What if one of the simplest ways to foster student agency was to help children stop comparing themselves with others and start looking at their own learning journey?There is something I have been thinking about lately: in a classroom, comparison happens naturally. Children notice who finishes first, who reads more fluently, who speaks English more confidently, who seems to find maths easy, or who always has their hand up.
But is comparison a bad thing? Not necessarily, in fact even outside school we learn from one another and we notice different strategies, because we are part of a learning community.
However, I think there is another kind of comparison that deserves more space in our classrooms:
comparing ourselves with ourselves.
- Where was I when I started?
- Where am I now?
- What have I improved?
- What would I like to work on next?
- And, perhaps most importantly:
- What can I do to get there?
Nowadays it's common knowledge that every learner starts from a different place and one of the things I particularly value about the PYP is its student-centered approach: every child comes into the classroom with a different collection of experiences, knowledge, skills, strengths and needs and, for this reason, even when we offer the same learning experience to a whole class, children are not necessarily starting from the same place... And they may not need exactly the same next step.
The IB describes the PYP as a framework in which students are agents of their own learning and partners in the learning process. Agency and self-efficacy are described as fundamental to learning in the PYP, with students taking responsibility and ownership of their learning.
This makes me wonder: How can we help children become more aware of their own starting point and their own progress?
One possible answer is through self-reflection, where reflection is more than “How did I do?”
Sometimes, when we think about reflection, we often think about questions such as: What did I learn? What did I enjoy? What was difficult?
These are useful questions, but reflection can become even more meaningful when it leads somewhere, moving reflection from simply looking backwards to also looking forwards. Questions such as
What can I already do?
What would I like to improve?
What could I do to improve it?
Is my strategy working?
What could I change?
can shift the point of view and make a strong connection with student agency.
Looking at a more recent IB review of the literature on student agency, self-reflection is identified as one of four important components of agency, alongside intentionality, forethought and self-regulation. The review also discusses processes such as setting goals, creating plans, monitoring progress, adapting to setbacks, and reflecting on learning experiences. This connection leads students from reflection to action, shaping the process into a little cycle:
I notice: the child first becomes aware of where they are.
↓
I choose: then they identify something they would like to improve.
↓
I try: they think about a possible strategy
↓
I check: they try it.
↓
I adjust: they come back to their goal and ask:
Is this helping me?
If it is, they can continue.
If it isn't, they can try something different.
This is where reflection becomes connected to action and agency: the PYP describes action as the core of student agency and emphasizes students' responsibility and ownership of their learning.
At this point it's easy to understand that individualizing learning does not necessarily mean preparing twenty completely different activities for twenty children, instead, very often, it can mean helping each child identify their own next step.
Imagine three children working on speaking in English: one child may already be very confident and need to work on using more precise vocabulary, another may understand everything but still hesitate to speak, while a third child may need to practice forming simple sentences: the learning experience can be shared, even though the starting points and, consequently, the goals can be different too. This is where self-reflection may become a simple but powerful tool for personalizing learning.
The IB itself describes the PYP as supporting personalised and flexible learning that adapts to diverse needs, cultures and contexts.
So instead of asking: “Who is doing better?”
We can help children ask: “What can I do now that I couldn't do before?”
It's a small shift can make an important difference, because it pushes each student from comparing with others to noticing personal progress, giving children another reference point: themselves.
A child who starts with less confidence but makes significant progress may not necessarily appear to be “ahead” at the end, but their learning journey may have been enormous while another child may start from a very different point and work towards a completely different goal: if we only look at the final product, some of this progress can remain invisible.
Self-reflection can make that progress more visible and it gives children the opportunity to recognize: “At the beginning I couldn't do this, and now I can.”
And that is a very different kind of success.
References and further reading:
International Baccalaureate Organization. Primary Years Programme – Curriculum Framework.
The IB describes students as agents of their own learning and identifies agency, self-efficacy and action as fundamental elements of the PYP.
Brandt, W. C. (2025). Measuring Student Success Skills: A Review of the Literature on Student Agency. International Baccalaureate Organization.
This review examines student agency and its relationship with goal setting, planning, self-regulation, monitoring, adaptation and self-reflection.
Toe, D., Lang, J., Paatsch, L., Yim, B., Jobling, W., Doig, B., & Aranda, G. (2016). Assessment of Student Development and Learning in IB PYP Schools. International Baccalaureate Organization.
The study examines assessment practices across PYP schools and discusses the role of student self-assessment and reflection in formative learning.
International Baccalaureate Organization. About Assessment.
The IB states that the prime objective of assessment in the PYP is to provide feedback on the learning process and stresses the importance of student and teacher self-assessment and reflection.
International Baccalaureate Organization. PYP Nano Resources – Student Agency in PYP Learning Communities.
A professional learning resource exploring how learning communities can support student agency.
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