“Developing agency in learners requires a fundamental shift in the way we think about the relationships and learning activity in our schools and classrooms. It recognises learners as its core participants, encourages their active engagement, and develops in them the understanding of their own activity as learners.”
Agency By Design: An Educator’s Playbook (page 10)
One of the highlights for me at the end of our 3Rs programme last week was having the opportunity to visit some local schools with the group of principals involved. One of these was Amesbury School, located in the suburb of Churton Park in Wellington. The school was opened in 2012, with a new, two storey building opened earlier this year to accommodate around 200 year 5 and 6 students.
Despite being described as a “foolish experiment” by the author of a 2022 report on MLEs, it would appear that at Amesbury School at least, the learners were thriving in the more open and connected learning spaces that are at the core of the school’s design. Wherever we looked in the spaces learners appeared to be engaged deeply in a range of learning activity.
Of course, appearances can be deceiving, so being committed educators, always keen to observe and learn, the principals in the group quickly involved themselves in discussions with the students who were located in all sorts of places – in groups or alone; on the floor or at tables they’d joined together etc. To the interest of all, the students were welcoming of the opportunity to explain what they were doing and the learning that was the focus.
What captured our attention the most was the number of students who were sitting on the staircase that is located at the centre of the block, connecting the upper and lower floors with easy access and good lines of sight. Our initial impression was that these students were, perhaps, not as engaged as their peers in other parts of the room. Certainly there was a bit of chatter going on, and, at first glance, the seating arrangement looked very casual and not necessarily conducive to a ‘learning posture’ (at least, not for those used to conventional spaces where learners sit upright at desks for most of their learning activity.)
And so the conversation began with the group sitting near the top of the stairs….
Visitor: “You look pretty comfortable here – can you tell me what you’re doing?“
Student 1: (Pointing to her Chromebook) “We’re working our way through these questions that are a part of our study on xxx.“
Visitor: “So why are you here on the stairs and not in the space down there, sitting at a table?“
Student 1: “Because we like it here…“
Student 2: “Yeah – because we can easily see who else is working with us… we feel more connected!“
Student 1: “We don’t have to be talking with them – we just know they’re ‘there’.“
Student 2: “That’s right – that’s why we call it the ‘social staircase’! We often come here when we have this sort of work to do… so we can be ‘near’ each other while we do it.”
Visitor: “But how do you know what to d0 – I haven’t seen a teacher come near here while I’ve been in the room?“
Student 2: (With an exasperated smile) “We know what we’re doing!” Student then goes on to demonstrate how the outline of what needs to be done is available to the students on their Chromebooks, with specific activities to be completed, some involving discussion with others.
Visitor: “Oh, that’s pretty interesting… but how do I know you’re actually doing what you’re supposed to be doing?“
Student 1: “Because it’s part of our learning contract – if we don’t get this done then we’ll fall behind with the bigger part of the project.“
Student 2: (cheeky smile) “Yeah – and besides, they have this thing called Hapara, which means that they can see what we’re working on and if we are looking at stuff we shouldn’t be they can freeze our screen and then we have a conversation about that.”
Visitor: “Oh – and does that happen very often?”
Student 2: “Nah – hardly ever.“
Intrigued, we moved on, observing again the individuals and groups continuing to work at their learning on all sorts of settings around the spaces – some in silence, some with low level conversations, and some in groups with a teacher providing direct instruction on a particular topic.
It was the conversation about the ‘social staircase’ that had us thinking for a while after that. We discussed how, when the building was designed the staircase would have been necessary for utilitarian purposes, but with input from the staff and students, it had been located in the centre of the building – rather than at an end (which would have created more open space in each of the floors perhaps?). Further, it was evident that the stairs had been intentionally designed as places for students to use for seating – as a form of tiered seating for an audience when others were performing or presenting from the space at the bottom.
But we didn’t imagine that even the designers would fully appreciate the emergence of this as a ‘social’ area – akin to something like the photocopier or water cooler in an office complex for example. These stairs had become a little more than that – they provided the seating, a sense of intimacy, and a sense of ‘connectedness’ that made these students comfortable enough to use as a learning space.
We also recognised that learning behaviour such as we observed doesn’t happen automatically. Simply creating the space(s) and expecting both teachers and students to operate effectively in them requires being explicit about expectations and ways of behaving and working – all part of establishing the desired culture of learning. At Amesbury School it is clear from the information on their website that there was a great deal of thought and intentionality, involving collaborations with staff, students, parents and the designers from the time the school had opened in 2012. It was clear to us that this culture was well established across the school, and that both teachers and students were all operating effectively within the parameters of what is expected.
Of course, it can be claimed that such environments don’t necessarily suit every learner – but then we have to recognise that traditional, single cell classrooms with desks in rows don’t suit every learner either. There are often complaints about the issue of noise in these sorts of environments (curiously, there simply wasn’t any while we were visiting Amesbury, with everyone appearing to self-regulate when it came to communicating with others) or concerns about students who have particular learning needs or find it more difficult to self-regulate their behaviour in social settings.
At first impression we may have assumed there weren’t any of these sorts of students in this space – but we were assured by the teachers in there that there were. Which is when our attention was drawn to one of the smaller rooms at one end of the lower floor which the teacher and students referred to as the ‘quiet room’. This turned out to be a small room with a small panel of glass in the door which was well insulated in terms of sound to create a quiet and calming space to students to use (usually accompanied by a teacher or teacher aide) when they needed time to isolate and settle away from others in the room at the time. The apparent ‘seamlessness’ in the way this room was utilised and its effectiveness for what it was designed to achieve was another memory most carried from our visit there.
Overall this visit served to provide a really powerful illustration of what can be achieved when all factors combine to promote a high level of learner agency in the classroom. Everything from the design and use of the physical spaces, being explicit about expectations (behaviour and learning) and the modelling of all of this by teachers was recognised as contributing to the success of what we saw there.
As it says on pages 10-11 of Agency By Design: An Educator’s Playbook; “Placing the learner at the centre of all learning experiences means more than simply accommodating individual leaner needs or preferences. It means developing within each student the capabilities required for them to assume an increasing responsibility for and ownership of their learning.“
We certainly saw that playing out in our visit to Amesbury School last week.
