Student Agency: Who is the Tour Guide?

By Maureen Cohen, Assistant Superintendent, Mendon-Upton Regional School District

Student agency was at the center of our December 2017 conversation for the Inspired Learning Project.  Each month we tackle a core characteristic and pillar of inspired learning to help build our capacities as educators to continue to grow and move our practice.  ​

In this capacity building, we developed a shared understanding of what we felt were key characteristics of student agency through the lens of how we view an entrepreneur.  The group came up with the following characteristics of an entrepreneur:
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self-manager, self-starter, visionary, productive problem seeker and solver, independent, innovative, reflective, creative, confident, innovative, curious, collaborative, turns challenges into opportunities, brave, desires feedback, forward thinker, has focus, self-evaluator

As we expanded our thoughts on the characteristics of an entrepreneur, we moved into a discussion about student agency and how student agency is more than just giving students choice.   The group felt that agency is about deeper learning opportunities and personalization.     The conversation really took off when we discussed Spencer’s metaphor in his book of a teacher being a tour guide who brings you through a tour.  We pondered, who should be the tour guide, the teacher or the students?

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One participant stated, “The problem in schools is that we tell them they are going to Paris, or Rome, but they have no choice over where they are going in their learning.  When students have the agency to choose their own tour, that is really important for fostering student agency.”

Getting Actionable

We ended the highly engaging conversation with some actionable approaches to add more agency into what we are doing.  Here are a couple of examples provided:

1. Replace summative exams with “what can you create to show me that this information is meaningful to you?”
2. Create an “I wonder…” wall in your classroom for students to express their curiosity
3. Give your students the standards, ask them to determine their own focus areas, and have them reflect/report on their progress
4. Replace traditional assessment with the opportunity for students to present their work to an authentic audience by inviting parents, community members, or professionals into your classroom.

We hope you join us in our next conversation this Thursday, January 11th at 8PM as we tackle the concept of building authentic learning opportunities for our students.