Student autonomy
What does it really mean when we say we give pupils a choice?
Thoughts and musings
Since writing my recent post, ‘The joy of lesson planning’1 I have been thinking about the daily learning experiences on offer to students. A lot. My previous discussions focused mainly on the educator. The joy that can be felt from truly engaging with curriculum content and creating lessons which are actually pleasurable to teach. Of course, the pupils are also an integral part of this process. When personalising planning, considerations for a particular cohort are naturally made. Today’s post intends to shine a light on what I believe to be the next step in curating purposeful and meaningful learning opportunities - with the children at the heart of them.
Autonomy is an important theme which runs through my ‘glimmers’. Often unintentionally but in many ways I think that this adds to the authenticity. Many educators will have chosen (or felt an innate pull) to the profession as they are motivated by having the opportunity to make a difference. In teaching, there are so many chances to build autonomy into your day. Be it through how you design your learning environment to how the children are greeted as they enter the classroom in the morning. From the professional best practice that you embed into how you present lesson content to the ways you actively exercise your ethos through even the smallest word or gesture. Equally, there are times when autonomy can feel stifled. This juxtaposition between worlds may account for the frustration teachers feel when decisions come from ‘the top’ that they don’t necessarily agree with. There of course has to be a level of consistency in schools and they are hierarchical. Education policy needs to be adhered to and there are many things educators just have to make their peace with.
Recently, in the UK, the Department for Education conducted a ‘Curriculum and Assessment Review’ with the aim of ensuring that these pillars of the education system, ‘meet the needs of every child and young person’.2 Alongside a lengthy, but thorough, online collection of feedback (which was open to all with an interest in engaging) the leader of the review Professor Becky Francis CBE hosted a number of regional roadshows aimed at providing a platform for discussion and feedback. A common theme of the initial outcomes centred around the curriculum being heavy on content and a sense that, ‘Teachers feel “disempowered and deprofessionalised by overstipulation and the challenge to cover content” in the curriculum’.3
Now, back to the pupils. There is no doubt that conversations around curriculum and assessment will continue to be a common theme, as the evidence is reviewed and change begins to take effect. I truly hope that this is the case and that the alterations of ‘evolution not revolution’4 reflects the skills, experiences and opportunities which are needed by our pupils in the world in which they are growing up into. However, what can be changed in the meantime, whilst the current frameworks are in place? My offering is student autonomy.
Ideas and practical suggestions
So, how can student autonomy sit at the forefront of the decisions that we make both during the lesson design process and in the organisation of independent learning experiences? Below are two suggestions which I hope can be actioned with minimal time spent preparing. Think of these more as a shift towards actively considering levels of pupil agency to increase personalisation and engagement.
1. Evaluate your planning
As mentioned earlier, my recent post about the ‘Joy of lesson planning’ dives deeper into the considerations which can be made to make the process of lesson curation more personalised. As a summary, this includes the importance of collaboration, engaging with the lesson objectives, a sprinkle of creativity and of course - time. If you feel like you are in the position where you are confident in your curriculum offerings, I would like to add one more layer. How much choice do your pupils get when engaging with these learning experiences? Hopefully, there is an element of the bespoke for your class, Year Group, cohort or perhaps cluster of schools. Now, what about the individual child? I really do believe that this is the next step in the personalisation process of the curriculum and it is so easy for this opportunity to be missed. I know I have done so on my occasions, on reflection.
So, how can considerations for individual choice be made in the design of a learning experience?
Keep the outcomes open. It can be easy to fall into the trap of spending the bulk of lesson planning time on the delivery of the content. Carefully crafting the imparting of the knowledge and personalising the resources that accompany this. You may even be throwing in some pupil-centred strategies to ensure that participation is valued from every child.5 However, how much intentional thought is attributed to outcomes? It is with this thought that pupils truly are placed at the centre. Now, I do understand that realistically it is not viable to personalise outcomes for every lesson. However, below I suggest times when this may work.
When writing. I truly believe autonomy in writing experiences is what supports success and enjoyment. When pupils are motivated to write about an area of interest or intrigue then the writing for purpose switch is activated. I have celebrated some of my children’s most effective writing when they have taken the content in an invested direction. A portal story where the ‘magic item’ was a cricket bat, from my cricket-mad boys who usually were completely turned-off by a blank page. A vocabulary mat, generated by groups of children over the course of a unit, where a child (whose attainment level was significantly below ARE) exclaimed, “I am going to use my word in this writing”. The list is endless but the sentiment is the same. When children have agency over vocabulary choice, intentional use of SPaG skills (which have been taught and explored in context) and an outcome that is meaningful and purposeful, engagement and enjoyment will be elevated.
When problem solving. There is no set ‘subject’ as such here as problem solving sits at the heart of so many curriculum areas. However, how often is this student-centred? Is it just an application task at the end of a series of incremental steps to understanding? There are so many ways to add student autonomy to problem solving. Have ways been considered in which pupils can show their thinking? Are there opportunities for collaboration? How is oracy valued? I am a long-standing investor in the work of Claire Gadsby. Her book ‘Dynamically Different Classrooms’6 has an abundance of ideas which place the pupil right at the heart of practice. One of many suggestions for increasing student autonomy would be ‘Prove It Place’, where children have a designated space in the classroom to discuss, draw, debate and ultimately prove their thoughts and understanding. I would add in here writing on the walls and the windows! Use the space dynamically. It may be more endearing to grab the window marker or to scribble vertically on the flip chart paper which has been stuck against the cupboard. I also love the ‘Enable Table’ - more on this below.
In presentation and exploration. This does take a little investment in terms of the teaching of transferrable skills, however I would argue it is worth it. There are many times that it is easy to create the same outcome task for every child. Often, this supports our understanding as to whether a certain skill or concept has been understood. However, is there scope for making these outcomes more fluid and personal now and again? The need for the transferrable skills arises from the fact that the pupils need to be equipped with an existing knowledge of how to do this and to do it to a good standard. For example, could a fact file be an outcome when learning about electricity? A podcast when sharing a report about the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb? A board game teaching methods to support the learning of times tables (perhaps aimed at a couple of Year Groups below)? It could be the whole class work on the same outcome OR (if you are feeling brave) the children choose. The ‘fear factor’ comes in the loosening of control. Standards need to be high, so learning and knowledge acquisition is optimised, but when pupils understand the success criteria for completing a more self-directed outcome, interest and engagement is heightened, having a positive effect on the learning.
2. Consider the small shifts
In tandem with the considerations made when planning learning experiences comes the daily decisions made to value student autonomy. Some of this is attributed to your ethos and the choices you make when reflecting this in your practice and environments. You may wish to read a little more on this in my previous post, ‘Walking the talk’.7 Sometimes, it is just a case of stepping back and reviewing how often your pupils are given any choice over the course of a day - even down to the smallest consideration.
So, what might these small shifts be and how could they increase the feeling of autonomy for each individual child?
In the learning environment. It is very easy to set up our classrooms in a way which reflects our own agency, as educators. After all, we are managing the use of this room in terms of access to stationary, organisation of resources and physical zoning and grouping. Much of this does need the trained eye to get the best results. Little shifts may include: asking the children to name their table (be prepared for some really quite creative suggestions) and ensuring pupils’ work, ideas and thoughts are clearly represented on the walls - particularly if these are fluid. I have previously mentioned the adaptability of sticky notes and sticky back plastic for collaboration or inquisitiveness.
In the resourcing. When we are starting a new topic or collecting a new set of books for the classroom library, how often are pupils involved in this decision making? I briefly mentioned Claire Gadsby’s ‘Enable Table’ as a suggested strategy. This is a station (or indeed multiple stations) in the classroom where resources are placed for children to independently access to support their learning or provide further challenge. An extra layer would be to explicitly audit the pupils’ needs for the gathering, or generating, of the resources. Equally, are children at the heart of the selection process of new classroom library books or at the point of purchasing these? In addition to the physical resourcing, are pupils encouraged to select these resources when they need to, using the learning environment as an active provider of challenge and support - without adult direction?
In opportunities for holding responsibility. Not only does this come down to pupils supporting the ‘running of the classroom’ in terms of book monitors and stationary organisers but also includes the idea of ‘the pupil as the expert’. My third and final (of which there truly are an abundance more) offering from Claire Gadsby today is the ‘Expertise Area’, which also works nicely with ‘The Inward/Outward Classroom’. Here, all children are experts. They are the educators and the coaches. Whether this be organised by interest, attainment or progress, when children see that their peers hold the key of additional knowledge, or a different way of explaining a concept, student autonomy realises its strength. Perhaps a child attends art classes and would like to take a lead on reproducing the expressionist style in a lesson. Maybe a group of children have such a depth of knowledge of multiplying equations that they are perfectly placed to coach their peers. Similarly, the student who suddenly ‘just gets’ the present continuous tense and feels confident to share this with others who are still working on this journey. The strength in this approach comes from the fact that we are all learners. We all have things we are working on. We all have things we could do blindfolded. So let’s exercise this in our learning environments to level the playing field and to acknowledge that it is not always the adult in the classroom who has to be the teacher.
To explore further I suggest:
Claire Gadsby’s ‘Dynamically Different Classrooms’:
Jonathan Lear’s ‘Guerrilla Teaching’:
Evidence Based Education:
‘Dynamically Different Classrooms’ - Claire Gadsby and Jan Evans
Writing on windows and doors really works! Not every lesson obviously haha but it really seems to engage the children further!
In my last classroom I had 3 huge windows so would often set the first task on the 3 windows after the initial input. It's just quite fun too! Or get them to write on their desks/tables!
You just need the right cleaning spray so it comes off easy!