- Lernentwicklungsgespräche (LEGs, a German format of student-teacher-conferences; translated literally: learning development conversations) are meetings between a teacher and student in the presence of at least one parent or guardian about the current status of a child's learning, learning development and learning process. Students and teachers identify learning goals and assess progress and next steps to support the student’s learning. This article proposes that LEGs can align with the key components of formative assessment (e.g. learning supportive feedback, self-assessment or clarity about learning goals) and therefore can support student motivation (willingness to invest effort, academic self-concept), depending on how they are implemented. To examine this connection, we conducted a pre-post-follow-up study with 185 children in grade 2 in Germany. The children filled out questionnaires before and after their LEG and also four months later at the end of the school year. Our findingsLernentwicklungsgespräche (LEGs, a German format of student-teacher-conferences; translated literally: learning development conversations) are meetings between a teacher and student in the presence of at least one parent or guardian about the current status of a child's learning, learning development and learning process. Students and teachers identify learning goals and assess progress and next steps to support the student’s learning. This article proposes that LEGs can align with the key components of formative assessment (e.g. learning supportive feedback, self-assessment or clarity about learning goals) and therefore can support student motivation (willingness to invest effort, academic self-concept), depending on how they are implemented. To examine this connection, we conducted a pre-post-follow-up study with 185 children in grade 2 in Germany. The children filled out questionnaires before and after their LEG and also four months later at the end of the school year. Our findings show that children generally experience LEGs positively in ways that are consistent with formative assessment, although significant variance is present. Further, we noted short-term and long-term associations between LEGs and motivational aspects of learning, depending on how students perceived the LEGs; in particular, the perceived quality of learning-supportive feedback and agreed-upon goals proved significant. We discuss how the findings identify areas of further research needs in relation to the associations uncovered.…
