Year-to-Date: 405.3; Mar 2023: 77.5; Last Week: 32.2
After conferences (and most really important school events that I lead), I reflect on the level of engagement for all participants. In parent-teacher conferences, engagement usually involves questions and answers, which is not highly engaging. In parent-teacher-student conferences, engagement waxes and wanes depending on everyone’s comfort level with communicating together, so it depends. In student-led conferences, engagement starts and remains high because this event is designed for children to explain their learning using their words, which provides what students need most: agency. (There are some unique situations where I have not observed very much engagement, and, these times have more to do with the family’s dynamics than learning.)
When I reflected a bit more, I noticed that students and their families were focused more on motivation to learn rather than engagement for the sake of engaging in the event itself. Motivation can be either internal or external. For example, I am externally motivated to run because I treasure the time that I spend running with Luna but I am internally motivated to run because it just makes me feel good! In the same way, students might be externally motivated by the marks, scores, or grades that they receive from teachers. They might also be externally motivated by the rewards that their family members provide. I observed that students were internally motivated to explain what they learnt through their approach to learning at these conferences, which was such a positive reflection of everything that Rachel, Khadija, and I value.
When I shared my experience with Chie and Luna, I wondered if the conferences had more to do with validation than motivation. By validation, I mean the processes that we use and value to confirm the rightness or wrongness of our thoughts, actions, and words. I wondered if students were motivated to explain what they learnt through their approach to learning because the process of student-led conferences validated their identity. The more I wondered, the more it became obvious that the students were utilizing this process to have their identity validated in front of (and in plain view) of their families and teachers. Thanks for your continuous support for student-led conferences 🙂 Please use the hyperlinks to access the Padlet and photographs.