I was once told that for every class, you should spend two hours planning. As the saying goes, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. (No wonder that teachers are exhausted at the end of the day, and students have energy! Teachers are doing the bulk of the work of learning.)

Now I believe it’s important to plan and necessary to scaffold sometimes, but I also wonder if we guide learners every step of the way, how might the structures and scaffolds we put in place actually inhibit the learning process? When the teacher bears the cognitive load and is the one who finds the resources and plans the sequence, the learners are coaxed along in the process to move down a prescribed path. Could we be taking away meaningful learning from learners in that process? Instead how might we empower learners and inspire more agency?

Learner agency is about moving students from passively responding to acting with purpose to reach a desired goal or outcome. 

I love this video and show it often to educators.

I show this video for 2 reasons. 

The first is that many educators first reaction to this video is Oh no! This poor kid is going to get hurt. The coach should make it easier or help him! Educators often have an innate desire to help but at times we can “help” too much. 

It reminds me of a lesson study that I did with a team of educators where we all planned the lesson and observed while one teacher taught it. We were working on solving complex problems in math and discussing the appropriate set up and scaffolds. We designed the lesson with a quick 10 minute intro to set up the problem and provide context and then agreed that we would let students wrestle with the problem and support with questioning techniques such as, What do you notice? How does this connect to what you already know? or What are some strategies that you think might help? And we also agreed that we would let the teams work on the problems and not give them the answer for at least 15 minutes. 

This was easier said than done. There were about 6 adults in the room and, at times. we had to hold each other back. About 5 minutes in the desire to make it easier or give them more structured scaffolds was strong and then around 10 minutes of struggle, we heard, In knew it was too hard, these kids can’t do this! But we stayed strong. And then slowly but surely, when the kids realized that we weren’t going to rescue them and give them the answers, they started trying new strategies, the connections started to emerge and groups started figuring out how to solve this complex math problem. 

There were a variety of strategies used, more questions asked, and students were engaged in productive chatter as they collaborated to solve the problem presented. 

This video reminded me about this experience and how too often, in an effort to help, we take away the most powerful learning by making things too easy, over scaffolding, and rushing the process. Learning takes time and productive struggle, which is a powerful and critical part of the learning process. 

You can’t mandate learning but you can create the conditions where learners are empowered and motivated to solve meaningful problems. 

The second reason I show this video is tied to the first in that when we have clear goals, and agency in the path, we are motivated to overcome obstacles and work through the challenges to get there. I often hear that kids aren’t motivated but I would wonder, how often are we providing the time and support to be engaged in problems worth solving that matters to our students? How might this change their motivation and perseverance in solving problems?

This video exemplifies the sheer joy in accomplishing goals and what’s possible when we have purpose, agency and support. Think about the pride and ownership that this child felt as he reached his goal. You notice the coach is pretty proud too! When we take away the challenge and ownership, we also loose the joy and motivation to persist. 

If we want learners to be motivated, we need to provide opportunities that allow them to engage in authentic tasks that foster autonomy, invite the pursuit of mastery, and intrigue them with sense of purpose.