Learner Agency is Not a School Priority

One more thought related to yesterday’s post [Try As They May, Schools Just Can’t Innovate] – if you take a look at the text describing various state policy related to desired innovation zones, it’s clear that these descriptions weren’t written by innovators themselves. Innovators employ creative phrases and provide a vision of what is possible. The state policy examples shared yesterday weren’t exactly creative nor visionary. You can’t expect innovation to occur in schools when those innovative efforts are led by state bureaucrats and traditionalists.

Onward!

The traditional school system has difficulty embracing learner agency, or the ability to teach young learners how to own their own learning. The traditional system has created departments of curriculum, instructional strategies, human resources, assessment and evaluation that are expected to provide the appropriate supports for students to learn what the state and district expect them to learn. When young learners exist in this type of system, they rarely see an opportunity to figure out learning on their own.

A few years ago, Aurora Institute released an impressive report focused on how you would design learner agency if given the chance. Agency by Design: Making Learning Engaging was published in 2021 and was written by Derek Wenmoth, a New Zealand educator, Marsha Jones, a retired Arkansas educator, and Joseph DiMartino, the retired founder and president of the Center for Secondary School Redesign (CSSR).

The report begins with Wenmoth providing a good working definition of what is meant by learner agency. Wenmoth writes,

“Learner agency is about having the power, combined with choices, to take meaningful action and see the result of those decisions. It can be thought of as a catalyst for change or transformation. Learner agency is about students having the understanding, ability, and opportunity to be part of the learning design and taking action to intervene in the learning process to become effective lifelong learners.”

To build learner agency, the three authors introduce the concept of “intentional agency-driven lesson design”. “Intentional agency-driven lesson design” is built on six beliefs:

The belief that student agency is an essential attribute to learners of all ages.

The belief that student agency must be developed deliberately and intentionally.

The belief that agency should be a core component of the requisite planning process, so that all learners can thrive and be successful.

The belief that agency can and should be promoted within the organization of the curriculum, the planning process, the design of instructional activities, and the assessment of learning.

The belief that elements of student agency already are established in teacher evaluation and supervision models, but they are not at the forefront of teacher expectations.

The belief that a catalyst for success requires leaders (classroom, building, district) to embrace “design inspired” leadership strategies.

In order for the beliefs listed above to become behaviors, a new leadership style is required. The authors summarize this type of new leadership style in the following manner:

“Understand that learners should be at the heart of all learning experiences, including giving students voice and choice in classroom functioning.”

“Accept that roles and relationships will be different between student and teacher when agency is activated.”

“Recognize that classroom activities will reflect more choice, self-determination, ownership, self-management, creative freedom, and student leadership.”

“Create a broader leadership model that will allow students to have a voice in a formal way. Student voice is valued and invited.”

“Promote inquiry as a philosophy within the school. Student inquiry is built into the structure of the classroom environment, where students work together to initiate inquiry questions for study, to enhance the required curriculum model.”

“Expect the curriculum to be designed around learning progressions supported by rubrics. Students help construct and use rubrics for self-assessment. Accountability for learning is shared as students self-reflect based on rubrics and teacher input.”

“Implement practices that support assessment for learning. Shift away from summative grade-book experiences to providing feedback, reflection, and use of progressions. Students have access to the assessment tools and the common language of learning, which is used to provide feedback and for student reflection.”

The authors go on to emphasize that,

“Traditional leadership characteristics do not allow for the leadership qualities listed above. To effectively implement agentic learning, leaders must rethink their roles as laid out below:

Leaders must recognize that the leader’s primary role as ‘influencer’ is to support educators to move away from thinking that being the ‘sage on the stage’ is the best method of engaging learners.

Leaders recognize they must model appropriate vision-focused behavior that reflects personal ownership of the results.

Leaders focus on those styles that produce positive results, and they vary those styles to fit situational needs.

Leaders engage in activities directed at building teams’ capability, distributed leadership capability, and infrastructure/systems that support sustainable change.

Leaders share control through collaboration and input at all levels, while still recognizing they have the ultimate responsibility for results.

Students are given a significant and meaningful role in school governance.

The union is viewed not as an antagonist but rather as a full partner in developing and supporting processes that allow teaching and learning activities to be fully personalized.

Leaders are fully schools in applying individual, team, and organization performance models, as well as culture change best practices.

Leaders create and implement communication plans that address both internal and external/community needs.

Leaders are open-minded about use of space, including flexibility as the when and where students learn.”

Most school districts can’t do any of this. Their system just isn’t built to embrace learner agency.

And, to make matters worse, most school districts have no interest in changing their culture to a learner-centered model.

It’s too bad, because groups like the Aurora Institute could be very helpful to districts committed to making the shift. Instead, they write reports like this one that end up on someone’s book shelf collecting dust.

Til tomorrow. SVB