A worldwide accepted fact is the importance of parental involvement in their children's education. It's important for parents to get involved in their children's education. A study about the role of parents was conducted. It also talks about the consequences of neglecting parenting techniques. The measures of positive parental involvement are described.
Teachers are aware of the issues related to parental involvement and have tried several ways to get the parents to attend meetings, but often find it hard to convince them to do so. This book gives an insight into what happened when two teachers with their concerted efforts got the parents of their school to devote their maximum attention towards their children.
A thorough and detailed analysis of the main ideas is given.
INTRODUCTION:
The three types of parental involvement are behavioral, intellectual, and personal.
The researchers found that having different parental resources dedicated to them affected the results of their studies.
Parents who participate in open houses help their children's academic development. By observing the behavior of their children they can judge the allocation of resources needed by them. The cycle of parent-teacher involvement can be maintained because of the caring parents. Children's cognitive and perception abilities are a concern in the upbringing of the child.
Parents should involve their children in cognitive learning by exposing them to different activities and materials at home.
The child can practice language comprehending skills at the school. There is a remarkably positive behavior at the school.
The research of parental involvement in their children's education was helped by the two parenting processes. Different levels of successful outcomes were observed by adjusting the levels of supportive parenting Positive results came from supportive parenting in kindergarten students.
Measures of Supportive Parenting
In this study four measures of supportive parenting were used, they were:
- 1. Proactive teaching.
- 2. Calm discussion in disciplinary encounters.
- 3. Warmth.
- 4. Interest and involvement in peer activities.
- 5. The assessments were done when children were in kindergarten and then in grade
- 6. Family adversity was seen as a factor that hindered children's development.
It was a result of a negative process that included the risk of low socio- economic status, single-parenting and family stress.
A study found that child maladjustments were more common in families with such challenges. Even though there were negative impacts, SP was able to overcome the risks associated with family adversity. It was related to adjustment procedures in grade 6 children who had a single parent family or experienced low SES.
Parents Used Techniques
Parents used techniques of calm discussion and proactive teaching to socialize their kids. They helped diminish the behavioral problems by having long discussions with their children. The mothers reduced peer stress in their children. Supportive parenting plays an important role in the children's development of empathy, prosocial behavior and emotional competence The absence of supportive parenting may lead to internal problems such as anxiety and depression.
The rise in the percentage of juvenile delinquency is caused by lack of parental care and attention. Children who don't have parental instructions will develop behavioral and emotional problems. They resort to crimes thinking that they can fulfill their wishes by doing so.
If they don't keep an eye on it, they could revert to violence. Such criminal activities can't be stopped until the distressing symptoms of low self-esteem, depression, dysphonic mood, tension and worries are relieved. The role of parents in this matter cannot be over emphasized.
"Transition" is a term used to describe the time period in which children move from one activity to another. The endeavors of teachers in transition cannot be ignored. They prepared the children and their parents to face the problems of adjusting to elementary school programs that had different psychology, teaching styles and structure than the programs at the kindergarten level.
The teachers had to face serious challenges in motivating the parents to take interest in their children's activities. The teachers used different methods to involve the parents in the classroom.
Invitation of Parent
They used to send notes, invitation of parent-teacher meetings, invitation of parental guidance sessions and training sessions and continuously directing the parent's attention to their children. It is important for the line of communication between teachers and parents to be open so that parents can interact with the teachers and get up to date information about their children's school activities.
One way to involve parents is to schedule school events, such as volunteering for libraries, acting as classroom aides or efficiently organizing lunch breaks.
The teachers make phone calls at the children's houses to keep in touch with the parents and find out how they are contributing towards the welfare of their children. The teachers assign home activities for both the parents and their children so that they don't get bored at home and the children get to study.
It was a bad experience for the teachers when many of the parents didn't respond as expected. Many parents couldn't take time for their children because they were overwhelmed with official work.
Some parents preferred to keep a distance from their children's school because of the negative experiences they had in school. It was difficult for teachers to bring parental involvement to the desired level because of this.
The activities of two teachers made parents more involved in their children's lives. Carlos Valdez is an art teacher and 8th grade class sponsor at the school, and Mike Hogan is the band director. The parents were involved in music festivals and school ceremonies. They proved to be excellent examples for the future teachers.
Children’s Academic Development Programs
If the children’s academic development programs are to prove successful they must share two characteristics:
1) Developmentally appropriate practice:
A child’s academic progress is clearly reflected by the appropriate practice he/she administers while in school life. During transitions from pre-school to kindergarten, a child if given the exact developmentally appropriate practice tends to learn a great deal of language and playing skills. He develops a keen interest in exploring his environments and interacting (without hesitation) with his adults.
2) Supportive services:
These include the assistance that the school provides to low-income family students. The services include health care, childcare and community care. This strengthens the relation between school and children and creates a sense of security and confidence among the children. They get to learn that their communities are a part of their school since the school’s supportive services strive to help community development.
It is commonly believed that children are good self-teachers. Their self-initiated strategies help improve their expression, creativity, intellectual capabilities and extra-curricular skills.
This idea is proved by the documentation of young children’s work provided by Reggio Emilia:
“The Reggio Emilia educators highlight young children’s amazing capabilities and indicate that it is through the unity of thinking and feeling that young children can explore their world, represent their ideas, and communicate with others at their highest level.”(Edwards, Pope. C, Springate, Wright.K)
The climax rests in the fact that how the parents would know that their sincere involvements are really proving worthwhile for their children. The answer lies in the attitude of the children. The degree of parental involvement can be judged by a child’s attitude towards his school subjects, his academic desires and achievements. There is a direct relationship between academic achievements and the attitude towards school. Schunk in 1981 had the following idea of aspiration or academic desires:
“Level of aspiration is defined as one’s subjective probability that he or she will reach a certain level of education.”(Abu, H. & Maher, M)
Children who received adequate parental concern were found to be more confident in their academic achievements than those who did not. The involvement of mothers and fathers in a child's development is very important.
Students from one-parent households have a less positive attitude towards school and studies than students from two-parent households. Despite mothers sincere efforts, the role of fathers could not be ignored, and both served as an important foundation for the future progress of the child.
This can be proved from the following fact:
According to a recent report from the National Center for Educational Statistics (1997), compared to their counterparts, children with involved fathers are more likely to have participated in educational activities with their parents (e.g., to have visited a museum or a historical site with their parents in the past month).
And are more likely to have access to multiple types of resources at home as well (as measured by the proportion of parents who belong to community or professional organizations, or regularly volunteer in the community). (Flouri, E. And Buchanan, A, Pg.142)
Also, the parental involvement has been discussed and implemented in terms of interventions or prevention programs, which are nothing but safety measures taken to assure healthy and perfect upbringing of the child.
The study uses school-based and home-only intervention programs to find out the extent of intellectual capabilities found in children from different family backgrounds. The success of one school-based interventions can be proved from the following fact, which was a part of “Education Service Improvement Plan 2001-2005” of Edinburgh:
The Scottish Executive Discipline Task Force studied the causes of bad behavior in schools and produced a report in 2001. The 36 recommendations in the report were turned into an action plan. There are implications for the Education Authority.
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