Student Free Day

Plusness

The Student Free Day last week was once again linked to “Plusness” which includes essential ingredients to create powerful, independent learners. We built on the concepts previously covered: The Learning Pit, Metacognition, Intellectual Stretch, Growth Mindset, High Challenge and focussed on Student Influence in their own learning. This is termed student “agency”.

Agency is the power to act – informed/empowered/enabled learners

In summary, sustained higher achievement is possible when teachers use pedagogical approaches that enable students to take charge of their own learning. Such approaches do not leave the students ‘to discover’ in an unstructured environment. Rather, they are highly structured in supporting student agency and sustained and thoughtful engagement. For example, they foster students’ abilities to define their own learning goals, ask questions, anticipate the structure of curriculum experiences, use metacognitive strategies when engaging with curriculum, and self-monitor.

This is another step in addressing the External School Review direction: Improve student agency in learning by strengthening the feedback culture to align with success criteria, established with learners, and underpinned by high expectations.

Teachers examined carefully what they are currently doing in promoting student agency by using Roger Hart’s Ladder of Participation:

They then planned their next few weeks’ learning program with a focus on increasing student agency.

Bob Thiele, Principal