Parent-Teacher Communication

Communication is imperative in relationships throughout daily life. But it is also a crucial componant inside the classroom environment between parents and teachers. In order to explain the value and effects of communication, I conducted research through scholarly articles. Here is what I found:

Article 1:

Parent-Teacher communication can be executed in simple ways to achieve the goals of improving student success. In an experiment lead by a Harvard student, evidence showed that a phone call/message home to parents every day improved student homework completion by 40%. It also increased the attention span and focus of students, allowing participation to coincidentally go up as well. Those statistics alone represent the massive effect on communication in the classroom. The question of this article was, “What can teachers do to make students more engaged in their schooling?” To answer this, the investigator hypothesized that the relationship between teachers and students and teachers and parents have a big role in determining school engagement. Through experimentation and observation, it was discovered that there were positive increases in student motivation, parent involvement, relationships in and out of school, and academic growth. The downfall noticed in this investigation was that teachers became tired of calling families every day as it added on to their work load and to-do list. It was also recorded that the parents would not always answer the phone as it was sometimes a burden. Overall, the hypothesis of relationships and student success being dependent on communication was correct. The study shows that even with the negative experiences of not every parent being involved or answering the phone, the majority of students had a more engaged and successful time in the classroom. https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/mkraft/files/kraft_dougherty_teacher_communication_jree.pdf

Article 2:

Parent involvement in today’s society is considered being a ‘helicopter parent’ and is oftentimes frowned upon. But, contrary to beliefs regarding that title, parents that show enthusiasm towards their children’s growth has been found to make students succeed more. This experiment was to examine the effect of highly involved parents on student engagement and the educational outcomes. A main argument in this article was that technology has made a very impactful difference in allowing students to communicate with their parents and family members. It also claims that parent involvement decreases dramatically in secondary education and beyond. With that being said, parents who provided their children with encouragement, support, and high expectations improved the engagement and education levels of students. It has been proven in this study that helicopter parents seem to have a positive effect on the students’ abilities to learn and succeed. http://cpr.indiana.edu/uploads/AIR%202009%20Impact%20of%20Helicopter%20parents.pdf

Taking into consideration the knowledge I learned from the research, I believe that communication between parents and teacher is vital to improve student success and engagement. While there are a few negative downfalls, the positive effects far outweigh the cons. As a future primary teacher, I have a few ideas of how I can manage parents and family members to keep them updated. My first method of communication is utilized in almost every elementary classroom that I have observed. I will send folders home with students once or twice a week with an upcoming events sheet and homework for the child to complete. Students take these folders home and have their parent or guardian sign them to return the next day. I will also send emails/messages to families when necessary if there are important updates or things to consider. Using the Remind app is another way communication can be increased, but I do realize that not every parent and household has a cellphone which would make it difficult. Lastly, I could keep a website, blog, or other online source updated with notifications from my classroom. It would have the same challenge as Remind due to limited access in every family.

I hope this post has been informative and effective! I know I learned many things doing research about this topic. Thanks for reading!!