How can we boost our students' learner agency?

Other than understanding agency, the key purpose of this workstream is to foster increased levels of learner agency in our students. 

One way of approaching this is to develop a framework or working model to display an array of widely recognised agency related factors (ARFs). The idea is that each of these ARFs (ie. self-concept) is outlined in a page on this site which includes: 

• • a research based explanation of the factor, 

  • a biblical connection, 

  • a set of proposed agency boosters and 

  • a set of validated surveys. 

Please note that these pages will be published over the 2021 year as per timeline. (Survey measures are available on the Tracking Agency page).

Please refer to the below for more about the developing Learner Agency Model or navigate to the the specific ARF pages under the Boosting Agency menu.

There are two main things to note about this model. Firstly, the model shows how non-cognitive factors (M, P, S and B) when combined with academic content (A) is believed to result in elevated academic achievement and wellbeing in our students. 

Secondly, the model is designed to help conceptualise learner agency by grouping recognised agency related factors into the four main non-cognitive factor (M, P, S and B) categories: academic mindsets, academic perseverance, learning strategies and learning behaviours. 

Please note that the NCFs are represented by the solid circles (the final two circles have not been shaded because they are not the focus of our project) and the ARFs are listed in the blurbs below the circles. 

Researchers sometimes refer to the non academic aspects of whole child education as social and emotional learning, attitudes and mindsets, dispositions, character and even ‘learning to learn’.  An overarching and emerging term however seems to be ‘non cognitive factors’. The term is actually a misnomer because cognition is obviously central in all human behaviour and so when referring to NCFs they are best thought of as the factors which are not measured on academic tests. More recently there has been work which suggests that the NCFs are related to the construct of learner agency. 

For the purposes of our model, the non cognitive factors serve as a set of broad components or kete which hold and organise our capability to foster learner agency.

Our model displays four important NCFs in a linear progression. These are: academic motivation; academic perseverance; learning strategies and learning behaviours. These factors are to be interpreted as 'best fit' groupings which are distinct and yet deeply dependent on each other.  For example, both academic motivation and academic perseverance are both mindsets (student's attitudes towards and beliefs about themselves in relation to academic work). But in our model, motivation and perseverance are represented as distinctives because motivation is often seen to precede perseverance.

As mentioned above, learner agency is complex and is often conceptualised as a 'construct of constructs'. For this reason, agency cannot be measured as a single monolithic factor without breaking it down into recognised components because researchers believe that the components of the construct work together to form a learner's dynamic 'agentic system'. 

For this reason our model organises a set of well-known agency related  factors by the NCFs. Furthermore, each ARF represented in our model has been selected because it is able to be measured by a validated student survey. 

Currently the list of agency related factors stands at: self-concept, self-efficacy, self-relevancy (value), self-discipline (grit), self-control and self-regulation. We have also included a general measure for learning strategies and for learning behaviours. All our measures have been sourced from Panorama Education.

*Please note that this model is our Kahui Ako's starting point to conceptuliase learner agency by organising recognised components of agency by the non-cognitive factors proposed by Farrington et al. (2012). For the sake of clarity, the model attempts to illustrate NCFs and ARFs in a linear relationship. In reality the relationships are more complex. For example, the ARFs within the academic mindsets factor may link directly with B independent of P and S.  Also, S may feed directly into A. Please note that a fifth NCF 'Social Skills' has been omitted from the model to further reduce complexity.