Family-school teamwork and cooperation is a very complex process. This article interviewed and quantified how parents and teachers felt about the impact that both schools and families have on student behavior development. Forming a bridge between family and school is the primary source for an effective learning environment and managing behavior.
Family and school are the first that teach us the basics of life. For the most part parents think schools are mainly oriented on general knowledge like math, composition and science. Teachers think that family contributions are different, and are more focused on moral and ethical aspects of children’s behavior.
Research shows that home school collaboration is not only needed and desirable but also essential to the development of effective school programs for children. Many studies have shown that involving parents in their children's formal education improves student achievement. Parent involvement is most effective when it is comprehensive, long lasting, and specifically designed. The study indicated that involving parents in their own children's education is not enough, they must be involved at all levels in the school.
Teachers and parents each have major roles to play in effectively managing students’ behaviors both in and out of the classroom. The information in this article can provide a valuable insight that will promote the strengthening of school-family-community co-operation and the increase of parents’ active involvement. The study in this article involved 28 preschool teachers and 23 sets of parents with students.
There were several questions that reinforced the need for cooperation and joint support. One question targeted the level of support that both teacher and parents provide for coping with problem behaviors. 83 percent of the parents think that they give support to teachers for coping with student’s misbehaviors. 54 percent of the teachers say that they do not get enough support from the parents (Savas, 2012). 71 percent of the teachers believe that they receive support solving a student’s social problem. Most of the parents (61 percent) think that they give support to the teachers solving students social problems (Savas, 2012).
Both parents and teachers indicated that parent meetings and private conversations were the most common way to discuss students. The biggest gain for me from this article was analyzing what difficulties there were to developing trust and respect. Parent/teacher partnerships can have many obstacles. This article looked at it from both sides.
Teachers view the obstacles of cooperation between the parents and the teachers as (Savas, 2012).:
Eight teachers sighted distorted communication between the parents and the teacher’s.
Five teachers stated the parent’s unwillingness for cooperation. Three teachers remarked about a difference of opinion between the parents and the teachers about the right course of action of their students that cause the parents not to accept the behavior management strategies of the teachers. Two teachers sited some parents’ insensitiveness about the instructional and behavioral development of their students.
Parent view the obstacles of cooperation between the parents and the teachers as (Savas, 2012):
Nine out of twenty-three parents viewed a lack of importance to the school-family collaboration from the administrators and teachers. Two parents indicated the unwillingness of the school administrators and the teachers for cooperation.
The article helped to gain perspective from multiple viewpoints and helped to learn new strategies to make a parent/teacher partnership effective. Teachers could apply this knowledge towards some strategies to support children and their families. Changes made within the classroom should focus not only on the role of the school, but should recognize the influence parents contribute to their child's behavior and academic success.
References
Savas, A. (2012). The Contribution of School-Family Cooperation on Effective Classroom Management in Early Childhood Education. Educational Sciences: Theory And Practice, 12(4), 3099-3110. Retrieved from http://academia.edu/2329331/The_Contribution_of_School-Family_Cooperation_on_Effective_Classroom_Management_in_Early_Childhood_Education
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