Can Appreciative Inquiry increase positive interactions,student self‐advocacy and turn‐taking during IEP meetings?

This comparative research study in the context of action research documents the effects of Appreciative Inquiry (AI) on positive participant interactions, student turn‐taking and self‐advocacy interactions during IEP meetings that focused on student transition to post‐secondary outcomes. AI was implemented as a written protocol for conducting IEP meetings in one school unit (P) that had been developed from an AI training in a second school unit (E) which also used the protocol. A third unit (C) with neither training nor a protocol to use served as a comparison. 124 IEP meetings in these three units in New York State in the United States were observed and recorded in 10 second increments. Results indicated increases in percentages of positive interactions, student turn‐taking, and of student self‐advocacy in both the AI trained and protocol unit (E) and in the unit using the protocol alone (P) over the comparison unit (C) and over earlier pilot data (P (Pilot)). AI may be an effective consultative and educational process for encouraging some factors that lead to student success in transitioning to college, career, and life beyond graduation from school.