As depicted in the visual above, student voice is about empowering students and providing them with the opportunity to give feedback – to each other and their teachers. Student agency is interconnected to student voice but is more focused on giving students responsibility and ownership of their learning. Both student voice and agency provide students with an opportunity to influence and change their school.
At Hartwell we have spent time researching and trialling different ways of collecting feedback from students. This involves using a range of strategies including ‘thumbs up/thumbs down’, traffic light system (Green – I can do this, Orange I’m getting there, Red – I need help), exit slips etc. These strategies provide students with a ‘voice’ as well as an opportunity to reflect on their learning. The students affectionately know this as ‘Voice-time’.
In 2019 our Year 6 Student Representative Council (SRC) participated in a student voice program called ‘Teach the Teacher’. An internationally recognised innovation, ‘Teach the Teacher’ aims to help students develop and facilitate a staff professional development session. The SRC wrote and conducted a survey for focus groups throughout the school. They analysed the results and planned and presented their findings at a staff meeting with a particular focus on how teachers could be more creative in their teaching and the need to check-in with students that they understood a concept.
We have worked hard to weave the term agency into our daily practice. Students understand that they are in fact given agency everyday whether it involve selecting which activity they will do in a numeracy lesson, setting a personal writing goal, choosing an area of interest for their i-time inquiry project or taking responsibility to get up and move to a place where they won’t be distracted.
No matter the year level, voice and agency is well and truly thriving at Hartwell!