UNDERSTANDING THE
ENHANCED PYP
PURPOSE OF THIS SESSION
1. To understand the importance of student
agency in a global educational context
2. To unpack the term student agency as it
relates to classroom practice
3. To develop a shared understanding and a
working definition of the term student
agency
Do you have a personal goal for the session?
Shift Happens
As you watch this, think of the implications
some of the information here may have:
a) for your practice as an educator
b) for how students learn
We are preparing students for jobs that don’t
yet exist using technologies that haven’t been
invented yet in order to solve problems we
don’t know are problems yet.
What does this mean for our practice as
educators?
THE GLOBAL CONTEXT
Our societies and economies have been transformed with knowledge being
centralized. Therefore,
• Strong focus and advance in measuring learning outcomes, including
through PISA.
• How to change outcomes? In what kinds of learning environments?
• Education has been reformed endlessly - the sense of reaching the
limits of educational reform invites a fresh focus on learning itself
• Technology development has re-set the boundaries of educational
possibilities but how do we reshape learning environments within those
new boundaries?
• The research base on learning grows but so far a “great disconnect” to
policy and practice.
“The Nature of Learning: Using Research to Inspire Practice” OECD
Publications, Sept. 2010, 338pp.
Expressed in educational terms…
These “principles‟ mean that learning environments should be:
• Learner-centred: highly focused on learning but not as an
alternative to the key role for teachers
• Structured and well-designed: needs careful design and high
professionalism alongside inquiry & autonomous learning
• Profoundly personalised: acutely sensitive to individual and
group differences and offering tailored feedback
• Inclusive: such sensitivity to individual and group differences
means they are fundamentally inclusive
• Social: learning is effective in group settings when learners
collaborate, and when there is a connection to community.
Where is STUDENT AGENCY located
within the OECD’s recommendations?
Table Task 1: On the sticky note provided, please write your
personal definition of student agency as you understand it
We will return to these definitions
periodically during the session.
Student Agency
Table Task 2: As you listen to the video, take note of the
terms you hear that either resonate with you or are new or
interesting to you.
Do any of those terms appear in your personal definition of
Student Agency?
TABLE TASK 3
The cards at your table represent YES and NO examples of
concepts related to student agency. The GREEN CARDS
are YES examples and the RED Cards are NO examples.
Please sort the cards and try to identify the concepts
represented in those examples.
What do
you want
to learn?
TABLE TASK 4
Review your definition again.
What concepts of STUDENT AGENCY can be identified in
your definition? What is missing?
Share your definition at your table and craft a joint definition.
We will return to the joint definition later.
UNLEARN IN ORDER TO LEARN
Using the research available to us, let’s be
clear with one another about student agency.
It is not a fleeting behavior or an innate
personality trait. It is not just a manifestation
of free will, or an exercise of one’s vocal
chords, or a “buck up and be responsible”
mentality. Rather, it is a multi-faceted skill
and disposition.
~JENNIFER DAVIS POON~
WHAT DOES THE LITERATURE SAY?
• There is no broad consensus
• The definitions are complex and multi-dimensional
• There are 4 concepts that can be described in
terms of what the student needs to do that appear
consistently:
• Setting beneficial goals
• Initiating action toward those goals
• Reflecting on and regulating progress toward
those goals
• Internalizing self-efficacy
STUDENT TEACHER
• Understanding where s/he • Design pathways to develop
needs to get to metacognitive skills
• Being aware of own strengths • Offer opportunities for self-
and needs assessment
• Understanding difference • Offer constructive, descriptive
between attainable and feedback
unattainable goals as well as • Teach specific skills related to
high leverage goals intention and thoughtfulness
• Using feedback for as they relate to goal setting
improvement
Initiating Action Toward Goals
STUDENT TEACHER
• Setting own direction • Offering open-ended
• Voicing opinions opportunities
• Making appropriate choices to • Make choices available
meet goals • Allowing students to explore
• Taking initiative to reap topics of interest and
benefits relevance to them
• Expressing free will and taking • Teaching skills of organization,
responsibility for choices made note-taking and rehearsing
• Designing environment to
inspire and motivate
Monitoring Progress Toward Goals
STUDENT TEACHER
• Plans, acts and reflects on • Offers opportunities for
progress students to externalize their
• Demonstrates perseverance thinking – think-aloud in order
and self-discipline to receive feedback
• Shows evidence of using self- • Offers opportunities for
reflection to determine and students to give and receive
guide areas of improvement feedback from peers and
adults
• Design structures that reward
perseverance or offer
opportunties to practice it
Internalizing self-efficacy
STUDENT TEACHER
• Working with a growth mindset • Recognizing and celebrating
• Believing in the value of effort specific areas of success based on
and the power to change competencies
circumstances • Teaching within the zone of
• Rejecting learned helplessness proximal development to
challenge students just enough
• Understanding and managing
one’s emotions • Sharing stories of role models
who overcome hurdles to success
• Teaching about growth mindsets
• Specifically attending to
students’ emotional states
Any missing pieces?
Revisit your group’s definition.
Anything you would like to add?
We invite you to share your definition.
Point of Interest?
Where do the
APPROACHES TO LEARNING
fit vis-à-vis
STUDENT AGENCY?
HAVE WE ACHIEVED THE
PURPOSE OF THIS SESSION?
1. To understand the importance of student
agency in a global educational context
2. To unpack the term student agency as it
relates to classroom practice
3. To develop a shared understanding and a
working definition of the term student
agency
Do you have a personal goal for the session?
