Teaching and Lessons based on the Learner’s ‘Mediated Agency’

From a Perspective of the Socio-Cultural Approach

Abstract

In this article, I discuss teaching and lessons based on the learner’s agency from the perspective of the socio-cultural approach. The concept of the learner’s ‘mediated agency’ in the socio-cultural approach is not indicative of individual competence but indicates the intention and the capacity of the agent embedded in context and environment. This contradicts the perception in which learners are a homogeneous group and teaching and learning are opposing practices, and considers classroom practices as the process of complicated interaction among the agencies of teacher and students. Teacher contingency is a key concept to eliminate the dichotomy between teaching and learning. To focus on contingency makes the leaner’s agency the starting point of their teaching, encourages the representation of the leaner’s agency, and brings the learner’s lifeworld to the classroom. Previous research proposed to incarnate the dialogic structure in order that all learners and teachers interact as agents in the classroom. I conclude that we should discuss alternative ways and forms of dialogic teaching and lessons in order to develop and realize the individual learner’s agency.