Daring Pedagogy: Activating Student Agency and Predictable Growth Through Architectural Design

Background: Traditional pedagogies often fail to foster intrinsic motivation, creating a need for scalable models that produce predictable outcomes without constant teacher intervention. This study introduces "Daring Pedagogy," an architectural approach for designing self-regulating learning environments to address this gap.Methods: Using a mixed-methods longitudinal design, we analyzed Smartupiad, a system of voluntary team-based mathematics tournaments. The study covers 15,675 participation cases from 2,612 primary students over three years. Quantitative performance data were triangulated with qualitative teacher interviews to identify key mechanisms.Findings: The model effectively activates student learning potential. A near-deterministic relationship was found between sustained voluntary participation and a high probability of academic success. Inter-class competition emerged as a key mechanism, fostering intra-class psychological safety and "collective courage" that drives exceptional student progress.Contribution: This work extends Self-Determination Theory by offering a systemic model where support for autonomy is embedded into the learning architecture, providing a scalable alternative to teacher-centric interventions. It contributes an empirically validated, predictable framework to the Learning Sciences for designing educational ecosystems that foster genuine student agency.