Giving Compass' Take:

• Marie Bjerede, writing for Getting Smart, suggests that to foster agency in students, the educator must shift classroom focus from teacher-centered to student-centered by using various learning styles. 

• How would design learning contribute to a student-centric classroom?

• Read about how structure can help to foster student agency. 

Students with agency are not responsible in the sense that they have embraced the agenda of the adults and comply with it, rather they are reliable and cooperative in pursuing their learning. Like “good students” they pay attention in class, but they are more likely to contribute unique perspectives to the conversation. They do their homework without being reminded but are more likely to continue to explore the topic beyond what they expect to get credit for – just for the sake of learning.

Why can’t every student be one with agency?

The good news is they can. The bad news is, it requires not only extremely hard work but a deep change in mental models on the part of the teacher.

The teacher must make a mental shift from seeing students as needing to be controlled and micromanaged to needing to be trusted and given more autonomy.

The techniques for shifting good students toward agency are the same as those for engaging the disengaged. They are the agentic approaches designed to shift classrooms from being teacher-centered to student-centered such as Project Based Learning, Inquiry, Design Thinking, and more.

Read the full article on agency in students by Marie Bjerede at Getting Smart.