Middle Years 

One area of interest to me is Learning Dispositions, and what are the inherent qualities of mind and character that successful students display. I’ve followed the work of John Hattie for many years. In his book, Visible Learning, Hattie says there are numerous factors that contribute to student success.

Factors that contribute to student success;

• Self-efficacy (this refers to an individual's belief in their innate ability to achieve goals).
• Self-concept (how they see themselves)
• internal motivation
• persistence
• cognitive proficiency 

Hattie also says that conscientious students are thought to be more motivated to perform well academically, are typically more organised, hardworking, diligent, self-disciplined and achievement orientated. It makes good sense for our students to model these strong learning dispositions.

Finally, John Hattie points out that students’ motivation is highest when they are competent, have sufficient autonomy, set worthwhile goals, get feedback and are affirmed by others.

I would encourage all students:

1. To adopt a positive mindset to your learning and this will lead to more engagement.
2. Reflect on your learning dispositions –

Are you organised, hardworking, self-disciplined, diligent?

Do you reliably display these dispositions?

What habits do you need to develop to makes these attributes stronger?

1. Ask for help - it’s good to ask for help despite the difficulties of getting started and floundering. Ask your friends, parents and teachers for advice.
2. By doing a little bit each day you can accomplish a lot. We tend to over estimate how much we can achieve in an hour or a week, and underestimate how much we can do in a month or a year.
3. We need to be stretched and we need to be pushed outside our comfort zone. We need to embrace failure and realise we won’t reach every goal.
4. Work smart to boost efficiency.

Work in effective blocks of time

spend time ‘tidying up’ and getting organised for the next day.

One of our core roles as educators is to build self-efficacy in our Middle Years students, and help them gain success as young learners. We need to encourage them when their motivation is low, and help them realise that they need to persist – learning is hard and requires substantial effort.

Remember, small actions will bring about significant results. To have greater engagement we foster and encourage a positive attitude to school work.

All students should have their Examination Timetable and revision should be well underway. The Year 7 and 8 Examinations start on Wednesday 29th May through to Friday 31st May.

Julia Winter Cooke