Student agency—the ability to exercise control over one’s own thought processes, motivation and action—is a central skill in today’s information age. As technology accelerates learning expectations and change, students must be able to make independent decisions, self-regulate, and adapt to complex, changing environments.
The concept of student agency has been shaped by cognitive-constructivist, sociocultural and social-cognitive theories of learning. Each theory contributes shared and distinct perspectives on student agency, which has influenced a variety of definitions and conceptualizations to inform how student agency develops and can be cultivated in school-based contexts.
This literature review (a) provides a working definition of student agency, (b) describes how student agency develops, (c) discusses specific instructional practices that support the development of student agency, and (d) analyzes how student agency has been assessed. The review concludes with implications for the design and use of student agency assessments in primary and secondary schools.
