Developing Agency

Jessica Robinson - St Mark's Catholic School

Inquiry Question
How can learner agency increase motivation and engagement in disengaged learners?

Intervention
Take a weekly pilot group with the purpose of increasing student academic motivation. This will be completed through the implementation of a wider variety of co-constructed learning tasks that stimulate student interest. 

Phase One

Students designed a project that linked their interests with an area of schooling they struggled in. Students had complete freedom with what they would produce, some selected to make resources, other games and videos.

End of Term Summary

After a term of student lead project work, I took time to reflect on the project so far. The children were all demonstrating a positive attitude towards being involved in the group. They were proud of the success they had achieved in completing their projects and were excited that the group would be continuing next term. 

However as a teacher I knew that the model I has been working with was not a realistic model within a regular classroom. Supporting 7 individual projects with children aged 9-10 is incredibly time consuming let alone if this was done with a full class of 30. The need for a high level of scaffolding also makes this an unusable model within a classroom.

Due to this I decided to enter a second phase of learning in Term 3, where as a teacher, I took the projects completed by students in the previous term and used it for inspiration for an independent choosing task board. Children can self select which of the tasks they wish to complete each week.

Phase Two

Students complete lessons each week where they get to select activities and task that appeal to them from a choice board (The choice board tasks are based of the projects students designed last term).

Strategy 1:  Mastery Experience

The experience of repeated success or mastery experiences in learning related tasks is the most important source of a student's self-efficacy beliefs.

A key strategy to facilitate  mastery experiences is the use of scaffolding.

Scaffolding includes teaching concepts progressively (precept upon precept); deconstructing learning into smaller achievable steps; and giving adequate time to master each step.

Each step also needs to ensure an optimal level of challenge which requires a corresponding amount of effort.

Strategy 2:  Peer Modelling

The second most important way of boosting a student's self-efficacy is through vicarious experience (cf. Winne & Hadwin, 2010).

Peer modelling is when students observe, hear or read about peers successfully doing the same task that they are asked to complete.

The best peer models are those that make errors at first and express doubt about their self-efficacy (coping models). Teachers can use coping models by guiding a student to successfully complete a task while others observe.

The model can then be asked about how they overcame failure and developed mastery.

Strategy 3:  Effort Attribution

Effort attribution is important because when students associate effort with success they tend to try harder which in turn boosts their sense of control.

Teachers can reinforce this association by deliberately praising their students' effort, not talent or ability, or their choice of learning strategies.

Another strategy is to provide frequent positive feedback which emphasises progress and next steps.

Teachers can also use verbal persuasion to encourage their students to do their own best work consistently and not to compare their work to others.

Strategy 4:  Cooperative Culture

Classrooms that emphasise cooperation and a sense that 'everyone can achieve the learning goals' are much more supportive of self-efficacy than classrooms which emphasise competition where only a limited number of students will earn good grades.

Teachers can foster a cooperative classroom culture by positioning learning as a 'team sport' where all students work together to conquer a learning challenge. This culture is advanced further by encouraging students to build on each other's responses to help each other achieve multiple solutions to problems.

Strategy 1:  Intrinsic Value

Enjoyment of learning

A student's intrinsic enjoyment of the task (Davis, 2018).

Note: Also known as Interest or Curiosity

• Implement use of high interest tasks

Make lessons stimulating and relevant while knowing that some students may hide their interest. 

Teachers can increase curiosity by knowing their students’ interests. Here’s the formula: understand your students interests; provide them with choices; and then give them some high challenge tasks. 

Let them collaborate with others of the same interest (Davis, 2018).

Strategy 2:  Attainment Value

Sense of Achievement

A student's sense of achievement that is experienced when they are able to complete a task successfully (Davis, 2018).

• Provide opportunities to boost dopamine levels via introducing physical breaks and a high praise environment.

“Low levels of dopamine make people and other animals less likely to work for things, so it has more to do with motivation and cost/benefit analyses than pleasure itself.” John Salamone

So, saying that dopamine causes pleasure is an oversimplified view. Dopamine actually does the bulk of its work before you feel that satisfaction. It’s the motivation neurotransmitter.

That can obviously have major implications for your productivity. If you can hack your dopamine levels, then you can trick your brain into seeking a pleasurable experience (like crossing something off your to-do list) and use neuroscience to get more done.

Strategy 3:  Utility Value

Perceived Usefulness

A student's belief about how useful something will be when they have successfully learned it (Schunk et al., 2014)

• Explain the transfer

Plan lessons which help students to understand the purpose and benefits of what they are learning (Pressley, 2006). 

Relating the learning to ‘real life’ gives context to the relevance of the learning and increases student motivation. 

Also, when students see a connection between academic tasks and their own future goals, students are more likely to expend persistent effort and exhibit academic behaviors that support school success (Farrington et al., 2012). 

Phase One

Phase Two