Why do some people, when faced with a difficult task, stop at the first “this is impossible,” while others look for an alternative path, involve the right people, test different solutions, and ultimately keep moving forward?
In today’s business and technology environment, the term “High Agency” is increasingly used to describe this way of thinking. It refers to a person’s willingness to influence circumstances, act independently, and find opportunities even when there is no ready-made scenario.
These qualities largely overlap with the mindset of an A-player: initiative, responsibility, the ability to make decisions, and the capacity to turn ideas into concrete actions. For the A+ Educational Holding, whose mission is to nurture A-players, developing this way of thinking is an important part of the educational process.
What Is High Agency
High Agency can be described as a high level of personal agency. A person sees themselves as an active participant in events and understands that their decisions and actions can change the situation.
The concept has gained popularity in entrepreneurial and technology circles. One of its popularizers is British author George Mack. In his essay on High Agency, he describes it as a combination of three components: clear thinking, a tendency to take action, and a willingness to question established constraints.
At the same time, High Agency should be distinguished from established academic concepts in psychology or education. It is a modern concept from the fields of business, technology, and leadership that has much in common with well-researched ideas such as self-efficacy, internal locus of control, and personal agency.
From “I Can’t” to “What Can I Do?”
High Agency is most clearly demonstrated in situations where there is no ready-made instruction.
Imagine that a team of students is working on a project and discovers that the planned experiment cannot be carried out with the available equipment. There are several possible scenarios. One is to abandon the idea. Another is to find out what equipment could replace it, modify the methodology, consult an expert, find a partner laboratory, or redesign the experiment.
The second scenario demonstrates High Agency in action. The limitation remains, but the attitude toward it changes: what can I do with the resources I have right now? This is where High Agency intersects with the concept of A-players. An A-player sees the problem, analyzes it, and looks for a path toward the result.
Why This Quality Matters for Modern Education
International educational discourse uses a related but academically much better-established concept: student agency.
In the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Learning Compass 2030 framework, student agency is one of the key elements of education for the future. The OECD describes it through students’ ability to set goals, act responsibly, and influence both their own learning and the world around them.
This significantly changes the role of the school. A child gradually moves from following ready-made algorithms to independently choosing how to act. They ask questions, formulate hypotheses, make decisions, see the consequences of their choices, and learn to take responsibility for the outcome. For a future A-player, this experience is especially important.
How an A-Player Mindset Develops
High Agency cannot be developed through a single subject or one isolated lesson. It requires an environment that regularly gives a child space for independence.
Project-based and inquiry-based learning makes it possible to work with tasks that may have several correct solutions. Teamwork teaches students to reach agreements, argue their position, and take responsibility for their part of a shared result. Interdisciplinary tasks demonstrate that complex problems rarely fit within the boundaries of a single subject.
At A+ Gymnasium, one such example was a six-month interdisciplinary project for students in grades 5-11 titled “How Food Moves the World – From Grain to the Global Economy.” Students explored the food system simultaneously from the perspectives of economics, mathematics, geography, history, civic education, biology, ecology, and computer science. They calculated product costs, analyzed inflation and global supply routes, studied the environmental consequences of production, created interactive infographics and dashboards, and developed their own social campaign.
In a project like this, there is no single route to the correct answer. A student has to identify the problem, formulate questions, find and analyze information, choose a way of working, create their own product, and present the result.
The right to make mistakes also plays an important role. If every incorrect decision is treated as a failure, a child quickly learns to choose the safest path. When a mistake becomes material for analysis, a willingness to experiment, adjust decisions, and keep moving forward begins to emerge.
This is how the habit of asking oneself gradually develops: what depends on me, and what can I do next?
From a Question to Independent Research
Another space for developing personal agency is scientific research.
In the 2025-2026 academic year, students of A+ Gymnasium presented 33 research projects across various departments of the Junior Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. The topics covered natural sciences and STEM, mathematics and data analytics, social sciences, philology, and intercultural studies.
One example is student Kateryna Kopyl’s research project, “The Effect of Temperature and Material on the Stability and Intensity of Fluorescence,” which won first place in the Physics and Astronomy Department of the Junior Academy of Sciences.
In this case, the value lies both in the result and in the research journey itself. The student works with a problem, analyzes the collected data, formulates conclusions, and presents her own work. The competition becomes an opportunity to take the result of independent intellectual work beyond the classroom.
When Knowledge Becomes Action
High Agency is also demonstrated when a child uses their knowledge to help others.
As part of the cooperation between A+ Gymnasium and the “Zhyttieliub” charitable foundation, students joined a volunteer educational project. During the 2025-2026 academic year, 85 online and offline English lessons were conducted, with 30 students from A+ Gymnasium participating in the club.
This case illustrates another dimension of the A-player mindset: knowledge becomes a resource that can be applied in real interaction with society. A student sees where their competence can be useful, gets involved in the work, and takes responsibility for their part of a shared effort.
From Knowledge to Independent Decisions
The mission of the A+ Educational Holding is to nurture A-players. That is why it is important to create conditions in which a student can become the author of their own decisions: conduct research, work on projects, collaborate with a team, present ideas, receive feedback, and see the results of their own actions.
During the 2025-2026 academic year, students of A+ Gymnasium prepared 33 research projects for the Junior Academy of Sciences, contributed to the creation of 65 scientific articles, and conducted 85 volunteer lessons. Fourteen students became finalists in international academic competitions. As a result of competitions and olympiads, students received 29 gold, 15 silver, and 22 bronze awards and certificates.
Behind every number lies a process that is even more important for education: asking a question, investigating a problem, making a choice, creating an original product, presenting it to others, and taking responsibility for the result.
This transition from knowledge to action is an important component in the development of an A-player.
People Who See Opportunities to Act
The world in which today’s students will study and work is unlikely to offer them a ready-made set of instructions for decades to come. Technologies are changing, professional roles are transforming, and new challenges often emerge faster than established ways of solving them. That is why the ability to act under conditions of uncertainty is becoming increasingly valuable.
High Agency provides an apt contemporary term for one manifestation of this mindset. The educational concept of student agency helps explain how a child’s sense of agency can be developed while they are still at school.
For the A+ Educational Holding, this is directly connected to its mission of nurturing A-players: people who are able to see opportunities for their own action, make decisions, take responsibility for them, and turn their knowledge and ideas into results.
