Principle —Agency
Agency refers to learners’ ability to choose and act of their own accord. This principle covers
both the agency of the learner as well as the agency of others who may affect, in some way, that
person's learning. Agency is the notion that learners are not passive recipients of learning, but
active agents with the ability to choose how they will apply their attention and effort, and to
choose what learning activities they will engage in. Others may exercise their agency to promote
or inhibit the agency of the learner, and may play a role in facilitating or impeding successful
learning.
Theory Group
Behavioral
Local Principles
Aristotle:
Teachers provide guidance
Thorndike:
The attitude or set of a person decides not only what he will do and think, but also what he will be
satisfied and annoyed by
One of the commonest ways in which conditions within the man determine variations in his
responses to one same external situation is by letting one or another element of the situation be
prepotent in effect
All man's learning, and indeed all his behavior, is selective
Pavlov:
Pavlov and his team observed and intentionally participated (as agents) in building new reactions
in the animals they worked with
Skinner:
External control: although Skinner did not recognize "will," like Pavlov, he participated as an
agent in conditioning the subjects he worked with
Others as a social stimulus
Note that Skinner argued against the self, or inner determination, describing the self
as an "organized system of responses"
Estes:
Adaptive selection of higher organisms among alternative responses
In choice situations individuals choose based on feedback of anticipated rewards
Cognitive
Ebbinghaus:
Demonstrated self-directed learning in carrying out his experiments on memory.
Tolman:
Selective attention to stimuli and execution of responses
Learning does not consist of the "willy nilly" stamping in and out of responses, but
rather of the organism discovering what the alternative responses lead to and selecting the
appropriate response leading to the more demanded-for consequences at the time the choice is
made
Cognitive Information Processing:
Control processes in the sensory register Control processes in the short-term store
Control processes in the long-term store
Memory skills improve due to knowledge about the domain and understanding of
one's own memory
Metacognition: knowing about and having control over cognitive processes Metacognition:
regulation of cognitive processes to maximize learning and memory Self-regulated learning
Constructive
Ausubel:
Teacher role as "director of learning activities"
General:
Selecting and monitoring
Influence by others Group work
Value of teacher guidance
Piaget:
The role of the "social group" in transforming previously acquired intelligence, through language,
into "reflective intelligence"
Human
Bruner:
Techniques transmitted by the culture
Self-driven discovery
Learner is an active agent
Influence of others on control and freedom of the learner Importance of a model
Maslow's Hierarchy of Human Needs:
The integrated wholeness of the organism
Sometimes people will give up everything for the sake of a particular ideal or value
Biological Motivation:
Primary drives can preempt the exercise of agency toward higher goals
Attribution Theory:
One person can induce another to do something by producing conditions of action in the other
person
Self-Efficacy:
Verbal or social persuasion
Vicarious experiences through observance of social models
Self-Determination Theory:
The human organism both acts on internal and external forces, and is vulnerable to those forces
People are generally curious, self-motivated, agentic, and inspired; and striving to learn, to extend
themselves, to master new skills, and to apply their talents
Self-Regulation Theory:
Learners selectively use of metacognitive and motivational strategies Learners select, structure,
and create learning environments
Learners choose form and amount of instruction needed
Learners are active participants in their own learning process Learners choose to participate
Learners choose method of learning
Learners choose performance outcomes
Learners choose or control physical and social environment Learners are intrinsically or selfmotivated
Learners utilize planned or automatic methods
Learners are self-aware of performance outcomes
Learners are environmentally and socially sensitive and resourceful
Learners' self-motivation is derived from setting goals, a sense of self-efficacy, and
values
Learners self-monitor and self-record
Learners structure their environment and self-select exemplary models to observe Goal setting
Strategic planning
Self-efficacy beliefs
Goal orientation
Intrinsic interest
Freedom to Learn:
Human beings have a natural potentiality for learning
Learning is facilitated when the student participates responsibly in the learning
process
Self-initiated learning which involves the whole person of the learner—feelings as
well as intellect—is the most lasting and pervasive.
A continuing openness to experience and incorporation into oneself of the process of
change
Role of teacher as facilitator
An Agentic Theory of the Self:
The human capability to exert influence over one's functioning and the course of events by one's
actions
Intentionality
Forethought
Self-reactiveness
Self-reflection
Self-efficacy is a prerequisite for the exercise of agency
Social
Vygotsky:
Value of modeling, and role of imitation in learning
Growing into the intellectual life of those around them
Some internal developmental processes are only able to operate when the child is
interacting with people in his environment Role of society in education
Bandura:
People have the power to influence their own actions to produce certain results Agentic operators
Modes of agency
Situated learning:
The learner is a "person-in-the-world"
Activity theory:
Multi-voicedness
Management
Knotworking
Association through cultural artifacts
Cognitive apprenticeship:
Teacher modeling, coaching, fading, and support (also peer support) Role of teacher as master to
apprentices
Master or others may demonstrate a task
Coaching
Community of practice leads to a sense of ownership, personal investment and mutual dependency
Cooperative problem solving