{"id":6678,"date":"2015-10-29T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-10-29T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/blog\/cw_post\/learner-agency-the-missing-link\/"},"modified":"2020-02-05T12:56:15","modified_gmt":"2020-02-05T17:56:15","slug":"learner-agency-the-missing-link","status":"publish","type":"cw_post","link":"https:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/cw_post\/learner-agency-the-missing-link\/","title":{"rendered":"Learner Agency: The Missing Link"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-11909 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Student-Control-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"Student Control\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" \/>This post originally appeared at <a href=\"https:\/\/cesa1transformation.wordpress.com\/2015\/09\/14\/learner-agency-the-missing-link\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Institute for Personalized Learning<\/a> on September 14, 2015.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><b>Defining Learner Agency<br \/>\n<\/b>Learner agency often gets missed in conversations on transforming the educational system. We have a sense of \u2018agency\u2019 when we feel in control of things that happen around us; when we feel that we can influence events. This is an important sense for learners to develop. Learners must understand:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>when they need new learning and how to learn what they need<\/li>\n<li>when they need to unlearn what will no longer serve them<\/li>\n<li>when they need to relearn what they need to be successful<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>They must develop the capacity to engage strategically in their learning without waiting to be directed. They must take ownership of and responsibility for their learning. And, they must possess the skills to learn independently, without heavy dependence on external structures and direction.<\/p>\n<p><b>Why Learner Agency is Needed<br \/>\n<\/b>There is a significant and growing demand for learners to be able to do more than receive instruction, follow a learning path designed by educators and complete problems and assignments presented to them by an adult. Learners need to develop the capacity to shape and manage their learning without over-reliance on the direction and control of others. Too often adults treat children as though they are incapable of making decisions or holding valid opinions. As children advance through the system, they develop a form of \u201clearned helplessness\u201d that keeps them from advocating for themselves. The process for learning and the role learners play must be different than most adults experienced.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Harvard professor Roland Barth has observed that in the 1950s when young people left high school they typically knew about 75% of what they would need to know to be successful in life. Today, he predicts that young people know about 2% of what they will need to know. (Barth, R.S. (1997, March 5). The leader as learner. <i>Education Week,<\/i> 16(23). 56.) This shift is not because young people are learning less than previous generations. In fact, there is good evidence that they know much more. The force behind this change is the rapid and ever-increasing pace of change, the complexity of the world in which we live and the unpredictability of what people will need to know in the coming decades \u2013 the future for which we are preparing today\u2019s learners.<\/p>\n<p><b>Implications of Greater Learner Agency<br \/>\n<\/b>The current educational system was designed for teachers to control and manage the learning. This continues today because teachers are the ones held accountable and responsible for the learning instead of the learners. As educators, we must nurture, coach and build in learners more capacity to initiate, manage, and maintain their own learning. Learning will be a constant and high-priority activity throughout their lives and they will need the skills and tools to manage this process.<\/p>\n<p>Adults need to shift their thinking \u2014 away from youth as student to youth as learner and <i>partner and resource<\/i>for their own learning and others. We must make the crucial shift from preparing proficient students to developing skilled learners. The result will be learners who are capable of playing an active role in personalizing their learning and building their capacity to be successful productive citizens regardless of what their futures hold.<\/p>\n<p>In a series of upcoming blogs we will examine a number of key shifts and strategies necessary to transform the educational experiences we have presented to learners in the past and align the focus, strategies and approaches we employ to build the capacity of learners to be continuous, life-long, successful leaders of their learning. We will present shifts and strategies on:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>understanding the connection between good strategy, effort and use of resources to develop <b>learner efficacy<\/b><\/li>\n<li>helping <b>learners understand how they learn best<\/b> and how they can support their learning<\/li>\n<li>the role and importance of <b>learner voice and choice<\/b><\/li>\n<li>building <b>learner ownership<\/b> of their learning<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>This was posted as a collaborative blog series by the Institute for Personalized Learning and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.personalizelearning.com\/p\/about.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Personalize Learning LLC<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>See also:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.competencyworks.org\/analysis\/mindsets-and-student-agency\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"bookmark noopener noreferrer\">Mindsets and Student Agency<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.competencyworks.org\/resources\/two-sides-of-the-same-coin-competency-based-education-and-student-learning-objectives\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"bookmark noopener noreferrer\">Two Sides of the Same Coin: Competency-Based Education and Student Learning Objectives<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.competencyworks.org\/case-study\/finland-offers-lessons-for-building-student-teacher-agency\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"bookmark noopener noreferrer\">Finland Offers Lessons for Building Student, Teacher Agency<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","mapsvg_location":""},"legacy_category":[106],"issue":[368,399],"location":[86],"class_list":["post-6678","cw_post","type-cw_post","status-publish","hentry","legacy_category-resource","issue-issues-in-practice","issue-activate-student-agency","location-wisconsin"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Learner Agency: The Missing Link - Aurora Institute<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/cw_post\/learner-agency-the-missing-link\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Learner Agency: The Missing Link - Aurora Institute\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This post originally appeared at The Institute for Personalized Learning on September 14, 2015. 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