Implementation and Impact of Mastery Grading on Student Learning and Affect on Pre-Service Teachers in a Science Teaching Methods Course

Abstract

Traditional grading practices in the U.S. K-12 and post-secondary system often blend academic mastery with non-cognitive behaviors like attendance, participation, and timeliness, creating a lack of alignment with standards-based accountability metrics. Alternative systems like Mastery Grading (MG) promotes a learner-centered paradigm focused purely on skill and content proficiency and multiple opportunities for success. However, MG implementation remains inconsistent across all levels, and its use in pre-service teacher preparation courses has not been explored deeply. This study investigates the perceptions and attitudes of pre-service teachers (PSTs) toward an alternative evaluation framework like MG. Data was collected by embedding an active MG system into an upper-level science teaching methods course, allowing future educators to experience the model. Participants reveal that they recognize the mental health benefits, acquisition of understanding at deeper levels, and increased student effort and agency offered by MG. However, although they understood the system and its makeup as they experienced it, the PSTs respondents indicate some conflict as to whether to still reward more subjective components like student effort and behavior. This research addresses a gap in teacher preparation by examining how firsthand experiential exposure to alternative grading system like MG shapes future educators' pedagogical beliefs and their ultimate willingness to adopt learner-centered assessment practices.