Learner agency has a key role to play when it comes to ensuring feedback is effective.
Promoting learner agency means promoting a sense that learners are in control of their learning and that they are the ultimate arbiters of their own success.
This is important because learners’ views have a significant influence on how they receive feedback, how they use it, and the extent of its impact.
If a learner believes they have a degree of control over the process of receiving and using feedback, then they are, in most cases, more likely to see feedback in a positive light and to engage with it.
Compare this to a learner who feels they have no agency.
Feedback is done to them, rather than provided for them and developed with them.
This is a very different place to be in, psychologically.
Personally, I would find it far less motivating – and less fulfilling as well.
I imagine you would feel the same.
Consider, for example, what it feels like if you are observed teaching a lesson and then given feedback on your performance without any opportunity for discussion or comeback.
And you are then told you must implement whatever targets you have been given, regardless of whether you agree.
Otherwise, there may be consequences.
Being a professional and an adult you will probably put emotion to one side and get on with things for the sake of it (while also looking for another job!).
But there’ll still be a bitter taste in the mouth and a sense that something isn’t quite right; that a better way is possible.
This same principle applies to learners.
If we can help learners to understand their own role in the provision and use of feedback, of the central part they play in determining their own success, then our feedback will tend to prove more effective.
Equally, if we can create a culture in which learners feel feedback is a positive thing, can see that it involves the teacher giving access to their expertise so the learner can use this to make changes, improvements and take control their own destiny, then good results will follow.
Ultimately, learner agency is about showing learners they have choices in the classroom, that the choices they make influence what happens and that you, the teacher, are not there to make their choices for them, but to guide them in making good choices that have positive benefits for their current and future selves.
