Lecture 11: Promoting student agency

Overview

In this lecture we will introduce the concept of student agency and how it relates to the role of technology in education and also the delivery of this module.

Lecture notes

The lecture started by introducing the concept of student agency and we looked at a number of definitions including the following two:

Student agency refers to the level of control, autonomy, and power that a student experiences in an educational situation. Student agency can be manifested in the choice of learning environment, subject matter, approach, and/or pace.  What is student agency? The Knewton Blog

Agency is the capacity and propensity to take purposeful initiative—the opposite of helplessness. Young people with high levels of agency do not respond passively to their circumstances; they tend to seek meaning and act with purpose to achieve the conditions they desire in their own and others’ lives.  10 Tips for Developing Student Agency – Getting Smart

This concept is relevant for a number of reasons.

First, there is a lot of criticism from employers that school leavers and graduates sometimes lack initiative to do things themselves and instead have to be ‘spoon fed’.  Promoting student agency can help to address this problem and perhaps this is something your school should consider as being one of its aims.

Second, introducing technology into the classroom can help to promote student agency.  See the following blogs for further information and examples of best practice:

Finally, student agency is relevant to this module because the approaches that I adopt (or don’t adopt) are designed to encourage you to develop your own sense of agency.  This is why I do not spoon feed!  This is why I do not provide you with all of the research references but instead expect you to find them yourself.  This is why your working on a project which only has general guidelines and leaves the rest to your own initiative.  This is why I like to pose big questions (such as how to solve the teacher training problem) and not provide you with the answers.  It is all designed to encourage you to take more control and responsibility for your own learning.

Incidentally, the following blog (The Power of Student Agency in Assessment and Learning, Tony Siddall, 2016), refers to the work of scholar Sue Swaffield from the University of Cambridge, who argues that teachers who develop their own practices, instead of following scripted instructional guidance, tend to be more  successful in implementing formative assessment, and their students display more self regulation. In short adult agency leads to student agency.  I’m not yet totally convinced by this argument!

In the second half of the lecture we discussed the marking criteria for the group presentation and the kind of structure and format that would be appropriate.  See below for a suggested example:

Important points to note include:

  • don’t forget to include the reason why you are introducing technology – what is the purpose?  Is it to increase student engagement?  Improve communication between teachers and parents?  Or even improve student agency?  Or a mix of the above?  The importance of stating the purpose was highlighted in a previous lecture handout.
  • This semester you are also expected to justify why you are introducing different technology by referring to published research.  So if you are introducing maths games to help students who are struggling you must also include a reference to research which has shown that maths games have a positive impact on learning outcomes etc etc.  If no research is available you can also refer to examples of best practice – other schools that already use the technology.
  • On the readings page on the website I have listed the top 10 academic journals in this field.  You are expected to find your own references.  Find the journal via the university library webpage and then search that journal using keywords related to your topic.  Refer to these research papers in the presentation and include a final list of references.
  • Include some critical awareness of the potential problem areas relating to edtech.  Your school cannot afford to have an ‘all technology is brilliant’ approach.  What about student behaviour online, student privacy, online bullying, watching opffensive material online, addictive behaviour leading to isolation etc etc – see 2015 OECD report for some of the potential problems of misuse.  Will your school provide any support to parents about how they can manage edtech use in the home?