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Definition of parents’ involvement:
Involvement means parents support their children through communication with teacher and support for their child.
Engagement means parents that are fully engaged and actively participate in school- sponsored activities or held their children in ways to visible to their children or the others.
So parental engagement can be defined in a variety of ways. It can include the activities of parental involvement.
However, parents can be involved in school activities without being engaged in their children’s learning. It is parental engagement in their children’s learning that brings about significant gains in achievement.
Importance of parental involvement in teaching learning process of school:
*Parents are a child’s first teachers.
* Schools aren’t always knowledgeable in how to engage involvement.
* Parents don’t always recognize the importance of becoming involved or know where to begin.
Schools goal:
- Educate students for future success.
- To enhance self esteem and the ability to value each person’s own worth through a happy , caring, enriching and secure environment.
- To develop the natural curiosity that children exhibit about themselves and themselves and their world and use their world and use their curiosity to foster positive attitudes to learning.
- There are 8 basic skills which are used by students, teachers and parents to set goals while planning curriculum units and individual classes as a holistic education.
1.Body knowledge
2. Citizenship
3.Communication
4. Creative Arts
5. Environmental harmony
6. Logical thinking
7.Practical life skills
8.Self knowledge
The act of a educator is understanding how learning works and figuring out how to apply all this to each student, one at a time.
What do students want / need?
- A safe place to learn
- To know their culture
- Nice teachers
- Library with lots of books
- Co curricular activities
- Role models from their community
What do parents want?
- They want their children to be successful in life.
- Access to resources for special need children
- They want their child to develop their own talents.
What do teachers want?
- Parents involvement
- Supports for students with special needs
- Professional development, how to work with students and parents.
- Learn about community, protocol and expectation.
What happens when parents are involved?
- Children get higher grades and test scores.
- Children have better attitude and behavior
- Children complete more homework
- Children are more likely to complete high school and enroll in post high school education
- The more involved parents are in their child’s education the more likely the child is to succeed in school.
- Research shows that, parents involvement increase the students IQ, status and standard.
- Children’s families have the biggest overall influence on students achievement.
- Parents are better than any one else, teach their children the essentials for success in life; self- worth, self –respect, work ethic, manners, motivation. Character traits, love.
- Parents help children develop routines
- Give children age appropriate chores.
Barriers to involvement of parents in schools learning process:
- Lack of a school environment, that supports parents / family involvement.
- Cultural difference, language barriers, attitude towards professionals, lack of knowledge of curriculum or education system.
- Primacy of basic needs( food ,clothing and shelters take precedence over educational needs)
- Feeling if inadequacy associated with difference in income and education.
- Uncertainty about what to do.
- Lack of time.
- Transport problem
- Child care.
Teacher > parents > students
Teachers need to work with parents as partners to reach the students:
Sheldon and Epstein in 2005 developed a theory on parental involvement frame work:
They gave six types of involvement of schools, family and community
As partnership:
1 Parenting
2, Communication
3. Parent volunteering
4. Learning at home
5. Decision making
6. Collaborating
Type 1: Parenting
Help families understanding about young adolescent development.
Help schools obtain information about students
Type 2
Communication
Communication activities focus on keeping parents informed through such things, such as
Parents meeting on students work
Reports cards
Notices
Schools functions
Phone calls
web pages
Type- 3, Volunteering
Volunteering is a great way to get involved and share just how important the child is to you.
Volunteering for school related activities promotes students success and will help the school to accomplish goals they have set to further student success.
Type: 4: Learning at home
Home is an extension of school in that the learning is constant involvement of families in activities that coordination of school work with work at home.
Possibilities are:
Home work
Setting future goals
Organizing personal belongings
Create a time and space for reading
Encourage conversations about classes at school
Type – 5 , Decision making
Activities are designed to solicit the voice of parents in decisions about school policies and practices;
Type: 6 Collaboration:
Collaboration with the community: Activities acknowledge and bring together all community entities( e.g. with the community. Business, religions. Races. Cultures) with vested interest in the education of young adolescents.
How to welcome the parents in our institution:
1. Create a welcoming environment.
2. Give a cheerful welcome.
2. Use frequent and various communication methods.
3. Involve parents in decisions that affect their child.
4. Make an attempt to learn about parents strengths, skills, talents and experiences .
5. provide strategies and resources for parents to support their children’s learnings.
6. Initiate the process of building relationship with parents.
Have leaders that believe in parents as partners in their children’s learning.
7. Try to provide adequate parking.
9.Display signs.
10.Have hand outs.
11. Display students work.
12. Have a school marquee?
13. Have clear expectations for students and staff.
14. Provide a congenial waiting area. Have something to read, like magazines, news papers, and something available for parents to view.
15. Provide a personal touch. Parents will be more likely to attend whenever they are invited to the institution if they have a call from someone they respect and someone they know is working hard to promote their chlid’s academic success-their child’s teacher.
16. Make attending convenient. Most parents work hard all day.
17. Schedule any programme according to their convenient time.
18.Begin and end the program / meeting properly maintaining the time.
19. Do something effective and enjoyable.
20. Establish a fun, friendly, non –threatening atmosphere.
21. Having plenty of signs and helpers to guide parents to the right room as they arrive.
22. greeting parents individually , cordially as they enter the room.
23. Avoiding question that any parent can answer in correctly. So there is never a possibility of embarrassing anyone.
24. Focus on the students
25. Give parents information they can use.
26, If parents can not come :
*send home information they can read.
*. Keep the articles in the document short.
*. make headlines exciting.
*.Good quality print must be there.
*. try to visit home of the students.
*. Don’t surprise parents . let them know that you are coming.
*. Send a post card to remind them.
*. Be on time.
*. Thank parents for allowing you to visit.
Conclusion
We need Excellent Schools!
Schools cant do it all.
Parents can’t do it all.
But when parents and schools work together great things will happen.
Consequently, schools need to place parental engagement at the centre rather
than the periphery of all that they do. Parental engagement in children’s learning makes a difference—it is the most powerful school improvement that we ever had.
writer:Zebin Akter
Former vice Principal( BSISC)
