Knowledge of Parenting and Child Development1

No parent knows everything about children or is a perfect parent. An understanding of

parenting strategies and child development helps parents understand what to expect and how to

provide what children need during each developmental phase. All parents, and those who work

with children, can benefit from increasing their knowledge and under-standing of child

development. What parents do and how they treat children is often a reflection of the way they

were parented. Acquiring new knowledge about parenting and child development enables parents

to critically evaluate the impact of their experiences on their own development and their current

parenting practices, and to consider that there may be more effective ways of guiding and

responding to their children.

Knowledge of parenting and child development involves understanding the unique

aspects of child development during different ages and stages, and implementing

developmentally and contextually appropriate best parenting practices.

Characteristics of this protective factor include seeking, acquiring, and using accurate and age

and stage-related information about:

the importance of

being attuned and emotionally a-vailable to ones child

being nurturing, responsive, and reliable

regular, predictable, and consistent routines

interactive language experiences

providing a physically and emo-tionally safe environment for ones child

1
Vonda Kiplinger. Parents Assessment of Protective Factors:Users Guide and Technical Report. (Center for the
Study of Social Policy: 2014) p.1
 providing opportunities for ones child to explore and to learn by doing

parental behaviors that lead to early secure attachments

appropriate developmental expectations

positive discipline techniques

recognizing and attending to the special needs of a child

Parents as Teachers of their Children2

One of the most important roles of parents is that of teacher their own children. Teachers

and Administrators should communicate with parents ad encourage them to be supplementary

teachers. Parents can be helped to become teachers of their children through observation of

classrooms, tips from teachers, workshops, direct instructions in teaching methods ad practical

experience.

Parent Participation and Effective Schools3

Teacher to student (on an assignment- My Goals in Life): It is a wild, unattainable dream. That

is why I gave a failing grade.

Mother: I think you should consider turning the paper back in just the way it is. If you think it is

unattainable, then you can change it yourself. I dont think it is for a high school instructor to set

a limit on your hopes and dreams.

For the researchers, this work was undertake in the belief that unless education and

parents reconsider family involvement in formal education, schools and schooling will continue

2
Eugenia Berger. Beyond the Classroom. Parents Partners in Education. (Mosby:1983)p. 58
3
Peter Coleman. Parent, Student and Teacher Collaboration: The Power of Three. (Corwin Press: 1998) p. 17
to be an unsatisfactory experience for some, perhaps most, of our students. The surest route to

better schools lies through involving parents in the learning activities of students.

We consider three main elements: School effectiveness and parent involvement, the

political and social context of public schooling and internal politics of schools.

The Family and Student Achievement4

Typically, school practices supporting parent involvement have been justified on the

basis of parent contributions to student achievement. Such parental effects upon achievement

have usually been measured by the family education level. This measure typically predicts about

5 times as much variance in student achievement as school factors combined. That is, if you

know the education level of the family, you can predict the achievement of the child and get it

right most of the time. However, family education and income levels are only proxies (that is

simple, available and roughly accurate measures for family environment, a cluster of values,

attitudes and home practices and respect to education.

James Coleman and colleagues have shown that of element of family environment, the

presence of conversations at home between parents and children about current school practices,

is a better predictor of student achievement that either family income and family education. It is

family environment. What another scholar calls the curriculum school experiences, that is

vital, not proxies which represent this curriculum. It is not who parents are but what the parents

do to encourage and facilitate learning that makes a differences to students.

4
Op cit. Peter Coleman. p.18
 High scores are not achieved in an emotive vacuum by student automatons. Scores reflect

the importance that schooling assumes in the lives if young people and their consequent

engagement

Looking at less successful students reveal a difficult pattern. A longitudinal study of

student drop-outs, which followed 194 families for 19 years, concludes that:

dropping out of highs school is a complex chain of events that begins with childrens

experiences within the early family environment. The strongest direst predictors of

dropping out are predictors of dropping out are family factors in addition to

adolescent behaviors.

The most successful families offered more of a sense of meaning, purpose and valued

cultural goals to their children.

The family effect on achievement, and the family factors influencing dropping out, is

almost certainly mediated through student engagement or commitment to schooling: the impact

of conversations in the home must be first upon student attitudes and values. Only through these

attitudes can the family influence learning outcomes. School practices that support parent

Involvement are justified primarily on the basis if their contribution to student

commitment.

Influence of the family5

There are two ways in which the family can influence the school: one, by involvement in

governance; and two, through its influence on student learning (Fullan, 1982). Those who

5
Op cit. Peter Coleman. p.19
become involved in governance may wish to see school involvement occur within the existing

structure. Alternatively, they may be convinced that schools are no longer in accord with their

political environment-that is, with the desires of the parents and communities they presumably

sere and with the political system whose procedural principles public institutions are obligated to

reflect.

In this work, we rarely address governance issues at all. Rather we describe parent

influence upon instructional relationships that impact directly on student commitment and

success in school. Lightfoot comments that: Families and schools are engaged in a

complementary sociocultural task and yet they find themselves in great conflict with one another.

One cause for such conflict is that, while the family focuses on the child as individual, the

school focuses on the child as a member of a group (Katz, 19964). The neds of the individual

versus those of the group are often at issue in parent-teacher confrontations regarding

instructional opportunities afforded individual children. The typical shorthand for such parent

concerns is fairness; teachers are often perceived to be unfair by parents. Conversely, the

highest praise a student can confer upon a teacher is to say s/he is fair, meaning that the teacher

balances the needs of individuals in the class with those of the whole group.

The Beliefs and Attitudes of Parents6

All Parents believe that they can help their children learn more and more effectively, and

that they could help more with a little assistance from the teacher. Overall, parents

6
Op cit. Peter Coleman. p.58
 a) want to know that they can contact the teacher at any time about anything and that

they are welcome to in the school and in the classroom;

b) wish their children to be treated respectfully as individuals by teachers

c) are sensitive to the efforts of the teacher to get to know their child individually and

the ability of the teacher to bring out the best, academically and personally, in that

child.

There are four topics of equal importance: parent teacher relationships; family history of

involvement; teacher-student relationships and the attitudes of teaxger to parent

involvement.

For parents, relationships with teachers are occasionally mediated through

children, but more importantly instructional relationships between parent and child are

almost always influenced by teachers. We asked Do you feel that your childs teacher

sees you as a partner/team member inn your childs education? The most memorable

response was: I dont have time for that.

Advice to Parents

The head of an infants school in North London, when questioned about what sort

of advice he gave to parents who asked how they might help their children, replied:

Just talk and listen to your child, as much as possible. This is the most

Conducting Parent-Teacher Conferences7

7
Rober Linn and Norman Gronlund. Measurement and Assessment in teaching. (Prentice Hall:2000). p.396
 Regardless of the type of grading and reporting system used in the school, the parent-

teacher conference is an important supplement to the written report of progress. The face-to-face

conference makes it possible to share information with parents (or guardians), to overcome any

misunderstandings between home and school, and to plan cooperatively a program of maximum

benefit to the student.

Standardized Results and Parents8

Standardized results are sometimes reported to parents during a parent-teacher

conference. Although parents may have a legal right to all information the school has concerning

their children, it should be presented to them in an understandable and usable form. This means

avoiding technical jargon and presenting results to parents in language that is meaningful to

them. There also will be less chance of misunderstanding and more chance of being viewed in

proper perspective if the results are presented as part of the total pattern of information about the

student.

The Beliefs and Attitudes of Parents

All Parents believe that they can help their children learn more and more effectively, and

that they could help more with a little assistance from the teacher. Overall, parents

d) want to know that they can contact the teacher at any time about anything and that

they are welcome to in the school and in the classroom;

e) wish their children to be treated respectfully as individuals by teachers

8
Op cit. Linn and Gronlund. p.398
 f) are sensitive to the efforts of the teacher to get to know their child individually and

the ability of the teacher to bring out the best, academically and personally, in that

child.

There are four topics of equal importance: parent teacher relationships; family history of

involvement; teacher-student relationships and the attitudes of teacher to parent involvement.

For parents, relationships with teachers are occasionally mediated through children, but

more importantly instructional relationships between parent and child are almost always

influenced by teachers. We asked Do you feel that your childs teacher sees you as a

partner/team member inn your childs education? The most memorable response was: I dont

have time for that.

Guidelines for Parents9

The head of an infants school in North London, when questioned about what sort of

advice he gave to parents who asked how they might help their children, replied:

Just talk and listen to your child, as much as possible. This is the most valuable thing you

can do. Ask him to read signs at at the bus stop and in shops and other places. Get him to count

the change when shopping. Ensure you read to him, particularly at bedtime. Give him immediate

access to mud and tin cans to experiment with. Take him on journeys and visits. Introduce him to

the local library ad help him find his way about and make a suitable choice.

9
Op cit. Peter Coleman. p.133
 Sound advice though this may be, the likelihood is that those with sufficient initiative to

ask may be the least in need of it; and some may hesitate to knock on the heads door in case

they seem pushing or interfering.

Too often, however, letter from schools are delivered in a manner intended to convey

more of a warning than a welcome.