Understanding Student Agency
There is no single universally accepted definition of ‘student agency’. The concept has many alternative terms attached to it, including ‘student voice’, ‘independent learning’, ‘incremental learning’ or nurturing a ‘growth mindset’. All of these are used by the resources included in this Knowledge Bank, and all are rooted in the idea of advancing students from passive recipients of teaching to active pursuers of knowledge.
‘Agency’ can be broadly understood to mean the ability and motivation to make changes on one’s own initiative. In the context of pedagogy, this means fostering a culture where students are driven and self-motivated to direct their own learning. It may be described as moving from a ‘teacher-centric’ approach – where the only knowledge that counts is derived from one source – to a model that prioritises knowledge sought by the learners themselves: a ‘student-centric’ approach.
Fundamentally, student agency is not a radical new idea, but a commingling of several modern educational schools of thought. Many of the principles of student agency can be found in Paulo Freire’s concept of problem-based learning, as well as modern project-based learning (PBL). Active learning, independent study and metacognition all contribute to the development of agentive behaviour in students.
Sweden’s Kunskapsskolan movement is a leading example of student agency in practice. Kunskapsskolan schools aim to provide personalised and goal-driven education, with students themselves having a substantial ability to control what they are taught. Attainment scores in Swedish Kunskapsskolan schools are generally around 25% higher than the national average and the movement now has adherent schools in the UK, the US, the Netherlands, India and Saudi Arabia. But what goes into this agency-focused style of education, and why does it achieve such strong results?
Aspects Of Agency
Active learning is the most obvious component of student agency. Existing in opposition to the aforementioned passive mode of receiving information from an arbiter, such as a teacher-given lecture or reading materials, active learning focuses on engaging students through direct participation in the learning process. Common tactics for promoting active learning in a classroom environment include role-playing, group discussions, peer teaching, experiments and other methods familiar to most teachers.
There is no end of evidence to suggest that active learning produces more attentive and higher-achieving students than rote, passive learning of the traditional style.[1] Children are also happier at work, becoming more eager to participate in lessons.[2] However, we should distinguish between these methods of active learning and student agency, which goes a step further.
Another key pillar of agentive learning is metacognition, or the idea of reflecting upon one’s thought processes. By training students to actively plan, monitor and evaluate their own learning, teachers can enable their classes to discover where their strengths and areas for improvement lie, thereby empowering them to approach new tasks independently and in the manner that works best for them. Metacognition is a crucial part of the self-regulated learning that student agency depends upon[3] and can be implemented regardless of whether said students are engaged in active or passive learning styles.
To achieve a true state of agency, both of these components must be combined with autonomy. Allowing students the freedom to decide what they will learn and how they will learn it is the cornerstone to allowing them to develop to a higher level. This does not mean ceding control to students entirely; teacher input remains essential to giving students the guidance and feedback they require to make lasting progress, as Carolyn Harper explains.[4] Project-based learning is a notable example of this in action.
To think of an independently motivated school pupil might conjure an image of a key stage 4 student undertaking a long-term project, but that does not necessarily have to be the case. Younger students are also fully capable of motivating their own growth, as demonstrated by Alverstoke Infant School’s implementation of ‘child-initiated learning’ sessions.
As explained by headteacher Marion Clist, Alverstoke’s Reception-aged children were given complete freedom to lead their own learning during these sessions, with greater accountability and expectations to report their progress as they advanced in year group and began to link their learning to a particular subject about which they were most passionate. The result was a cohort of motivated and willingly collaborative students (and an impressive Ofsted report).[5]
The Impact Of Agency
Many educators have seen the benefits of encouraging student agency during the COVID-19 pandemic. Evidence suggests that agentive learners fared better than passive learners under lockdown[6], willingly engaging in remote learning as far as they were able. Agentive students are also better equipped to become active citizens and engage with societal issues[7], standing them in good stead for their adult lives.
While these characteristics of are rightly desirable in students, much of the modern school environment positions itself against agentive learning. Broad syllabi stifle those who want to focus on their interests; strict schedules chafe those who are ready to move on to bigger challenges. Educators’ reluctance to move away from didactic methods of teaching often stems from a belief that allowing students ‘too much’ freedom in determining their own learning will have a deleterious effect on classroom discipline or academic achievement. In practice, however, there is little to support this.
The benefits that schools stand to gain from embedding student agency are significant and observable. At the classroom level, allowing students to have a hand in determining lesson plans can lead to a stronger desire to achieve and new opportunities for the more socially isolated to collaborate with their peers. Luisa Dolton’s class of Year 6 pupils is one such example of this in practice.[8]
School-wide initiatives to enshrine student agency have been similarly successful. Headteacher Julian Grant shows us the example of Shevington High School[9], whose body of 800 students were found not to be making sufficient progress from their starting points at key stage 2. By embedding ‘student voice’ through open-ended termly learning objective Themes (culminating in a Mission, wherein students would demonstrate their mastery of a Theme to their peers), the school found a unique way of delivering the curriculum that drove far greater student engagement.
Most importantly, the adoption of student voice as a guiding principle also has implications for student wellbeing. When students are enabled to tap into their passions and take responsibility over their own education – a major pillar of their early lives – the result is a profound boost of their self-esteem and a self-motivating attitude that will follow them into adulthood.
Angi Gibson discovered this as deputy headteacher at New York Primary School, which catered to a disproportionate number of disadvantaged students. After reforms were enacted to promote independent learning and self-motivation, Ofsted inspectors commented that children were far happier and displayed ‘an excellent knowledge of how well they are learning and how they can improve’.[10]
Taking It Further
The attached resources provide further case studies of student agency in action. Whether this is minor, like Luisa Dolton’s empowerment of her Year 6 class, or extreme, like the Frederiksbjerg School’s whole-building focus on physical movement[11], all illustrate the value of breaking the common mould of teaching by allowing students to take their education into their own hands.
- https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2019/09/study-shows-that-students-learn-more-when-taking-part-in-classrooms-that-employ-active-learning-strategies/
- https://www.teachingtimes.com/how-to-engage-activate-learning/
- https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/teaching-learning-toolkit/metacognition-and-self-regulation
- https://www.edweek.org/technology/opinion-the-teachers-role-in-a-students-independent-learning-journey/2017/12
- https://www.teachingtimes.com/yesmisswedloveachallenge/
- https://www.teachingtimes.com/how-to-move-learners-from-from-engaged-to-agentive/
- https://www.teachingtimes.com/pupil-voice-digital-democracy-and-global-citizenship/
- https://www.teachingtimes.com/boosting-pupil-voice/
- https://www.teachingtimes.com/how-to-put-the-student-at-the-centre-of-learning/
- https://www.teachingtimes.com/journey-to-an-outstanding-report/
- https://www.teachingtimes.com/learning-in-motion/