Exceeding expectations: scaffolding agentic engagement through assessment as learning

Abstract

Background: The active involvement of learners as critical, reflective and capable agents in the learning process is a core aim in contemporary education policy in Australia, and is regarded as a significant factor to academic success. However, within the relevant literature, the issue of positioning students as agents in the learning process has not been fully examined and needs further exploration. Purpose: This study aims to explore ways in which aspects of self-regulated learning theory may be integrated with the concept of agentic engagement into classroom practice. Specifically, the study seeks to scaffold students' selfassessment capabilities and self-efficacy by using a formative assessment-aslearning process. The research examines how scaffolded planning, as part of the forethought phase in the Assessment as Learning (AaL) process, influences selfregulation and student agency in the learning process. Sample: 126 students from school years two four and six (student age groups 7, 9 and 11 years), and 7 teachers at an independent (co-educational, non-religious) primary school in the Northern Territory, Australia, participated in the study. Design and methods: Conducted as a one-setting, cross-sectional practitioner research study, the data sources included students' planning templates, writing samples, interviews with students and teachers and email correspondence with teachers. The data was analyzed for emerging themes and interpreted from a framework of social cognitive theory. Findings: In this study, students were given the opportunity and support to exercise agentic engagement. Findings suggested that, in particular, students who were identified by their teachers as low-achieving and/or with poor motivation, were perceived by the teachers as exceededing expectations by demonstrating relatively greater motivation, persistence, effort and pride in their work than would be the case usually. ERJ/2486 Conclusions: The findings from this formative Assessment as Learning study suggest that Assessment as Learning has the potential to help scaffold primary students' development of assessment capabilities.

Evidence-Based Learning And Teaching

“…This entailed students making strategic choices, with the support of the teachers, as the students planned and monitored their learning, thereby demonstrating SRL competence. As a consequence of students' actively directing the AaL process (Dann, 2002;Earl 2013;Fletcher 2016), teaching became individualised and tailored around the students' learning needs. This in itself constitutes an auspicious pedagogical approach, which fuses SRL (Zimmerman, 2011), student choice, competence and motivation theories (Elliot & Dweck, 2005) into a structured format.…”

“…However, here formative assessment is defined as assessment that is embedded as part of the learning process, and explicitly aimed at informing learners and teachers of the next steps needed to enhance a learner's understanding and skills. AaL is understood as an embodiment of formative assessment that positions learners as critically reflective connectors between task requirements and the learning process (Dann, 2002;Earl, 2013;Fletcher, 2016), as co-owners of their learning process. As Dann (2002, p. 67) points out, AaL is "most notably promoted through the process of self-assessment".…”

“I think it fits in”: using process drama to promote agentic writing with primary school children

“…Upon starting this project, we wondered whether the children's translation of their embodied experiences afforded by process drama into writing could alter their positional identities through increased agency. We looked at definitions of learner agency where learners “exercise control to … change and influence contexts” (Mercer, , p. 43); adapt the tasks they are given to make them more meaningful to themselves (Fletcher, ); and begin to develop their own perspectives, speaking “as I as well as we” (Lantolf and Poehner, , p. 1). As outlined below, we then used discourse analysis to think about the children's writing in these terms.…”

Australia’s National Assessment Programme rubrics: An impetus for self-assessment?

“…The focus is on fostering learners' ability to self-regulate learning: i.e. by learners being aware of the goals of a task and critically reflecting on learning as they check their progress (Absolum et al 2009;Andrade and Brookhart 2016b ;Brown and Harris 2014;Dann 2002;Earl 2003;Fletcher 2016Fletcher , 2018b. Further, it explores assessment purposes in relation to change and agency, by investigating the possibilities of using an existing national assessment instrument as a basis for formative assessment purposes.…”