Abstract:
How to ensure a positive learning process among students: Giving Students a Voice - Presenting
an ultra-brief outcome measure for students: The Learning Rating Scale, LRS
The mantra of positive psychology is to develop the strengths and manage the weaknesses. The
very best school systems in the world are characterized by intervening at the level of the individual
student developing processes and structures within schools that are able to identify whenever a
student is starting to fall behind, and then intervening to improve that child’s performance. Topperforming school systems recognize that they cannot improve what they do not measure. It is
important to pinpoint areas of weakness and spread good practice in order to ensure better education for more students1. Feedback is one of the most powerful influences on learning and
achievement2. In spite of several research findings, which demonstrate a robust connection between (1) a positive alliance between teacher and students, and (2) whether the teachers’ way of
teaching (3) facilitate the learning processes of the students, and (4) high expectation of the students, are of crucial importance for the learning process, paradoxically no outcome-measures
have been developed as a specific tool for the teacher to use on a day-to-day basis. Feedback from
the students to the teacher is according to several studies the single most important factor for
whether learning takes place or not3. The presenter will describe the development and validation
of an ultra-brief analog rating scale, the Learning Rating Scale (LRS). The instrument’s psychometric properties are examined and reported. The Learning Rating Scale is currently used in research
projects in the fields of special needs education, Gifted Children, and ‘optimal well-being, development and health for children through a healthy New Nordic Diet’. The feasibility of the scale is
also discussed and considerations for further application of the instrument are presented. A digital
version has recently been developed and will be introduced.
Keywords: Learning, teacher-student alliance, analog rating scale, measurement instrument, validation, learning process.
Presenters: Dr. Poul Nissen, associate professor, Department of Education, Aarhus University,
Copenhagen. Denmark. Phone: +45 4035 0011, Mail: poni@dpu.dk
Dr. Frans Oersted Andersen, associate professor, Department of Education, Aarhus University,
Copenhagen. Denmark. Phone: +45 2165 3749.
Dr. Nissen holds a Teacher certificate, and he is a licensed psychologist, and specialist and supervisor in clinical psychology and psychotherapy. His dissertation was on children and adolescents
with arrested identity development. He has published several books and articles in Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, and English in the fields of education, psychology, crime prevention, and clinical
psychology. In recent years he has conducted outcome research in connection with juvenile delinquents, special needs education, gifted children, and children in residential treatment.
1
Barber, M. & Mourshed, M. (2007). How the world’s best-performing school systems come out on top.
McKinsey&Company.
2
Hattie, J. (2009). Visible Learning. London: Routledge.
3
Hattie, J. & Timperley, H. (2007). The power of Feedback. Review of Educational Research, 77(1), 81-112.
Dr. Oersted Andersen is a licensed psychologist and presently researcher at the University of Aarhus. He works mainly with comparative Nordic educational research and focuses especially on
motivation, engagement, relations and communication as background factors for learning. Besides
LRS his research methods include ESM, observations and interviews. He has published several
books and articles in Danish, Norwegian and Swedish in the fields of educational psychology and
international comparative educational research, working intensely with e.g. the “Finnish PISA miracle”. Dr. Oersted Andersen has cooperated with Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Jeanne Nakamura in
a number of projects including a recent publication (in Danish and Norwegian) about “The Methods of Positive Psychology” (2012).