Focus on the Agency of Learners to Innovate in Pedagogy

Abstract

Today, pedagogy does not innovate by proposing new methods but by creating learning conditions conducive to the autonomy of learners. During training, students learn to set goals for acquiring knowledge, control their activity and persevere in the face of difficulties. Innovative teachers favour an integrative approach to human activity to jointly develop the relationship with the learning environment or work environment, the socio-cognitive characteristics of learners and their sense of responsibility for the consequences of action and metacognitive management of the activity.

Learners thus evolve in a learning ecosystem that includes the learner himself and his physical and social environment: his tools available (notepad, tablet, etc.), his resources (procedures, methods, instructions, course materials, notes, documentation, etc.) and his partners who also have some knowledge (pair, teachers, expert network, colleagues, etc.). This ecosystem can be seen as a virtual learning space in which technologies that contribute to learning (hardware, software and network) are used with the aim of fostering interactions between stakeholder and content communities. The knowledge is distributed and accessible through the memory of the learner himself or through his tools, resources or partners. It is therefore in the elaboration of the learning mechanism mobilising all the actors to meet the needs of the learners that the innovation can be efficient and effective.

Within this frame of reference, we propose some reflections from pedagogical practice that can develop the learners’ power to act – Which IT environments are needed for specified actions? What pedagogies need to be implemented using these IT environments? What collaborative and reflective tools are needed for professional and university training? Which methods energise learners’ agentivity in the digital age? Three case studies focussing on these questions will offer some recommendations for innovation in pedagogy.

Citation

Nagels, M., Abel, M.-H. and Tali, F. (2018), "Focus on the Agency of Learners to Innovate in Pedagogy", Visvizi, A., Lytras, M.D. and Daniela, L. (Ed.) The Future of Innovation and Technology in Education: Policies and Practices for Teaching and Learning Excellence (Emerald Studies in Higher Education, Innovation and Technology), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 27-40. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-78756-555-520181004