What indicators teach us about Learner Agency

What indicators teach us about Learner Agency - Derek's Blog
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Key points for me:

What is meant by the term ‘learner agency’?  
Used interchangeably with terms such as ‘personalisation’, ‘learner-centred’, ‘self-regulated’, ‘self-managing’ and ‘individualised’ his term has become somewhat popular among educators in recent times. It’s a reflection of the philosophical shift within education from being primarily about ‘delivering’ an education (in the form of a set curriculum based on pre-determined bodies of knowledge etc.) to a focus on learning that takes account of the differences in learner abilities and dispositions, and where the learner is a more active participant in the learning process (as distinct from being simply the ‘receiver’ at the end of the delivery channel).

There is a growing tension emerging in discussions around learner agency. One the one hand, we’re working hard to build the confidence and competence of individual learners through personalised/individualised programmes of instruction – firstly establishing their competence and and then giving them permission to ‘drive their own car of learning’ on the road to greater knowledge etc. 

On the other, we’ve embraced the importance of collaboration as a key competency in our increasingly complex and changing world and build programmes designed to foster collaborative learning and collaborative outcomes – recognising that we are travelling together on this road to greater knowledge/wisdom etc.

The OECD defines learner agency as “the capacity to behave as purposeful, reflective, responsible social beings, actively seeking to achieve goals that have been understood and endorsed.” 

This definition aligns the two dimensions of the tension outlined in the previous paragraph very well. For the individual there is the need to develop the skills, knowledge and dispositions to be able to operate effectively in such an environment – but then comes the responsibility to recognised the existence of others in this milieu.

The three dimensions of agency that build the complete picture:
Responsibility to Self – involves the initiative or self-regulation of the learner
Responsibility to Others –  is interdependent. It mediates and is mediated by the sociocultural context of the classroom.
Responsibility to our Environment – includes an awareness of the responsibility of ones own actions on the environment shared with others.
While these words sound good (and even obvious) when read like this, we need to understand that, in our Western culture at least, we are, by nature, very individualistic in the way we operate .

As we make learner agency a focus of our programmes in schools and classrooms, we need to understand that this shift from ‘compliance’ to ‘agency’ doesn’t mean we are abandoning rules altogether

Look beyond the narrow definitions of ‘choice and voice’
“the capacity to behave as purposeful, reflective, responsible social beings, actively seeking to achieve goals that have been understood and endorsed.”