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Ask a Researcher, a project from Digital Promise and the Harvard Graduate School of Education, offers evidence-based guidance on classroom dilemmas. We pair questions from educators across the country with answers from researchers and experts. Are you in need of insight for your own teaching challenge? You can submit your question here.

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Self-Efficacy Toolkit - Transforming Education

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Self-Efficacy is the belief in one’s ability to succeed in achieving an outcome or reaching a goal.
This belief, specific to a task or an area of knowledge or performance, shapes the behaviors and strategies that help one pursue their goal. High self-efficacy reflects confidence in the ability to ex…

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author: John Hattie, Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey, and Shirley Clarke

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author: Wade Antonio Colwell and Benjie Howard

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author: Stephanie Smith Budhai and Kristine Lewis Grant

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The "I" and "We" Skills Needed for Collective Student Efficacy - Corwin Connect

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Collective student efficacy starts with teaching effective social skills necessary for valuable, effective group work.

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Student Agency: Promoting Student Engagement - TeachHUB

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With remote learning still prevalent, finding ways to engage students remains a priority. Learn about promoting student engagement using student agency.

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It was my first trip after a year and a half of isolation, and my first time flying in the post-2020 era. I braved the tension at the airport and had an uneventful flight. I jumped in my rental car and was all set to trek to where I was staying, a rural address about two hours outside of the city. As I pulled away from the airport, I realized I had just one problem: I wasn't getting a cell signal, so GPS wasn't going to be any help.

Determined, I followed the big green road signs and made my way through traffic on a Sunday night. There were 14 lanes of cars and trucks, an ocean of tail lights with each pair going their unique way. Admittedly, it had been a while since I'd been on a trip like this without GPS. As I continued on, I was pretty sure I was heading to the right place, but not entirely certain. I had to trust myself, even as I got more and more frustrated by the gridlock around me. The route wasn't working for me, and I wanted options, but I chose to stay in the traffic jam-feeling powerless-because I wasn't sure if there were any alternate routes.

For too many students, this is what learning is like: a tedious slog on an unfamiliar path toward an unclear destination. Too often, we create situations where they don't have enough options or choice in how their own educational journeys go, leaving them in learning traffic that doesn't let them move as fast.

Agency is partially about having choice, and partially about knowing what to do with that choice. It's about developing and holding onto the sense that one can set achievable goals, persevere, solve problems, overcome obstacles, and find success. When we don't have agency, it leads to a lack of purpose, confusion, indecision, or feeling like there aren't any choices. On that Sunday night stuck in traffic in an unfamiliar city, I didn't have my phone to offer up options, or to lead me back if I went too far astray.

Agency is partially about having choice, and partially about knowing what to do with that choice.

When we shepherd students through curriculum without involving them-that is, when we act as learner managers instead of learner empowerers -we miss the opportunity to let them find their own way. When we act as road signs, we miss the chance to be their GPS. Student agency is critical to effective learning and one of the most important skills we can offer them on the road to adulthood.

What we get right

The good news is that teachers today are already doing a tremendous amount of work to support student agency and give their learners opportunities to "take an active role in shaping their future," as Larry Ferlazzo noted in a 2019 opinion piece in EdWeek. Consider how much has improved since we were in school! Teachers are now creating learning systems that are increasingly personalized for each student. They're leveraging rigorous content standards, adopting research-informed practices, and considering their students' social and emotional learning needs.

We see teachers having powerful goal-setting conversations with their students and using data to identify next steps together. We see them giving effective feedback to their learners that helps them better understand their own needs. We're shifting from thinking of learning as a thing that happens through statements to instead understanding it as a process that happens better through questions. Even in the pandemic era, we see teachers working within distance limitations to put their students in the driver's seat. Still: more must be done.

What do we mean by "student agency"?

If we're going to have a systemic effect on building and improving student agency, it's important to pause to define what we mean.

When we shepherd students through curriculum without involving them-that is, when we act as learner managers instead of learner empowerers-we miss the opportunity to let them find their own way.

Let's start with the idea that student agency is "giving children the power to act in their own learning." That means that we need to give students both the option to make choices to direct their own learning and the information they need to make strong choices. (The term "voice and choice" comes up a lot around student agency, and I'd update that to "voice and informed choice.")

The term "student agency" often overlaps with language around assessments because many of us use assessment data as a foundation to help build student voice and choice. John Hattie's work shows us that when students have agency and efficacy within their learning and understand their growth and mastery of academic content, they are assessment-capable learners. My colleague Erin Beard has written extensively about how we can leverage student agency to promote assessment empowerment here in Teach. Learn. Grow.

These are fantastic entry points to understanding student agency, and we must also position student agency as an idea that permeates all student learning interactions.

Getting started: 5 quick tips for building student agency

Creating student agency doesn't happen overnight, but there are simple practices you can adopt to refine your approach.

1. Set clear expectations for autonomy and how you'll check in with students. Teacher clarity is key, and it's easier for students to engage when they know what is and isn't going to work. For example, if you've got a reading program where students can pick their own books, let them know what choices they'll need to make and when you'll connect with them to be sure the book aligns with their needs.

2. Make sure students understand why they're learning what they're learning. "Because it's going to be on the test" is the wrong answer here! Consider how you're presenting big ideas in your lesson planning. Do your students know how it will connect to their daily lives? Are they clear on where the learning path is going?

3. Build community through culturally responsive practices. Consider your current learning unit. How are you connecting it to your students' cultures? By adapting culturally responsive teaching practices, you create an inclusive environment for learners that helps them connect with the material. One easy way to get started: bring a story problem from a school text to your students, and ask them which parts they relate to the most. Then, ask them: How can we rewrite this question so it makes more sense in our current context?

4. Use formative conversation starters to build student agency within content areas. Too often in mathematics classrooms, ELA classrooms, and other disciplines where the amount of content to cover and master is steep, we just push students to plow through the content. When we do this, we miss critical opportunities to engage and ignite a sense of open-ended possibility that is at the heart of the important content we teach. For example, developing a question-and-answer strategy in your classroom that is primarily used to reveal students' thinking about a topic or concept, with the purpose of guiding your next instructional moves, will help you and your students move agency and understanding forward dramatically.

5. Share what works for you with your colleagues. I can't stress this enough, and Hattie's meta-analyses couldn't be more clear: collective teacher efficacy is a game changer in learning. Said plainly, when we share our practice with our colleagues, when we calibrate and plan intentionally to maximize the impact of our lessons, units, and daily teaching practices, student growth and mastery move in big ways. This is even more critical when it comes to developing student agency; when we align-when we, as teachers, lean in together to set the conditions, practices, and protocols for student agency-students have a more coherent learning experience that reinforces the types of agency, efficacy, and empowerment that every student needs and deserves.

Where do we go from here?

Building student agency will be a lifelong endeavor for all of us, and the results are crucial and worthwhile. When we empower students to drive their own learning-when we show them the destinations, let them chart their own courses, and help them reroute on the way-they build their sense of self-efficacy. They develop not only the skills and knowledge required, but also the confidence from knowing they found success themselves.

If you're interested in learning more, I invite you to listen to the latest season of our podcast, The Continuing Educator. In each hour-long episode, we talk with teachers, school leaders, researchers, and other experts on the most pressing issues facing them today and how they're making powerful ideas like student agency real.

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How to build student agency in your classroom

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Student agency is critical to effective learning and one of the most important skills we can offer kids on the road to adulthood. Try these five things.

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How to Promote Student Agency with Classroom Structures | NGLC

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Learn how to promote student agency with classroom structures that provide a sense of autonomy & freedom. Give these four guiding principles a try in class.

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Let's have a look at these values in more detail in order to clarify what we mean when we talk about student agency.

Genuine decision making

Student agency is about having students take on some of the heavy lifting of learning. When students can have a genuine role in the decision-making process, this will create a classroom culture that values learning as an action. When I teach, I often ask myself, " Am I doing something my students could be doing themselves?" If the answer is yes, I de-centre myself so students can take on these responsibilities. The more I do this, the more comfortable and confident they become in taking on this agency over their learning. Learning becomes a partnership between the teacher and the student as we co-design and co-construct the learning experiences together in the classroom.

Knowing my strengths and stretches as a learner.

I often ask myself if my students know where they are at in their learning, where they need to go next, and if they can identify the steps they need to take to get there. Teachers can often answer these questions about each of our students, but can our students answer these questions for themselves? To help get these conversations started in class, I ask a series of guiding questions to help students reflect and begin to get to know themselves better as learners. For example, " Do you learn best alone, in a small group, or in a large class setting? Do you prefer to write, talk about or draw your learning for others to see? What is your focus threshold, as in, how long can you remain focused on something before you feel you need a change of pace, setting or action?" These questions all help students begin to take on more ownership over their learning.

Exploring my wonderings, curiosities and passions in school.

All students enter their schooling as curious and inquisitive beings. They are full of questions and wonder as they explore and discover the world around them. However, somewhere in their schooling, many become complacent, disengaged and uninterested in their learning and in school. What does our teaching do to support and honour the innate curiosity of all students? How do we lean into student wonderings to make rich connections to our curriculum? How can we make our curriculum come alive so students see it as something we explore rather than something we merely cover? These questions help honour the wonderings, curiosities and passions of all of our students so that they can see themselves as important stakeholders in their learning.

Having my questions shape my learning.

Questions are an invitation to learning. They call for us to be engaged, to be inquisitive and to research and problem-solve. In order to utilize this opportunity to create student agency, I often pose big, unGoogleable questions to frame our units of study in class that draw students in and will act as our overarching big idea for our learning. I make this question highly visible in class. I compose this question to be compelling, relevant and interesting with a hope that this one big unGoogleable question will spark wonder and curiosity in students to ask their own connected questions. We discuss the questions that students generate and begin to sort them into categories and themes before we post them in class under the larger unGoogleable question. They have a genuine voice in the design of the unit in that we will explore the questions they posed in our research and exploration together. Students begin to see how their questions shape their learning.

Having a genuine voice in assessment of my learning.

If we are talking about student agency in the classroom, we must ensure there is student voice in the assessment of learning as well. Students have a genuine voice in the assessment of their learning when they can confidently give accurate feedback to peers, take and apply feedback without worry of ridicule or embarrassment, and embark into learning through the lens of taking risks in order to grow, rather than for a grade, mark or percentage score. Students need to feel psychologically safe if we are to ask them to take on a more active and meaningful role in their learning, which is why as we nurture student agency in our classrooms, it's important that we also nurture relationships, trust and risk taking.

Showing and exploring my learning in different ways.

Whatever the big idea or content we are learning about, I often begin the school year with a new group of students by providing a choice board through which kids can explore content. A choice board is a digital slide that I have embedded resources into that allows students some options to select information in a means that they feel best supports their learning. I often introduce the exploratory nature of a choice board by asking students, "D o you enjoy taking in information by reading text, looking at images, infographics or charts, watching a short video, exploring a website, or listening to a podcast or someone talking about the information?" Once students have reflected on this prompt, they have a clearer understanding of what best supports their learning. When facing the options on a choice board, they make a decision based on their better understanding of their learning needs and strengths.

Further, I encourage students to document their learning-" evidencing," as we refer to it-in a manner that they decide. I always provide a few options in the form of thinking maps, thinking routines or templates to help anchor and organize their learning. After exploring these options and considering if any of them would support their learning, I encourage students to take ownership over this decision and select an evidencing method that works best for them. The power of this choice over showing and exploring their learning in different ways is seen in their success and engagement as well as the greater understanding of how I can best support each individual student that I gain. I observe and document their choices and pathways and then reflect on how I can help them with this agency and have them be continuously successful throughout the process.

Deciding how I want to share my learning.

I often ask my students, " If you could show me your learning in any way, how would you show me what you know?" My hope is to honour the diverse learners in the room whilst simultaneously leaning into student's strengths when it comes to agency. Inevitably students tell me the things they've always done in school. Similar to the list of items on a menu I referenced at the onset of this piece, I often observe that students don't reflect on this prompt with the depth, individuality or creativity I would hope the opportunity offers. That's why it's so important that I share with students any artifacts I have curated from other classes and previous years to help paint the picture of what is possible in their learning. I have these artifacts posted on my walls, on display on my shelves or saved as digital files so I can do a bit of a show-and-share and speak to how other students have shown their learning before them. The result is that students begin to see that in our classroom, they will have some voice and choice in how they show their learning and that they can really lean into their strengths and interests. This creates a start point in learning from a strength-based stance rather than a deficit-based position. Kids will choose things that they're good at, interested in exploring more meaningfully and are more genuinely engaged in. How cool is that?

Growing into the person I want to be.

What are the enduring skills, lasting values and habits of mind that will be the legacy of our time with children in our classrooms? How are we cultivating the conditions in today's classrooms that will nurture the empathy and equity we hope students embody as citizens of tomorrow's world? How do we view each and every one of our students as unique individuals with strengths, talents, characteristics and perspectives that we need to honour and help flourish during their time in school? It is within our active exploration of these questions and our validation of them in our interactions with students that will give space and support for them to grow in our classrooms. Student agency is not about pushing all kids down the same pathway or having all kids choose the same goal. Student agency is about empowering students to know themselves better, determine who they want to be and identifying steps we can take together to have this goal become a reality.

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How Can Teachers Nurture Meaningful Student Agency? - MindShift

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Student agency is about empowering students to know themselves better, determine who they want to be and identifying steps we can take together to have this goal become a reality.

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Recently, I asked my students (pre-service teachers who are currently in their practicum) about the ultimate goal of education. Some described the need for raising democratic citizens who will think critically about the world. A larger group described the need for preparing students for the global economy. Others wanted students to develop into life-long learners. They wanted to see students fall in love with reading and writing and to geek out on ideas and to continue to make stuff on their own.

While these goals often conflict in education, I'm struck by the fact that they all require students to be self-directed in their learning. If we want students to have an impact on the world as engaged citizens, we will need them to take the initiative on the issues they care about. If we want them to fall in love with learning forever, they will need to know how to learn independently for fun. If we want them to succeed in the creative economy, they will need to be go-getters and problem-solvers. In other words, students need to be self-directed.

Self-directed learners they don't wait their turn. They don't wait for an opportunity. They don't hope to be called on. They don't expect an instruction manual. They are self-starters who turn an idea into a reality. They write their own rules. They know what it means to experiment and to test new ideas, even if it seems difficult. They are driven by the question "why not?"

Students need to be self-starters.

It doesn't end there. Starting something is one thing. However, many great ideas fizzle out within a few months when people lose interest.

There's an often overlooked gritty and difficult side of self-direction that shows up every time you hear people use the phrase "It's a grind." Whether you're a social activist or an artist or an engineer or an entrepreneur, you will have moments when you have to push through the challenging parts and keep going. In these moments, you need to be a self-manager. If being a self-starter is all about sparking innovation in the midst of chaos, self-management is all about knowing how to stick to deadlines and routines.

Students need to be self-managers

To be self-directed, students will need to be self-starters who can take the initiative to own their learning but also self-managers who are able to finish tasks and push through when things get difficult. However, this requires students to own their learning. The following video explores what happens when students own their learning.

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https://johnspencer.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Choice-Menus.mp3

Student ownership was a challenge for me as a classroom teacher. I believed in student voice and choice but I was afraid. What would my principal think? How would my colleagues react? What would parents say about it? Would it look like I just wasn't doing my job? I dreaded the noise and chaos that might occur if things were too unstructured. I worried about the test scores. However, over time, I made the shift toward empowering students. Students began doing self-assessment and peer assessments and I would meet with them one-on-one for conferences. They began to choose their topics based on their own geeky interests. Instead of asking all the questions, I encouraged them to engage in their own personal inquiry.

Over the next few years, I began to shift from rigid to adjustable systems so that students own the process. They can set their own pace, choose their own formats, and decide what resources they want to use to accomplish their goals. Rather than requiring specific scaffolds, I allowed students to access structures (like sentence stems), exemplars, and tutorials on their own.

It wasn't always perfect. Even after nearly a decade, I still had moments when I provided too much structure and other times when I was too loose and I learned, the hard way, that I had to encourage interdependency in collaborative projects. But through all the missteps and scraped knees and false starts, I watched students grow more and more self-directed in their learning. The point is, it's a long journey that I'm still discovering new ideas (and having a few epic fails) as I've moved from teaching middle school to teaching pre-service teachers.

If you're thinking about getting started with student ownership, you might want to focus on one key area of student choice. You could let students choose their own topics in a Genius Hour Project. Or they could ask their own questions and engage in their own research in a Wonder Day Project. Or you could pilot a single project-based learning unit or design thinking project. However, you might want to start with something simple, like a choice menu. This is especially true if you are working with a tighter curriculum map or if you're teaching standards that don't align as well with inquiry-based learning or PBL.

Traditionally, choice menus allow students to choose how they will present what they are learning. It's a great first step for students who aren't used to having as much voice and choice in their learning. While choice menus are great, I thought I would share a variation on the choice menu that goes beyond choosing topics and toward student ownership of the learning targets and resources. Here's what it looks like:

As a teacher, I would keep an ongoing online curation of resources for each unit that I taught. Any time I saw something fascinating or relevant, I would copy and paste the link into a document. Then, I would use that curated list of resources in the choice menus. When students chose podcasts, videos, etc., I would link the option to a one-page topic-neutral document with a list of best practices, tutorials with instructions, and rubrics for that particular option.

So, if students were learning about forces and motion in science, they might select a specific standard. Then they would watch a video or podcast and then click on the slideshow option where they could see reminders of best practices (remember to use visuals, use a solid contrast in colors, cite sources, etc.) and begin creating their product.

Notice that with this choice menu, students are deciding either the topics, concepts, or skills and then deciding on their own resources and strategies before ultimately deciding on their final product. This typically takes 1-3 class periods, depending on the complexity of the learning targets and the end products. I found that this worked well in the following contexts:

Early on in a unit, when they need to increase background knowledge

Toward the end of the unit, when they need to own the intervention process

When completing standards that don't work as well with project-based learning or design thinking

In the moments when there is a time crunch and they don't have as much time to search for resources or where some of the online resources actually reinforce misconceptions

If you are just making the leap into student-driven learning and you want to start with something that builds on student choice but doesn't require a massive project

Although I love project-based learning and design thinking, I learned that there were times when I needed to teach a concept attainment model or model specific skills. When my students hit project fatigue, I realized that there was nothing wrong with a more traditional, Gradual Release Model. However, I also realized that I could incorporate choice and ownership into these lessons by using the previously mentioned choice menu.

Empower Your Students with Voice and Choice

Want to get started with student ownership? Check out this page with free articles, videos, and resources. Also, check out the Empower Blueprint and Toolkit below.

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Taking Choice Menus to the Next Level for Student Ownership

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Recently, I asked my students (pre-service teachers who are currently in their practicum) about the ultimate goal of education. Some described the need for raising democratic citizens who will think critically about the world. A larger group described the need for preparing students for the global economy.

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Use the metaphor driving with GPS, to driving using only road signs to reach your destination. With GPS you are offered a variety of ways to reach you direction. Even during the course of your journey, you can change direction, circle back or go in a different route. When given directions from only road signs you are limited to one path usually. Your choices are few if any since you are following a predetermined path.

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Use the metaphor driving with GPS, to driving using only road signs to reach your destination. With GPS you are offered a variety of ways to reach you direction. Even during the course of your journey, you can change direction, circle back or go in a different route. When given directions from only road signs you are limited to one path usually. Your choices are few if any since you are following a predetermined path.