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Theoretical Rationale

PERSONAL CONSTRUCT PSYCHOLOGY

Personal Construct Psychology was proposed by George Kelly (1955).  He held the view that each of us is a scientist and that we have the capacity to represent our environment not just respond to it.  Kelly saw the person as an active anticipatory agent is his/her own life and that all our present interpretations of the world are subject to revision and replacement. His theory is useful for those who wish to understand teacher and learner thinking from the inside, from ‘the world of the lived experience from the point of view of those who live it’ (Scwandf, 1994). His approach encourages the experimenter to find out what the subject is thinking about rather than asking the subject to find out what the experimenter is thinking about. Techniques used are open-ended and are associated with other constructivist and interpretivist approaches. My LID Series utilizes laddering, scaling and a variety of open-ended prompts to elicit the worldview of the child. It is an invaluable framework that helps us develop our understanding of how children make sense of themselves and the world.

STRENGTH PROFILING

Strength Profiling is based on the idea that all students have strengths and that everyone has the potential to use these strengths to achieve personal goals. During the past decade, there has been growing recognition of the value of a strengths perspective framework to understand learners with a greater emphasis on strengths and competencies. A strengths perspective permeates the activities undertaken by students as they progress through the formative process of developing their learner identity. Inviting a focus on strengths, students identify capacities they can work towards rather than something they either have or don’t  possess. Twenty-four character strengths are explored across the series and are supported in the Teacher Guide with stories and poems to draw out character strengths.

SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIVISM

Social Constructivism and constructivist are teaching is based on the belief that learning occurs as learners are actively involved in a process of meaning and knowledge construction as opposed to passively receiving information. Learners are the makers of meaning and knowledge. LID breaks down barriers around learning differences – your doodle page is your doodle page and its value is inherent in the ‘who’ this represents. My LID is an inclusive resource for all learners in all classrooms as personal worldviews of all are elicited and explored. Peer assessment practices and think-pair-share prompts scaffold social constructivist approaches in learning and teaching.

LEARNER DISPOSITIONS

Learner ID Series presents a section on ‘My Learning Ways’. This section addresses learner dispositions and growth mindsets. The inclusion of this section reflects an understanding that there are tendencies towards particular patterns of intellectual behaviour and that dispositions are acquired.  The intent of this section is to build learner consciousness and understanding of the meaning of learner disposition and to develop the capacities, tools and tactics to use that disposition effectively.

GROWTH MINDSET

Over 30 years ago, Carol Dweck and colleagues became interested in students’ attitudes about failure. They observed that some students rebounded while other students seemed devastated by even the smallest setbacks. After studying the behaviour of thousands of children, Dr. Dweck coined the terms ‘fixed’ mindset and ‘growth’ mindset to describe the underlying beliefs people have about learning and intelligence. When students believe they can get smarter, they understand that effort makes them stronger. Therefore they put in extra time and effort, and that leads to higher achievement. Based on the research of Dweck at Stanford University, My LID Series explores ‘fixed’ and ‘growth’ mindsets and encourages learners to adopt ‘growth’ mindsets in their approach to learning.

LEARNER EFFICACY

Learner efficacy is commonly defined as the belief in one’s capabilities to achieve a goal or an outcome.  Students with a strong sense of efficacy are more likely to challenge themselves with difficult tasks and be intrinsically motivated.  My LID Series specifically strives to nurture learner efficacy by enabling learners learn how to learn, by developing learner dispositions and mind set and by listening to their voices, views and perspectives.

LEARNER RESPONSIBILITY & LEARNER OWNERSHIP

The construction of knowledge ideally occurs when it is within the learner’s control. Effectiveness in learning is maximised when learners want to learn, do the thinking, produce the meaning and contextualise and generalise knowledge for their own use (Farrington et al. 2012). It is argued that the extent to which a learner takes on additional responsibility for his or her own learning influences the strength of his or her identity as an independent lifelong learner (Kolb & Kolb, 2012). My LID Series nurtures learner ownership, agency and responsibility by prompting self-reflection, self-assessment and by considering strategies to improve learning by evaluating the impact of preferred strategies on learning efficiencies.