Student Agency

Image Credit: https://elink.io/p/student-agency

by Paul Solarz

When I first sat down to write about student agency, I needed to do a little research. This wasn’t a term I learned in college (I’m old), and although I have participated in Twitter chats about it, I’m never really certain that I completely understand what every edu-jargon term means!

According to Getting Smart, “Agency” is:

the capacity and propensity to take purposeful initiative—the opposite of helplessness.

Okay, so I have a starting point. If we want our students to develop agency, then we need to prevent our students from being helpless! I like it.

One website that really helped me understand student agency was Education Reimagined. In this blog post, Jennifer Davis Poon explained that there are four distinct components of “agency.” It might be helpful to say “for myself during this period” or “for myself on this assignment” after each component below:

1. Setting advantageous goals
2. Initiating action toward those goals
3. Reflecting on and regulating progress toward those goals
4. A belief in self-efficacy. That is, whether one believes they can act with agency actually enhances or diminishes that agency.

Image Credit: https://education-reimagined.org/what-do-you-mean-when-you-say-student-agency/

As we all know, the importance of specific educational philosophies, practices, and teaching styles ebbs and flows over time. Something that is “essential” today might be discouraged in ten years, and then will likely be back en vogue in twenty! Certainly, changes need to be made in order to keep up with technology, our advancing society, and the way students learn today, but those are not always the reasons that huge changes in teaching happen. Often, changes occur due to new legislation passed, incentives from textbook publishers, or having to bring in the newest, greatest gadget for learning!

Students choosing books for an upcoming novel study. They have the power to determine the book they read, yet have been taught rules and expectations for doing so. Student agency in action.

When I first started teaching in the late 1990’s, I entered a school district that allowed their teachers nearly full-autonomy for running their classrooms. The programs that were purchased for us were there if we wanted to use them and if we preferred to meet our standards and objectives in different ways, we were strongly encouraged to do so. Now this might seem hard for a new teacher, but I had excellent mentors, an excitement for teaching, and the willingness to spend my evenings and weekends creating high quality lessons! I replaced nearly every lesson handed to me with my own, and within a year or two, created a classroom that stoked my fire for teaching and teaching well!

You see, I was given agency by my administration. I was encouraged to think for myself, not be told what to do and how to do it. I used the needs of my students as the focus of my unit and lesson planning, rather than the need to get through all of the curriculum (but I still got through most of it). I was provided guidelines and tips for planning out our school year, but was told that it needed to be flexible and that meeting my students’ needs was the most important consideration. I LOVED being a teacher! I LOVED being trusted to make the best decision I could! I LOVED being creative with my lessons, integrating subjects, and using the techniques I learned in college and my masters program to make learning more fun and permanent! Agency was the main factor in my happiness as a teacher.

A student on a walking tour of our school, taking pictures of objects that demonstrate the eight forms of energy we studied. Students are free to walk around the school with their peers, make good decisions, and complete their task within a given amount of time, developing their agency skills.

It wasn’t long before I realized how important autonomy was to me. I wondered about how my students might handle autonomy within our classroom. Would they take advantage of a “longer leash” in negative ways? Would their productivity diminish if I let them make choices and help their peers when they needed it? Would their immediate academic progress slow down at the expense of improving their student agency skills?

I decided I had to find out. Right then and there I decided that academic perfection would not be my teaching goal, but rather academic growth combined with an ability to apply real-world skills independently, would be.

In order to do this, I had to create a classroom environment where students worked together, made decisions freely, were held accountable for their actions and assignments, and were treated with respect and trust. Completion was not always our main goal, but on-task behavior and strong effort were always required. If someone in class needed your help, I preferred that you fell behind in an attempt to help them move forward. Our mantra became, “Finishing first or being the best isn’t what we do in here. When we make it to the top of the mountain, we’re only successful if we’re standing next to all of our classmates!” Competition was no longer trying to be better than our peers, but rather trying to be better today than we were yesterday. Personal growth, not winning at others’ expense was our goal.

Students working together to determine energy transfers within toys and electronics. Open Inquiry and Guided Inquiry are excellent ways to help students develop their agency skills.

I also had to shift how I taught. I couldn’t spend all of my time at the front of the room, lecturing or leading discussions. I needed to give my students directions and get out of their way so they could start making decisions without consulting me. I just needed to be sure that my students understood the rules of the school and our classroom, my expectations for their behavior, and the directions for the lesson. They also needed to know the order for asking for help was peers first, then me if needed. I was a resource, but not the only resource or first resource they should consult in the class. Since students were asking each other for help, had the directive to always try to help each other, and were allowed the time to give help to their classmates (since completion wasn’t our main goal), students began working together as a team.

But, what was I supposed to do with all my newfound free time? I was no longer lecturing in front of the class. I wasn’t necessarily pulling small groups during all of these collaborative lessons (although I certainly did pull kids during many). I was free to do anything I wanted! That’s where I learned the value of giving students immediate, personalized, intentional feedback.

All of this extra time allowed me to walk around, observe my students working together, and formatively assess their understanding of the skills and concepts. It also allowed me to do a few other things that were extremely important:

• I was able to ask my students questions that either led them in a new direction or helped me understand their way of working or thinking. Whenever I learned a better way of doing something from my students, I usually asked them to announce it to the class if they were willing, and I added it to my toolbox of tricks for the future!
• I was able to learn when to give support and when not to. Many times, giving students the opportunity to make mistakes and then learn from those mistakes is more valuable than doing the task perfectly the first time. I just had to make sure that I checked back in with them to see that they eventually got onto the right path.
• I was able to provide feedback to individuals, groups, and the whole class when they were doing a great job, when they misunderstood a direction, when I messed up explaining a direction, etc.

Lesson planning needed to change. Instead of my students filling out worksheets, reading textbook chapters, and listening to me tell them what they needed to know, I began to implement project-based learning, simulations, and long-term explorations. These activities allowed me to integrate subjects, get students working in partnerships or teams, and required much of the thinking and talking to happen by the students, rather than the teacher! Students were now beginning to develop agency. The skills of knowing what to do, how to do it, what to do when you’re stuck, meeting deadlines, monitoring progress, changing directions when things aren’t going right, making decisions freely, and knowing that ALL of this is their responsibility (not the responsibility of the teacher, parents, or peers).

I wanted to develop students who could think for themselves. I wanted to build their confidence, but not through false praise and easy work. They needed to accomplish tough tasks without feeling like anyone helped them more than setting them up for success. I wanted students to make mistakes and learn from them. I didn’t want to shelter them from struggles and failures to protect them. They needed to know that it’s all part of the learning process. I just wanted to provide my students a safe environment to take risks, make mistakes, and learn from those mistakes. I wanted to be my students’ acrobatics net, in case they fell trying to do the academic version of a Triple Layout, Uprise Shoot into a Full Twisting Double Shooting Star. (Those are real trapeze tricks – I had to look them up! Thanks Wikipedia!)

An excerpt that I wrote for “P is for PIRATE” by Dave and Shelley Burgess.

Our classroom began to transform. Instead of a classroom of 25 students and a teacher, it started to look more like a 21st Century Start-up. Students worked all over the room, sitting on bean bag chairs or working at standing desks. Everyone was talking, and each conversation was completely authentic and prompted by each student. Disagreements happened occasionally, but were quickly settled due to the importance we placed on classroom community, social-emotional learning, and strategies for dealing with conflict. After all, we were like a family, and although we may disagree sometimes, we care about each other!

Twenty years later, I’ve gotten better at my craft. Despite the shrinking levels of autonomy teachers are given today in my school district, my students have HUGE amounts of autonomy within our extremely structured classroom. (Students need structure in order to be successful when the teacher is no longer thinking for them!) They think for themselves, but understand the rules and expectations of our classroom society. Just like the real world, students know that purposely breaking the rules comes with consequences, but unlike some parts of the real world, students know this is a safe place to learn and grow and be. And that’s why providing your students with autonomy so they can develop their agency skills is so important. I hope you will continue to encourage your students to make decisions freely and be supportive of students when they make mistakes! And they WILL make mistakes! 🙂

For more information on creating a “student-led classroom” like the one I described above, please check out my book, “Learn Like a PIRATE,” available on Amazon and at Barnes and Noble stores around the U.S. or online.

– Paul Solarz – 4th and 5th grade teacher

Five of my students working together to plan for their Alternative Energy Debate. Look at how intensely the students are listening to Filip! Agency skills are being developed through projects like these.

Final thoughts – According to Renaissance.com,

• Student agency is NOT…
  • A free-for-all for students: They need your guidance, and sometimes too many choices can be counterproductive instead of inspiring.
  • Lacking accountability: Students must demonstrate mastery of concepts and skills.
  • A replacement for an expert teacher: While students choose their own direction, they will still require course-correction along the path to mastery.