Theory of Improvement: Student Agency

Te KAoW enhances learning by empowering ākonga to actively engage, participate and make decisions about their learning.

 We support students to take an active role in their learning and to develop a strong sense of self-efficacy. We ensure they are respected as partners in the co-construction of meaningful and relevant learning opportunities, and support them to develop curiosity and critical thinking skills.

STUDENT AGENCY RUBRICS

As the Kāhui Ako moved towards endorsement 'Students Taking Control of their Learning' emerged as the key driver to improve student outcomes across Primary, Intermediate, and Secondary levels.  The adoption of this Student Agency focused Theory of Improvement was driven by all 7 Māori Medium rumaki and all 12 founding schools.  From the start there was a clear understanding of the central role of teachers in empowering students to develop their own agency, and the importance of PD and resources to support teachers to do this work.

Clearly defining, articulating, and deepening understanding of the Theory of Improvement has been a key focus of our Across and Within School Teachers and of the Student Agency Working Action Group.  The publication of the documents below are a significant milestone in this collaborative mahi.  They are intended as a practical tool for classroom teachers and to help establish a common language of learning that students can continue to utilise as they transition through the Kāhui Ako.

These rubrics will continue to evolve and develop over the coming years, and will be shaped and interpreted to fit the specific needs and environments of our different schools.  After the Across and Within School teachers from a range of our founding schools developed the draft rubrics, they were sent our to Principals for SLT feedback to be gathered.  They were also trialed with students at different levels to ensure the language was students friendly.  

Our Expert Partner Michael Absolum also contributed ideas that helped refine and hone the final documents. Michael has stressed that individual teachers seeking student voice on how student agency can be enhanced is the key to further empowering students and raising student outcomes.  The rubrics are an easy way of collecting voice if teachers wish to use them in that way.

Te Reo o Te Matā will further develop the rubrics and add categories which are unique to student agency in a Māori Medium context.

Thank you to all those who have collaborated in this work to develop a practical expression of our Theory of Improvement.  The rubrics will be invaluable in making progress on all of our Achievement and Process Challenges.

• Student Capabilities (Teacher Speak): This resource could be used as a starting point for teachers to reflect on how agentic the learners in their class are. If teachers had an agency focus for their inquiry, they could potentially use this as a gauge for baseline data and then again later when reviewing the effectiveness of their interventions.

• Student Capabilities (Student Speak): This resource is intended to be written in such a way that most learners could engage in this language. Rather than simply giving students the rubric, teachers could start using the language from this to talk about learning and agency with their learners, or use it to build self-assessment and self-reflection tasks.

• Teacher Actions: This document sits alongside the other two. The idea is that it is just a starting point for teachers to refer to and use to reflect on their own practice. It does not include specific strategies, however a bank of specific strategies that have been used and do work to enhance agency could also be developed.