Agentic Engagement

Abstract

Agentic engagement is one type of engagement, but it may be the most important type for students of the twenty-first century. Agentic engagement is what students say and do to create a more supportive learning environment for themselves (e.g., offer their input, express a preference, find interesting things to do). Through their agency and initiative, students personalize and upgrade the quality of their surrounding learning environment. This upgrade (e.g., teachers become more supportive, activities become more interesting, resources surface) catalyzes students’ motivational satisfactions, positive development, and academic progress. Given these benefits, we consider the possible design and implementation of student-focused agentic engagement interventions. We outline what a possible intervention might look like, and we offer our recommendations for how to design and implement such future intervention work.