Benefits of Effective Family-School Partnership - Essay Example

?Education Questions Question Benefits of effective family-school partnerships Many educators in the country have emphasized the importance of family involvement in children’s education. A look at the large amount of time that children spend outside school approximately, 87% of waking hours, it is true that families have a profound effect on children’s educational lives. Families influence the degree to which their children are engaged in school and how they identify themselves as learners. There are two most important benefits that have been identified as a result of a strong family-school partnership and these are academic and behavioral benefits. The rest are part of these two broad groups and this has been discussed below (Oluwatelure & Oloruntegbe, 2010). Academic benefits- when families are greatly involved in children’s academic lives, we start to notice improvements in grades, test scores rise and the students attitudes towards school work improves. The effect may not be a cause and effect one but I t has been observed that with time these improvements are seen in the students’ academic life. It has been found that these students will complete homework on time, chances of them being placed in special education will be minimal, and they enroll in postsecondary education more often. It has been found that parents’ attitudes and other family members go a long way in helping these students realize the importance of education. It is especially true when these students are in a family that many people are seen to be performing well at school (Jeynes, 2005). Behavioral benefits- the benefits of a strong family-school relationship have been found to extend beyond just the academic work to the individual activities and behaviors of the children. First and foremost the involvement of family improves the behavior of children at school such that the children are encouraged to adopt positive behavior because they understand the consequences of deviant behavior at school. They realize that the teacher will finally get the report to their parents about their unbecoming behavior. Compared to other cases where the family is not involved the students have higher chances of engaging in deviant behavior at school. For example higher attendance rates and lower drop out rates are witnessed as a result of strong family-school relationships (Georgiou & Jourva, 2007). Strong family-school relationship also contributes to higher self-esteem in children. This is because the children feel that their parents are concerned about them doing well in school. They are motivated to perform higher because the parents together with are motivating them. If they fail parents are there for them trying to identify where mistakes came from and what they can do to improve the situation. This will boost the children’s morale and consequently lead to higher self-esteem (Georgiou & Jourva, 2007). The next behavioral benefit is that the children have a high probability of avoiding high risk behavior that is characteristic of adolescents. The parents and teachers are available all the time shaping attitudes and their behaviors. This form of guidance instills discipline and a sense of responsibility in the children such that they understand the consequences of engaging in inappropriate behavior. In the long run they are able to go through the adolescent stage with minimal problems. Compared to other children whose parents are not involved in their school activities it can be seen that such students are usually overcome by the challenges in adolescent stage and begin engaging in early sexual activity, some may start using drugs and all these are a result of peer pressure and lack of guidance from parents (Georgiou & Jourva, 2007). Question 3: components of Parent-Teacher conference The parent teacher conference is a kind of meeting between the teacher and the parent that provides a parent with a short uninterrupted period of time with the child’s teacher. It is brief but this one-on-one meeting may set the agenda for the rest of the year. It is important that parents and teachers use this moment to establish rapport and they should try and focus on a common goal that aims at helping the child have the best experience at school as much as possible. This meeting may not have a specific agenda as it may discuss the student’s behavior both at school and at home and it may also discuss the child’s academic life. The central purpose of this meeting is to find ways of helping the child enjoy their learning experience (Han, 2006). Three components have been identified as important for a successful parent-teacher conference. The first component is building a partnership. Educators agree that a parent teacher conference often helps in creating a successful partnership between parents and teachers and this is an important aspect for a child’s academic and social achievement. Through these conferences the teachers have a chance to introduce the parents to their teaching styles, methods used in discipline and classroom policies during the start of the year. The parent in return can help the teacher understand the child more by describing the child’s after school activities, hobbies and family relationships. The parent can also explain the different ways that he/she ensures that the child completes assignments and how they are committed to their child’s education. The conference helps both the teacher and the parent appreciate each other’s activities and clarify how they are related. The second component is gathering of information. The main component of a parent-teacher conference is the exchange of information about the child’s academic progress and social development. The amount of information provided here may range from how the student performs in the courses or subjects in class such as mathematics to how they spend their recess time. In order to help the child better it is crucial that before the meeting the parent gets to talk with the child and ask them questions about how they feel about the various aspects of school. In this way it helps prioritize the issues to be addressed during this meeting. The teacher also needs to be prepared and have questions to ask the parent about the various issues that affect the child. These issues will include new activities or behaviors that the teacher has spotted about the child and the parent may not be aware of (Schecter, 2007). The third and final component is developing a plan. it is important that after talking about the child’s academic and social life a plan be developed that will aid the child work through his/her school difficulties or plan or ensuring that he continues with his success. A teacher may have several suggestions for improving the child’s performance such as an after school tutorial program, additional homework etc. children at advanced stages may need extra projects to prevent boredom or more time or the child to pursue area where they are talented. Before a plan is arrived at it is important to assess what kind of help the child requires whether academic or behavioral and this will help in the creation of the plan. The pan should be followed by an evaluation mechanism that will be used to gauge the child’s progress (Manjula, et al.,2009). Question 5: Major Parental concerns There exist many concerns for parents as concerns their children development. These issues have mad parents look for ways to help children in their development. The first concern is the issue of keeping children safe from abuse. There are very many kinds of abuses that children face in their development and parents are always concerned about these kinds of abuses. The only way to find out about abuses is to take a step and talk to children. In this way parents get to know the threats that exist in child’s life. Parents struggle to form open and trusting relationships with children so that in case issues of safety arise the children are able to report immediately (Ford, et al.,2005). The second concern is bullying. This is a form of aggressive behavior that’s expressed through the use of force to others and this behavior is usually habitual. The older children are always bullying the younger children and therefore affecting their development. This may be in form of social power of physical power. Bullying affects the child both physically and emotionally. The parent’s role here is to look for signs of insecurity or change of behavior in their children. This can be done through open communication with their children to identify such issues and stop them early before they affect the child (Ford et al.,, 2005). The third concern is that of drug and substance abuse. When children are growing they are exposed to many things. Peer pressure is one important factor that affects children development. It is because of peer pressure that children begin doing things that eventually affect their lives. These things they engage in include drug and substance abuse, children especially adolescents begin smoking and trying out other drugs that they are exposed to by their peers. Parents are always concerned about this issue as it makes children lose direction and life. The earlier the problem is detected the better as it will be easy to enforce corrective measures. Otherwise these behaviors accelerate and children begin engaging in criminal activities (Ezeliora & Ezeokana, 2011). The fourth concern has to do premarital sex and teen pregnancies. When children grow they are exposed to information form the media and over the internet. The media contains so much information concerning sex. It becomes normal for children to listen to these talks about sex. This raises their curiosity and makes them want to experiment. In the end they end up getting pregnant especially the girls. Some end up getting sexually transmitted disease some of which are fatal. Parents are usually concerned about this issue and will go a long way in ensuring that their children are not exposed to sexual material. The children on the other hand still access these materials for example through the internet. This has been a big problem until parents began implementing parent control procedures of TVs and computers at home to prevent children from viewing pornographic material (Ezeliora & Ezeokana, 2011). The fifth issue is that of crime or criminal activities. When children engage in drugs as seen above there are many chances that they will engage in criminal activities. This is because they lack the money to buy the drugs and will not ask their parents to give them. In the end they end up stealing form people in order to meet their needs. Parents have for a very long time been concerned about crime and have made sure that children are not exposed to bad influence that may result in them engaging in criminal activities (Ezeliora & Ezeokana, 2011). References Ezeliora, B., & Ezeokana, J. O. (2011). Inhibiting influences of some traditional practices in the home on girl-child's interest development in science. African Journal of Political Science and International Relations, 5(7):341-346. Ford, T., Sayal, K., Meltzer, H., & Goodman, R. (2005). Parental concerns about their child's emotions and behaviour and referral to specialist services: general population survey. British Medical Journal, 331-340. Georgiou, S. N., & Jourva, A. (2007). Parental attributions and parental and parental involvement. Journal of Social Psychology, 10(4): 473-482. Han, W.-J. (2006). Academic Achievements of Children in Immigrant Families. Educational Research and review, 1(8): 286-318. Jeynes, W. (2005). A meta analysis of the relationship of parental involvement to urban elementary school student achievement. Urban Education, 40(3): 237-269. Manjula, P., Saraswathi, G., Prakash, P., & Ashalatha, K. (2009). Involvement of parents in the education of children with reading and writing difficulties - Impact of an intervention. Educational Research and Review , 4 (4), pp. 208-212. Oluwatelure, T. A., & Oloruntegbe, K. O. (2010). Effects of parental involvement on students’ attitude and performance in science. Journal of Microbiology, 4(1): 001-009. Schecter, S. (2007). Parent involvement as education: The primary and middle school classroom as site of inter generational language Learning. Education Leadership, 64(6): 69-71. Read More