13 Powerful Reasons to Let Learners Own Their Learning

The nurturing of learner agency is the most important thing teachers can do to ensure their learners fulfil their highest potential. A significant part of agency involves learners having ownership over their learning. The positive impact of ownership on learning becomes clear when we explore the myriad benefits of practising this facet of agency as a habit.

The infographic below lists some of the most appealing motives for prioritising learning ownership in your teaching. In this article, we'll expand on each point and discuss why each one matters to our learners in achieving their greatness.

What is Learning Ownership?

Here is a pretty solid definition from an article published by Inflexion (2020):

"Ownership of learning means a learner is motivated, engaged, and self-directed with a sense of autonomy, choice, and responsibility in their actions. "

The same publication indicates that learners are more likely to "develop ownership if they can contribute to the direction and design of their learning", and that if learners "learn to reflect on their unique learning process and identify their challenges and opportunities for growth, the sense of accomplishment and responsibility can cement a lasting sense of ownership" (Inflexion, 2020). The phrase "ownership of learning" also means building connectedness, nurturing active involvement, and developing personal investment in the process of learning (Voltz, et al., 1993).

When learners have all that in place, they can reap even more of the merits of owning their learning, like the ones that follow.

What Happens When Learners Own Their Learning?

Source: The Edvocate

1. They Become Problem-Solvers

There's nothing quite like working through a complex problem successfully. And any teacher or parent will tell you there's also no feeling quite like the one you get when you witness a child accomplish the same thing. So becoming extraordinary problem solvers is just what ownership of learning sets our learners up for.

One of the most vital abilities learners require for future success is a solid ability to solve complex and challenging problems (Keen, 2011), not to mention that problem-solving is very healthy for the brain itself. The sentiment of problem-solving ability being paramount in developing learners who are prepared to enter into successful lives beyond school is shared by practically every educator we've asked across the globe. 

In The Overflowing Brain, Torkel Klingberg (2009) states that learners who adopt a structured problem-solving process and master the capacity to use it gain a 10% increase in IQ and sustain this throughout their lives (Klingberg, 2009).

2. They Develop a Growth Mindset

Whenever we talk about a growth mindset, we honour its basic premise as described by Carol Dweck, in her book Mindset (Dweck, 2008). According to Dweck, two essential mindsets concern us: fixed and growth. Those with fixed mindsets believe traits like intelligence and talents are finite, whereas those with growth mindsets see these same traits as being able to be increased or improved through consistent effort and persistence.

Having ownership of learning fosters a unique mentality in learners. When we nurture ownership in a positive atmosphere, learners eventually align their thinking to the power and freedom that comes with personal responsibility and adopt the "I can" attitude. They begin to value effort and persistence in the face of challenge and see talent and intelligence as malleable skills (Hochanadel & Finamore, 2015). It is these beliefs that illustrate what the growth mindset is about.

3. They Cultivate Cool Geeky Interests

A happy, healthy learner has pursuits, hobbies, and interests specific to who they are. Learning ownership means learners can pursue a far broader and more personally relevant range of interests than what might appear in a prescribed, guided lesson from which there is little to no deviation.

It's like playing (said to be the "work" of a child) or unstructured learning—authentic, real-world learning methods without neat compartments or set disciplines for success. In this way, learners are encouraged to make discoveries without bounds, which is how they discover new interests and perhaps even uncover abilities they didn't know they had.

4. They Are More Creative

Creativity means having ideas and seeing possibilities. How we express ourselves creatively encompasses many paths and various disciplines, but one could argue that, in the end, it's about both exercising and freeing our minds. So the question is, how does creative potential coincide with ownership of learning?

Ownership, as we know, includes autonomy and self-governance. Learning is not being told what or how to think but instead being encouraged to explore such things freely for oneself. When the learners own learning, they create powerful learning moments for themselves when they are inspired to take action to solve a problem or answer a challenge independently in ways that resonate with them. That's just one example of how learning ownership cultivates a learner's creative nature.

The nurturing of learner agency is the most important thing teachers can do to ensure their learners fulfill their highest potential.

Interestingly, there are shared characteristics between creative learners who own their learning, including choosing their own method of showing understanding, demonstrating innovative ways of addressing problems, and having the desire to discuss ideas rather than just facts (Drapeau, 2014).

The freedom to self-regulate and govern that's established through learning ownership is the same freedom through which our creative expression flourishes.

5. They View Mistakes as Learning Opportunities 

Think back to your own experiences as a young learner. What happened when you made a mistake? Were you given room to examine what went wrong and how you could improve? Were you encouraged to own the moment fully and think about a new path you could take that would lead to a more desirable outcome?

If so, then you were being coaxed to see errors as chances to become a better learner. In such scenarios, messing up has a constructive slant and becomes an adventure instead of a place to feel stuck. That's exactly how we want the learners in our classrooms to view making mistakes as part of taking responsibility for their learning.

Every error our learners make allows them to pause and consider the next steps. Educators and parents sometimes refer to this opportunity as a "teachable moment". Such instances demonstrate the space and time in which learning happens isn't confined to a classroom but exists all around us at any given moment.

While a learner might initially be inclined to see failure as backward motion, we can, as educators, ensure they retain responsibility for their mistakes—and therefore their learning—by guiding learners toward revisualizing them as stepping stones for success. In this way, we encourage any learner to mold themselves into someone who, instead of focusing on defeat, "has gained irreplaceable knowledge and the unstoppable perseverance born from overcoming hardship" (Arruda, 2015).

6. They Learn Project Management

Today's learners who own their learning enjoy peer collaboration within their learning environments. Social interdependence theory research has even revealed that learners collaborating with peers promotes psychological health and high self-esteem (Holland & Muilenburg, 2011). Aside from this, though, is the potential for learners to adopt other skills enhanced by collaboration, one of which is effective project management.

In our book Literacy is Not Enough (2011), we wrote extensively about the processes and benefits of learner collaboration. Specifically, the ownership of learning exhibited through collaboration develops skillsets that are highly transferrable from the classroom to the mechanics of the modern workplace. Collaboration involves a strong understanding of how to organise, execute, and debrief the steps involved in managing projects.

According to the Project Management Institute, "the changing nature of work due to technological advances, globalisation, and other factors means that, increasingly, work is organised around projects with teams being brought together based on the skills needed for specific tasks" (PMI, 2020). Collaborative and cooperative work within a space where learners can own their projects and how they structure them prepares them well for these environments that are part of the world of work outside of school.

7. They Learn to Experiment 

Do you know what "messy learning" is? Everyone from Albert Einstein to Miss Frizzle on The Magic School Bus has spoken about it. It's simply another way of saying "experimenting".

To truly understand how ownership of their learning works, a learner must experiment. However, this is not simply related to creating solutions or exploring possible outcomes. Experimentation also applies to how and where they choose to learn, how they connect the learning to history or experience, how they interact with peers and teammates, or how they choose to demonstrate their understanding, among other things.

Throughout their experimenting, they'll discover what works for them and what hinders their progress. They'll learn what to discard and what to keep that is useful. They'll get a sense of how to communicate better and be more helpful and productive to a team. And they'll gradually attain the right self-management skills to carry them successfully through school and life.

8. They Develop Iterative Thinking 

This point correlates well with the previous point about experimentation. Iterative thinking involves "repeating a process generating sequential outcomes with the aim to come out with a better version with every successive repetition" (Krishan, 2020). To an extent, this could be said to involve "experimenting" with successive versions of a solution, a product, a framework, or the like. In the end, having ownership over learning means striving for the best outcomes possible.

An example of where you see iteration at work quite clearly is in the design thinking process, and it's also a key concept in the cyclical framework of Solution Fluency. Both of these are illustrated in the graphics below.

Source: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/design-thinking/ 

Source: Solution Fluency Classroom Guide, Future Focused Learning, ©2022

The critical realisations learners can take away from using iterative thinking processes are:

• It often takes time to find the best answer/solution/destination.
• You're hardly ever right the first time.
• The method of iterative thinking is meant to be cyclical and involves a revisitation of past knowledge.
• If you pay attention, there are learning opportunities everywhere along the way.

9. They Learn to Think Outside the Box

While the origin of the phrase remains unclear, thinking outside the box (or outside the square, if you're in Australia) means thinking unconventionally and from new and challenging perspectives. Consider this: how does granting our learners ownership and agency over learning challenge their thinking?

Simply put, learning ownership makes students more than just learners. Instead, it challenges them to be, among other things, facilitators, gatherers of knowledge, analysts, and assessors in their own right. In fact, in our upcoming book Agents to Agency (2022), we referenced a 2019 study performed by Amplify profiling the merits that learners with agency experience as they gain more control over their learning.

In the case of learning ownership, thinking outside the box means learners work closely with teachers to make decisions about their learning. They negotiate, design learning that stretches their thinking, and even get involved in the design and implementation of school policies and programs, and share their ideas about what student-led learning means (Amplify, 2019).

As you can see, these are instances where learners are required to think like they've perhaps never thought before. Such pursuits take them out of their "thinking comfort zones"—outside that ever-present square or box—and into new ways of enhancing their learning, and even the learning of others.

10. They Become Explorers

If there's one thing we must encourage our learners to do as much as possible, it is to be curious. Curiosity, as Albert Einstein instructed, has its reasons for being. With ownership of learning, we must let the learners explore, explore, explore.

Being curious is a part of our nature, for humans have always been curious. It is such a fundamental component of who we are that we're mostly unaware of its pervasiveness, even though we spend much of our lives seeking information and stimuli for many purposes (Kidd & Hayden, 2015). The ownership of learning should include a focus on curiosity and the exploration of what makes us curious.

Learning ownership makes students more than learners—it challenges them to be facilitators, gatherers of knowledge, analysts, and assessors in their own right.

Think of some historical examples of curiosity and the wonders that have come from exploring new ideas and far-off possibilities. For instance, would Sir Isaac Newton have formulated physics, the Wright Brothers have discovered the human capability for flight, or Alexander Graham Bell pioneered interpersonal communication without first being curious?

And that's not all. One study suggests we retain information more effectively when we are curious about it. Curious minds exhibit a boost of activity in the hippocampus, the part of the brain that creates memories (Singh, 2014). Another study indicates the "cognitive impossibility" of being curious about and exploring things we are not interested in (Immordo-Yang, 2015). So the message here is clear—learners with ownership must be given room to be curious and to explore on their terms.

11. They Become Systems Thinkers

We essentially live in a world that runs on systems, and understanding this can help one better grasp the interconnectedness of everything around us. Systems thinking refers to production, ideation, ecosystems, supply chains, educational and healthcare systems, and more. It's a way of observing relationships between the components of something and how they function as a whole.

The main principles of systems thinking, as proposed in System Thinking Basics (1997) are as follows:

• Thinking of the "big picture"
• Balancing short-term and long-term perspectives
• Recognising the dynamic, complex, and interdependent nature of systems
• Taking into account both measurable and non-measurable factors
• Remembering we are all part of the systems in which we function and that we each influence these systems even as they are influencing us (Anderson & Johnson, 1997)

Fostering learning ownership leads to an exploration of how the curriculum is connected to the real world. It promotes an awareness of how analysing real-world problems that matter to find their solutions reveals the interwoven circumstances through which they became problems in the first place. It allows a learner to plan for their own success by implementing systems that make work and its organisation more efficient and successful. Finally, it encourages the highest levels of understanding of how to constructively self-assess.

These are just a few of the many ways ownership of learning makes a learner a systems thinker.

12. They Become Ready for the Global Creative Economy

Usually, our learners' journeys involve going from grade school to post-secondary education and then into the world. The idea (or, in this case, the hope) is they will be fully prepared by then to take on the challenges of the world, in an economy being driven increasingly by creativity and innovation, independent of outside assistance or influence.

In our book Agents to Agency, we discuss how the higher learners progress in their education, the more their ownership and autonomy over learning are systematically removed, and with this, their preparedness for the world beyond school (Crockett, 2022). This is why we advocate so strongly for learner agency and ownership over learning throughout a learner's educational career.

According to one study, a defining factor for college readiness is ownership of learning, where once it was thought to be merely content knowledge (Conley & French, 2014). The authors go on to make the following case for ownership:

"Students who demonstrate ownership of learning can be successful in a wide range of learning environments ... they are more likely to complete complex assignments, solve problems that require persistence, and create original or novel work of high quality ... it can be developed systematically and will have the greatest effect on students for whom college is likely to be particularly challenging in the first place." (Conley & French, 2014)

So why does this matter? Simply put, our learners are moving from these college experiences into professional careers of their own making in a world that is unpredictable, ever-changing, and in need of creativity, critical thinking, and innovation from its citizenry. Fostering ownership and autonomy over their learning, under the broader blanket of learner agency, provides learners with precisely the kind of independent self-governing ability they will need to contribute meaningfully to that world.

13. They Are Self-Directed

With ownership of learning comes the inherent ability to self-direct one's educational path, but first let's define self-direction. Essentially, self-directed learning means the learners themselves diagnose their learning needs and set realistic goals, identify the resources needed for learning, choose and implement effective learning strategies, and evaluate their learning outcomes—in other words, assume responsibility for and control of their learning (Towle & Cottrell, 1996).

A learner who has ownership of their learning becomes self-directed by nature, and they experience how to monitor and assess their progress and reflect on their learning based on their mastery of the content (McClaskey, 2020).

Self-directed learning incorporates many of the facets of personalised learning, which occurs when a teacher employs strategies that involve relevance that speak to learners' interests to strengthen the learning and thereby create an emotional connection (Crockett, 2019). When learning provokes emotion, there is an instant response that leads to developing a passion for learning. And what truly passionate learner is not also one that is predominantly self-directed?

Shift Your Gears

So we now know what can happen when we seek to give learners agency and ownership of their learning. We know what they gain, how it can change them, and how it can change their lives. Most of all, we've discovered just how capable our learners are when we give them the space to own their learning. So, what can we do to accomplish this for our own learners?

A great place to start the journey toward letting students own their learning is with the Culture of Excellence Learning Intentions Masterclass. In this shift, you'll learn how to promote the ownership of learning by creating learning intentions and success criteria that are clear and actionable and designed to let the learners take the lead in learning.

Did you know that learner agency is one of the 6 Aspects of a Culture of Excellence? It's true, and you can learn more about them and how to use them to take your school culture to new heights with this FREE guide below. Download it now and begin your journey to excellence!