Leader of Pedogogy
LOP Message
2019 Student-led Conferencing at O’Connor Catholic College
Student-led conferencing has begun at O’Connor this week with Stage 5 and we are embracing this innovative process with enthusiasm for such a dynamic contemporary opportunity. Already, the positive impact of supporting our students in leading a discussion that enables them to identify strategies to move their learning forward is being felt. Our participating students are experiencing a sense of their voice being valued as they begin to take ownership for their learning. Participating students have highlighted the significance of this process as they provided the following earnest feedback :
“If I had done this in Year 7 & 8, I would have learnt so much more and so much better.” (Year 10)
“The conversations I will have at home will be very different now.” (Year 10)
“I see that I need to be responsible for my learning.” (Year 9) |
Our sense of being an authentic learning community is clear, as all stakeholders invest in this informative process. Our parents identified that participating in the student-led conferences enabled them to see their child’s learning with a different perspective resulting in a renewed understanding and interest in the learning exchange between parent/teacher/student:
“ I was sceptical but found it really great, thought it would be passive but there was lots of interaction. In this process we could see he was really self-driven - rather than us needing to tell him what to do.”
“The opportunity to ‘chair’ the meeting demonstrated her growth in confidence.”
“I heard more from him in the last 15 minutes than I have all year about his learning!”
“I need to get involved more.” |
What exactly is student-led conferencing?
It is a student-led open discussion with parents about their learning successes and struggles supported collaboratively by their PAC teacher.
How does this differ from Parent/Teacher interviews?
The difference lies in the word ‘interview’: typically in a Parent/Teacher interview, the parent questions teacher in regards to the progress of their child. But let’s get real here - is the progress in the learning, or is it in the student’s compliance and ‘fitting’ to an expectation?
Why should we have student-led conferencing?
I think the crux of the ‘why’ can be found in ‘how’ we navigate with our rapidly changing world whilst continuing to use an antiquated education system, 300 years out of date! It is critical that we more than react to the demands of our world including instant mass communication, technological advancements, social disruption, and change - constant change. We need to promote and unlock our students’ potential through the building of leadership, innovation, and creativity so that our students can be confident to truly make a difference in our world.
Let’s break student-led conferencing down:
Over previous articles, I have highlighted the research-based benefits of student-led conferencing, while there are myriad positive impacts, all fall into the three areas of metacognition, social learning, and engagement. If our students can reflect on and articulate how they learn and why they can, they can then identify steps to move their learning forward which leads to greater resilience. If they can take the lead in a conference, they learn the skills to plan effectively, prioritise information, articulate eloquently and represent themselves in a mature and professional manner. If they have ownership in their learning then they are engaged.
As a community we are working collaboratively to enhance the learning for all, founded on faith, focused on learning.
Eli Simpson
Leader of Pedagogy