Parent-Teacher Partnership

Towards Early Literacy and

Numeracy Development

Presented by:
Josephine M. Calamlam, Ph.D.
Targets
• Importance of parent-teacher
partnership
• Forming constructive teacher-parent
partnership
• Factors contributing to early literacy
and numeracy skills
Get Real

While the value of the home/school

partnership is universally accepted, it
is not always easy to
__________________ or to
_____________________ .
As we have moved from small communities
with intimate connections to a very diverse
mobile culture, the increasing complexity of
relationships, roles, and functions has often
complicated the collaborations.
 Although the partnership needs to be a
two-way dynamic to work…

“teachers are really the glue that

holds the home/school partnerships
together “

(Patrikakou & Weissberg, 1999)

Defining Parental Involvement in Education
• How should we define parental involvement?
• Is it the amount of time the parent spends
volunteering at the school, attending school functions,
working with the child on educational activities at
home?
• Is it communicating with the teacher on a regular
basis?
Images of good parent-teacher relationships
PTR is an effective separation of PTR is the image of the school
roles and functions between home functioning as an extended
and school, an optimal social family, a more open system.
distance combined with mutual Family and school intersect
respect. around the life of the child
The family meets the school (Powell, 1989; Galinsky, 1977;
expectations efficiently, and the Taylor, 1968).
school effectively educates the
child without undue demands on
the home
(Henry, 1996; Epstein, 1995;
Powell, 1989;Lortie, 1975).
These are all important parts of parental involvement….

but what do educators view as most important?

• Parental involvement is now focused more on the
involvement of parents within the home setting, such
as reading with their child or talking about school, and
working with the child on academic skills in the home
(Berthelsen & Walker, 2008).

• Parents who believe their child’s teacher is working

with them in a partnership with parents to keep them
informed and giving parents important information to
help their child learn tended to be more involved in
their child’s school activities (Mullis et al., 2002).
Six different types of involvement Epstein (2004),
1.Parenting - focuses on assisting families with parenting skills, family
support, and setting home conditions to support learning at each age
and grade level
2.Communicating - focuses on creating a positive two-way
communication relationship between home and school
3.Volunteering - involves using recruitment, training, activities, and
schedules to be able to involve families.
4. Involvement with their child’s academic learning at home
5. Decision-making
6. Collaborating with the community
WHY ARE HEALTHY PARENT-TEACHER RELATIONSHIPS
IMPORTANT?
Positive connections between parents and teachers have been
shown to:
• improve children’s academic achievement
• social competencies
• emotional well-being
• children do better in school and at home
• when working together as partners, it’s been found that:
✓ parents and teachers communicate more effectively
✓develop stronger relationships with one another; and
✓ develop skills to support children’s behaviors and learning
Factors that affect the development of
effective parent-teacher relationships
(1)the degree of match between teachers and
parents’ cultures and values
(2)societal forces at work on family and school
(3)how teachers and parents view their roles
The degree of match between
teachers and parents’ cultures
and values
From teachers’ perspectives
• Parents and teachers share the community
less frequently; Teachers do not have the
same sense of belonging to the community
that they did when they lived in the same
town.
• Teachers often come from a socioeconomic
class, race, or ethnic group that is different
from the children they teach.
• Differences in these realms are associated
with different interactional styles and
language systems, as well as values.
• Teachers own backgrounds are a key factor
in how they relate to parents
• Unexamined values, beliefs, and patterns of
interaction learned when we were children
exert a powerful influence on our
communication and care giving routines
 The degree of match
between teachers and
parents’ cultures and values
From the parents’ perspectives
(1) cultural beliefs related to the
authoritative position of teachers that
prevent parents from expressing their
concerns,
(2) a lack of education that may cause
parents to be intimidated in
interactions with teachers,
(3) language differences that may result in
parents feeling uncomfortable if no
one speaks their language; and
(4) different socioeconomic levels that
may result in child-rearing practices
and values that conflict with those of
the teachers
Societal forces at work on family and school

(1) Increasing reliance on

technology
(2) the changing nature of work,
a more diverse population
(3) a more service-oriented
society
(4) Both parents and teachers
experience job stress
How teachers and parents view their roles
Role Dimensions Parenting Teaching
1. Scope of Diffuse and limitless Specific and limited
function
2. Intensity of High Low
Affect
3. Attachment Optimum attachment Optimum detachment
4. Rationality Optimum irrationality Optimum rationality
5. Spontaneity Optimum Optimum
spontaneity intentionality
6. Partiality Partial Impartial
7. Scope of Individual Whole group
Responsibility
Partnership-focus perspective: where family and school work
cooperatively
• Teachers and Parents Efficacy Beliefs
• Teachers and Parents Expectations
• Teachers’ and Parents’ Personal
Attributes
• Teacher and Parent Communication
The partnership-focus perspective, where family and school work
cooperatively
Teachers and From the parents’ perspectives
Parents Efficacy • Most have little choice in choosing a school. Many feel
Beliefs powerless to influence schools and are threatened by
the authority of the school.
• Some feel that running the schools should be left up to
the experts
• Some resist or are reluctant to participate because they
worry about their family’s privacy.
• Some find the school climate or school bureaucracy hard
to deal with
• The lack of clarity about what to expect at meetings and
conferences also poses a challenge for the relationship
• For many apparently uninvolved parents, their school
experience was not positive, and they may now feel
inadequate in the school setting
The partnership-focus perspective, where family and school work
cooperatively
From the teachers’ perspectives
Teachers and Parents
Efficacy Beliefs • Some feel unappreciated by parents.
• They say that parents don’t come to
conferences or meetings. Parents don’t
read the material they send home, and
won’t volunteer for school activities.
• Some teachers feel that parents seem to
lack interest in what’s going on with
their children.
• Others describe parents as adversarial
or apathetic, always a challenge.
Understand the gap…
Their lack of a sense of
efficacy occurs because
• they have an adversarial
point of view or
• they lack skills, or
• there is a cultural
division.
 Often teachers and parents place
Teachers and Parents different emphases on factors central to
Expectations developing confidence in their
relationship.
➢For example, parents may emphasize
teachers’ knowledge and skills. They
want teachers to know and care about
teaching, about their children, and
about communicating with them.
➢Teachers have more confidence in
parents who have similar ideas about
teaching issues, and childrearing
practices, and who freely share
important things about their children
Teachers’ and Parents’ The relationships are enhanced when…
Personal Attributes • Teachers personal attributes include
warmth, openness, sensitivity, flexibility,
reliability, and accessibility
• The partnerships are positively
influenced when parents’ personal
attributes include warmth, sensitivity,
nurturance, the ability to listen,
consistency, a positive self-image,
personal confidence, and effective
interpersonal skills
While neither teachers nor parents may
have all these positive personal attributes,
teachers, who are armed with this
knowledge, may be more effective at
bridging
 Communication is one of the
Teacher and Parent categories of parent involvement.
Communication ➢First meetings with parents, often
the first personal connection that is
made, set the tone for the
subsequent relationship, making it
critical to be aware of issues of
cultural styles in conversation, space,
and eye contact.
➢Research suggests that the teacher’s
invitation to parents are also a
critical factor in promoting more
extensive parent involvement.

First meetings and teacher invitations have significance because

they influence how roles will be enacted as partnerships develop.
The Importance of Communication in Building
T-P Partnership
THE THREE C’S: HOW TO FORM A CONSTRUCTIVE
PARENT-TEACHER PARTNERSHIP
COMMUNICATION • Discuss with the child’s parents the
best ways to communicate.
• It is open, clear, constructive and
timely.
• Frequent, two-way
communication is important to
stay apprised of what is happening
at school, and to let the parents
know important things about their
child.
• Home-school notes are especially
effective.
CONSISTENCY • This involves opportunities and
experiences you provide in school
to support the child’s learning.
• Ask about and suggest ways you
can work with the children at
home to encourage their learning
for a successful school year.
• Be on the same page when it
comes to plans and expectations
COLLABORATION • Collaboration will be easier if
communication is frequent, and you
consistently create opportunities for
the child’s learning.
• It focuses on specific, positive
strategies to help the child achieve to
the best of his or her potential.
• Planning and problem-solving are
forms of collaboration, and will be
especially important when the child
needs extra support to reach a goal.
Home Learning
Environment and its
Relation to Literacy and
Numeracy Skills

• The home learning environment (i.e., shared parent-child activities at home)

plays an important role in developing literacy and numeracy skills .
• The home learning environment is often conceptualized as including two
domains: the home literacy environment (HLE) and home numeracy
environment (HNE)
• Formal activities are code-related activities that aim to instruct children.
• Informal activities are various playful activities involving print or numbers
• Children born in families where parents have difficulties in reading or
mathematical skills are at higher risk to develop such difficulties themselves.
Children’s Evocative
individual effect refers to
characteristics adults’ responses
(i.e., their emerging arising from their
literacy and children’s
mathematical skills) characteristics, such
may also shape the as skills or
home learning academic
environment performance
What can be learned at home?
Emerging Numeracy Skills Emerging Literacy Skills
• Counting objects • Vocabulary
• Number Producing • Print Knowledge
• Number Sequences • Letter Knowledge
• Number Symbol
Identification
• Number Naming
 Home Learning Environment
Home Literacy Home Numeracy
Environment Environment
• Printing numbers
• viewing illustrations
• Connect-the-dot activities
in a book with the
child • Using number activity book
• Being timed
• reading books to
• Having your child wear a
the child when they watch
were going to bed
• Talking about money when
• reading a book or shopping
magazine with the • Playing with calculators
child
Factors contributing to early literacy
and numeracy skills
• Home literacy environment
• Home numeracy environment
• Parents’ reading and mathematical
difficulty
• Frequency of learning activities a home
( active effects on environment)
• Parents’ engagement in shared learning
activities with their children (evocative
effects on the environment)
• Children’s individual characteristics
 Challenges
• Children born in families where parents have
difficulties in reading or mathematical skills are at
higher risk to develop such difficulties themselves.
• Parental mathematical difficulties seems to
influence children’s development in a similar
manner.
• The group of children with parental reading
difficulty or mathematical difficulty are therefore
often referred to as familial risk (FR) group.
• It is possible that genetic familial risk has a direct
influence on children’s skills, but parental skills in
reading and math may also interact with the home
learning environment
 What do research show?

• There were no significant indirect effects from parents’ RD, MD, or

educational level on children’s skills via HLE or HNE. The study highlights
that parental RD and MD, parental education, and the home learning
environment form a complex pattern of associations with children’s
numeracy and literacy skills starting already in toddlerhood.
• Recent research has proved that reading as a stand-alone activity will not
help children with pre-literacy skills (Phillips et al., 2008)
• The latest research on parent involvement in early literacy has stressed
that children need to be given more specific skills while being read to in
order to be successful with early literacy skills (Roberts, Jurgens, &
Burchinal, M., 2005).
Implications
• Without sufficient parental skills, the home
learning environment may not be as supportive
(e.g., fewer activities where children can learn
literacy or numeracy skills) in the FR (familial risk)
families.
•Parental RD and MD have been shown to be
transmitted through environmental factors in some
studies
 • Create a class’ profile that includes
information about the family and home
Recommendations environment so that decisions will be data-
driven
• Engage parents in developing their
children’s literacy and numeracy skills by
equipping them the knowledge, strategies,
and skills which can be applied to provide a
rich home learning environment.
• Make interactions with parents engaging,
purposive, meaningful and respectful.
• Create activities that can showcase parents’
strengths as they engage in their children’s
learning
 References
• Burton, E. (January 2013). Parent involvement in early literacy: Why reading with your child Every night is
not enough. Retrieved from: https://www.edutopia.org/blog/parentinvolvement-in-early-literacy-erika-
burton
• Caglar‐Ryeng, Ø., Eklund, K., and Nergård‐Nilssen, T. (2020). The Effects of Book Exposure and reading
Interest on Oral Language Skills of Children with and without a Familial Risk of Dyslexia. Dyslexia 26 (4),
394–410. doi:10.1002/dys.1657
• Elliott, L., and Bachman, H. J. (2018). How Do Parents foster Young Children's Math Skills? Child. Dev.
Perspect. 12, 16–21. doi:10.1111/cdep.12249
• Esmaeeli, Z., Kyle, F. E., and Lundetræ, K. (2019). Contribution of Family Risk, Emergent Literacy and
Environmental Protective Factors in Children's reading Difficulties at the End of Second-Grade. Read. Writ 32
(9), 2375–2399. doi:10.1007/s11145-019-09948-5
• Khanolainen, D., Psyridou, M., Silinskas, G., Lerkkanen, M. K., Niemi, P., Poikkeus, A. M., et al. (2020).
Longitudinal Effects of the Home Learning Environment and Parental Difficulties on Reading and Math
Development across Grades 1-9. Front. Psychol. 11, 577981. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.577981
• Korpipää, H., Moll, K., Aunola, K., Tolvanen, A., Koponen, T., Aro, M., et al. (2020). Early Cognitive Profiles
Predicting reading and Arithmetic Skills in Grades 1 and 7. Contemp. Educ. Psychol. 60, 101830.
doi:10.1016/j.cedpsych.2019.101830
• Spreeuwenberg, R. (January 2019). Why parent involvement is so important in early childhood Education.
Early Childhood Education Blog. Retrieved from: https://blog.himama.com/why-parent-involvement-is-
important-in-preschool/ on August 1, 2019
Children are the priority
Change is the reality
Communication,
Consistency and
Collaboration
Are the keys!