Fostering Student Agency by Building Language and Negotiation Skills

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Supply website link As an educator, fostering student agency should be a goal for all classes. Student agency is the ability of students to take ownership of their learning and make choices and decisions. Teachers can help foster student agency by teaching language and negotiation skills.

Building language skills starts by creating a rich language environment inside and outside the classroom. Setting up a robust classroom library with a large selection of books that encompass different language levels and topics is a must. Teachers should also integrate activities that help children identify words, compare and contrast language, and develop diverse storytelling and writing skills. Allowing students to practice different sounds and construct sentences in play-based activities gives them the ability to better express their thoughts and ideas.

With language skills in hand, teaching negotiation skills is the next step in fostering student agency. Negotiation skills equip students to become productive contributors to class dialogue and more effective participants in group activities. Providing students with strategies and techniques on how to come to an agreement with others is arguably the most important part of teaching negotiation skills.

Student agency is an essential part of development, and teachers can support this process by providing a rich language environment, teaching communication skills and developing language. Fostering student agency starts early and equips students with the competencies and confidence to take ownership of their learning outcomes.