Understanding and Leveraging Contradictions of Instructional Activities for Fostering Students' Agency

Instructional activities are situated in a web of interdependent activity systems such as students' families, educational institutes, research programs, industries and governments. Historically accumulating tensions between these systems are said to impose contradictory demands on students. For example, during learning, students often feel compelled to choose between being a grade maker versus a sense maker. Such deep-rooted problems cannot be addressed by simply finding better ways of implementing existing practices. Hence we revisit key ideas such as instruction, feedback, competence and their interconnections by considering contradictions across activity systems. Then we carve out a space for students' agency within such interconnections by introducing and investigating a construct called 'students' feedback seeking actions' using cultural historical activity theory (CHAT). Finally, its affordances in further uncovering and leveraging contradictions of instructional activities for fostering students' agency are explored using a case study from undergraduate chemistry education.