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The purpose of this study was to document and examine the use of technology to facilitate communication among the three protagonists of learning — parents, teachers, and children in an early childhood education classroom. Specifically, the process of the co-construction of a website, by parents and teachers and subsequent use of the website for information exchange and parent involvement was documented and examined by the researcher using ethnographic methodologies. The study provides a description of the process of co-constructing the website. Through this description, the researcher came to better understanding of developing a website, parent-teacher communication, children and their learning, and herself as a teacher-researcher. The study includes examples of the website pages as well as recommendations and implications for future use of a classroom website. / Master of Science

The problem of this study was to determine whether the advance organizer would affect students' perception of instructor communication competence. The study also sought to determine any effect the organizer would have on student achievement.

The topic of this diploma thesis is communication and cooperation of school and parents about home preparation of pupils. The theoretical part is divided into two parts. The first part deals with home preparation and homework. There are mentioned some suggestions how the homework should look like, how to set it in class and how to evaluate it. A very important section of the theoretical part is a chapter about positive and negative influences of homework. The second part is concerned with communication and cooperation of school and parents about home preparation. We map the possibilities of parent-teacher cooperation concerning home preparation of students. Moreover, we describe how to involve parents in home preparation and how to proceed. There are also recommendations for parents. In the empirical part of this thesis, we research attitudes of parents, teachers and pupils to home preparation. The main method was a questionnaire supplemented with semi-structured dialogues with some of the respondents (teachers and parents). The results of the research show that teachers have a positive attitude towards homework and that teachers think that homework is important. The attitude of parents and pupils is neutral. The majority of parents think teachers should set homework.

With the rise of "helicopter" parents within primary and secondary education, school officials nationwide have started to address how to manage parental involvement in the educational system, specifically with regard to parent-teacher communication. Beginning in the 1980s, school administrators actively implemented programs targeting increased parental involvement in K-12 public schools, though the use of contact and relationship building strategies, in order to substantiate school-teacher-parent communication and further parental influence over decision making processes. While administrators and parents may view parent-teacher interactions as productive, teachers' negative experiences with parents may lead to stress, burnout, and attrition. Researchers have indicated that between 20 and 50% of first through third year teachers leave the profession due to increased, long-term stress, unrealistic workload, and an overall feeling of decreased personal and professional fulfillment. Likewise, through educational reform initiatives to standardize curriculum and increase parental involvement within public schools, teachers' roles within the educational system have shifted from positions of power, to figureheads for the system. The purpose of this study is to examine public school K-12 teachers' standpoints as they relate to parent-teacher communication.

My thesis focuses to parental and teacher's attitude to homework. This work consists of two parts, theoretical and empirical part. Theoretical part contains the terms and definitions of homework. There are a lot of purposes of homework. Another aim is to discover positive and negative effects of homework. A key to success over homework are communication and motivation. The empirical part deals with interviews with parents and teachers. The interview with the parents focused on the main question: What is the attitude of the parents to their child's homework? And the interview with the teachers focused on the main question: What is a purpose of homework? As result came out that the parents agree with the idea of homework and for teachers the purpose of homework is to practise the lessons. KEYWORDS homework, home preparation, parent-teacher communication, family-school cooperation

中文摘要 家庭訪問是親師溝通的重要管道，教師與家長常常藉此進行教育理念的溝通或教養方式的協調，教師與家長常會在訪談中變換身份，彼此在不同時機以不同角色進行互動。如何選擇適合的身份進行溝通，在社會文化中是極其自然的現象，研究者希望藉由家訪在社會活動脈絡中具有的獨特意義，解釋日常生活中的常識性知識如何被人們理解與運用的現象。 　　本研究透過成員類別分析法，探知家庭訪問中教師、家長及學生在溝通時，如何使用大量類別知識溝通的樣貌，研究者以國民中學十則家庭訪問對話記錄作 為分析個案，描繪以下三類現象：第一，家訪的樣貌；第二，家訪機制中的成員類別內涵；第三，成員類別身份轉換。 　　首先，藉由訪問者語言工具箱的整體提問順序、開場白及結語、問問題、人稱代名詞，勾勒出家訪的樣貌；其次，描繪出教師、家長身份的類別內涵，以及親師言談建構出的學生形象。 　　教師擁有教育者或輔導者的身份，也有轉換為私領域身份（如女兒、太太、媽媽）的現象；家長是照顧者，同時也是教育者；國中生在家長與老師眼中是不成熟的青少年、面臨抉擇的轉大人階段、更是背負著期許的承繼者。研究者藉由家訪中的言語對談，闡述以上這些身份的類別內涵，描繪出社會文化對於教師與家長、學生有何種身份期待的文化現象。 　　最後，陳述教師與家長轉換身份的時機點：教師在交談時因為爭取話權、居中協商、提供教養方式，而不自覺地轉換身份；家長在交談時則因為闡述事實、釐清觀念、尋求支持，而不自覺地轉換身份。教師 /家長的關係成為朋友/朋友之間的關係，運用相通的社會知識溝通，採用社會類別的特徵表達，或是藉著存在於社會中的類別知識協商，這些都呈現了社會文化的一部份。 關鍵字詞：親師溝通、家庭訪問、身份轉換、成員類別分析 / Abstract Home visits are important channels for communication between teachers and parents. Through this, teachers and parents often carry out communication of educational philosophy or coordination of teaching and rearing approaches. Oftentimes, teachers and parents go through identity transformation during their conversations. They take on different identities at different times to interact with each other. How to choose an appropriate identity to proceed with conversations has become a very natural phenomenon in social culture. Through the unique significance of home visits in the context of social activities, the researcher hopes to explain the phenomenon of how commonsense knowledge is understood and utilized by people. Through membership categorization analysis, this study explores how the considerable amount of knowledge communication is used between teachers, parents, and students as they communicate with each other during home visits. The research used ten recorded conversations of junior high school home visits as case studies. The following three phenomena are depicted: First, the appearance of home visits; Second, implications of membership categorization of home visits’ mechanism; Third, identity transformation of membership categorization. First, the appearance home visits is depicted through interviewers’ language toolkit, including the overall order of questioning, opening and closing remarks, asking questions, and personal pronoun. Second, the categorization connotation of identities of teachers and parents are illustrated. The image of students created by parents and teachers through their conversations is also illustrated. Teachers have the identity of educators or counselors. The phenomenon of transforming into a private identity (such as a daughter, wife, or mother) was seen. Parents are caregivers; they are also educators at the same time. Junior high school students are immature teenagers in the eyes of parents and teachers. They are at the stage of becoming adults, which is associated with decision-making. They are also successors burdened with expectations. Through the conversations during home visits, the researcher expounded the categorization connotation of the above identities. The kind of cultural phenomena of teachers, parents, and students expected by the social culture are illustrated. Finally, the points of time of identity transformation of teachers and parents are presented. During conversations, to fight for the authority of their words, coordinate, and provide teaching and rearing approaches, teachers underwent identity transformation unconsciously. During conversations, to set forth facts, clarify perspectives, and seek support, parents underwent identity transformation unconsciously. A teacher-parent relationship was transformed into a friend-friend relationship. This is done through utilization of common social knowledge to communicate, adoption of social category’s characteristic expression, or by the categorial knowledge consultation existed in the society. These have all presented a part of social culture. Keywords: Parent-teacher communication, Home visit, Identity transformation,Membership categorization analysis

The purposes of this study were to explore students&rsquo / perceptions of the extent to which constructivist approaches are present in chemistry classes at high school level in Turkey, to assess students&rsquo / perceptions of their chemistry teachers&rsquo / communication behaviours in their classroom learning environments and to investigate the learning strategies of students in chemistry classes considering school type, gender, and grade level differences. In this study, the Constructivist Learning Environment Questionnaire (CLES), the Teacher Communication Behaviour v Questionnaire (TCBQ) and the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) were used as measuring instruments. In addition, the questionnaires included some questions for demographic characteristics of participants. The study was conducted in conveniently selected two schools (private and public) in Ankara with a total of 994 ninth and tenth grade students in the second term of 2006-2007 semesters. Data obtained from the administration of measuring instruments by using the analysis of multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) The results of the study indicated that school type, gender and grade level of the students had significant effect on perception of classroom learning environment, teacher&rsquo / communication behaviour and perceived use of learning strategies. For instance, students in private schools perceived their classroom-learning environment more constructivist than student in public school. In addition girls rated that, their learning environment and teachers&rsquo / communication behaviours more favourably than did boys. The study also showed that students use rehearsal-learning strategy mostly in their chemistry classrooms.

Parent-teacher communication is a key element of parent-teacher relationship and of family involvement. Such communication influences children's wellbeing and academic success. There are many gaps in the literature regarding the dynamics of parent-teacher communication and how this influences family and school literacy practices. Using a qualitative design, this case study focused on the communication of a family from a culturally and linguistically diverse background and the children's teachers. The study examined the conceptions of communication and perspectives on parent-teacher communication of a mother and three teachers. The study also examined the diverse ways they communicated literacy practices and expectations to one another and the outcomes derived from their communication. Findings of this study revealed that parent-teacher communication is a complex process influenced by multiple factors related to the microsystems of school and home and the varied ways they interact. The study found a disconnection between parent and teacher communication conceptions and approaches.

A qualitative investigation was conducted to explore the characteristics of high quality teachers. This study used a phenomenological methodology, enabling the researcher to gather information from a purposeful selection of people directly identified as high quality teachers by their principals. This study employed processes of data collection commonly used in observational analysis and included the use of interviews found in qualitative design. The researcher was able to extract meaning using the coding process and the constant comparative method. Information was sorted into themes that supported and aligned with the research questions leading to a deeper understanding of the phenomenon. This was accomplished through thorough analysis of interviews and observations. Teacher participants were asked to participate in an interview prior to the classroom observation, be observed in the classroom, and participate in a post observation interview. Additionally, individual interviews were conducted with the principals of the teacher participants. The quality of data sources led to the triangulation of results giving credibility to the study. The study findings were conclusive regarding the key characteristics of high quality teaching. There was a clear relationship between high quality teaching and the use of a variety of instructional strategies, the ability to engage students in learning, the use of higher order questioning as a prevalent teaching strategy, the establishment of clear classroom expectations and the maintenance of those expectations, clear and deliberate communication to facilitate home and school partnerships, and a high level of passion for content and the profession of teaching. Other emerging themes may be utilized to connect high quality teaching to additional characteristics. These characteristics offer suggestions for further research to determine how strong the correlation is between high quality teaching and these themes. The themes included having a caring disposition, high expectations, being self-reflective, having content knowledge, being a team player, and having a strong work ethic. The research findings were evidenced and supported by a thorough literature review, the results of principal and teacher participant interviews, the results of classroom observations of teacher participants, and document analysis. The researcher also specified recommendations for future practice and suggestions for future research. The results from this study contribute to the body of knowledge on the exploration of the characteristics of high quality teachers.