This book offers educators practical strategies to cultivate agency in both teachers and learners. By focusing on collaborative learning through writing, blended learning and reflective practice, it equips readers with essential tools to enhance their teaching methods and promote learner autonomy in various educational contexts.
Blending theory with real-world applications, the book demonstrates how learner and teacher agency are deeply interconnected, showing how collaboration, technology and reflective practices create more dynamic, student-centred classrooms. The first author’s action research project provides practical insights, illustrating how agency can be fostered in both in-person and blended learning environments. Readers will also gain valuable perspectives from other teachers, who share how reflective practice has helped them improve their own agency, as well as their students’ engagement and independence.
Educators, teacher educators and researchers across disciplines will find this book indispensable for its evidence-based strategies, offering actionable approaches to fostering agency, collaboration and professional development in today’s rapidly evolving educational landscape.
Table of Contents:
Table of Contents
List of figures
List of tables
Foreword
1. Individual and collective agency in learning and teaching
2. Agency in collaborative learning
3. Agency and collaboration in a blended environment
4. From reflective practice to action research
5. An action research project: A blended collaborative writing course from New Zealand
6. Learner practices of the blended collaborative approach
7. Learner perceptions of the blended collaborative approach
8. Post-action research reflection: From research back to reality
9. A single voice to a community of practice
10. Future directions for collaborative learning and collective agency
References
Index
About the Author :
Yue-en Anita Pu, originally from Taiwan, has been teaching English since 2004. She is a Senior Teacher at the University of Waikato College. Anita has developed numerous curricula and assessments for English for Academic Purposes, catering to a range of levels from foundation studies to postgraduate preparation.
Roger Barnard recently retired as associate professor in Applied Linguistics from the University of Waikato. Before taking up his post in 1995, he had worked in England, Europe, and the Middle East as a teacher, teacher educator, manager and advisor to ministries of education.
