Work Conferences and Student Engagement

The purpose of this research was to determine the impact of individual, weekly work conferences on students' levels of intrinsic motivation, work engagement, and enthusiasm for learning. The study was conducted with 28 fourth through sixth graders in a mixedage, public Montessori classroom. Data was collected as notes during teacher observations, conversations with students, and during the work conferences themselves. Accountability and relational support increased through student teacher dialogue about work. These two factors improved the overall student productivity, enthusiasm, and organization, as well as the work culture of the classroom. The conferences helped the students become more conscious of the nature of their learning, and they helped the teacher obtain a deeper understanding of students. This benefitted lesson planning and teacher engagement in classroom processes. Further research could be conducted to investigate, with more depth, the impact of work conferences on student self efficacy beliefs, the use of written self evaluation tools, and the use of portfolios to catalogue and present work.  intrinsic motivation, work conferences, joyful learning WORK CONFERENCES AND STUDENT ENGAGEMENT 3 One of the most sacred goals in a Montessori classroom is to spark students' joy in learning. We use beautiful, hands on materials to inspire self direction and tactile exploration. We speak kindly and respectfully so we don't make students feel afraid. We give lessons individually and in small groups in order to closely observe our students and to foster a meaningful relationship that builds over the course of a three year age cycle. All of these facets of Montessori pedagogy align perfectly with the research that has been conducted about student motivation in the classroom. However, even in a Montessori classroom, where motivation is addressed thoroughly in pedagogy and practice, there can be blind spots and breakdowns in student engagement. There are students whose academic work is driven by a guiding inner force, and there are other students who would sit and draw comics all day if went unnoticed. In a classroom of 28 fourth through sixth graders, many of them began the year working hard, creatively, and with rich intrinsic motivation. There were others, however, who were not fully engaged in the learning process, which was detrimental to their skillbuilding, self esteem, and self actualization. The unmotivated students set an unfocused tone in the classroom that affected other, more engaged students. This research sought to examine whether or not work conferences could be an effective, multi faceted intervention to increase student motivation. By increasing one on one teacher student interaction, there could be more opportunity to influence student self efficacy beliefs, provide challenging work according to individual abilities, and offer encouragement, support, and even some direct instruction. This action research project explored the effects of holding weekly individual work conferences with all 28 students in a fourth through sixth grade classroom. The conferences included teacher student dialogue about WORK CONFERENCES AND STUDENT ENGAGEMENT 4 completed work, work in progress, joint lesson planning, and sometimes mini lessons. The goal was to empower students in their own learning process, to deepen the teacherstudent relationship, and to clarify work tasks tailored to individual student ability. The question that spurred this research was: Will a consistent work conference schedule and structure in an Upper Elementary classroom increase student engagement, joy, enthusiasm, and pride in work? Review of Literature Cszikzentmihalyi (2014) has become well known for his extensive research into the subject of "flow" or "optimal experience." Flow can be defined as: ".an intrinsically motivated, task focused state characterized by full concentration, a change in the awareness of time (e.g. time passing quickly) feelings of clarity and control, a merging of action and awareness, and a lack of self consciousness," (Csikszentmihalyi Rathunde, 2005, p. 346) When related to classroom learning, flow is the state that teachers hope to see their students experiencing. It is the teacher's job to provide an environment which challenges and supports students in the proper balance in order to achieve engagement and flow (Shernoff, 2013; Csiksentmihalyi Rathunde, 2005) Flow relates to the classroom in three important ways: the examination of flow is not only a study of the individual experience, but of the relationship between the individual and the context. Additionally, flow is a developmental growth experience it is achieved, sought after, and repeated through the pursuit of increasing challenge and increasing skill. Moreover, the definition of flow includes intrinsic motivation for the task, which other researchers have connected to more meaningful learning. Bassi and WORK CONFERENCES AND STUDENT ENGAGEMENT 5 Delle Fave (2012) wrote about the positive effects of autonomy in the learning environment as well as intrinsic motivation on learning and general wellbeing (p. 426) Duffy and Duffy (2012) wrote a book relating Montessori pedagogy to current research on intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation. They described the four C's of intrinsic motivation: choice, challenge, content, and collaboration. This is slightly different from the three C's that Kohn (1999) describes he didn't include challenge. Some authors, such as Shernoff (2013) are of the opinion that challenge is a specific and necessary ingredient in the experience of flow. His description of a motivational environment included what he called "environmental complexity," or a balance between challenging work and a supportive atmosphere (p. 137) Shernoff wrote that: "the challenge dimension typically features clear prescriptions for meaningful and goal directed action by presenting a task to be completed or challenge to be mastered," (p.137) Another major contributing factor to motivation is a student's self efficacy beliefs, or their perception of their own ability to complete a task well. Pajares, Johnson, and Usher (2007) explained the possible sources of self efficacy beliefs, as well as offered suggestions for how to improve them through classroom intervention and teacher interaction approach. The importance of positive self efficacy in student success cannot be underestimated. They reported that, Much empirical evidence now supports Bandura's contention that selfefficacy beliefs touch virtually every aspect of people's lives: whether they think productively, self debilitatingly, pessimistically or optimistically; how well they motivate themselves and persevere in the face of adversities; their vulnerability to stress and depression; and the life choices they make.  Among other ideas, he brings up the importance of student agency in the classroom, student choice, their need to feel successful, using different strategies to meet students' differing needs, setting specific, individualized goals, and the impact of specific, timely feedback about work. He makes a clear statement about motivation and the student teacher relationship: Motivation to learn is enhanced when there is a strong and personal relationship between teacher and student (Mendler, 2000) When students perceive that the teacher likes them and that the teacher cares about their needs, their level of involvement and motivation increases.  Vitto also discusses attribution theory, which is the same concept as student selfefficacy it highlights the impact of student perception of their learning and engagement. If a student believes that they are being affected by uncontrollable factors, such as bad luck or a lack of intelligence, they will be less likely to make an effort. If they believe, on the other hand, that they are capable of creating change through effort, or that the cause for failure was transient, they will be more likely to try to rise above adversity. Vitto (2003) writes: Teachers can assist students in developing more effective attributions by encouraging students to view failures as temporary and changeable. Teachers can model these types of attributions by acknowledging and discussing teacher mistakes and attributing them to temporary and controllable factors.  One very common impediment is so prevalent one can easily take it for granted: grades. Kohn (1999) states: "[Grades] reduce a student's sense of control over his own fate and can induce a blind conformity to others' wishes sometimes to the point that students are alienated from their own preferences and don't even know who they are" (p. 204) Grades are a common example of an extrinsic motivator that can disengage students from the direct purpose of a task, for example practicing a math skill to get better at that skill, as opposed to practicing for a test for a grade. Another prevalent detractor from motivation is discouragement. Van Bockern, Wenger, and Ashworth (2004) explored the extremely adverse effects of getting caught in a "cycle of discouragement." Their description of motivation includes "expectations, value, and a safe climate" (p. 149) They correlate the experience of discouragement with the student teacher relationship, and describe the negative spiral into which a discouraged student can fall.