Conclusion

Our students are living in a time where the answer to almost any question they have is sitting in a computer in their pocket. Because of this rapid change, our role as a teacher has shifted away from being a knowledge provider, to a facilitator of learning. Students must be provided with opportunities to develop the ability to regulate their own learn as they progress through their education in order to prepare them for learning throughout their lifetime. Student-led conferences, along with portfolios, are strategies to help make this happen.

The concept of a student-led conference is a shift in thinking for all stakeholders involved – teachers, students, and especially parents. Anyone who has been through the education system feels personally invested in knowing how it should work. Research should always be the driving force behind change, and sometimes we tend to forget this. The shift to incorporating metacognitive learning into our teaching is not a new one, yet it is still a young idea in practice. We need to teach our students to “think about thinking”, as well as “learn about learning”. This will not only help them navigate this wide world of information, but make more sense of where they fit into it all.