Myself As A Learner Scale ( 8-16 and 16 Plus)
By Professor Robert Burden
Young people’s perceptions of themselves as learners and problem-solvers have been shown in numerous research studies to be key elements in their learning progress. This new online version of Myself As a Learner Scale (8-16 ) has been constructed to provide a readily available tool, which can be used by teachers, psychologists and researchers to gain access to this important aspect of learning development.
MALS is easy to administer, it scores young people’s perceptions of themselves interpret and can be used for gaining information on large cohorts of students or for more clinical purposes with individuals. It is a valid and reliable scale that can provide a valuable addition to any school’s assessment programme or educational psychologist’s repertoire of assessment techniques.
This latest online version of the MALS has been completely updated to allow for greater tracking of individuals and cohorts over time. Whilst MALS is straightforward to administer and score, the analysis of data obtained and interpretation of its possible significance is wide-raning.. This revised manual therefore provides more extensive information about ways of analysing MALS scores together with examples of research and clinical uses.
The EEF, the government supported agency that acts as arbiter for school resources that work effectively has strongly endorsed the use of Myself as a Leaner Scale to diagnose children struggling after Lockdown.
Loss of confidence and learning anxiety after Lockdown has been a generally reported phenomenon in schools. For some children this is a fleeting experience but for others it is much more serious.
“Crucially"' says the Education Endowment Fund, commenting on why MALS should be used : "teachers and schools will have to seek out the actual impact of interruptions caused by the pandemic on individual pupils in their care. It will be carefully calibrated assessments, undertaken in classrooms, which will offer a more accurate and complete picture of any necessary ‘catch up’ or otherwise.”
Young people's perceptions of themselves as learners and problem-solvers have been shown in numerous research studies to be key elements in their learning progress. MALS 8-16+, which assesses a child's self-concept as a learner, can pick out children who have lost faith in their own ability to succeed at learning. Often this is at complete odds with a child's real ability.
TeachingTimes, which owns this Test, has developed an online version, whih allows children to be more easily racked over time and to track class and school performance over time. It is a unique tool that allows you to spot children with hidden problems and to survey children mire generally as to their confidence as learners, As such it is a very refined indicator of the impact of teaching.
MALS is widely used by educational psychologists and schools in the UK and around the world and has been validated in many different international contexts
With the help of senior educational psychologist Chris Arnold the test has been extended to look at the way children fel about school, adding an additional dimension to the test and ou understanding of the internal world of the child.
The MALs suite of tests is half price for schools carrying out the Raising Attainment With Wellbeing Programme.
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