Workshop slides for the Taranaki APDP online even, November 2020

1. Inspiring the next
generation of
leaders, thinkers and
problem-solvers
derek@futuremakers.nz
@dwenmoth
www.futuremakers.nz
http://www.wenmoth.net
Empowering
Teachers to facilitate
student agency
Taranaki APDP event, November 2020

2. Some themes and topics we’ll cover…
• What is learner agency?
• Who do we now learner agency is to be desired?
• How are schools facilitating learner agency?
• What schools would be good to connect with?
• How do we provide an environment for teachers to increase learner
agency?
• How can we measure learner agency?

3. Redefining our ‘why’..
• What are we preparing our young people for?
• What are the skills, capabilities and dispositions they will
require to thrive into the future?
• How might we enable them to shape the world they are
growing to develop?
Photo by Stavrialena Gontzou on Unsplash

4. Reversing the impact of decades
of child-centred orthodoxy will be
tough. But other countries have
tried and succeeded.

5. • One of the most powerful tools available to influence academic
achievement is helping students feel they have a stake in their
learning.
• To feel motivated to do something and become engaged in its activity,
youth (like adults) generally need to feel they have a voice in how it is
conducted and an impact on how it concludes.
• Time and again, research has shown that the more educators give
their students choice, control, challenge, and opportunities for
collaboration, the more their motivation and engagement are likely
to rise.
http://bit.ly/2ecZTh0
What we know

6. Ten Conditions
https://core-ed.org/assets/Uploads/Learner-Agency-CORE-Research.pdf

7. 1. Learner at the centre
“Sustained higher achievement is possible when teachers use
approaches that enable students to take charge of their own learning.
Such approaches do not leave the students to “discover” in an
unstructured environment. Rather, they are highly structured in
supporting student agency and sustained and thoughtful engagement.”
Alton-Lee, A (2003) Quality teaching for diverse students in schooling; Best Evidence Synthesis

8. 2. Relationships and partnerships
In essence, students work together and are responsible for one
another’s learning as well as their own. Emphasizing thinking and
increasing higher-order learning, it has a range of educational benefits,
including an alternative to ability grouping and as a way to prepare
students for an increasingly collaborative workforce.
Building Blocks for an ILE: OECD – The Nature of Learning

9. 3. Cultural Responsiveness
Teachers and students who acquire the knowledge, skills, and
attitudes of cultures other than their own are more equipped for a
life in a multicultural world. The Best Evidence Synthesis: Quality
Teaching for Diverse Students in Schooling (2003) shows that
students learn best when their cultures and languages are visible
and expressed within the learning environment.

10. 4. Leadership
“Leaders who pave the way and create conditions that pull students’ and
teachers’ initiative forward, recognise the need to share the leadership of
learning; new pedagogies therefore take off and spread rapidly”
(Fullan & Langworthy, 2014).

11. https://bit.ly/2JpXu5c

12. 5. Teaching as Inquiry and Student Inquiry
“It's the uncomfortable zone. You've got to be OK being in the
uncomfortable zone to a certain degree.” “I don't think it's fear of letting go,
but it's fear of the unknown, of how that looks. Everyone I talk to, they want
to do it [agency], it's just how do we do it. They just want the answers, the
technical, the playbook – but there isn't one.”

13. 6. Curriculum and Pedagogy
• Nganguru School
• Primary school, with 220 students
• Located in a coastal settlement near Whangarei - north of Auckland
• Localised curriculum – strong focus on local environment as a context
• View their plastic free initiative at: https://youtu.be/TjvavvU_tXk

14. 7. Assessment for learning
Learner agency can be thought of as fundamental to assessment for learning. “There is a
solid link between AfL and learner agency in that agentic learners make decisions about
their learning” For students to engage and take active responsibility for their learning we
can ensure that they can answer assessment for learning’s three questions; Where am I
at? Where am I going? How am I going to get there? (Chappuis, Stiggins, Chappuis &
Arter, 2012)

15. Digital Badges at
Ormiston Middle School
see: https://vimeo.com/361200391
8. Assessment capability
Assessment-capable children who have developed a growth mindset
and language of learning are likely to be agentic learners. A language of
learning and a growth mindset are essential to increasing assessment
capability so there is clarity around how to communicate to others
about learning and students have the self-efficacy that they can
improve performance. (Treadwell, 2016, p.14).
View Digital Badges at Ormiston Middle School - see: https://vimeo.com/361200391

16. Must Do/Can Do:
students have
choices over which
optional activities
they complete, in
conjunction with
the compulsory
activities set by
teachers.
Must-do, can-do

17. Learners set goals
and identify the
level of support
they require.
Success criteria
help students to
identify what is
required of them.
Goal setting

18. Learner choice
Learning areas allow
for learners to choose
from a variety of
spaces and locations
the one(s) that best
suit the learning
activity they are
engaged in.

19. Self management
Learners use this simply ‘map’ of the
school environment to let others know
where they are at any time. It is their
responsibility to ensure they are where
they say they will be.

20. Self-evaluation
Students use self-
evaluation skills to
identify which
workshops they need
to attend and book
themselves into
these.

21. Rubrics
Success criteria are clearly
expressed in rubric form and
made accessible to learners
from the beginning, allowing
them the opportunity to provide
evidence, with understanding,
of their own progress.

22. Learning Progressions
Clear guidance for
teachers to ensure
learning progressions
are monitored and
reported on through
the learning life of a
student at school
Acknowledgement: Halswell Primary School

23. Learning Progressions
Learning
progressions used in
a learner profile that
is used by students
and teachers to
monitor progress and
set goals.
Acknowledgement: Hobsonville Point Primary School

24. 9. Technology
Technology itself will not necessarily improve learning outcomes although
the engagement, connectedness, and involvement (i.e. agency) that the
tools allow, both inside and outside the classroom, will do so
(Benson, 2012; Fullan & Langworthy, 2013).

25. 10. Innovative Learning Environments
Schwarts & Okita (n.d.) identify that agency enables individuals to
be autonomous or in control of their social or material
environments; both have a reciprocal influence over learning. In
situations of high agency, the person is in charge while in
situations of low agency the environment is in charge.

26. Thank You
derek@futuremakers.nz
@dwenmoth
www.futuremakers.nz
http://www.wenmoth.net