How can we help parents?

Tuesday 12 January 2021

How might we engage with parents to support their child?

Blended learning environments in present-day education, has put family engagement centre-stage and has never been more important for continuity of learning across all classroom settings.

This school year, parents will take on multiple roles to meet their student’s needs. Those roles include that of Organizer, Instructor, Motivator, and Manager (Waters, Menchaca, Borup, 2014). The table below suggests ways in which parents are being asked to work with their children.

Parent Role

Description

Organizer

  • Establish daily schedule
  • Create a daily plan
  • Set up the learning space
  • Gather and collects materials, etc.

Instructor (guide)

  • Don’t teach–help them understand
  • Learn to identify the barriers— Pinpoint exactly what’s happening or going wrong to uncover why your child might be struggling
  • Use the right resources—Access classroom portals or google sites provided by teachers and school staff.
  • Allow for student control— Student engagement and learning soars when students have choices in their learning. 

Motivator

  • Motivates student to progress and to work through problems.
  • Establish high expectations
  • Keep in mind that it’s about the child, not the work
  • Encourage a growth mindset
  • Encourage self-direction— The more a student owns their learning–and ideally have voice and choice in their work
  • Encourage joy in learning— Learning at home will be more sustainable if it feels good for all–caregivers and students.

Manager

  • Keeps track of student progress; manages student’s time/schedule; discipline.
  • Make sure all work is completed
  • Accountability— If your student is not meeting expectations have a clear plan ahead of time for fair and logical consequences.
  • Review progress— Your school should be providing you with updates on student progress on at least a weekly basis. Review progress with your student and elicit their self-perceptions.

What could schools do?

There is a lot of research that informs that parental engagement in online learning is going to help students, but schools need to support parents in their understanding through the following:

  • ZOOM | Team | Google Meets between teachers and parents at the beginning of an online course to improve parental engagement
  • Webinars offering opportunities for parents to ask questions – the focus should be on metacognition and how to support pupil progress
  • Move beyond event-based engagement with parents (e.g., parent meetings) towards greater and regular interaction and communication with parents
  • Parental liaison programmes for parents of students with specific needs to increase understanding of how parents can support these needs at home
  • Find ways to build parental knowledge and confidence by providing specific training-based communication on specific subject based skills

4 minute read

SecEd, an educational magazine in the UK, have produced a valuable article Lockdown teaching and learning: A quick guide for families (19 January 2021). The article provides a summary of research on how children best learn and how parents can support them. It provides tips on what parents can do to check and deepen the learning, without becoming the teacher who is transmitting content. It also contains an excellent research summary and bibliography.

Key points:

  • Talk with children about the key ideas (concepts): review key vocabulary, events or learned concepts so they become automatic in a child's mind.
  • Ask questions: ask your child to provide a 60 second summary
  • Megabite the learning into manageable 'chunks' or segments
  • Review learning: spend 10 minutes each day reviewing the learning of the day and what is coming up the next day with your child
  • Review teacher expectations - by going on the learning platform and checking what the teacher expects - so you can help your child
  • Unplug the distractions - especially during periods of learning 

4 minute read

SecEd, an educational magazine in the UK, have produced a valuable article Lockdown teaching and learning: A quick guide for teaching staff (13 January 2021). The article provides a summary of research on how children best learn and how parents can support them. It provides tips on what parents can do to check and deepen the learning, without becoming the teacher who is transmitting content. It also contains an excellent research summary and bibliography.

Identify core learning: since working memory has limited capacity, we should be careful about overloading it with activities that do not directly lead into the learning that we intend to take place. Ask:

  • What are the core concepts I really want my pupils to understand here?
  • What do they already know about these concepts/this subject and how do I know?
  • Where am I wanting pupils to be by the end of the day/week/month? What then are the actionable episodes of learning that need to take place without overloading them with too much in one sitting?

Chunk the learning: disseminate information into bitesize and manageable chunks. Ask:

  • What are the key concepts that I want my pupils to manage and retain in this next segment of learning? How do I ensure this is the primary focus of the activity?
  • What analogy or example can I use to best illustrate the core concept that I need pupils to grasp?
  • To what extent have I practised and rehearsed my explanation so that it is clear?
  • Where are the gaps in the lesson/activity to reiterate the learning?

Present clearly, don’t ask students to multi-task. “Multi-tasking may be great for productivity when you need to get things done, but it is an undesirable difficulty when it comes to learning.” Jon Tait (2020)

  • a standard format and colour that most pupils are familiar with
  • Leave out animated images that do not add to the learning
  • Make text consumable and manageable; keep it summative.
  • Reading from slides: By reading out the words already printed, we send working memory into overdrive because our pupils are listening and reading at the same time. Instead, allow time for them to read it or leave gaps in your summary reading of the information.

Tags: parents, online learning

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