“We don’t learn from experience. We learn from reflecting on our experiences. If the goal is not merely coverage but actual learning, then reflection is no longer optional. It is an essential piece to transition a classroom from “covering material” to being “focused on learning”. Quoted by a famous reformer John Dewey.
Student-Led Conference provided students with an opportunity to reflect on their learning process. It enabled them to take a pause from the current schedule and think critically to analyze their strength and concern areas by reflecting on their learning goals. At Gaudium, we promote our school culture of growth mindset, where students play an active role in planning their learning activities. SLC provided students with a platform, to showcase their learning to a wider community. The Student Led conference also provided parents with an opportunity to have a glimpse of the on-going learning engagements in the class.
The format was designed in such a way that students were involved in the conversations about their strengths, weaknesses, and goals. Students participated in discussing their academic and social progress with their parents and were given an opportunity to discuss how teachers and parents can help them succeed. There are two segments in this conference.
In the first segment, they were encouraged to share their portfolio works with the parents and they became much more articulate in explaining the work, completing assignments, and more accurate at analyzing themselves as learners. They reflected upon their approaches to learning skills and thus took the ownership of learning. This conversation between student and parents in the first segment culminated by students reflecting in their own words on how far they have come, where they still need to improve on and what they are proud of. Parents were also encouraged to share their feedback to the respective teachers who will take it forward for further progress.
In the second segment, students celebrated their joy of learning through the Gaudium Happy Minds Model and Interdisciplinary approach which made their learning authentic and meaningful. Students choose to work with the social issues around them and at the end, they came up with solutions in their own way to take action and bring change in the community. To address these issues, they identified Communication as the key concept and Change & Innovation as the Related concept. They explored the concepts to resolve the identified issue through the lens of Globalization & Sustainability as Global context. This process enabled them to question themselves for finding sustainable solutions for Global issues which is the need of the hour.
Students came up with the statement of Inquiry “A changed mindset can innovate and communicate sustainable solutions for social issues”. The conceptual presentation by students on fundamental subjects and creative subjects were beautifully integrated to mesmerize audiences and make them get involved in their journey of learning.
The SLC event showed a snapshot of what is going on in our learning space. Students were deeply engaged in the planning of this event to express their ideas, acquired skills and insights of their learning. At the heart of the IB is the Learner profile. Students were provided with ample opportunities to imbibe these Learner profiles in their day to day learning. IB Learner Profiles and the School’s Happy Minds model united students with a common focus of becoming holistic lifelong learners; this was very much evident in our first MYP SLC event.
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