Problem of Informational Asymmetry - Essay Example

The quality of communication among parents, teachers, and child development specialists is a key-point factor in the educational environment touching both the emotional and intellectual sides of children's development. “Teachers can gain new knowledge and overcome isolation from each other through peer assistance, but the world of learning and discovery can be greatly enlarged through partnerships with parents, communities, and other professions at local and national levels” (1). The problem can be identified as the following: optimal involvement parity of parents, teachers, and child development specialists in the child development process, overcoming of informational asymmetry taking place in this kind of communication. The principal question is: how effective must the relative influence of parents, teachers, and child development specialists be on a child? What is the most reasonable approach to effective communication among them?

2. There are some relevant sociological methods of researching the problem of informational asymmetry: survey research, content analysis, and field research. One of the hypotheses to be tested is: the structure of the family affects children's development. “According to the Urban Institute's 1997 National Survey of American Families, 63 percent of children live in two-parent, 27 percent in one-parent, and 8 percent in blended families” (3). The more unstable the family structure, the deeper the informational asymmetry among parents, teachers, and child development specialists. This kind of asymmetry is also shown in parents’ ideas on raising children in specific cultural conditions: “a large majority of parents say American society is an inhospitable climate for raising children; nearly half the parents said they worry more about protecting their child from negative social influences than they do about paying the bills or having enough family time together” (3). Read More