Bitesize Research: Increasing Student Agency

By Jaya Carrier

I hope everyone’s had a great week so far! In our quest to increase opportunities for inquiry-based and student-centred learning, in the final bitesize of this term, I was interested to see this article offering some suggestions around how teachers can promote student agency. Objectives: To consider what strategies teachers can use to improve student agency Summary:

• The author defines student agency as something that empowers students to drive their own learning.
• The strategies suggested by the author to support this include:
• Embracing quiet moments: Strategies for student-centred learning and to increase student agency can be ‘messy’. The author suggests that rather than acting on any sense of urgency in the classroom, giving students opportunities to pause can be very helpful.
• Praising the process and the journey: Using ideas for a growth mindset, the author suggests praising learning habits and efforts
• Self-assessment: The author argues self-assessment is very powerful to increase agency, and that we need to equip students with the language they’ll need to be able to evaluate their work.
• Consider the ratio of feedback to asking questions: The author argues that asking thoughtful questions can enable the students to give feedback to themselves. The author argues that good questions will have multiple answers and won’t be leading.
• Tell students you trust them: The author argues that both verbally and through modelling, showing students you trust them and that making mistakes is fine is important to cultivating student agency.

How does this impact me and my practice?:

Some reflection questions arising from this that might be helpful to consider are:

• What strategies do I use already to cultivate student agency?
• Which ones of these strategies could I trial? How can I incorporate them into my practice?
• What further support or knowledge would I like to gain on approaches to foster student agency?

If you would like to discuss this further with me please get in touch! I’d be delighted to hear from you!