A New Schooling Role for Parents?
During early childhood the interaction with the parent in a caring home environment establishes the framework of their learning development for life. The learning curve tracks progress in ability against time, and follows a normal pattern of steep initial learning, followed inevitably by a reducing curve or plateau as interest or ability stabilises. Unchecked, the learning curve can move into decline, but this can be quickly redressed through the introduction of a new stimulus to re-establish the upward learning path. The whole activity, closely monitored by a parent can achieve remarkable results.
At home the inquisitive four year will continuously ask the question “why” to feed their quest for knowledge. The frequency of the questioning is a measure of the comfort the child feels that the answer will be forthcoming. At school, however, this close 1:1 link with the parent is traded for 1: 30 with a teacher in a busy classroom.
The tendency for parents to back off at this point; transferring the teaching role to the school can stifle the free flow of the “why” routine and as a rule the learning curve gradient flattens. Parents do not want to appear to interfere or believe they lack the requisite teaching skills to continue. Ironically, teachers overwhelmingly want parents to maintain their involvement.
The Education Secretary and DfES recently published a report entitled “Every Parent Matters” This comprehensive policy document considers the significant role parents can play in education throughout the schooling years. Critically they see the huge advantage of parents – especially fathers taking an active role in the learning process.
The dynamic re-engagement of parents leads to more relevant encouragement of the child (rather than “do your homework”) and the re-establishment of the 1:1 mentor role that had been forsaken. Historic school reports and parent’s night are then being replaced by continuous assessment.
The active participation of the parent in the curriculum once again provides the child with a base to be able to ask the question why.
The principle objective is to get parents to reinforce the classroom lesson at home. This sounds daunting but modern teaching aids predominately in game format such as DVDs, CD, ROMs and board games turn the learning process into fun presenting a totally different platform to when the parents were at school. Repeating the lesson at home therefore can be a great game to be enjoyed by both. This practice activity is extremely beneficial in the leaning process where 75% can be retained compared to 5 – 50% retained in the classroom.
Practice in the classroom is compounded by 30 children of differing abilities, limited time, and probably shared equipment. An hour at home practicing in a relaxed and enjoyable environment can provide immense support to the child and teacher. The learning curve trajectory increases and the parent once again is pivotal in the learning programme.
Parents are the one constant in the schooling process. Children on average will have 40 different teachers covering eight subjects in 11 years of schooling.
Alistair Owens
keen2learn
