Ames’s highly cited research in the 1980s and 1990sdistinguished between students with mastery orientations who focuson improving themselves and deepening their understanding, andstudents with a performance orientation who are more intent on out-performing others.168 Ames’s research led her to draw on and developa framework known as the TARGET model of effective motivation,first proposed by Joyce Epstein in a book that Ames co-edited.1
This is new to me. Will need to check it out.
This means that educa-tors need to take the time to get to know all their students well,so they can help them develop that indispensable sense of meaningand purpose
Maybe using the 'who's in the class' approach could help with this?
Making surethat students view their schoolwork as purposeful, rather than point-less or irrelevant, is far more likely to motivate students and engagethem with their studies. For this reason, teachers should always tryto be what Pink calls “purpose maximizers” who encourage their stu-dents to learn to act “in the service of a larger social mission.
Do our students understand why we ask them to learn certain things, and how it links to their ambitions (motivation to study with us)? I'm really not sure we do that well, and I'm sure there are some fairly straightforward ways we could help them with this.
Cultivating a sense of meaning and purpose, we have seen, is alsoa vital ingredient in students’ and teachers’ well-being.
I'm glad to see reference to the teacher's well-being here. We really need to work to help faculty experience these things also so that they can provide it for their students.
Safety: This refers to protection from violence, abuse,and disease. All children need to go to a school that hasa safe environment, free from bullying, mindful of childprotection, and caring toward all students and adults.
Particularly with a diverse student body, this is particularly important for us to be aware of and to include psychological safety in this also.
he consensusis that “motivation can be seen as the underlying psychological statethat sets the stage for engagement.”
So here we have an advantage over schools in that people choose to engage in higher education, although their motivations for doing so may vary very greatly. Perhaps better understanding people's motivation for study and helping to connect what were are learning to those fundamental motivations would be helpful.
emotionalattachment to the school as a community through things like extra-curricular activities
This presents particular challenges in an institution like ours, where students rarely have the time for this and it isn't part of the package. How do we drive attachment if not through these things?
engagement is about intense involvement withanother individual or group
Interesting that it's origins are relational.
When you think of the word engagement, what’s the first thingthat comes to mind?
I think something like being in a flow state.
Recognizing engagement when we see or hear it and actually get-ting students engaged are far from obvious processes.
It's a good point about challenges recognising engagement. There are plenty of people who do not look in the least bit engaged (or in fact may look the opposite) but in fact are. I wonder how accurately we can tell the difference?
In the Age of Engagement,Well-Being, and Identity, though, policy-makers have started to draw attention to theimportance of new capacities and competen-cies
Links to the employability skills https://myfuture.edu.au/career-articles/details/what-are-employability-skills
By December 2019, the international PISA results received very lit-tle coverage at all. Everyone, including the media, had gotten wise tothe game. If a country went up or down a few places or points, did itreally mean all that much? Why should anybody really care? Only afew diehard zealots still echoed Chicken Little and said that the skywas falling. The Age of Achievement and Effort, it seemed, had runits course.
Many of the students we have in the College now will have been shaped by this phase of education though.
Australia’s government proclaimed its intention to rank inthe top five by 2025.38
Doesn't look like we're going to achieve that! https://www.acer.org/au/pisa/key-findings-2018
The OECD report notes that students who are disengaged at schoolare more likely to experience poor academic outcomes and to dropout.
Which means, of course, that by the time they reach higher education often their expectations are well established.