Most teachers want students to “take ownership” of their learning. It is one of those phrases that sounds right as soon as we say it. We want learners to set goals, use feedback, make good choices, ask for help, monitor progress, and keep working when the first attempt does not go well. The challenge is that many students have not had enough opportunities to practice being owners of their learning.

For years, school has often taught students to wait. Wait for directions. Wait for the teacher to say what comes next. Wait for permission. Wait for the grade. Wait for the adult to decide whether the work is good enough. In a personalized, competency-based classroom, we ask them to do something different. We ask them to understand where they are on a proficiency scale, make decisions about practice, use evidence of learning, seek feedback, revise work, and sometimes choose how they will demonstrate proficiency. That shift can feel exciting to teachers. It can also feel confusing to students.

Element IXb of the Marzano Academies CBE Instructional Model focuses on enhancing student agency. In the IXb Folio, Dr. Marzano explains that in a traditional classroom, the teacher is usually the one directing what happens, how long it lasts, and how the work fits into the larger picture of instruction and assessment. In a competency-based classroom, students begin to take on some of those responsibilities. To do that well, they need a specific set of skills that help them develop agency (Marzano, 2021).

Agency is not something teachers give to students. It is something students develop within themselves as they practice making decisions, experiencing the results of those decisions, receiving feedback, and adjusting what they do next.

Why: Agency Is Not the Same as Freedom

One of the common misunderstandings about agency is that it means students should simply be free to do what they want. This misunderstanding has created some poor classroom practices. In the name of agency, students are sometimes left to figure things out without enough instruction, feedback, or structure. This shift can happen too quickly, leading to frustrated students and teachers concluding they are unable to use the freedom well.

But that is not agency. Agency is the perceived ability of the learner, based upon his or her capacity, to shape his or her life (Zima, 2021). This definition includes both belief and skill. A learner must believe that his or her actions can influence what happens next. The learner must also have the capacity to act in ways that move learning forward.

Design Area IX focuses on efficacy and agency. Efficacy involves belief. Agency involves action. If students do not believe they can exert control in a situation, and if they do not take steps to exert that control, they cannot fully regulate their behavior in that situation (Marzano & Abbott, 2022; Marzano, Aschoff, & Avila, 2022).

Element IXa focuses on inspiring students so they begin to see what might be possible. Element IXb moves students toward action. It asks teachers to help learners practice the tangible behaviors of agency: having a voice, making choices, helping design classroom systems, imagining possible selves, and developing the agentic mindset needed to keep working when learning becomes difficult.

Research supports this direction. The OECD defines student agency as the capacity to set a goal, reflect, and act responsibly to bring about change (OECD, 2019). Mammadov and Schroeder’s (2023) meta-analysis also found that autonomy support is connected to student motivation, engagement, self-regulated learning, self-beliefs, and academic performance.

This does not mean teachers remove structure. In fact, structure is what makes agency possible for many learners. Choice without clarity can become overwhelming. Voice without follow-through can feel dismissive as a check-the-box exercise. Enhancing student agency is not simply giving students more freedom. It requires carefully designed opportunities for students to practice control while the teacher remains actively involved as the more knowledgeable other.

How: Agency Develops Through Designed Practice

The IXb folio identifies several practices that help teachers enhance student agency. These include developing a growth mindset, creating possible selves, developing standard operating procedures, fostering student voice, and fostering student choice (Marzano, 2021). These should not be treated as a checklist. They are better understood as ways to create the conditions on the classroom where agency can grow.

Growth mindset is one example. It is often reduced to “just try harder” or a poster of a brain exercising hung in the front of the classroom. That is not helpful. Some students have tried hard and still struggle. Telling them to try harder without changing the strategy, support, or feedback does very little.

A more useful approach is to help students understand that growth in the learning progression depends on the relationship between effort, strategy, feedback, and time. Students need to reflect on whether they worked hard, but they also need to ask whether the strategy they used was effective, whether they understood the feedback they received, and whether they used available support and time. They need to know that adjusting the plan is not a sign of improper planning. It is, in fact, the proper planning of multiple pathways to their future self so they can maneuver around the guaranteed obstacle that makes a plan successful (Lopez, 2013).

Yeager and colleagues (2019) found that growth mindset interventions can improve outcomes, but school context shapes the effects. A student may hear that ability can grow, but if the classroom treats mistakes as embarrassing, the message will not hold for long.

Possible selves also help develop agency. A possible self asks students to imagine who they might become. At first, this may sound like a career activity. It can be, but it is more than that. A possible self helps students connect current action to a future identity. How can this current learning goal advance them as a literate and numerate student in a field of knowledge they have expressed interest in? Bringing the learner into the equation through their prior knowledge, which drives interests, rather than expecting them to learn compliantly because they need to, helps them see how learning supports growth toward their future self.

Oyserman (2017) argues that future identities motivate action more effectively when students can see both the destination and the path. In a competency-based classroom, proficiency scales already provide a pathway for academic learning. Possible selves help students understand why movement on that pathway might matter.

Standard operating procedures may not sound like agency at first, but they are one of the most practical ways to help students take more control. Students cannot exercise agency if every common decision has to go back through the teacher. What do I do when I am stuck? How do I request feedback? What do I do after I demonstrate proficiency? How do I know whether I should keep practicing or ask for a conference? If the answers to these questions live only in the teacher’s head, the teacher remains the control center of the classroom. SOPs move some of that decision-making into a public system students can use.

The important move is not simply handing students an SOP. It is involving students in the design and adjustment of the system when appropriate. The teacher still has responsibility for safety and learning of the learners assigned. But when students help identify where the classroom is getting stuck and help design a process to improve it, they begin to see the classroom as something they help shape.

Student voice works in a similar way. Voice is not just students talking more. It means students have meaningful opportunities to express opinions and beliefs about how the classroom should be run and how learning can be improved. These strategies only matter if adults are prepared to respond. Students learn quickly whether voice matters. If they are asked for input and nothing changes, the message is clear. We asked, but your ideas did not really matter.

Conner and colleagues (2025) found that student voice practices were associated with stronger student agency, stronger achievement indicators, and lower absenteeism. Their work points to the importance of adult responsiveness. Students do not need every suggestion accepted. They do need to see that adults listened, considered the input, and responded honestly.

Student choice is often the most visible version of agency, but it can also be misused. Teachers may offer too many choices, choices that do not matter, or choices disconnected from the learning goal. Choosing well is a skill. Students need help learning how to make choices that support their progress. In a competency-based classroom, choice should stay connected to the proficiency scale. Students may choose a practice pathway, a resource, the order of tasks, or the format used to provide evidence. The strongest evidence of agency is not that students made a choice. It is that they can explain why the choice made sense.

What: What It Looks Like When Agency Is Being Enhanced

When Element IXb is working, the classroom becomes more structured. The difference is that the structure is more visible and more useful to students. Students help design and use SOPs. They express opinions about how the classroom can work better. They make choices about learning activities and how they demonstrate knowledge. They can explain how their choices support progress toward a learning goal (Marzano, 2021).

At the classroom level, this might look like a student checking an SOP before asking the teacher what to do next. It might look like a group using a plus-delta chart to improve collaboration. It might look like a learner choosing a more difficult practice task because she understands it better matches her current need. It might sound like a student saying, “I am not ready for the assessment yet because I can do the 2.0 content, but I still need help explaining the 3.0 target.” That statement is not just about assessment. It is evidence of agency. The learner understands the goal, recognizes current status, and makes a decision about what should happen next.

At the school level, enhancing agency requires schools to look for patterns. Do students set goals and revisit them? Do they use proficiency scales to understand what they are learning? Do adults respond to student input in visible ways? Do students learn how to make choices that improve learning? Do they reflect on whether their decisions helped them move closer to proficiency? These questions matter because agency should not depend on one teacher’s personality. If agency is part of the school’s design, students experience it across classrooms, advisory experiences, feedback conversations, and assessment practices.

As was stated at the beginning, agency is not something teachers hand over. It is something learners develop through repeated opportunities to act with increasing responsibility. A classroom can be highly structured and still develop agency. That is the work of Element IXb.

To continue building your understanding of effective, evidence-based, competency-based instructional practices and the full Marzano Academies instructional model, become a member of the Learning Lab. For only $10 per month, Members can access Dr. Marzano’s research Folios, professional learning resources, and practical tools designed to help teachers make competency-based practices work in real classrooms. The Learning Hub also includes Badging Experiences that allow teachers to identify a meaningful professional growth goal, strengthen their classroom routines, and document their growing expertise. Teachers should own their professional learning, and the Learning Hub is built to support that work. You can also sign up for Virtual Office Hours or engage in a CBE Coaching Series with Marzano Academies Faculty to deepen your team’s approach to a personalized, competency-based classroom. Please reach out with any questions.

References

Conner, J., Mitra, D. L., Holquist, S. E., & Boat, A. (2025). How teachers’ student voice practices affect student engagement and achievement: Exploring choice, receptivity, and responsiveness to student voice as moderators. Journal of Educational Change, 26(1), 89–118. doi:10.1007/s10833-024-09513-0

Lopez, S. J. (2013). Making hope happen: Create the future you want for yourself and others. Atria Books

Mammadov, S., & Schroeder, K. (2023). A meta-analytic review of the relationships between autonomy support and positive learning outcomes. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 75, 102235. doi:10.1016/j.cedpsych.2023.102235

Marzano, R. J. (2021). Element IXb: Enhancing student agency in a competency-based classroom. Marzano Academies.

Marzano, R. J., & Abbott, S. D. (2022). Teaching in a competency-based elementary school: The Marzano Academies model. Marzano Resources.

Marzano, R. J., Aschoff, A. S., & Avila, A. (2022). Teaching in a competency-based secondary school: The Marzano Academies model. Marzano Resources.

OECD. (2019). Student agency for 2030. OECD Future of Education and Skills 2030.

Oyserman, D. (2017). Seeing the destination and the path: Using identity-based motivation to understand and reduce racial disparities in academic achievement. Social Issues and Policy Review, 11(1), 159–194. doi:10.1111/sipr.12030

Yeager, D. S., Hanselman, P., Walton, G. M., Murray, J. S., Crosnoe, R., Muller, C., Tipton, E., Schneider, B., Hulleman, C. S., Hinojosa, C. P., Paunesku, D., Romero, C., Flint, K., Roberts, A., Trott, J., Iachan, R., Buontempo, J., Yang, S. M., Carvalho, C. M., Hahn, P. R., Gopalan, M., Mhatre, P., Ferguson, R., Duckworth, A. L., & Dweck, C. S. (2019). A national experiment reveals where a growth mindset improves achievement. Nature, 573, 364–369. doi:10.1038/s41586-019-1466-y

Zima, B. (2021). Mindsets and skill sets for learning: A framework for building student agency. Marzano Resources.