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Learners glossary
31 terms from C03, Learners: development, motivation and wellbeing — each defined in the primer's own words. Every term the primer teaches links to the slide that teaches it.
C03 · Purposes and foundations
Learners: development, motivation and wellbeing
“Learners are just younger users.”
Every term below is defined in the words of learners, primer C03 of understanding the context of education, and opens the primer at the slide where it is taught. 1 term is also defined by another primer in the series; where the two differ, both wordings are given. The whole context glossary holds all of them together.
| Term | Definition | Referred to in | Read further |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | |||
| Adolescence | The period between childhood and adulthood, starting with puberty. It is usually defined as ages 10 to 19, and some researchers propose 10 to 24 (Sawyer et al., 2018). |
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| Age-appropriate design | Designing a product, service or policy around the needs, abilities and rights of children at a given age, with protective settings as the default (Information Commissioner's Office, 2020). |
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| Attention | The capacity to select some information and ignore the rest. It is limited, develops through childhood and is easily captured by design. The Designing for Learning primer covers it in depth. | ||
| Autonomy, competence and relatedness | The three basic psychological needs in self-determination theory: feeling that your actions are your own, feeling capable, and feeling connected to others (Ryan & Deci, 2000). |
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| B | |||
| Belonging | The sense of being accepted, valued and included by others in a setting such as a class or school (Baumeister & Leary, 1995). |
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| Best interests of the child | The principle in Article 3 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child that in all actions concerning children, the child's best interests shall be a primary consideration (United Nations General Assembly, 1989). |
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| C | |||
| Child and adolescent development | The physical, cognitive, social and emotional changes from birth to adulthood. They happen at different rates in different areas and are shaped by the settings a child lives in. |
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| D | |||
| Digital wellbeing | How a person's use of digital technology affects their health, relationships and sense of control, and the habits and design choices that support a healthy balance. |
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| E | |||
| Ecological systems theory | Development seen as happening inside nested systems: the microsystem of direct settings, the mesosystem linking them, the exosystem of settings that affect the child indirectly, and the macrosystem of culture, law and belief (Bronfenbrenner, 1979). |
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| Executive function | The mental processes that allow planning, focus and self-control: inhibition, working memory and cognitive flexibility (Diamond, 2013). They develop through childhood and adolescence. | ||
| G | |||
| Gamification | The use of points, badges, leaderboards and streaks in learning; a meta-analysis found gains in cognitive, motivational and behavioural outcomes, though the motivational and behavioural ones were less stable (Sailer & Homner, 2020). |
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| Growth mindset | Dweck's idea that what learners believe about their ability affects how they act; brief lessons to change those beliefs show small average effects on attainment, near zero in the best-controlled studies (Macnamara & Burgoyne, 2023). |
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| I | |||
| Identity | A person's sense of who they are, including their values, roles and group memberships. Erikson (1968) described building an identity as the central task of adolescence. |
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| L | |||
| Learner agency | The capacity of learners to set goals, reflect and act to shape their own learning. The OECD (2019) defines student agency as "the capacity to set a goal, reflect and act responsibly to effect change". C01 A learner's capacity to set goals, act and take responsibility for their learning. The OECD (2019) notes that it does not mean simple autonomy or choice. Primer C03 covers it in depth. |
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| Learner self-direction | Learners taking responsibility for what, when and how they learn, especially beyond school. See C16, Beyond school: early years to lifelong learning. |
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| M | |||
| Metacognition | Thinking about one's own thinking: planning, monitoring and evaluating how one learns. See the Designing for Learning primer. |
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| Motivation (intrinsic and extrinsic) | Intrinsic motivation is doing something because it is interesting or satisfying in itself. Extrinsic motivation is doing it for a separate outcome, such as a reward, approval or a goal the learner values (Ryan & Deci, 2000). |
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| N | |||
| Neuromyths | Popular but false beliefs about the brain and learning, such as learning styles. See the False Certainties field guide. |
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| O | |||
| Overjustification effect | The finding that an expected reward for an activity someone already enjoys can reduce their later interest in it (Lepper, Greene, & Nisbett, 1973). |
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| Overlapping waves model | Siegler's model of how children's thinking changes: at any one age children use several strategies at once, and with experience the more efficient ones become more common while older ones do not vanish (Siegler, 1996). |
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| P | |||
| Piaget's stages | Four stages of reasoning, from sensorimotor through preoperational and concrete operational to formal operational thought; later research kept the changes and loosened the timetable (Piaget & Inhelder, 1969). |
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| R | |||
| Resilience | Doing well despite adversity. Research suggests it usually comes from ordinary protective resources, such as caring relationships and a supportive school, rather than rare personal traits. |
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| S | |||
| Scaffolding | Tutoring that enables a child or novice to do a task beyond their unassisted efforts, the tutor controlling the elements initially beyond the learner's capacity; help designed to be withdrawn (Wood, Bruner, & Ross, 1976). |
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| Screen time | The time spent using devices with screens. It is a blunt measure, because what a child does on the screen, and with whom, matters more than the total. |
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| Self-determination theory | The theory that motivation has a kind as well as an amount, and that intrinsic motivation thrives when three innate psychological needs, competence, autonomy and relatedness, are satisfied (Ryan & Deci, 2000). |
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| Self-efficacy | A person's belief that they can carry out a particular task. It grows mainly from mastery experiences (Bandura, 1977). | ||
| Self-regulated learning | Learners setting goals, choosing strategies, monitoring progress and managing their motivation and emotions while they learn. | ||
| Social-emotional learning | The process of building the skills to understand and manage emotions, set goals, show empathy, maintain relationships and make responsible decisions (CASEL, n.d.). |
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| Student voice | Learners expressing views on matters that affect them and having those views taken seriously, as Article 12 of the UN Convention requires (United Nations General Assembly, 1989). | ||
| W | |||
| Wellbeing | A state of feeling good and functioning well, including physical and mental health, positive relationships and a sense of purpose. In schools it is both an aim and a condition for learning. |
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| Z | |||
| Zone of proximal development | The distance between what a child can do through independent problem solving and what they can do under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers; it moves as the learner grows (Vygotsky, 1978). |
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