Choice and voice鈥攖hese have become buzzwords in the drive to give students more control over their education.
Research shows that giving students agency over their learning and . Students also do better in their post-secondary pursuits because they know how to direct their own learning.
But it鈥檚 not enough to up and decide one day to let students take the wheel in the classroom without first laying the foundation, said Lauren Boucher, a digital teaching and learning consultant for the North Carolina education department and a former classroom teacher. Presenting at the , she said choice alone is not agency, it鈥檚 a strategy to help students develop agency.
鈥淗ow many of you have you said, 鈥榟ere is your rubric, go forth and learn?,鈥欌�� she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a disaster. We have to teach students how to have autonomy, we have to teach self-regulation skills, organization skills, time-management skills, before we can release them to just go do.鈥�
Giving students the reins over their learning can sound daunting, said Boucher, so she recommends starting small鈥攍ooking for the quick wins and little tweaks teachers can make to their curriculum and assignments now to give students more choice and control.
鈥淎s a teacher, letting go of that power is very difficult,鈥� said Boucher, 鈥渂ecause who is ultimately responsible to those test scores at the end of the year? That鈥檚 attached to your name.鈥�
One way to do this is to examine students鈥� roles in each assignment and where that role would sit on a continuum of choice with teacher-centered assignments on one end and learner-driven assignments on the other. (This chart has in classroom activities.)
Not every assignment has to be at the learner-driven end of the continuum. That would not be sustainable for teachers, said Boucher, but assignments and class activities should sample from across the spectrum.
If teachers find that their assignments are clustered on the teacher-centered end of the spectrum, here are six strategies Boucher recommends trying to introduce more student agency into their classrooms:
1. Set clear expectations.
Giving students autonomy doesn鈥檛 mean they don鈥檛 need direction. 鈥淵ou simply can鈥檛 let your students go,鈥� said Boucher. 鈥淭here have to be some guidelines and rules and expectations.鈥�
2. Explain the why.
Make sure students understand why they鈥檙e learning what they鈥檙e learning. Saying, 鈥渂ecause it鈥檚 on the test鈥� is the wrong answer, said Boucher. Some students are compliant and don鈥檛 question the why, but there are also many students who won鈥檛 do the hard work if they don鈥檛 see a reason for the assignment or lesson. 鈥淗ave students read through the standards themselves,鈥� she said. Then, 鈥渉ave your students tell you where they see themselves in the standards.鈥�
3. Build community.
Part of giving students agency is allowing them to express their thoughts and opinions. So, it鈥檚 important for teachers to create a classroom environment where students treat one another respectfully. Asking students to use sentence starters鈥攔egular openers such as 鈥淚 respectfully disagree because鈥︹�� or 鈥淚 wish I had learned鈥︹�� and be aware of their own tone and body language is a good place to start, said Boucher. Although sentence starters are often used in elementary school, she said they are just as useful in the secondary grades.
4. Utilize formative conversations.
After giving students tools to engaging respectfully, teachers can dig into the deep conversations. Developing students鈥� agency starts with developing their critical thinking skills, said Boucher. In practice, that means trying to avoid asking yes/no questions in favor of more open-ended ones. 鈥淎nd when a student answers a question correctly, what if you followed it up with, 鈥榶es, that鈥檚 great, and?鈥� and then you stop talking?鈥� Boucher said. 鈥淚 love 鈥榶es, and?鈥� And silence is very uncomfortable for everybody in the room so eventually somebody will add to the conversation.鈥�
5. Assign problem-based learning projects.
Not to be confused with project-based learning, problem-based learning is where students must solve an actual real-world problem. This is a great way to show students why what they鈥檙e learning and doing in the classroom matters鈥攂ecause the skills or knowledge they are learning can help them solve a real-world problem.
6. Skip grading every now and again.
Feedback is critical to student agency, Boucher said. 鈥淚f we鈥檙e not providing good, actionable feedback to our students, we can provide all the choice in the world, but they鈥檙e going to be stuck.鈥� She recommends holding off on grading assignments and trying a feedback loop鈥攚here a student turns in their schoolwork and the teacher gives feedback and allows the student to rework the assignment. The teacher can then decide to stop the loop there or continue for a few more rounds of feedback and revision. Boucher recommends not attempting feedback loops with every student on every assignment and instead staggering them.
鈥淢y goal would be to do a feedback loop with each student within a marking period,鈥� she said. 鈥淛ust so that they have that engagement at some point at time.鈥�
