Learner agency
“When the student has agency, the student is making, creating, doing, sharing, collaborating, and publishing in ways that are meaningful to them.”
from “What is student agency?” by Defined Learning
Recall a time that you directed your own learning—whether that was through cooking a new recipe, assembling a piece of furniture, or researching a topic that you recently learned about on the news. In these everyday examples of self-directed learning, your interests directed your pursuit, you actively learned new information and incorporated new skills, you determined when and how you would best complete this learning experience, and you found support and information to guide you.
To design for learner agency is to design the conditions that enable and equip learners to develop and direct their own learning. In other words, designing for agency is to design for exercising agency and developing agency. Learners first develop the skills to self-direct their learning independently before they can exercise them. Just like the example given of everyday learning, self-directed learning offers learners both the responsibility and the flexibility to learn at their own pace, to exercise choice, and to elevate their voice. Learning experiences that are designed for learner agency are empowering. Learners know what to do and, through supportive instruction and navigation, determine both how and when to do it.
Research in cognitive science highlights various ways in which learner agency increases learning:
- Learners construct knowledge, rather than take it in. Learner agency enhances that “feeling of creation.”
- With regard to self-determination, learners tend to be more motivated when they feel more ownership and responsibility over the outcome.
- Learners tend to choose learning experiences that they feel are valuable and give them opportunities for growth.
To enable this kind of responsible and student-directed learning, various strongholds of schooling may need reimagining. This shift may seem daunting, particularly because there’s a level of uncertainty regarding the direction in which learning experiences may go. However, it’s relinquishing this sense of control that fundamentally affords learners the opportunity to exert agency. In turn, this sense of agency supports greater learning engagement and improve learning outcomes. Roles will shift. The role of teacher shifts from deliverer of content to the designer of learning experiences, from evaluator to coach, from grader to guide. The role of the learner shifts to director of learning.
So, how does this work in a school? Ultimately, learners who understand the goals they’re working toward, the support systems available to them, and the work they need to complete are equipped to thrive. Thus, schools designed for learner agency foster learning through offering pathways and processes to exercise choice, opportunities and platforms to exercise voice, and support to develop and exercise this agency. Ultimately, the development and practice of learner agency leads to learners advocating for themselves and their learning, taking a stake in their own education by working with educators to select the learning targets they want to work on, identifying the content they want to explore more deeply, or even co-designing learning experiences.
Application
Make three "small moves." Author of Small teaching, James Lang discusses how small and simple shifts in our practice and pedagogy result in great impact on learning. (For inspiration, browse through some of his posts.) Identify three proactive, "small moves" a school can make to promote learner agency.
Reflection
What examples come to mind when you think about learners exercising agency at your school? What are the conditions that make these examples possible? How can you offer more of these opportunities at your school?