Achievement and Agency

http://www.davidgeurin.com/2019/05/balancing-achievement-and-agency.html?m=1

Learner Agency, Fabulous Post for Core Education 2017

“Having agency as a learner is now becoming a default expectation”, to meet learning needs.  (21st Century Learning Reference Group [21st CLRG], 2014, p.36). 

What’s it about?

Learner agency is about having the power, combined with choices, to take meaningful action and see the results of your decisions. It can be thought of as a catalyst for change or transformation. Within a school context, Learner Agency is about shifting the ownership of learning from teachers to students, enabling students to have the understanding, ability, and opportunity to be part of the learning design and to take action to intervene in the learning process, to affect outcomes and become powerful lifelong learners.

What’s driving this?

Moral imperative — drivers for agency or agentic practices

Learner agency is not a new concept, but it is something that has come into the spotlight and quite rightly needs attention in our education system.

Agentic children turn into agentic adults. We have all heard the words “Successful people, act on their beliefs” and this is true in the light of agency. Therefore, the moral imperative lies not just in the social and emotional wellbeing — it is an innate characteristic that must be acknowledged and addressed.

As explored by Zhao (Zhao, 2015) the world is faced with two paradoxical crises: massive youth unemployment and equally massive talent shortage. These must not be allowed to continue — they are both dangerous. Massive youth unemployment leads to personal poverty, psychological trauma, plus social unrest. Inequality thrives as talent shortage drives up the incomes of highly talented workers, which in turn results in even bigger income gaps.

The traditional education model that prepared employment-minded job seekers does not address either of these paradoxical crises. In this fast-paced world of change, knowledge is now a central driving force, and agentic learners are critical for addressing talent shortages and massive youth unemployment.

Research shows that the more successful an educational system is in the traditional sense, the less likely it is to cultivate entrepreneurs. PISA scores, for example, have been found to be negatively correlated with nations’ entrepreneurial confidence and activities (Zhao, 2012). The new economy needs learners and entrepreneurs who have adaptive expertise to be innovative, flexible, and creative in a variety of contexts.

What examples of this can I see?

Embedding learner agency in school systems, curriculum

While it is innate for us to have agency, our current mental models of school systems often limit agentic practices. Developing agentic learners is more than offering a list of choices and seeking student voice. This is a tokenistic or watered down version of authentic agency.

To avoid tokenism and embed a culture of agency we must provide the conditions that shift the ownership of teaching and learning and place it in the hands of the learners themselves. This is also about involving students in the key aspects of decision making so they can fully experience the messiness of a real-world project, complete with the unexpected changes in direction, opportunities, and challenges that can arise.

It is an imperative that we move the level of engagement of learners from non-participation through tokenism to learner empowerment. Amplifying agentic practices gives permission to all learners, teachers, and students alike, to embrace new possibilities for learning and educational systems. If nothing else, children should leave school with a sense that if they act, and act strategically, they can accomplish their goals. Johnston (2004), pg. 29

A lead thinker in education noted that teachers do not create learning, learners create learning, and it is the teachers that create the conditions to promote learning (Wiliam, 2006). This is further empowered by parents and whānau who help to inspire and focus a sense of agency. As top rung of Arnstein’s ladder of participation states, agentic learners initiate agendas and are given responsibilities and power for the management of issues and to bring about change.

Technology enabling, enhancing, supporting these processes

Digital technologies have changed how teachers and students approach learning. Knowledge is no longer constrained by the physical boundaries of the traditional classroom. In today’s learning environments, access to limitless information rests at the fingertips of learners and their devices. Teachers can draw on these enabling technologies to move towards becoming a co-constructor of learning, who builds knowledge alongside their students. In this sense, everyone is a learner and has the power to act in the agentic classroom.

Digital technologies enable learners to connect with, interact with, and build on knowledge in ways otherwise not possible. When teachers scaffold, support, and guide students through their use of digital technologies, students are empowered to drive their own learning.

Learners can use digital technologies to:

• transform information and make something new
• recombine information to solve a problem
• link information to show relationships
• modify information for personal preferences
• connect with others locally and globally
• discover solutions collaboratively and independently
• track, share, and reflect on their learning, for example through e-portfolios.

Adapted from: Future-focused learning in connected communities, May 2014

How might we respond?

Some questions to act as a stimulus with your colleagues include:

1. How will you develop and deepen students’ engagement with and responsibility for their own learning?
2. How will your school connect young people with peers, teachers, and other adults? How will they use technology to connect with the wider world around them?
3. How can we support students to learn through authentic, relevant, real-world contexts, where their interests, skills, and the issues and opportunities within their own communities can form the basis for learning?
4. How can we involve students in the key aspects of decision making so they can fully experience the messiness of a real-world project, complete with the unexpected changes in direction, opportunities, and challenges that can arise?

Building a culture of agency… Whatedsaid

Building a culture of agency…

August 13, 2018 | whatedsaid

It’s exciting to see so many teachers relinquishing control and empowering their students. Stephanie in Singapore had kids do their own set up on the first day of school and the inspirational folk of Studio 5 at ISHCMC have broken yet more moulds.  Right here in Aus, at my own school, some students are planning their own inquiries in the same way that teachers plan, and teachers are releasing control and reflecting candidly about the process in the pursuit of learner agency.
What if you’re not ready to release control to this extent? How might you start small? What might some first steps be towards an increase in agency for your learners?
Ron Ritchhart’s 8 cultural forces provide a platform from which to embark on your journey. Just apply them to agency, instead of thinking! How might you build a culture of learner agency in your classroom?
What sort of language will you use?
Do you talk about learning, rather than tasks and work?
Is your learning framed as a question that invites learners into the process?
Do you ask the learners’ opinions and really listen to what they say?
Do you notice and name learning assets?
Do you refer to your students as authors, mathematicians and scientists?
How is the environment organised to foster agency?
Who designs the learning space? Whose thinking is on the walls?
Are there options for where and with whom to sit and learn?
Are materials and resources well organised and easily accessible?
What sorts of opportunities are offered?
Are there opportunities for learners to pursue their own inquiries?
Are there opportunities to write for an authentic audience and to extend learning beyond the classroom?
Are there opportunities for learners to wrestle with challenging problems and design solutions?
How is time managed? 
Is there time for thinking, reflecting and inquiring?
Who manages the time? Is self management encouraged?
Is time used constructively for meaningful learning, rather than just completion of set tasks?
Do students waste time waiting for the teacher, when they could be doing something more worthwhile?
What dispositions do you model?
Do you model vulnerability, apologise when you’re wrong and talk about your mistakes?
Do you openly change your mind and your plan?
Do you model decision making and talk through the process aloud?
What routines are in place to encourage agency?
Are there routines for accessing equipment, sharing learning, asking for help…without waiting for the teacher?
Do they start when they’re ready, rather than waiting till you have finished giving the same instructions to all?
Are there routines for giving and receiving peer to peer feedback, without being told?
What kind of expectations are clearly set?
Are learners expected to and trusted to take ownership of learning?
Do they have (at least some) choice and voice in what they learn and how they learn?
Is initiative valued over compliance?
Is intrinsic motivation expected and encouraged through powerful, engaging learning experiences? (no Class Dojo)
How do interactions foster agency?
Are interactions between you and your learners mutually respectful?
How well do you know every child’s story, her interests, her passions and her insecurities? Can she tell that you care?
Do your interactions demonstrate belief in the learners’ capacity to own their learning?
Can they tell that you trust them to learn?
What small action will you take to shift the culture in your class?

10 Characteristics of Learner Centered Experiences  

Posted on October 7, 2017by Katie Martin

Education Reimagined defines the paradigm shift from teacher-centered to learner-centered as shifting how we see learners and their critical role in their own learning now, and throughout their lives. The critical shift is that “Learners are seen and known as wondrous, curious individuals with vast capabilities and limitless potential. This paradigm recognizes that learning is a lifelong pursuit and that our natural excitement and eagerness to discover and learn should be fostered throughout our lives, particularly in our earliest years.” When we focus on learners, connect to their interests, needs, and goals, we can create experiences that ignite curiosity, develop passion, and unleash genius.  As I work with diverse educators and talk with students, there are common characteristics that always surface when people share powerful learning experiences. They often share experiences that are: personal, allow learners to exert agency, have goals and accountability, they are inquiry-based, collaborative, authentic, allow for productive struggle, provide and use models, ensure time for critique and revision as well as reflection.
As I think about some of the most impactful learning experiences in my own life, they align with the same characteristics that I hear from others. One of the most recent and definitely impactful learning experiences was the opportunity to participate in a TEDx event and do a talk along with some amazing friends and educators. My experience encompassed diverse opportunities for growth and empowered me to grow and learn significantly. Reflecting on my own learning and what others share with me regularly makes me think about the how we learn in schools and how critical it is to create the conditions that support learner-centered experiences in diverse classrooms.

Personal 

In an effort to create more purpose and autonomy in schools, there is an increased focus on personalized learning.  This is a good thing but it can also be overwhelming for those who are responsible for the outcomes to allow learners (educators and students) to learn in ways that meet their needs. Too often for the sake of “convenience” we standardize learning experiences that rarely meet the needs for all.  Instead, personal learning connects to learner’s beliefs, strengths, experiences, and passions to start from where the learner is and move forward from the towards the desired learning goals.
As I reflected on this and connected it to the TedX experience, I realized that what made it personal is that I got to choose the content and had the autonomy to organize the talk in a way that made sense to me. What is also important to note is that nobody else spent time making this a personalized learning experience for me. The goals were the same for all of us- 8 minutes to share your idea worth spreading. The difference was in the flexibility and resources to learn in ways that met our unique goals and needs. I had access to resources on public speaking to watch at my own pace and set milestones to reach along the way that directly related to developing and delivering the talks.

Agency

To support my learning I had access to an online course with a variety of modules. If there was a course that I wasn’t interested in or was not helpful at the moment, I skipped it and found additional resources that best helped me to meet my overall goal, not micromanaged to complete each and every task. Everything I learned was purposeful and related to growing my own expertise and confidence to be at my personal best and I was held accountable by an authentic task.
What these experiences have continuously taught me is that we can’t control the learners and simultaneously expect them to be motivated without opportunities to exert agency in the learning process. Agency comes from the power to act and requires learners to have the ability to make decisions and take ownership of their own behaviors in the process.  To close this gap in how we want to learn in schools will require changing how we design learning experiences for educators.  

Goals + Accountability

From the time we finalized the speaker list to the event date, we had four weeks to prepare our talks and it was intense!  We backwards mapped our plan from the date of the even and created a plan and strategic goals to be ready in time. I had weekly check-ins with coaches and assignments each week that were directly related to crafting the speech.   At the end of the four weeks, I was accountable for delivering an 8-minute talk and my own level of accountability to bring my personal best far exceeded any external measures that anyone else could have placed on me.
We often prioritize what we are held accountable and for this very reason accountability systems are set in place to check homework, take attendance and make sure that you taught the curriculum.  This is where the accountability gets a bad rap. Often times because it is easier to measure, we hold people accountable for standardized tests, grades, and other data that is easy to capture yet often fail to set goals and hold others accountable for developing the skills that we say we actually care about like creative thinking, complex thinking and problem solving, communication, and innovation.

Inquiry-based

 Inevitably, when learners are posing questions and seeking answers, they are more invested than if they are being told what to think or do.  In my case it was, ‘What makes a great talk?’ and ‘How can I best organize and share my ideas?’ I was motivated read, watch, listen to a lot of different speakers to organize my ideas and develop the talk and the slides.  When challenges are presented or learners can find their own to solve, they are often more intrinsically motivated to seek answers to questions that they are genuinely interested in figuring out.

Collaboration

Although I was the only one on stage, this was far from an individual endeavor.  I had to work with many people along the way that was critical to the process. I called on different individuals based on their strengths throughout the process.  And at times, when I wasn’t ready I had a team that pulled me along and made sure that I was pushed to do my best. The face to face collaboration was important but I wasn’t limited by that as I could reach out to others in my network and learn from diverse individuals. Creating opportunities for learners to build on the strengths of others and work together allows for new and better ideas to emerge.  When we are exposed to diverse ideas and perspectives, we grow in our own practice and impact others as well.

Authentic

My excitement and anxiety about the event was fueled by the public accountability of my performance in front of people I really admire. Also, the fact that it was being recorded for anyone to see took it up a notch too. Having this experience reinforced the importance of creating opportunities for students to share their work beyond the classroom. Connecting students with experts, peers and other learners allow for a different level of accountability and authentic feedback than one gets from simply handing something into a teacher for a grade. Experiences, where learners get to solve a challenge that is meaningful and relevant to their context, can empower learners to take action and do something that matters to them and others.

Critique + Revision

Over course of the four weeks, I had many, many iterations of my talk.  The first ones were bad. Really bad. Thankfully, nobody was grading my first drafts and I had multiple opportunities for critique and revision.  I had to push myself to practice in front of my peers, knowing it was far from perfect.  Feedback, by nature, will unearth some things that need to improve and is not always easy to hear. But if we don’t create conditions where feedback is part of the process, how can we expect real growth in our learning?
With each version that I shared it with my friends and family and coaches, it got better (never perfect). Instead of expecting the first draft to be the best, we need to realize that with time, clarity, critique and revision, we are capable of much more than we realize. When we raise our expectations and create the conditions to achieve those expectations, people will often go above and beyond. It is important to deliberately create the conditions where learners feel valued and can openly share challenges to grow and improve as a critical part of the learning process.  

Productive Struggle

Creating an environment where learners are encouraged to take risks in pursuit of learning and growth rather than perfection is absolutely foundational to shifting practices. I know a lot of people have done these talks or some version of them and it’s not a big deal. I also had people tell me that is it would be their worst nightmare. It definitely was a step out of my comfort zone but within reach and I am thankful for the opportunity to push myself.  This reminded me of one of my students in 7th grade who had just moved from the Philippines and his English was not very strong yet.  I had assigned each student do a presentation and he wouldn’t do it. I could have tried to force him or I could have failed him but instead, I asked if he would be willing to share his presentation with me and a friend.  He thought about it and agreed.  This was the right amount of struggle for him and a safe learning environment, whereas the for the others it was in front of the class and in other venues.  The learning task has to be within the right zone and allow for a productive struggle or some learners will shut down if they feel it is too far out of reach, even if you threaten them with a failing grade.  This also means that the right task or product will likely be different based on the learners in the class.

Models

While I was preparing for my talk I watched a lot of TED Talks. They helped me see how great speakers put their stories together, how to craft their slide deck, and how they connect with their audience. Each time I watched, I had a different focus depending on where I was as a learner. Models are so powerful in the learning process but so often in school, we have this fear of copying or cheating.  There is a lot of talk about creating rather than consuming but to create something better, I relied on models to inspire new ideas, build off of and stimulate my own thinking and creativity. No matter how much I loved Brene Brown or Simon Sinek’s talk, I couldn’t copy them but they did inspire me in a lot of ways. If an assignment has only one right answer or final product, maybe there are some opportunities for it to be revised.

Reflection

Reflection is often the forgotten part of the learning process, in a fast moving world, taking time to pause and reflect can easily get cut when we lack time but it is often the most valuable part of the learning process. I videotaped myself and although this was painful and I hated every minute of watching it, it helped me see what I looked like and sounded like and reflect on where I could improve. Taking in what I had learned from others, the feedback I received and figuring out how to make the changes in my own way, was critical to my growth.
I would love to hear your thoughts and ideas on the 10 characteristics.  What am I missing?  What could be revised?

Learner Agency

Ten Trends 2014: Agency from EDtalks on Vimeo.

6 Truths about Technology

6 Truths about technology

Developing Learner Agency

As I continue to look at developing student agency in my class it is good to listen to other school's explain their developments. This is especially interesting as this is a secondary school. We have had parents inquire into our practices and how will this prepare them for future schools. This trend is moving into the secondary schools as we all undergo a shift realising the skills and attributes we need to develop and foster in our students is something different to prepare them for their world. The older traditionally style of learning and teaching was not going to brig out the skills and dispositions needed by the 21st century learner and citizen.
Learner agency at Hobsonville Point Secondary School from EDtalks on Vimeo.
Claire Amos talks about fostering agency at Hobsonville Point Secondary School. Claire says is agency is about students owning their learning. She describes how a sense of ownership and taking responsibility for learning is incorporated into the culture of the school and into the programmes they offer.

Learners in the driving seat

Have read this before but after looking at TeachMeetNZ  and viewing this bloke's presentation I reread it. I was very intetested in his topic ..looking at learner agency in the earlier years.

This article continues to validate my TAI this year and where i am trying to head. Will comment more on this later within my Inquiry blog. ( This does need updating.)