A Case Study On Cultivating Learner Agency In Middle School High-quality Lessons

Cultivating students’ leaner agency is an inevitable choice in the context of the Double Reduction policy.Teachers play a pivotal role as the organizers of classroom instruction.This study uses classroom observation to collect statistics and analyze teaching practices in middle school English high-quality lessons with the aim of summarizing the current situation and making feasible suggestions.The following are the three questions that this study will focus on answering:(1)In high-quality classes,how are the teaching resources supplied? Do they effectively cultivate the learner agency of students?(2)In high-quality classes,how are the teaching activities organized? Do they effectively cultivate the learner agency of students?(3)In highquality classes,how are the feedback activities designed? Do they effectively cultivate the learner agency of students?The study found that each teacher used a different combination of teaching activities in developing students’ learner motivation.For example,some teachers were good at stimulating students’ learning interest and initiative through open-ended questions,while others were good at organizing peer or group activities.In response to the three questions,this study concluded the following: First,few teachers involved students in the setting of teaching objectives and the selection of teaching content.Teachers often directly ask students to make use of existing textbooks and to read aloud teaching objectives,which did not help much to enhance students’ agency.Second,every teacher uses open-ended questions and group activities to stimulate students’ thinking and cooperation during lessons,yet closed questions and individual activities still predominate.Students’ learning agency needs to be further explored.Third,teachers are increasingly focusing on students’ own ideas and facilitating their learning through self-correction and peer assessment.However,students are rarely given the opportunity to choose their own feedback methods or to reflect on the lesson or make suggestions for the teacher at the end of the English lesson.As a result,students’ agency is not fully realized.To sum up,the author suggests that teachers should allow students to have more say when setting teaching objectives or choosing teaching contents;encourage students to explore open-ended problems independently and make progress together with group members;listen to students’ voices,develop students’ ability of selfcorrection and peer assessment,and finally assist students to become the masters of learning.