Exploring and Evidencing Mastery Learning Children as the best advocates of their own learning! Association for Achievement and Improvement through Assessment Wednesday 11 th March 2015 Di Pardoe

Children as the best advocates of their own

What do you understand by the term motivation?

What encourages you to make an effort? What motivates you as a learner? How do you motivate yourself when learning is a struggle?

“Motivation is the most important factor in determining whether you succeed in the long run. What I mean by motivation is not only the desire to achieve, but also the love of learning, the love of challenge and the ability to thrive on obstacles. Carol Dweck 2006

All learners need: Alan McLean

Affiliation Agency Autonomy how much you feel you belong in any group, team or organisation how much you believe you can achieve your goals how much you are able to make your own decisions

Learner autonomy can be defined as ‘the ability to take control of one’s learning’ Characteristics of autonomous learners: Taking greater responsibility for behaviour and learning An active approach to the task in hand Applying skills which have been learned in self directed learning A willingness to take risks and have a go Initiating learning from independent ideas and thinking

To develop autonomy and promote motivation we need to consider mindsets….. Diana Pardoe Training and Consultancy 2015

Growth (‘Mastery’) Mindset.....leads to a desire to learn and therefore a tendency to... Fixed Mindset......leads to a desire to look ‘clever’ and therefore a tendency to... embrace challengesavoid challenges persist in the face of obstacles and difficulty give up easily see effort as key to success see effort as pointless learn from all feedbackignore useful or critical feedback be inspired by the success of others feel threatened by the success of others Dweck 2006

A growth or ‘mastery’ mindset requires an orientation on learning... where the focus is upon improving competence A fixed mindset results from an orientation on performance... where the focus is upon proving competence Chris Watkins Institute of Education Diana Pardoe Training and Consultancy 2015

Praise effort to develop a ‘mastery’ mindset You’ve worked really hard on that – well done for keeping going even when it got difficult Wow - look at how you’ve improved since last week How would you like to show what you have learned? Well done - you’re really pushing yourself today... Every time you practice, you’re making connections in your brain stronger Good - it’s making you think - that’s how your brain is growing! This is a really valuable mistake. Let’s think about why it didn’t work and learn from it.

The language we use tells our learners what we believe and what we value

All learners need a sense of autonomy in order to become advocates of their own learning.

When learners are motivated and actively involved in their learning; when they talk meaningfully about how they learn; when they take more responsibility for themselves and their learning and understand that effort is the key to success….then they are more likely to make better progress, develop greater confidence and independence and become higher achievers.