Thesis (Ed. D.)--Illinois State University, 1997. / Title from title page screen, viewed June 13, 2006. Dissertation Committee: Dent M. Rhodes (chair), Wayne A. Benenson, Gayle Flickinger, Connie Burrows Horton. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 162-170) and abstract. Also available in print.

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This study is an outgrowth of the cooperative efforts of the instructors at the Utah State Agricultural College Elementary Training School (Whittier). An attempt was made to show that the parent teacher conference is one of the best possible means of reporting pupil progress and growth.

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The purpose of this study was to develop a field-tested prior notice/due process form that would be comprehensible by parents. An ancillary purpose was to determine the comprehensibility of a prior notice form that is currently used in southwest Virginia school divisions. A research and development model was employed to develop the field-tested form. A form and an application test were written in the predesign and design stage. In the initial review stage, a panel of experts reviewed the test and revised the form, and parents read the form and took the application test. Based on expert comments and an analysis of parent responses, revisions were made to the test and form. Another form and test revision was made following a main field test of parents. The final cycle of the. study was an operational field test of 65 parents in 11 school divisions in southwest Virginia. In a secondary mail survey, 80 special education administrators indicated their preference for the two forms on various dimensions. Data from the operational field test were used to test the hypotheses. Item analyses, using both standard and educational discrimination indices, were conducted to suggest areas for improvement on the revised form. It was concluded from the findings of the study that: (1) the hypothesis that a significant difference would exist in comprehension between parents reading the revised form and those reading the standard form was not supported; (2) on the application test, parents can obtain an acceptable mean score of 80% by reading either form; (3) specific problem areas on the form still exist, and should be corrected; (4) special education administrators prefer the revised form for use with parents; and (5) the use of jargon and complex terms seem to particularly discriminate parents of lower educational levels. Recommendations were made for form development and form use. / Ed. D.

Parent-teacher conferences are an important component of parent involvement practice in any school. However, parent-teacher conferences often come short of the expectations of both parents and teachers and fail to lead to lasting solutions to learners' problems. This study focuses on the implementation of parent-teacher conferences in primary schools. The problem was investigated by means of a literature study and an empirical investigation. The literature identified approaches to and models of parent involvement, common barriers to parent-teacher communication and the characteristics of effective conferences. A qualitative investigation explored the process of a small sample of parent-teacher conferences in a selected primary school in Mamelodi, Gauteng Province. Data was gathered by participant observation. Findings showed that teacher talk predominated during conferences; the importance of mutual trust and teachers' listening to parents; guiding parents to improve learning at home and barriers to communication. Recommendations based on the findings were made. / Educational Studies / M.Ed. (Education management)

Parent-teacher conferences are an important component of parent involvement practice in any school. However, parent-teacher conferences often come short of the expectations of both parents and teachers and fail to lead to lasting solutions to learners' problems. This study focuses on the implementation of parent-teacher conferences in primary schools. The problem was investigated by means of a literature study and an empirical investigation. The literature identified approaches to and models of parent involvement, common barriers to parent-teacher communication and the characteristics of effective conferences. A qualitative investigation explored the process of a small sample of parent-teacher conferences in a selected primary school in Mamelodi, Gauteng Province. Data was gathered by participant observation. Findings showed that teacher talk predominated during conferences; the importance of mutual trust and teachers' listening to parents; guiding parents to improve learning at home and barriers to communication. Recommendations based on the findings were made. / Educational Studies / M.Ed. (Education management)

Målet med studien är att förstå hur och vad som beskrivs och bedöms genom de samtalsmallar som används inför utvecklingssamtal på förskolan. Det är en kvalitativ studie baserad på innehållsanalys av insamlade dokument. Innehållsanalysen utfördes genom kodscheman som tas upp av Bergström och Boréus (2008). I analysarbetet har vi inspirerats av diskursanalysen. Studien är baserad på åtta samtalsmallar inför utvecklingssamtal från olika förskolor i en kommun i Mellansverige. Studien visar att samtalsmallarna innehöll flera olika sätt att beskriva och bedöma barn. Genom vårt analysarbete fann vi framför allt fem tydliga teman som utgör vårt resultat; Det lärande barnet, där barnet genom samtalsmallarna beskrivs och bedöms inom olika områden och ses som lärande eller under utveckling. Barnet som person, baserat på punkterna i samtalsmallarna som utgörs av bedömning och beskrivning av barnets personliga attribut. Det bristande barnet, med grund i samtalsmallarnas fokus på barnets tillkortakommanden och brister. Barnet i verksamhetens kontext, utifrån punkter i samtalsmallarna där verksamheten beskrivs och bedöms och Det positivt framställda barnet, grundat i till exempel uppmaningar i samtalsmallarna om att hålla samtalen i positiv anda. Tillika visar studien att flera olika barnsyner ligger till grund för hur barn ska beskrivas och bedömas i samtalsmallarna, samt att det råder motsägelser och bristande direktiv i förskolans styrdokument för utvecklingssamtalens syfte och innehåll. / The aim of this study is to understand how and what is described and assessed in the templates used for parent-teacher conferences in pre-school. This study is qualitative in nature and the chosen method of examination was content analysis of documents through coding schemes inspired by those described in Bergström and Boréus (2008). Discourse analysis inspired us when analyzing our data. The documents upon which the study is based consist of eight templates for parent-teacher conferences from different pre-schools in a municipality of Sweden. The study shows that templates for parent-teacher conferences consist of several different ways of describing and making assessments of the children. In our analysis we found five distinguishing themes as described in our result; The learning child, where the child is looked upon and described as under development, within different subjects. The child as a person, as the child’s personality was to be assessed and described thru the templates. The child of flaws, based on the conversational topics in the templates focused on flaws and problems. The child in the context of pre-school, due to the focus on describing and assessing the pre-school in the templates and finally The positively described child, based on the directives in some of the templates about describing the child thru positive outlook. The study also shows a variety of teachers’ perspectives on children based on the ways in which the children are to be described and assessed in the templates. Additionally, the study reveals a lack of and somewhat contradicting directives in the regulatory documents for pre-schools, considering the purpose and content of parent-teacher conferences.

The problem of this study concerns the effects of a parent group counseling procedure and an individual consultation procedure upon (1) the attitude of the parents, (2) the school-related behavior of the children, (3) the academic grades of the children, (4) the peer relations of the children, and (5) self-concept of the children. The results of this investigation indicated no significant differences in procedures for affecting behavior changes on the variables examined. Generally, parent group counseling appeared to generate more pervasive changes affecting multiple behaviors in their children than individual consultation with the parents.