Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1968. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

M.Ed. (Education and Curriculum Studies) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

This study examines the phenomenon of parental and community involvement in a primary school and the benefits thereof to the learners, teachers and community members. The aim of this study is to investigate how a positive school climate can improve the involvement of parents and community members in a school’s activities. The research attempted to determine what the role of a positive school climate is; the strategies schools could apply to enhance parental and community involvement, the possible benefits of involvement and reasons for non-involvement of parents and community members in school activities. The theoretical frameworks of Urie Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model and Joyce Epstein’s overlapping spheres of influence were used in the study. A case study was used as the qualitative research methodology. The data for the research was gathered from a purposive sample of teachers, community volunteer workers, parents and the principal. Semi-structured interview schedules and pre-designed questionnaires including open and closed questions, were used to collect data. The data was analysed inductively by using a descriptive open coding method to identify emerging themes. The findings of the research suggest that a positive school climate to improve parent and community involvement can be created by applying the strategies of effective communication, good working relationships, creating opportunities for involvement, ensuring a healthy and safe environment, formulating a school policy for parent and community involvement, creating a friendly and welcoming atmosphere as well as upholding an ethos of good moral values. The study found that parent and community involvement in a school’s activities offers various benefits to all stakeholders.

This study was concerned with developing and exploring a reasonably comprehensive scheme of categories which describes, from the perspective of adolescents, what facilitates their career development during the process of participating in the Partners Program. The critical incidents Technique was used to elicit 302 Incidents from nine dyads. Each dyad consisted of a parent and their high school adolescent. This study took place over a four-month period, and after completion of the program, the participants were interviewed individually to determine the events that facilitated the career development of the adolescent. Sixteen categories emerged from the incidents reported. Reliability was suggested by two independent raters who showed 100% agreement in categorization. Participation rate varying from 44% - 61% indicated the soundness of these categories. From an examination of the findings, theories surfaced from the categories that reflected the threefold aim of the Partners Program. Firstly it fosters career development by increasing self-awareness, career awareness and decision and planning capabilities. Secondly, it strengthens the family support network. Thirdly, it enables the adolescent to make better use of career resources and programs. It is suggested that there is a potency in family relationships in career counselling which could be a powerful ally for the professional counsellor. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

No description available.

Chinese parental involvement in children‘s learning has been regarded as one of the key factors in accounting for their children‘s superior academic success. Chinese cultural ideologies which highlight the value of learning and parents‘heightened role in children‘s learning may shape Chinese parental involvement. The first goal of the current research was to understand Chinese parental involvement by developing a scale. The second goal was to examine the factors which influenced Chinese parental involvement. Four parental beliefs were tested: parental self-efficacy for helping the child succeed in school, parental value of academic success, parental educational aspiration and expectation for child and parental role belief in children‘s learning in children‘s learning. Children‘s academic performance was also tested as antecedent. Third, the study attempted to examine the effects of Chinese parental involvement on children‘s academic (i.e., children‘s motivational outcomes and academic achievement) and emotional functioning (i.e., life satisfaction). / A total of 323 7th graders and one of their parents participated. Children reported the involvement of their participating parents, as well as their motivational outcomes (i.e., children‘s value of academic success, relative autonomy in pursing academics, self-regulated learning strategies) and life satisfaction at Time 1 and Time 2(abbreviation for T1 and T2, 6 months apart); and children‘s grades were obtained from school records. Parents reported on their involvement in children‘s learning as well as parental beliefs in children‘s learning at T1. / The current research found that Chinese parental involvement not only included teacher initiated school-based involvement, help with schoolwork, cognitive-intellectual involvement, academic socialization regarding current learning, academic socialization regarding future academic goals which have been identified in Western countries, but also included parent initiated school-based involvement, providing a good environment, setting family rules, extra learning, reinforcement/punishment which were also important in Chinese context but have been neglected in previous work. Both parental beliefs and children‘s academic performance were related to Chinese parental involvement. Specifically, four parental beliefs differed in their contributions to various types of involvement. Children‘s academic achievement at T1 positively predicted child-reported parental help with schoolwork and providing a good environment but negatively predicted reinforcement/punishment at T2. Concurrent results (T1) demonstrated that child-reported parental involvement was significantly related to children‘s academic and emotional functioning with the effects varying by types of parental involvement. Specifically, child-reported parental academic socialization regarding current learning was positively associated with children‘s motivational outcomes. However, parental reinforcement/punishment was negatively associated with relative autonomy. Parental providing a good environment positively correlated with children‘s life satisfaction but was not related to children‘s academic outcomes. / Taken together, the study underscores the importance of studying various types of parental involvement practices in understanding Chinese parental involvement. Findings of the current study also highlight the role of parental beliefs and children‘s academic performance in parental involvement. / 中國的家長參與子女學業是造就中國學生優異成績的重要因素之一。中國文化重視學習以及家長在孩子學習中的作用，這些文化觀念會塑造中國家長參與的特點。西方的關於家長參與的理論框架可能不足以讓我們理解中國的家長參與。因此，本研究的第一個目的在於通過編制中國家長參與量表來研究中國家長參與的結構。第二個目的是探討中國家長參與的影響因素：家長的信念以及子女的學業成績。基於信念指導行為的假設，探討了家長的信念包括家長對於輔導子女學業的效能感、家長對學業的價值、家長對子女的期望以及家長對自己參與子女學業的角色建構對家長參與子女學業的影響。此外，基於家長社會化的互動模型，探討了孩子的學業成績對家長參與的影響。研究目的三則探討了家長參與對子女學業和情緒發展的影響，主要關注了家長參與對子女的學習動機、成績以及生活滿意度。 / 323名7年級學生及其家長參加了本次研究。調查分兩次進行，間隔六個月。家長只參加第一次調查，家長報告他們參與子女學業程度以及家長的信念。小孩則在兩次調查中報告他們家長的參與程度、學習動機以及生活滿意度。 / 結果表明，中國的家長參與包括了十個維度: 教師發起的基於學校的參與、輔導功課、認知-智力參與、關於當前學業的社會化、關於未來學習目標的社會化、家長發起的基於學校的參與、提供良好環境、設定家庭規則、課外輔導、強化/懲罰。家長的信念和孩子的學業成績影響家長參與的程度。具體來說，這四種家長的信念對家長參與的不同類型影響不同。孩子的成績正向預測了半年後孩子報告的家長的輔導功課、提供良好環境的程度，負向預測了家長的強化/懲罰。橫向調查的結果發現孩子報告的家長參與與孩子的學業相關，但是這種關係因不同類型的家長參與而異。 / 本研究表明了探討不同類型的中國的家長參與子女學業的重要性。本研究也表明家長的信念以及孩子的學業成績對家長參與的程度的影響。 / Wu, Nini. / Thesis Ph.D. Chinese University of Hong Kong 2014. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 108-124). / Abstracts also in Chinese; appendix includes Chinese. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on 12, October, 2016). / Wu, Nini. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only.

The procedural problem of this action research study was to develop a parent tutor program to teach parents how to work more effectively with the homework process. The review of literature examined (a) parent involvement, (b) parent education, (c) homework, and (d) curriculum development. A formative evaluation methodology involved four phases: (a) development, (b) implementation, (c) assessment, and (d) revision. The researcher used two curriculum software packages, Peaks CourseBuilding Software and PEAKSolutions LessonBuilding Software™. developed by PEAKSolutions and Vogler in 1989, to prepare a curriculum resource guide containing leader (counselor) guidelines, syllabus, and nine lesson plans. A foundation was provided by a selfhelp book on minimizing the homework hassle entitled Parents as Tutors, written by Vogler and Hutchins in 1988. Six elementary counselors formed an advisory panel to provide formative evaluation/validation of the program during the development and revision phases. The subjects were groups of parents who volunteered to participate in parent tutor groups at three elementary schools in southwest Virginia. Four instruments were designed and used in the formative evaluation process. One was a questionnaire completed by the advisory panel. The others were completed by the participants at the beginning, during, and at the end of the parent education groups. All parents who completed the parent tutor program indicated they experienced positive involvement in the homework process for themselves as well as benefits for their children. Conclusions related to parent participant goals for and problems with the homework process, reasons for parent group attrition, leader role and parent group strategies, and the importance of evaluative data. Recommendations were provided for parent tutor groups and future research. A counselor oriented parent tutor curriculum resource guide including a syllabus and nine comprehensive lesson plans with fieldtested revisions are included in the dissertation. / Ed. D.

published_or_final_version / Educational Psychology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

No description available.

The purpose of this research project was to determine whether a child-centered parent training program requiring minimal training would increase the language skills of LD pre-school children who have normal receptive language. Seven experimental subjects and 6 control subjects were randomly selected from a pool of middle-class families who answered a newspaper advertisement. The parents of the experimental group received 3 individual training sessions over a 3-month period. They were instructed to spend 15 minutes a day, 5 days a week, for 3 months, in a free play situation with their children using the language stimulation techniques they had learned, i.e., parallel talk, description, self-talk, and expansion. To eliminate a possible "halo effect" from the attention given the children in the experimental group, the parents in the control group were instructed to spend 15 minutes a day, 5 days a week, for 3 months, playing individually with their children.