Learner agency
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The document discusses the concept of learner agency in education, emphasizing the importance of student expectations, voice, and participatory culture in fostering engagement and motivation. It highlights essential skills needed for a participatory culture, such as problem-solving, networking, and collective intelligence, as well as the need for educational systems to adapt to the characteristics of information in the knowledge era. The document concludes with a call for higher expectations of students and a focus on moral purpose in education to effect meaningful change.
Learner agency
- 1. Learner Agency Derek Wenmoth CORE Education Upper Hutt Education Cluster 21 October, 2016
- 2. Customer • Materialis.c concept of life • Consumer of a large range of goods and services as defined by someone else • Always searching for the ‘perfect brand’
- 3. Pilgrim • Allegory of a man making his way through his troubled life • Grows stronger with every obstacle he learns to overcome • Thinker, taking responsibility for his own ac.ons, willing to accept responsibility for working for the common good
- 4. Overview • ShiEing the ownership of learning. • Student expecta.ons • What is learner agency? • Agency and student voice • Par.cipatory Culture • What does it look like in a school? @dwenmoth
- 6. • Strong support for crea.ng and sharing • Some type of informal mentorship • Members believe that their contribu.ons maXer • Members feel some degree of social connec.on with one another • Rela.vely low barriers to ar.s.c expression and civic engagement Par.cipatory culture… “Not every member must contribute, but all must believe they are free to contribute when ready, and that what they contribute will be appropriately valued.”
- 7. Essen.al skills for the par.cipatory culture Play the capacity to experiment with one’s surroundings as a form of problem-solving Performance the ability to adopt alterna.ve iden..es for the purpose of improvisa.on and discovery Simula0on the ability to interpret and construct dynamic models of real-world processes Appropria0on the ability to meaningfully sample and remix media content Mul0tasking the ability to scan one’s environment and shiE focus as needed to salient details. Distributed cogni0on the ability to interact meaningfully with tools that expand mental capaci.es hXps://mitpress.mit.edu/sites/default/files/.tles/free_download/ 9780262513623_Confron.ng_the_Challenges.pdf
- 8. Essen.al skills for the par.cipatory culture Collec0ve Intelligence The ability to pool knowledge and compare notes with others toward a common goal Judgment The ability to evaluate the reliability and credibility of different informa.on sources Transmedia Naviga0on The ability to follow the flow of stories and informa.on across mul.ple modali.es Networking The ability to search for, synthesize, and disseminate informa.on Nego0a0on The ability to travel across diverse communi.es, discerning and respec.ng mul.ple perspec.ves, and grasping and following alterna.ve norms hXps://mitpress.mit.edu/sites/default/files/.tles/free_download/ 9780262513623_Confron.ng_the_Challenges.pdf
- 9. Student Voice • One of the most powerful tools available to influence academic achievement is helping students feel they have a stake in their learning. • To feel mo.vated to do something and become engaged in its ac.vity, youth (like adults) generally need to feel they have a voice in how it is conducted and an impact on how it concludes. • Time and again, research has shown that the more educators give their students choice, control, challenge, and opportuni.es for collabora.on, the more their mo.va.on and engagement are likely to rise. hXp://bit.ly/2ecZTh0
- 11. Agency • “The power to act” • “Sense of ownership” • “Execu.ng and controlling one’s own ac.ons” • “Self-efficacy” • “Personalisa.on”
- 12. • Self directed learning • Un-tethered to tradi.onal ins.tu.on • Expert at personal data aggrega.on • Power of connec.ons • Crea.ng new communi.es • Not tethered to physical networks • Experien.al learning • Content developers • Process as important as knowledge gained Free agent characteris.cs hXp://teachthinktech.learningconnec.ve.org/post/1656186536/free-agent-learners
- 13. Three dimensions of agency • Self - involves the ini.a.ve or self-regula.on of the learner • Others - is interdependent. It mediates and is mediated by the sociocultural context of the classroom. • Environment - includes an awareness of the responsibility of ones own ac.ons on the environment and on others. hXp://bit.ly/2eUq1AI
- 18. • Open • Distributed • Scalable • Social • Genera.ve • Networked • Self-organised • Adap.ve • Global An educa.on system that fails to emulate the characteris.cs of informa.on in an era of knowledge is doomed to fail. Informa.on today is… George Siemens: Connec.vism – a theory of learning for the networked age hXp://www.connec.vism.ca/
- 19. Research findings • Networked Learning Communi.es are Complex • Networked Learning Communi.es Can Influence Learning • Changing Thinking and Prac.ce is the Key • Schools are the Locus of Change in Thinking and Prac.ce • Rela.onships And Collabora.on Are Beginnings… Not Ends In Themselves • School And Network Foci Need To Be Right, Shared And Understood • Schools’ Strength Of Engagement In The Network Is Important • Collabora.ve Inquiry Is An Important New Skill • Distributed Leadership Is Important In Schools And Network