As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly embedded in learning processes, how can learners’ agency be understood, supported, and studied? With this question in mind, RESHAPE team member Danyu Yang recently participated in the doctoral course “Fostering Human Agency for AI-Mediated Learning” at KTH Royal Institute of Technology. The five-day course was held on site at KTH and focused on human agency in AI-supported learning environments. 

The course was closely connected to RESHAPE’s core research interests. RESHAPE examines how generative AI participates in and transforms group-based collaborative learning, with particular attention to how learners maintain judgment, make choices, co-construct understanding, and take responsibility in their interactions with AI, peers, and learning tasks. The theoretical discussions and case-based analyses in the course brought back to the project a clearer problem framework: how to explain why learners act, how to design learning environments that support their agency, and how to identify and analyze such actions in research data. 

This course participation also continued the academic exchange between RESHAPE and researchers at KTH around human agency and AI-mediated learning. Olga Viberg, one of RESHAPE’s key collaborators, was also involved in the course. Through such course participation and scholarly exchange, RESHAPE will continue to translate international discussions into the project’s theoretical development, research design, and reflections on educational practice.