Will Student Led Conferencing Lead to Deeper Understanding of Language Arts Concepts and Increase in Post Assessment Data?

Abstract

The purpose for this action research study was to investigate if individual conferencing would lead to better understanding and comprehension of grammar topics as measured by pre and post test data. The students would participate in regular classroom activities but then would be given the additional task of independently conferencing with the teacher. A qualitative analysis of post test scores would help to indicate if conferencing was beneficial to students study habits. Though simple data analysis and t-tests indicate positive benefits and results for conferencing, they were only statistically significant for one unit of study. The other two units were not statistically strong enough to form a definitive conclusion due to other possible confounding situations.