An Afternoon of learning at Core Education Mt Eden: ‘ Strategies to Develop Learner Agency’.

ISL’s  from  ACCoS  worked with a group of 25 teachers, from across the motu, to review concepts and deepen understandings about Learner Agency.  Having a room with teachers, teaching from year 1 – year 13 and with an equally broad range of experiences with Learner Agency provided a rich base of resources and experience for the session.  Natalie O’Connor from Core Education harnessed this range of expertise and developed the session effectively to address the questions and focuses identified by the participants. 

   

Having looked briefly at the Core Education report in a previous  ACCoS meeting, this was an opportunity to examine the conditions which support agentic learning in classes across all age groups.  As with many inquiries, this raised as many questions for consideration and investigation as it did answers.   

The second part of the session provided the opportunity to dive deeper into one of the conditions that was pertinent for our personal and/or school learning journey.  The opportunity to discuss, share knowledge and collate ideas with teachers, provided insights into the range of conditions, actions and influences that can support Learner Agency in our settings.

Some of the key ideas for further reflection that were drawn for this are;

How do we develop a culture where the children understand that their choices matter?

How do we plan with emphasis on the Key Competencies alongside Learning Competencies?

How do we ensure that assessment practices are inclusive and informative for students, teachers and whanau?

How do we create conditions where learners are comfortable failing and innovating, collaborating and reflecting so that they ‘own their learning”?

The quote that “Learners need to learn how to learn” (Bull, 2009),  however ‘Teachers do not create learning, Learners create learning and it is the teachers who create the conditions’ (William, 2006), was at the core of the learning. 

We left the workshop with an increased level of clarity, aspects of agency to inquire further into and some rich resources that had been compiled by teachers for teachers.

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.   

Nā tō rourou, nā taku rourou, ka ora ai te iwi.