‘If you have the freedom, you don’t need to even think hard’ – considerations in designing for student agency through digital multimodal composing in the language classroom

Abstract

We report on a study in which two primary school English Language teachers work with researchers to co-design a series of lessons to enhance student agency. ‘Tinkering’ through digital multimodal composing is used as a pedagogical approach. We reflect on the issues in balancing the student’s agency with the teacher’s role. Our study is guided by questions on how we can design for student agency through digital multimodal composing and what the considerations to design for student agency are. Our findings suggest that while tinkering offers a useful set of features for the design of a more student-centric English Language classroom, two important considerations need to be taken into account. The first relates to the extent in which the student can make choices; the second relates to the extent of the teacher’s guidance in scaffolding the process of digital multimodal composing.