"Parents are their children's first teachers. As they care for and nurture them, an emotional attachment and bond develops between the child and the parents." .. "The motivation for learning, therefore, grows out of the child's relationships with important adults." says the Yale Child Center School Development Program in the US, which was founded by James Comer.
Teachers know this to be true, but when the topic of parental involvement in a child's education is raised we teachers tend to react in a number of different ways. Sometimes we feel hostile; thinking that parents are only interfering and not very knowledgeable about children and how to educate them. Some teachers feel insecure and threatened. Some teachers think it is a good idea, but don't know where to start and may feel overwhelmed by the suggestion. Regardless of how we feel about this topic, there are some less obvious facts, that are extremely important to consider:
I have seen this very clearly with some students I have taught, and know from first hand experience this is true. So, what do we actually mean by "parental involvement" so we can create the best environment especially for this age group?
The first and foremost step is that of communication with the parent. With very young learners the parent may even be in the class with their child. This does not mean, though, that the parent is fully aware of what the child's English ability, nor what is the best way to teach their child, nor even what the child is actually learning, let alone what they, the parent, can do at home to support their child’s learning in the classroom. However, before a teacher can communicate any of those to the parent, first of all communication lines need to be established. This will then lead to trust. Trust will then lead to a listening ear on the part of the parent, and that is when the parent is getting involved.
So, realising that parental involvement is critical to your students' success, overcoming all feelings attached to this topic, we teachers need to work towards building good communication with the parents. From this base we can build up and ultimately lead to parental involvement in your students' education; even when the parent is busy and is not a part of the learning environment in the classroom.
In part 2 of this topic I will look at how to build communication, so as to lead to successful parental involvement, and an optimum learning environment for our students.
References:
School Development Program, Yale Child Study Center (2001) The Parent Team
Accessed from /info.med.yale.edu/comer/about/parent.html
Comer, James P.M.D (2001) Schools that Develop Children, The American Prospect Vol 12 no 7
Cromwell, S. (1998) The Homework Dilemma; How much should parents Get Involved?, Education World
Delisio, E.R. (2005) Planning for Parent Involvement, Education World
Diffily, Deborah (2004) Teachers and Families Working Together, Pearson Allyn and Bacon
Lovell, K (1973) Educational Psychology and Children, University of London Ltd
Olsen, B & Fuller, M. (2003) Home-School Relations Working Successfully with Parents and Families, Allyn and Bacon
Poole, B.J. (2004) EDUCATION FOR AN INFORMATION AGE Teaching in the Computerized Classroom, 5th, William C Brown Pub.
Senge, P et al. (2000) Schools that Learn (A Fifth Discipline Fieldbook for Educatior, Parents, and Everyone who cares about Education), Currency Doubleday
Kate Sato started teaching EFL in 1989 and has taught in Europe, the US and Japan. She first came to Japan 17 years ago, and 5 years ago started Kitopia English School for teaching kids, in Sapporo. Since then she has become an Academic Consultant for Longman, has written articles and given seminars on teaching EFL to children, both in Japan and overseas, become a certified music teacher for Kindermusik, Co-ordinated the local ETJ and the JALT TCSig groups, as well as becoming a Cambridge Oral Examiner for the YLE, all whilst training her own teachers and running her school.
