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1. Problems of Problem-Based Learning: Exploring Meta-Agency in Problem-Based Cybersecurity Learning in College Education

   Park, Jongchan ; Deng Yuli ; Agrawal Garima ; Techawitthayachinda Ratrapee ; Chen Ying-Chih ; Huang Dijiang ; Liu Huan ( April 2023 , Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association 2023)

   In college cybersecurity education, problem-based learning has been introduced to promote student agency in solving a complex problem. However, a dilemma of balancing the student agency persist and previous research has focused on students’ cognitive, metacognitive, and regulatory to enhance the efficacy of PBL. Given the importance of students’ self-awareness of their agency, this study suggests a concept of meta-agency as an essential learner characteristic that influences the effectiveness of student agency in PBL. Four dimensions of meta-agency, perceptions of productive struggle, expectation alignment between instructor and students, strategies for regulating agency, and familiarity with PBL tasks, were qualitatively explored with student interview data. Features of meta-agency and how students’ meta-agency level develop through cybersecurity PBL sessions were further investigated. 

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2. Learning to teach science during the clinical experience: Agency, opportunity, and struggle

   https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.21667  

   Windschitl, Mark ; Lohwasser, Karin ; Tasker, Tammy ; Shim, Soo‐Yean ; Long, Caroline ( June 2021 , Science Education)

   null (Ed.)

   Agency has been used as a lens to focus on how educators learn through pedagogical risk-taking, advocacy for curricular reform, and resisting policies that are not focused on the needs of students. We explored the role of agency as 65 preservice science teachers created learning opportunities for themselves during their clinical placements. Specifically, we investigated whether the types of agentive episodes varied by the level of congruence novices perceived between the vision of science teaching supported in their university coursework and the prevailing practices and culture of their host classrooms. Interview and survey data of participants from three preparation programs indicate that those in highly congruent placements experienced earlier and more mentor-scaffolded opportunities to take on active roles in teaching, and exercised agency to extend research-informed practices or tools they observed their mentors using. This resulted in participants seeing the richness of students' thinking and how capable they were of challenging work, given strategic supports. Those in low congruence placements had fewer chances to play active roles in teaching, were more likely to draw upon agency to make minor adjustments as they emulated their mentors' instructionally conservative lessons, and expressed concern they were “getting better” at aspects of teaching they viewed as inequitable or less responsive to students. Regardless of congruence, however, even simple acts of agency such as asking mentors to explain their instructional decisions were remarkably rare. 

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3. Navigating learning ecosystems: Exploring students’ use of agency in marine and environmental sciences

   https://doi.org/10.1080/10899995.2022.2145170  

   Martin, Keshia ; Robertson Evia, Jane ; Peterman, Karen ; Grimes, Kristin ; Medina, Mónica ; Brandt, Marilyn ( December 2022 , Journal of Geoscience Education)
4. Considering Context as it Relates to Student Agency Conditions in Intelligent Game-Based Learning Environments

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3514094.3539554  

   Banzon, Allison Macey ( January 2022 , AIES '22: Proceedings of the 2022 AAAI/ACM Conference on AI, Ethics, and Society)
5. Characterizing Stakeholder Change Agency During Expansive Learning Processes

   https://doi.org/10.22318/icls2023.966558  

   Davis, Susannah C. ; Svihla, Vanessa ; Wilson-Fetrow, Madalyn ( October 2023 , Proceedings of the International Conference of the Learning Sciences)

   Research on change efforts in higher education highlights the importance of change teams having sufficient authority to bring about the change they envision. This paper employs an activity-theoretical framework for organizational change known as expansive learning, along with theory on agency and intersectional power, to examine how faculty exhibited change agency in dialogue in observational data from an engineering department undergoing a major reform project. We analyzed discourse from audio-recorded faculty meetings and workshops within this six-year change project to characterize change agency in talk. Findings highlight the importance of meeting stakeholders where they are, acknowledging and legitimizing their concerns, sharing agency with them, articulating potential control, and inviting them into the effort in ways that suggest ownership. This study extends previous work on expansive learning by illuminating discursive practices that can further joint object-oriented activity in ways that foster stakeholder agency. 

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