Empowered Learners

Students as Agents of their Own Learning

Early this school year, the LMTC(School Library)/Ed Tech department, created two goals for the school year. One of our goals involves delivering professional development that meets the needs of educators in our district. A number of my blog posts this year have addressed aspects of professional development, from specific strategies to leadership to adult learning styles. In this post, I would like to explore our other department goal: Empowering Learners.

Empowered Learners is the first of seven 2016 International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) student standards and it is the foundation for all of the other standards. It is about student agency, their sense of ownership over their own learning. To be honest, this standard goes straight to the heart of my greatest personal gripe about how many of our students learn in school. Is is SO important!

First, I will briefly explain my own background in high school. I attended JFK Preparatory High School in St. Nazianz, Wisconsin, a small, five-day boarding high school that was non-denominational, co-ed, with tuition set according to the family’s ability to pay. We didn’t have grades; instead, students evaluated themselves in writing based on what they did, what they learned, and the effort that they put forth. JFK Prep excelled at helping students develop a sense of agency, of being in charge of our own learning. If we learned nothing else, we learned that.

For example, I did not care for gym class. I found it uninteresting and sometimes even embarrassing or degrading. I didn’t want to get into gym clothes and have someone else tell me how to run around or engage in physical activities. I understood that I needed a physical education credit, but I wanted to do something else. At JFK we were allowed and even encouraged to come up with our own plan if we objected to the standard assignment or class. We needed to draft a proposal of what we would do, how often, how we would assess ourselves, and what the final outcome would be, and we made sure to check in regularly to let the advising teacher know that we were on track. It helped if the proposal was as much or more work than the regular requirement. Students also needed to find a teacher who would sign off on the proposal.

So, instead of gym class, I went on hikes, climbed trees, swam in a local lake, and spent time outside doing physical activities with another student. We read a book about getting exercise outdoors and we logged all of our activities. We were very motivated to make sure that our plan met and even exceeded the expectations because it was ours, we were in charge. We both knew that we could create a plan that was much more suited to our interests and we were not going to let that plan fail. That is learner agency, basically what the Empowered Learner standard is about. We were not explicitly taught to do this, but many of us did. We knew that we could follow our interests and direct our learning accordingly.

Unfortunately, I rarely see this kind of learner agency in the school where I work, though I know that there are elements of student choice and voice in most classrooms. It is curious. I have even tried in my role as a school librarian to encourage students to come up with alternate learning plans. When a student complains to me about an assignment that they have no interest in, I tell them to come up with an alternate proposal. “Think of something you would be more interested in doing,” I tell them, “and draft a proposal.” I suggest that it would need to meet the objectives of the assignment and that it would need to involve at least as much work. What teacher wouldn’t want to encourage a student motivated enough to do that? Not one student has ever taken me up on the idea. Do they not believe it viable, or do they just want to get done with the requirements as quickly as possible? Where is their sense of being the director of their own learning? Has it been schooled out of them?

Enter the Empowered Learner standard! It turns out that there is a boat load of research showing that students are more engaged and motivated when they have a sense of control over their learning and when the learning is connected to their interests. Are you thinking what I am thinking? Duh? It’s human nature! We care more and are more invested when we have a sense of ownership.

From a theoretical perspective, this is supported by the self-determination theory of motivation advanced by Deci and Ryan (1985, 2001, 2002; Ryan & Deci, 2000, 2009, 2013). This theory states that if students can be supported in meeting their basic needs for competency, autonomy and relatedness in learning situations, they are more likely to develop into independent, self-directed and lifelong learners. Furthermore, extensive research on Deci and Ryan’s theory has shown that under specific conditions, autonomy-supportive settings in the classroom have positive effects on self-regulated learning and motivation. Autonomy supportive classrooms are those in which students see their perspectives valued, have opportunities to share their thoughts and feelings, and are encouraged to make choices and exercise initiative in learning activities.

— Barbara McCombs “Developing Responsible and Autonomous Learners: A Key to Motivating Students”, APA.

While investigating the importance of student agency to motivation in learning can be inspiring, it is another matter to translate this into what takes place in the classroom as well as in the school and how teachers, school librarians, technology integrators, and others in the school environment can support it. What can we do?

1. Our department has taken the first step in identifying student agency as important to student motivation and we are learning more about the research behind it.
2. The next step involves searching for bastions of student agency within our schools and classrooms and finding out more information. What is going on? How does it work? What are the successes and challenges? How is it assessed? What are future plans? Fortunately, there are many examples right in the Greater Madison Writing Project!
3. The third step is to determine our role in enhancing student agency in what we do and to support it where ever possible. We can look at what we are already doing to empower students and consider changes that could be made. This will entail some self-reflection in addition to collaborative work as a department team and with colleagues in our schools. We may benefit from observations in classrooms and even site visits to other schools.

It begins with the students themselves and a belief in the ability of each student to be the best agent of his or her own learning.