A Systematic Literature Review for Mastery Learning in Undergraduate Engineering Courses

Implementing mastery learning in an undergraduate engineering course can be cumbersome, requiring instructors to restructure their evaluation and grading practices significantly. There is a lack of coherent evidence on the effects of mastery learning on undergraduate engineering students and a lack of understanding of instructors’ perspectives on mastery learning. Therefore, the four objectives of this study were (1) to provide educators and researchers with an overview of how mastery learning has been applied in undergraduate engineering courses, (2) to understand the effect mastery learning has had on students’ learning, (3) to understand students’ experiences, and (4) document reflective feedback reported by instructors who implemented mastery learning. We employed a systematic literature review methodology to address these objectives. We surveyed eight databases for published articles. Our systematic literature review focused on studies that applied mastery learning in undergraduate engineering courses in the United States; 23 articles were reviewed and synthesized. Mastery learning was implemented through many approaches, but all implementations followed the core features of specifying learning objectives, using designated evaluation metrics to measure mastery, and providing multiple retake opportunities. The most common implementations were in Statics, Dynamics, and Thermodynamics courses. Students’ final exam grades were not representative of the effectiveness of mastery learning. Yet, there was evidence that mastery learning positively affected student learning when cumulative course grades or homework grades were considered. Students’ evaluation of their mastery learning experience was mixed. Five studies reported that many students learned better through mastery learning. A robust evaluation of students’ experience in a mastery learning course could be ascertained better through standard survey questionnaires. After analyzing the instructor’s reflective feedback, we identified 16 benefits and four limitations. We conclude the systematic review by providing recommendations for instructors considering implementing mastery learning in their undergraduate engineering courses.