Powerful Learning Environments

Making Learning Fun

• Grab their interest with music!• Grab their interest with visuals!

Student EngagementThe SCORE:

Success- the need for mastery Curiosity- the need for understandingOriginality -the need for self-expressionRelationships- the need for involvement with others

Knowing the SCORE• Under what conditions are students most

likely to feel that they can be successful?• When are students most likely to become

curious?• How can we help students satisfy their natural

drive toward self-expression?• How can we motivate students to learn by

using their natural desire to create and foster good peer relationships?

Convince Kids They Can Succeed

Arousing CuriosityWe stimulate students' curiosity by using a strategy called “mystery.” We confront the class with a problem—for example, “What killed off the dinosaurs?”—and with the actual clues that scientists or historians have used to try to answer that question and others.

Encouraging Originality

• Connect creative projects to students' personal ideas and concerns.

• Expand what counts as an audience. • Consider giving students more choice. • Use the “abstracting” strategy to help

students fully understand a genre and to maintain high standards.

Fostering Peer Relations

How can the teacher help?

If Classroom Walls Could Talk• Do the walls and classroom displays look pretty much the same from

year to year? Or, do they reflect the unique personality of that year's class?

• Roughly, what percentage of classroom displays includes work done in whole or part by students? What percentage is devoted to posters or materials that were made, purchased, or inherited? (NONE!)

• For any chart or reference that is currently hanging up, when is the last time a student used it? When is the last time it was actually referred to?

• Do students decide which pieces of work they want to be displayed?• Are the displays or charts at students' eye level? How else does the

decor of the classroom take into account the children's developmental needs?

• Is data displayed relevant to instructional objectives? Do students have ownership of this data?

• Are learning objectives SMART and in student friendly language?

Growth VS Fixed Mindset• In a growth mindset, students/teachers believe that their

most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work—brains and talent are just the starting point. This view creates a love of learning and a resilience that is essential for great accomplishment.

• In a fixed mindset, students/teachers believe their basic qualities, like their intelligence or talent, are simply fixed traits. They spend their time documenting their intelligence or talent instead of developing them.

Growth VS Fixed

Efficacy and Goal SettingSelf-efficacy refers to students/teachers beliefs about

their capability to perform particular tasks.

Utilize student goals during student led parent conferences and APTT nights.

“It is particularly exciting to note that teaching strategies used in the classroom can and do make a difference to students' self-efficacy. “

How can students gain self-efficacy?• Mastery experiences - Students' successful experiences

boost self-efficacy, while failures erode it.• Vicarious experience - Observing a peer succeed at a task

can strengthen beliefs in one's own abilities.• Verbal persuasion - Teachers can boost self-efficacy with

credible communication and feedback to guide the student through the task or motivate them to make their best effort.

• Emotional state -A positive mood can boost one's beliefs in self-efficacy, while anxiety can undermine it. Teachers can help by reducing stressful situations and lowering anxiety surrounding events like exams or presentations

Make it a great year or not…the choice is yours!

Have a successful year!