Learner Agency – a practical school based approach
Learner Agency is fast becoming the latest educational buzzword. It is appearing in educational policy documents around the world, including the New Zealand Key Competencies.
But what is “Learner Agency”? Why should school leaders care? How do we support teachers to increase Learner Agency in students, and what tools can we use to guide and measure the impact of our work?
It is important for school leaders to understand that agency is not something we can simply give to students. Learner Agency is a capability that needs to be developed by, and within, the learner. Ultimately, learners must carry and continually build their agency throughout their life. And in order to do that, we need a clear school based definition and a set of practical tools and strategies to enable teachers to work meaningfully with these ideas.
To help school leaders successfully navigate Learner Agency and ensure teachers have a clear guide to develop it, this workshop will be based on this definition: “Learner Agency is the degree to which an individual is able to take initiative to meaningfully influence their world, particularly in the face of challenges. It involves three interrelated and equally important elements: the environment to act, the will to act and the power to act.” James Anderson
In this workshop I show teachers and school leaders how to develop an environment to act, the will to act, and the power to act in order to develop true agency in their learners. You’ll be given practical tools to develop Growth Mindsets and introduced to the concept of Learnership as a means to empower learner agency.
I invite you to download your copy of Learner Agency – A Guide for School Leaders to find out more about this important concept.
