The LEGO Foundation’s Learning through Play with Technology (Tech & Play) initiative promotes student-centered, play-based strategies and new digital tools, in Kenya and Rwanda. Aligning with these countries’ new competency-based curriculum (CBC), the intervention emphasizes student agency, a core element of both playful learning and the CBC, by encouraging students to explore concepts deeply and make meaningful choices about their learning. However, transitioning from traditional teacher-led instruction to a curriculum that promotes student agency poses challenges, particularly in environments where student choice has not been emphasized. This presentation looks at how teachers are navigating this pedagogical transition and explores what supports are needed to help teachers enable students to take a more active role in their learning.

Conducted by the Education Development Center (EDC) in partnership with researchers in Kenya and Rwanda, the study draws on in-depth interviews with teachers, implementing partner staff, and other stakeholders, as well as observations of classrooms and teacher training sessions. Informed by existing studies, the findings highlight ways teachers are working to foster student agency, along with the challenges they face. The findings highlight that teachers foster student agency through various strategies, such as collaborative group work, allowing choices in tasks, exploration, and encouraging questions and feedback. Group work has become a primary way for these teachers to enable students to make decisions about how tasks are completed, who they work with, and how they present their ideas. However, managing groups effectively and ensuring active participation remains challenging. In addition, over-guidance remains an issue, as teachers struggle to balance between too much and too little direction. While student exploration enhances student agency, it is not widely practiced, and activities often lack strong connections to conceptual learning objectives. Additionally, creating safe spaces for questions and feedback supports student voice, but this is sometimes hindered by discouraging teacher reactions and peer teasing.

The research also highlighted three key supports teachers need to transition to this new pedagogical approach. One important strategy is designing lessons that integrate opportunities for student choice. Clear and high-quality lesson plans can serve as a starting point, but they are not enough on their own. Teachers also need access to training and coaching that allows them to practice and refine these new pedagogical approaches. In addition, creating teacher communities of practice, where teachers share ideas, challenges, and strategies, can help build a support network in this transition. These findings can go beyond the specific contexts and resonate with global education systems grappling with a pedagogical transition from teacher-led instruction to student-centered learning.

Keywords: Student agency, Play-based pedagogy, Competency-based curriculum, Pedagogical transition, Sub-saharan Africa.