1. Developing Resilient Agency in
Learning and Achievement
Ruth Crick
Professor of Learning Analytics & Educational Leadership
School of Education
cic.uts.edu.au

2. cic.uts.edu.aucic.uts.edu.au
1. A Metaphor for Learning Design
2. Learning Journeys
3. Learning Power
4. Coaching for Learning
5. Coaching Triads
6. Stories from Science @ UTS
2

3. 3

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A system that
depends on external
control is not
sustainable

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Biological, chemical, social, psychological, emotional, volitional, geographical,
Spiritual, behavioural, relational, sexual……

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Becoming
competent
Structuring
Knowledge
Generating
Learning
power
Forming
identity &
purpose
Deakin Crick, R. (2012). Student Engagement: Identity, Learning Power and Enquiry - a complex systems approach. in: Christenson, S., Reschly, A. & Wylie, C. (eds.)
The Handbook of Research on Student Engagement. New York: Springer

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Leaders
Learning
Teacher
Learning
Student
learning
Community
Leadership
learning
Parent
learning
Family
Learning
Employee
Learning
Holistic
Thinking &
Leadership
systems of systems

8. Colleen McLaughlin (2015:ix) THE CONNECTED SCHOOL
A Design for Well-Being – Supporting Children and Young People in Schools to
Flourish, Thrive and Achieve Colleen McLaughlin (2015) Pearson, London.
“a new approach, one that
emphasises relationships,
connection, control and meaning
is a better model for the social
and educational world young
people are in”

9. § We
are
living
off
our
legacy
infrastructure
and
it
is
failing
us
economically.
We
have
to
do
far
be;er
for
much
less.
§ Successful
business
will
be
Businesses
that
can
LEARN
be;er
and
faster
TOGETHER
than
our
internaEonal
compeEtors.
§ Otherwise
the
future
is
decline
into
a
third
world
economic
performance
9
June 1, 2015
We
are
living
off
legacy
infrastructure
and
it’s
failing
us
economically
We
have
to
do
be+er
with
less
Successful
businesses
will
be
those
that
can
LEARN
be;er
and
faster
TOGETHER
than
their
internaEonal
compeEtors
We
are
living
off
legacy
learning
infrastructure
and
it’s
failing
us
socially

10. Creating sustainable innovative infrastructure business models requires
the purposeful holistic design of infrastructure systems.
To do this effectively and efficiently needs an appreciation for the
inherent interdependency between infrastructure systems and the
complex and dynamic socio-cultural, political, environmental and
economic systems in which they sit. It requires an open-systems view
and recognition of the changing needs these wider contexts place on
the infrastructure systems over their long lives. It requires a move away
from the view of infrastructure as a set of static disconnected assets.
Creating resilient educational systems
requires the purposeful holistic and
collaborative design of learning
infrastructure systems

13. Sequencing of students’ encounter with
data/information

14. The average
person processes
more data in a
single day than a
person in the
1500s did in an
entire lifetime.
The Human Face of Big Data website at http://humanfaceofbigdata.com/ and https://www.facebook.com/FaceOfBigData.

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Learning is a recursive journey
……..from purpose to performance
Performing
Deakin Crick R. (2009) Inquiry-based learning: reconciling the personal with the public in a democratic and
archaeological pedagogy, Curriculum Journal, 20,1,73-92
forming
identity &
purpose
generating &
building new
knowledge
Applying &
performing

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‘an embodied and relational process
through which we regulate the flow of
energy and information over time in
order to achieve a purpose of value’
Ruth Deakin Crick, Shaofu Huang, Adeela Ahmed Shafi & Chris Goldspink (2015): Developing Resilient Agency in
Learning: The Internal Structure of Learning Power. British Journal of Educational Studies. DOI:
10.1080/00071005.2015.1006574. Open Access Eprint: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00071005.2015.1006574
Siegel, D. (2012) The Developing Mind: How relationships and the brain interact to shape who we are, New York, The
Guildford Press.

17. cic.uts.edu.auRMSEA=.035.

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Learning Power Dimensions
Mindful Agency Unaware, passive, mindless
Hope and Optimism Stuck and static
Sense-making Data accumulation
Creativity Rule bound
Curiosity Passive
Collaboration Independent or Dependent
Belonging Isolated, split off, lonely.
Openness to learning Closed, brittle or fragile
& dependent

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Macro Layers and feedback loops……
Community/
Customers
Learning
Leaders
Learning
Managers
Learning/
Teachers
Students/
Employees
Learning
Learning is a core process at multi-levels in learning
organisations
Blockley, D. (2010) The Importance of Being Process, Civil Engineering and Environmental Systems, 27(3)189-199

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Survey-based analytics for learning dispositions
Deakin Crick et al (In Press). Developing Resilient Agency in
Learning: the Crick Learning for Resilient Agency Profile.
20

21. 21
Mindful
Agency
Sense making
Creativity
CuriosityBelonging
Collaboration
Hope and
optimism
Rapid
Visual
Feedback
to
SEmulate
Self-­‐Directed
Change
A
framework
for
a
coaching
conversaEon
Deakin Crick et al (2015, In Press). Developing Resilient Agency in Learning: the Crick Learning for Resilient Agency Profile.
British Journal of Educational Studies
Rigid Persistence Fragile Dependence

22. Mindful Agency
Sense making
Creativity
CuriosityBelonging
Collaboration
Hope and
optimism
Taking responsibility for
my own learning over
time through defining my
purposes, understanding
and managing my
feelings, knowing how I
go about learning &
planning my learning
journey carefully.

23. Mindful Agency
Sense making
Creativity
CuriosityBelonging
Collaboration
Hope and
optimism
Making connections
between what I already
know & new information
& experience. Making
meaning by linking my
story, my new learning &
my purpose.

24. Mindful Agency
Sense making
Creativity
CuriosityBelonging
Collaboration
Hope and
optimism
Using my intuition &
imagination to generate
new ideas & knowledge.
Taking risks & playing
with ideas and artefacts
to arrive at new solutions.

25. Mindful Agency
Sense making
Creativity
CuriosityBelonging
Collaboration
Hope and
optimism
Wanting to get beneath the
surface & find out more.
Always wondering why and how.

26. Mindful Agency
Sense making
Creativity
CuriosityBelonging
Collaboration
Hope and
optimism
Being part of a learning community at
work, at home, in education & in my
social networks. Knowing I have
social resources to draw on when I
need them

27. Mindful Agency
Sense making
Creativity
CuriosityBelonging
Collaboration
Hope and
optimism
Being able to work with
others, to collaborate and
co-generate new ideas
and artefacts. Being able
to listen and contribute
productively to a team.

28. Mindful Agency
Sense making
Creativity
CuriosityBelonging
Collaboration
Hope and
optimism
Having the optimism & hope
that I can learn & achieve over
time. Having a growth mindset;
believing I can generate my
own new knowledge for what I
need to achieve

29. Mindful
Agency
Sense
making
Creativity
CuriosityBelonging
Collaboration
Hope and
optimism
Rigid Persistence Fragile Dependence
An emotional orientation of being open & ready to invest in learning,
having flexible self-belief, willing to persist & manage any self-doubt.
A necessary pre-requisite for developing resilience in learning
Open Readiness

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Resilient Agency
those qualities an individual has that
enable them to mindfully succeed in
pursuit of a chosen purpose despite
adverse conditions of risk,
uncertainty and challenge

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Resilience: Anti-fragile

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Otto Scharmer (2007) Theory U: Leading from the Future as it Emerges Cambriedge MA, SOL.

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Choosing
carefully
Collecting
thoroughly
Connecting
deeply
Constructing
creatively
Conveying
new knowledge

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‘It’s made me not so scared to
learn other things,’ ‘It was a
tiny little project and it spiraled
into all these other things that
were connected.’

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But with this
You
get
to
be
yourself,
you're
not
restricted.
you're
allowed
to
think
freely,
It's
different
because
you
teach
yourself
and
it's
your
own
work.
I
used
to
just
give
up
if
it
was
difficult
But
now
I've
gone
up
effort
wise
I
keep
going,
get
more
stuff
done.
You're
like
exploring
and
you
think
more
and
more
and
more
than
one
lesson
in
a
certain
subject.
With
this
you
learn
what
you
want
to
learn
and
that's
really,
really
important.
You
value
yourself
more
but
now
if
you
don't
do
what
the
teacher
says
that's
fine
cos
you
are
teaching
yourself
–
you
are
the
teacher.
It
really
does
change
you
as
a
person….

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Learning relationships
• Supporting the learning in making their own decisions and
taking responsibility for their own learningCoach
• Showing the learning how to do something that the Mentor
already knows how to doMentor
• Presenting expert knowledge – representing existing funds of
knowledgeExpert
Counsellor
Co-Learner • Learning Together in Authentic Contexts
• Facilitating the resolution of personal or social
challenges

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affirmation
challenge
trust

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Coaching
enabling the
‘other’ to
understand,
interpret and
appropriate
feedback

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teachers(
students(
community(
leaders(
learning as
feedback for
sustainable
change at all
levels in the
learning
system

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No Advising,
Fixing or
Helping

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Coaching Conversations:• Three roles – learner, coach, observer
• Three minutes silent reflection on your own profile
• Coach and learner discuss learner profile:
> Positive
> Build on strengths
> What is the learning for you?
• Observer – monitor and record body language and
learning conversation. What works? What doesn’t work?
• Rotate – 8 mins per person

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Ingredients of Coaching Conversations
AWARE
RESPONSE
OUTCOME
STRATEGY
PURPOSE
A Goal
A Plan
Success Criteria
Ability to Respond
Until Success
Criteria are Met
Self Awareness
PLAN
ACT
REFLE
CT
Affirmati
on
Challenge
Trust
A Coaching
Relationship
A View of Skillfulness
A Focus for
Questions
An Active
Learning Process