| Description |
The primary purpose of this qualitative action research project was to determine if journaling affected students' ability to self-regulate in the upper elementary Montessori classroom. Additionally, the purpose was to ascertain how journaling and reflection influenced students' work quality and production, and whether journals were effective tools to meet student needs. The setting was a public charter school. Within a multi-age classroom of 24 students, six were; selected for this study. Data was collected for six weeks and included Likert surveys, journal; artifacts, and informal interviews, as well as classroom and personal observations, work samples, and a reflexive journal. Although not effective on its own, journaling in conjunction with daily reflection and one-on-one conferencing was effective in increasing student performance within the classroom and increasing students' ability to self-regulate. This combined approach also led to less discrepancy between student perceptions and reality. When looked at through the lens of the self-regulatory feedback loop, students showed improvement in all three areas of selfregulation. A significant, but unrelated, finding was that the aesthetics of student journals played a larger role than expected; this could be a topic for future research. While this study was specifically tailored to the Montessori classroom, it could be adapted to traditional K-12. |
