By 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. MALS 8-16+ has been constructed to provide a readily available technique, which can be used by teachers, psychologists and researchers to gain access to this important aspect of learning development.
MALS 8-16+ is easy to administer, score and 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.
As the work of Carol Dweck has proved, no matter how able, a child’s perception of themselves as learners will determine their academic careers. If it is poor it will:
• Undermine their resilience, so that they give up at the slightest obstacle
• Make them defensive learners, unwilling to challenge themselves
• Make them over-reliant on teachers and on received opinion
• Write-off successes as ‘flukes’
• Under-perform in exams and tests
• Have low aspirations and under-achieve in life
Whilst there are other self-esteem tests, no other test measures a child’s perception of themselves, specifically as learners, so well. This is why MALS has gone around the world as the key test to use to measure a child’s image of themselves as learners and thinkers.
Using it will enable you to:
• Uncover, beneath external shows of confidence, which children have poor views of themselves as
learners and therefore will be liable to under-perform
• Pinpoint exactly where their problems are
• Measure progress in developing ‘open-mindsets’ in children
Teacher Skills
The MALS is also a very subtle test of teacher performance – those teachers who succeed in lifting a child’s MALS score have the ability to motivate and teach the skills of independent learning… and vice versa! This too is often far from being easily visible.
One of the most acclaimed self-perception tests ever produced. MALS is a short effective measure of pupils’ perceptions of their own abilities and approaches to learning. 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. Identify those students ‘at risk’ whose academic self-concepts don’t match those of their peers or their own obvious abilities.
- Easy to administer, score and interpret
- A valuable addition to schools’ assessment programmes
- Suitable for use by teachers, psychologists and researchers
- Applicable for large groups or with individuals
This Second Edition of the MALS has been completely updated. A much larger and more widespread data set for the purpose of establishing standardised norms has been analysed. Whilst the basic findings are not dissimilar to those obtained from the first standardisation sample, they give greater confidence that these norms are representative of the average scores to be expected across a wide age range and schools in a variety of locations.
Whilst the MALS is straightforward to administer and score, the subsequent analysis of data obtained and interpretation of its possible significance is a much more complex process. This revised manual therefore provides more extensive information about ways of analysing MALS scores together with examples of possible research and clinical uses.
Please note this edition includes two questionnaires at the end of the manual, one with questions for ages 8-16 and the other for those post-16.
The Author
The late Robert Burden was Emeritus Professor of Applied Educational Psychology and a former Head of the School of Education at the University of Exeter. He previously taught children with learning difficulties and worked as an LEA educational psychologist. He established the Master’s degree professional training course in Educational Psychology at Exeter in 1971 and held leadership positions in both the British Psychological Society and the International School Psychology Association.
Purchase your copy now by clicking on the link and downloading the Order Form!
or call Customer Service on 0121 224 7599
or email: enquiries@imaginativeminds.co.uk
Please quote code: MALS/414HH when placing your order.