Motivating Every Learner

This seminar will give an overview of The Motivated School.  This initiative aims is to present a set of matrices that provide a synthesis of current thinking on motivation.  The core is the Learner Needs Matrix that provides the framework to describe how teachers and pupils engage with each other.  These conceptual matrices enable a deeper understanding of motivation by

• enhancing your grasp of the theory and practice of motivation
• affording you the opportunity for self-reflection
• examining the types of learning environments that can exist in a classroom
• exploring the core conditions for learning and teaching
• equipping you with a broader repertoire of tools to engage all pupils.

The main priority is to help you to make sense of your own intuitive ideas and experiences.  The seminar aims to offer a fresh perspective and through the Matrices allow you to look at familiar situations in a different way.  It will help you identify where there is scope for improvement. 

1. Overview
2. What makes us tick?
3. How do we get our needs met? The Personal Energisers
4. What are these Needs? The 3A Needs
5. How do teachers meet these needs? Their Teaching Style, What do teachers use to do this?  The Classroom Energisers
6. What does it feel like for pupils – The Classroom Climates
7. How do pupils adapt: The Learning Stances
8. How should teachers respond?  Stance- specific Styles

Alan McLean is a Chartered Educational Psychologist. 

He is a Principal Psychologist in Glasgow but has been deployed for the last five years in an Engaging Learners Strategy, where he has developed the SELF, the Social and Emotional Learning Framework.  

He taught Modern Studies in a secondary school and a Special Unit for children with emotional and behavioural problems. 

He is the author of the staff development packs- Promoting Positive Behaviour in the Primary School, Promoting Positive Behaviour in the Secondary School  and the award winning Bullyproofing Our School. 

He has served on the Advisory Groups of four recent government projects on Bullying, Truancy, Indiscipline and Social Competence. 

He had a weekly column in The Scotsman for several years and has been a regular contributor to the Times Educational Supplement Scotland.

His latest production is a training programme on Motivation, commissioned by the Scottish Executive and a book - The Motivated School, published by Paul Chapman, Sage Publications, London in 2003. 

This has recently been translated into Chinese.  He is currently completing a book on Motivating Every Learner.  Recent highlights of his work include a seminar for the Education Committee of the Scottish Parliament and a presentation to the Edinburgh International Book Festival and a keynote address to the annual HMIE conference.