How to use Instant Explanations Effectively?

Instant Explanations helps students enhance their understanding of concepts by identifying knowledge gaps and offering clear guidance on how to correct mistakes. When used effectively, it supports students in achieving complete mastery. Here’s how students should use Instant Explanations effectively:

1. Review Diagnostic Reports immediately:
   After completing an End-of-Lesson Quiz, students can review the Diagnostic Report to understand the topics that require more focus and improvement.

2. Read explanations carefully:
   Students can access the Instant Explanations and take time to read each explanation to understand what the question is asking and how the correct answer is derived.

3. Connect explanations to concepts:
   Students can then relate the explanation to the topic/concept to strengthen their understanding of the underlying concept.

4. Reinforce learning through practice:
   Insights from Instant Explanations can be applied when re-attempting questions from the End-of-Lesson quizzes, reinforcing learning.

5. Take notes on recurring mistakes:
   Students are encouraged to keep track of common errors and revisit those topics to ensure complete understanding and long-term mastery.

Hence, traditional learning that focuses solely on providing the right or wrong answers often leaves gaps in understanding. By combining Mastery Learning with the Instant Explanations feature, students are guided to fully comprehend concepts, learn from mistakes, and reinforce their knowledge. When used effectively, mySecondTeacher’s Instant Explanations transform formative assessments into meaningful learning experiences, helping students move beyond scores and achieve true mastery of every topic.