In school library research programs involving enquiry-based learning,
a challenge for students doing research emerges when they take their projects
home and turn to their parents for assistance. Often parents do not have
sufficient knowledge of the research program and critical thinking to be able
to effectively help their children. Many of them are unfamiliar with an
inquiry-based research process and this inevitably leads to anxiety for both
parents and children.
A literature review revealed that parents do want to help their children
at home with schoolwork, but are confused about the amount and kind of
assistance they should provide. Moreover, research on parent involvement in
school library research programs is virtually nonexistent, which stimulated
the researcher to conduct this study.
The purpose of this study was to investigate a parent/teacher-librarian
(PTL) collaboration process intended to assist parents wanting to help their
children more effectively with research homework. Before the
implementation of this study, a school library research program was well-established
(1988-1999), but it included no formal integration of parent
involvement. The study investigated (a) parent, student, and teacher-librarian
concerns that arose during collaboration, (b) resolutions of those concerns,
(c) techniques that facilitated collaboration and parent assistance, and (d) the
benefits and disadvantages of the collaboration process.
One questionnaire was mailed at the beginning of the study to the
parents of all 72 grade seven students in one Lower Mainland elementary
school and, as a final evaluation, a second questionnaire was mailed to the
parents of 28 grade seven students who had committed time to be in the
study. Between the two questionnaires, a subset of eight parents and their
corresponding children became primary subjects and were interviewed after
they had worked with their children on research question formulation at
home. Previous to working with their children, these eight parents had
received a detailed overview of the student research program, two training
sessions with the teacher-librarian and a variety of options for
communicating directly with her at any time during the study.
A major objective of the study was to collaboratively solve the major
concerns that emerged during the study and a procedure was developed for
that purpose. The parents and teacher-librarian together created guidelines for
future parent involvement where resolutions of the concerns were stated. The
greatest concern for all parties was the dilemma of balancing the student
desire for independence and ownership of the projects with the parents' offer
of help. The guidelines helped clarify the right kind of assistance for parents
to give, while the overview and two training sessions increased parents'
research knowledge base and allowed them to suggest improvements to
strengthen the collaboration process and the library program.
Because the PTL collaboration process provided all participants with
more benefits than disadvantages, both the parents and teacher-librarian
unanimously agreed that the PTL collaboration process merited continuance.
With the supporting structure of a parent/ teacher collaboration process
attached to learning activities at home, parent confidence about guiding
children can be increased, the students can see positive results in learning,
and a school library research program can thereby be strengthened. The
teacher-librarian, the researcher in this study, felt her practice was improved
with the addition of the PTL collaboration process. Moreover, its continuance
could contribute ultimately to the development of students whose convictions
are based on more reflective enquiry and thoughtful research.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/10346 |
| Date | 05 1900 |
| Creators | Ramsay, Joan Margaret |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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