Academic Tenacity
Academic Tenacity is a construct studied by Dr. Carol Dweck, a psychologist focusing on developmental psychology. Dweck’s research centralizes developing a Growth Mindset in students and fostering perseverance through creating student-lead goals for success. When challenges arise, students will follow short term goals to help them meet their longer term goals.
This strategy interests me greatly, as it could help alleviate Learned Helplessness and allow students to create a vision for their academic journey. using goals arguably could also help students to retain more focus on the value of their education.
Self-created poster highlighting the benefits of Academic Tenacity
Metis Lifelong Learning Educational Framework
The Metis Lifelong Learning framework is an Indigenous-created framework to promote holistic learning and lifelong growth through learning. The Metis framework focuses specifically on four facets: The Self, The Community, The Land, and Languages & Traditions.
This framework interests me both for its holistic and adaptive approach to individual students, as well as its focus on various facets that shape student identity and positive outlook on the community, the importance of Indigenous language, and the importance of Land to Indigenous peoples. Additionally, it extends into young adult/adulthood and encourages growth and continued learning beyond a student’s years in schools.
Model of Metis Lifelong Learning Framework.
Credit: Canadian Council on Learning – Aboriginal Learning Knowledge Centre.
Universal Design for Learning (UDL) & Differentiated Instruction (DI)
Universal Design for Learning (UDL) & Differentiated Instruction (DI) are important factors for any teacher to proactively implement in their classrooms. It concerns primarily the idea that no two students are alike, both in character, and in their learning. UDL is a broad implementation into lessons, where the benefits are for the whole class to actively allow as many entrance points to learning as possible. DI is designed for individual students based on their specific needs and requires a great deal of understanding of students with diverse abilities within the class.
I found the easiest way to understand this is through an analogy. UDL is like a trawling net on a fishing vessel; it strives to catch as many fish as possible, ‘schools’ of them. DI is like using a fishing pole; its designed to catch one fish at a time, but you can modify it to catch specific fish and focus on that one fish.
The use of UDL and DI are significant for my teaching career, and I arguably start with designing my lessons to be UDL-friendly, with special adaptations for students who may need DI learning.
Sources:
Dweck, C. S., Walton, G. M., & Cohen, G. L. (2013, November 30). Academic tenacity: Mindsets and Skills that Promote Long-term Learning. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Retrieved November 3, 2021, from https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED576649.
Canadian Council on Learning – Aboriginal Learning Knowledge Centre. (2007, June 6). Métis Holistic Lifelong Learning Model. First Nations Pedagogy Online. Retrieved March 28, 2022, from https://firstnationspedagogy.ca/CCL_Learning_Model_MET.pdf