RTC 7

7. promote a collaborative, inclusive and supportive learning environment

i. demonstrate effective management of the learning setting which incorporates successful strategies to engage and motivate ākonga

ii. foster trust, respect and cooperation with and among ākonga


I have engaged in a SURVEY to find out what my learners believe is essential in our SHARED FLEXIBLE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT.

STUDENT VOICE-

Here are their responses to the questions:

What is student agency? Is it not the ability for students to exercise decisions about their and others learning? How else does one promote collaborative learning, but to increase the ability for students to display agency?

I was recently a member of the organising committee for #educampPALMY we had well over 100 registrations with a number close to this in attendance on the day. I attended a breakout led by Nic Mason on learner agency. He gave the students the problem of 'class assembly', and then put it on them to present the slide and develop the presentations. He used the analogy of a group of top agentic learners. They didn't ask his permission, instead made a decision to get the kids to present the amazing artwork they'd developed. Not a single piece of artwork was the same as the other, they were all unique, whether it was content, media or skill, each was unique. So the 3 students decided to pull down Nic's art display on the wall and proceeded to bring it to him saying let's show these at assembly. Were they wrong not to ask? Were they wrong not to show off the art? NO. These students were encouraged to make decisions for themselves and exercise this right.

In my own context, the same cannot necessarily be said of the decision making process. HOWEVER, my colleagues and I CONSISTENTLY model trust, respect, co-operation and collaboration to our students. And in turn they themselves trust, respect, co-operate and collaborate with other learners within our space. Student agency will ALWAYS look slightly different, given each school's or class' context. Poutama akonga exercise their Student agency in the choices / decisions they make about when / what / how they learn on a daily basis, which is because we give them S.D.A- student directed activities. On any given day, tourists coming through our country will see agentic learners completing SDA before school. They'll see every student choosing to do activities that are related to THEIR learning journey. These students have successfully been given support to exercise their student agency. This is how I know we teachers are EFFECTIVE in promoting a COLLABORATIVE, INCLUSIVE and SUPPORTIVE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT.

NEXT STEPS: personalised learning and the promotion of SDL, student directed learning.