Minutes of our initial workshop, facilitated by Rosemary Hipkins, in which we worked to define a meaningful means of assessing student agency.

What agency means to you – ideas emerging from small group discussion:

Having control over what you do – choice and autonomy
Do you need information to have agency?
Agency is when you choose to engage. Can you have agency in what someone else does for you?
Need to avoid the binary between agency as something an individual has irrespective of context. Instead agency is about the individual and the environment
Controlled, consciously directed actions towards some educational aim and the buy in of the student into this
Sense of purposefulness
Agency requires buy in from everyone. It is not just reliant on the student
Young are children capable of being highly agentic but it depends on how it is supported [by the teacher / other supports]
Interplay between the person we want to be agentic and the context in which we want them to exercise that agency

Chris and Renee – why agency as a framework for their project

Came to agency as one of two measures to be used to evaluate micro-credentials because they considered that the use of micro-credentials are probably creating a structure that supports agency, and that agency will lead to strong outcomes for students based on goals and ethos of school.
The second measure being used in the evaluation is student achievement
Important that there is recognition that agency does not have a universal, static definition. Question whether a single, static definition of agency is desirable in education.
Need to understand the pitfalls of studying something as ideological as agency
‘What if, by ensuring all students have increased levels of agency, we end up with chaos?’ What are/or may be the unintended consequences of agency?

Rose Hipkins – background to the work NZCER has done on agency

Many CoLs focused on agency at the beginning and there were no good, easily accessible measures for measuring agency.
Many pitfalls associated with student perception surveys (e.g. Me and My Class, which was very susceptible to context).
The current survey tool (which is still under development) is sitting in a liminal space; it is used by some CoLs but NZCER not sure of what the next steps will or should be
NZCER is donating the IP of the survey items to be developed into a rubric/protocol of observable behaviours
Concept of enabling constraints. When we want to do something complex and want to give people some choice. However, if too wide or open a choice would lead to inaction, then it is necessary to put a framework around it that enables people to move forward. It is the intent that the NZCER will operate as an enabling constraint, allow participants to dig into the complexities of agency and to make an informed choice about what to focus in on.

Ideas raised about the NZCER survey items

‘I like to do my best work’ – changed the word best (it’s about wanting to do better and wanting to improve). It’s not about the end product but about the process.
‘When the teacher is busy I still get on with my work’ got no votes. Resistance to notion of appearing busy. Edited to ‘can maintain my focus’. Too performative and doesn’t get to heart of what we are looking for.
‘I get to share my ideas and questions with teachers’ – it’s about having the opportunity to share ideas and receive feedback. Teachers having agency of being available to students. Teachers’ drive to provide opportunities to empower students.
Balance between expectations for children and opportunities teachers are framing in the space for them to do it. Rose Hipkins questions, should the evaluation of opportunity be separate from the indicators?
Rose Hipkins asks: when looking for indicators that would help us to ‘see’ agency in the classroom, for some, the opportunity [provided by the teacher] and student agency/action need to be there. E.g. ‘I know how to plan next steps in my learning’ and ‘I get to work with classmates to help each other do our best work’.

Selected indicators to take through to the next round

One

I get to share my ideas and questions with teachers

I get to ask questions so I can find out more

Two

I learn from what doesn’t work

I know how to plan the next steps in my learning

Three

I get to work with classmates to help each other do our best work

Four

I like working out solutions to challenging issues or problems

I try to do all my work even when it’s hard

I like to do my best work/I like improve work

Feedback from groups: Long list of observable behaviours / indicators

Indicators

A student can tell you what they’ve tried before they ask for help
Voluntarily go further than the basics or what you have discussed in class
Students incorporate feedback into future tasks / learning that they undertake
The Student asks thoughtful questions
The student shows that they have listened
Authentic feedback and feed-forward (observant)
Active communication – verbal or written
Meaningful contribution
A student can explain why something was not successful in their learning
A student can explain why something was not successful in their learning – articulate and identify through a variety of means
Student then articulates what next steps will be (and do it)
Students try again (in a different way)

There is a caveat around these indicators that the opportunity is there for students.

Short list of three indicators

Some parting thoughts

It is hoped that the implementation of micro-credentials will naturally support students to develop these things/behaviours. It is about the impact of the micro credentials on students’ learning and agency.
Questions raised about the use of the term agency and the importance of language/names. Further questioning of the overtly positive implications of agency in the educational context.
The process of creating credentials is about defining what we want to see and then building up the credentials to match that.
Acknowledgement and respect for the fact that the project takes time.
The process to develop the rubrics/protocols will be on going
The resources and structure are now in place for teachers to start developing and using micro-credentials.

Next steps

Immediate next step is to utilise the three criteria/indicators above and to create some protocols.

A Measure of Student Agency

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