Presentation to the Upper Hutt Education Cluster on 21 October, 2016. Explains what learner agency is about, with references to developing a participatory culture and student voice. Contains material relating to collaboration and clustering at the end

1. Learner Agency
Derek Wenmoth
CORE Education
Upper Hutt Education Cluster
21 October, 2016

2. Customer
• Materialis.c concept of
life
• Consumer of a large range
of goods and services as
defined by someone else
• Always searching for the
‘perfect brand’

3. Pilgrim
• Allegory of a man making his
way through his troubled life
• Grows stronger with every
obstacle he learns to
overcome
• Thinker, taking responsibility
for his own ac.ons, willing to
accept responsibility for
working for the common
good

4. Overview
• ShiEing the ownership of learning.
• Student expecta.ons
• What is learner agency?
• Agency and student voice
• Par.cipatory Culture
• What does it look like in a school?
@dwenmoth

5. Student expecta.ons
Washor, E and Mohkowski, C (2013) Leaving to learn
Do my teachers really know about
me and my interests and talents?
Do I find what the school is
teaching relevant to my interests?
Do I have opportuni.es to apply what I am
learning in real world seUngs and contexts?
Do I feel appropriately challenged
in my learning?
Can I pursue my learning out
of the standard sequence?
Do I have sufficient .me to
learn at my own pace?
Do I have real choice about
what, where and how I learn?
Do I have opportuni.es to
explore and make mistakes?
Do I have opportuni.es to engage deeply in my
learning and to prac.ce the skills I need to learn?

6. • Strong support for crea.ng and sharing
• Some type of informal mentorship
• Members believe that their contribu.ons
maXer
• Members feel some degree of social
connec.on with one another
• Rela.vely low barriers to ar.s.c
expression and civic engagement
Par.cipatory culture…
“Not every member must contribute, but all must believe they are free to contribute when
ready, and that what they contribute will be appropriately valued.”

7. Essen.al skills for the par.cipatory culture
Play the capacity to experiment with one’s surroundings as a form of
problem-solving
Performance the ability to adopt alterna.ve iden..es for the purpose of improvisa.on
and discovery
Simula0on the ability to interpret and construct dynamic models of real-world
processes
Appropria0on the ability to meaningfully sample and remix media content
Mul0tasking the ability to scan one’s environment and shiE focus as needed to salient
details.
Distributed cogni0on the ability to interact meaningfully with tools that expand mental
capaci.es
hXps://mitpress.mit.edu/sites/default/files/.tles/free_download/
9780262513623_Confron.ng_the_Challenges.pdf

8. Essen.al skills for the par.cipatory culture
Collec0ve
Intelligence
The ability to pool knowledge and compare notes with others toward a
common goal
Judgment The ability to evaluate the reliability and credibility of different informa.on
sources
Transmedia
Naviga0on
The ability to follow the flow of stories and informa.on across mul.ple
modali.es
Networking The ability to search for, synthesize, and disseminate informa.on
Nego0a0on The ability to travel across diverse communi.es, discerning and respec.ng
mul.ple perspec.ves, and grasping and following alterna.ve norms
hXps://mitpress.mit.edu/sites/default/files/.tles/free_download/
9780262513623_Confron.ng_the_Challenges.pdf

9. Student Voice
• One of the most powerful tools available to influence academic
achievement is helping students feel they have a stake in their
learning.
• To feel mo.vated to do something and become engaged in its
ac.vity, youth (like adults) generally need to feel they have a voice
in how it is conducted and an impact on how it concludes.
• Time and again, research has shown that the more educators give
their students choice, control, challenge, and opportuni.es for
collabora.on, the more their mo.va.on and engagement are likely
to rise.
hXp://bit.ly/2ecZTh0

10. hXp://bit.ly/2ecZTh0

11. Agency
• “The power to act”
• “Sense of ownership”
• “Execu.ng and controlling
one’s own ac.ons”
• “Self-efficacy”
• “Personalisa.on”

12. • Self directed learning
• Un-tethered to tradi.onal ins.tu.on
• Expert at personal data aggrega.on
• Power of connec.ons
• Crea.ng new communi.es
• Not tethered to physical networks
• Experien.al learning
• Content developers
• Process as important as knowledge gained
Free agent characteris.cs
hXp://teachthinktech.learningconnec.ve.org/post/1656186536/free-agent-learners

13. Three dimensions of agency
• Self - involves the ini.a.ve or self-regula.on of the learner
• Others - is interdependent. It mediates and is mediated by the
sociocultural context of the classroom.
• Environment - includes an awareness of the responsibility of ones
own ac.ons on the environment and on others.
hXp://bit.ly/2eUq1AI

15. • Which of these
statements reflect your
current state?
• Are there different things
you could write in here
that beXer describe your
school’s approach?

16. • Compare what you wrote in column
two with what is described in
column three.
• In column four, list some specific
steps you could take to increase the
level of learner agency in your class
or school.

17. … we must rethink what we expect of our students.
We must stop underes.ma.ng what they are now capable of;
and above all…set much higher expecta.ons.
.

18. • Open
• Distributed
• Scalable
• Social
• Genera.ve
• Networked
• Self-organised
• Adap.ve
• Global
An educa.on system that fails to emulate the characteris.cs of informa.on in
an era of knowledge is doomed to fail. Informa.on today is…
George Siemens: Connec.vism – a theory of learning for the networked age
hXp://www.connec.vism.ca/

19. Research findings
• Networked Learning Communi.es are Complex
• Networked Learning Communi.es Can Influence Learning
• Changing Thinking and Prac.ce is the Key
• Schools are the Locus of Change in Thinking and Prac.ce
• Rela.onships And Collabora.on Are Beginnings… Not Ends In
Themselves
• School And Network Foci Need To Be Right, Shared And
Understood
• Schools’ Strength Of Engagement In The Network Is Important
• Collabora.ve Inquiry Is An Important New Skill
• Distributed Leadership Is Important In Schools And Network

20. Four Forms behind the organisa.on and evolu.on of all socie.es
- TMIN
History
7000 BC 3000 AD
David Ronfeldt TIMN (Tribal, Ins.tu.onal, Market, Network)

21. Leadership models
hXp://bit.ly/2dpP4d5

22. Moral Purpose
“Moral purpose is our social responsibility to others and
the environment…
School leaders with moral purpose seek to make a
difference in the lives of students. They are concerned
about closing the gap…
They act with inten.on of making a posi.ve difference in
their own schools as well as improving the environment
in other local schools…
Sustained improvement of schools is not possible unless
the whole system is moving forward.” Michael Fullan

23. Thank You
derek.wenmoth@core-ed.org
@dwenmoth
hXp://www.wenmoth.net