Monday, November 28, 2011

If We Need Great Teachers, Better Parents Too, Research Says

From the original article entitled How About Better Parents?
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Published: November 19, 2011at the New York Times


There’s no question that a great teacher can make a huge difference in a student’s achievement, and we need to recruit, train and reward more such teachers. But here’s what some new studies are also showing: We need better parents. Parents more focused on their children’s education can also make a huge difference in a student’s achievement.

THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN, The New York Times
How do we know? Every three years, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, or O.E.C.D., conducts exams as part of the Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA, which tests 15-year-olds in the world’s leading industrialized nations on their reading comprehension and ability to use what they’ve learned in math and science to solve real problems — the most important skills for succeeding in college and life. America’s 15-year-olds have not been distinguishing themselves in the PISA exams compared with students in Singapore, Finland and Shanghai.

To better understand why some students thrive taking the PISA tests and others do not, Andreas Schleicher, who oversees the exams for the O.E.C.D., was encouraged by the O.E.C.D. countries to look beyond the classrooms. So starting with four countries in 2006, and then adding 14 more in 2009, the PISA team went to the parents of 5,000 students and interviewed them “about how they raised their kids and then compared that with the test results” for each of those years, Schleicher explained to me. Two weeks ago, the PISA team published the three main findings of its study:

“Fifteen-year-old students whose parents often read books with them during their first year of primary school show markedly higher scores in PISA 2009 than students whose parents read with them infrequently or not at all. The performance advantage among students whose parents read to them in their early school years is evident regardless of the family’s socioeconomic background. Parents’ engagement with their 15-year-olds is strongly associated with better performance in PISA.”

Schleicher explained to me that “just asking your child how was their school day and showing genuine interest in the learning that they are doing can have the same impact as hours of private tutoring. It is something every parent can do, no matter what their education level or social background.”

For instance, the PISA study revealed that “students whose parents reported that they had read a book with their child ‘every day or almost every day’ or ‘once or twice a week’ during the first year of primary school have markedly higher scores in PISA 2009 than students whose parents reported that they had read a book with their child ‘never or almost never’ or only ‘once or twice a month.’ On average, the score difference is 25 points, the equivalent of well over half a school year.”

Yes, students from more well-to-do households are more likely to have more involved parents. “However,” the PISA team found, “even when comparing students of similar socioeconomic backgrounds, those students whose parents regularly read books to them when they were in the first year of primary school score 14 points higher, on average, than students whose parents did not.”

The kind of parental involvement matters, as well. “For example,” the PISA study noted, “on average, the score point difference in reading that is associated with parental involvement is largest when parents read a book with their child, when they talk about things they have done during the day, and when they tell stories to their children.” The score point difference is smallest when parental involvement takes the form of simply playing with their children.

These PISA findings were echoed in a recent study by the National School Boards Association’s Center for Public Education, and written up by the center’s director, Patte Barth, in the latest issue of The American School Board Journal.

The study, called “Back to School: How parent involvement affects student achievement,” found something “somewhat surprising,” wrote Barth: “Parent involvement can take many forms, but only a few of them relate to higher student performance. Of those that work, parental actions that support children’s learning at home are most likely to have an impact on academic achievement at school.

“Monitoring homework; making sure children get to school; rewarding their efforts and talking up the idea of going to college. These parent actions are linked to better attendance, grades, test scores, and preparation for college,” Barth wrote. “The study found that getting parents involved with their children’s learning at home is a more powerful driver of achievement than parents attending P.T.A. and school board meetings, volunteering in classrooms, participating in fund-raising, and showing up at back-to-school nights.”

To be sure, there is no substitute for a good teacher. There is nothing more valuable than great classroom instruction. But let’s stop putting the whole burden on teachers. We also need better parents. Better parents can make every teacher more effective.

See also Of Being a Parent to Our Children by GILBERT M. FORBES

Friday, November 4, 2011

Getting Smart With Kids Key In Maximizing Their Learning Potential

By Gilbert M. Forbes
http://www.factoidz.com/

Teachers and parents pretty much experience challenges in their daily dealings with kids and teenagers at home and in school. Different behaviors and attitudes are prevalent of which learning would suffer if adults are unable to tame and make them cooperate.

It is therefore necessary that teachers are smart enough to identify individual behaviors of her pupils. In the case of the parents or guardian, how their children behave in varying situations. Knowing how they react to varying stimuli around them is a great advantage.

Basically, the following tips could help teachers and adults. We call them the 5-B’s of Getting Smart With Kids.
  1. Background Information Check. Upon enrolment, important information regarding the child should be secured. Anything that may hamper or help him succeeds in school. These data should be made available to teachers and the parents as well being the primary partner of educators in educating the child.
  2. Being child like without being childish. click to continue reading

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Lessons of the Dead

By Gilbert M. Forbes
DepEd Quezon
CALABARZON
 
People troop to the cemeteries every year to visit their dead love ones.  To remember, offer prayers and may be connect to them.  But it is unfortunate that they are doing it on the wrong date.  Many have known it already that it is still the next day, All Souls Day for November is the feast of All Saints or All Saints Day but just continue to do so.  They say, it has already been a tradition. The church on one hand has continuously explained and clarified it already to the public but they just don’t listen.

I am worried if the majority of our people don’t heed church authorities which speak about God, what more among themselves.  The church is the very reason why there is such a celebration.  Although the people is the church, there are official teachings and leaders to follow. Well, anyway how many of them are regular church goers?  Less than 10 percent and out of that only few are practicing what they heard and learned.

Tradition is good when it adheres to basic moral principles of obedience and cultural righteousness.  But if it’s coated with pride, caprices and prejudice, it is evil and should no longer be followed.  There is a time for every thing as the book of Ecclesiastes clearly explains.  The first day of November is for the saints and the next one for the ordinary souls.  All Souls Day should have been the time to visit our resting love ones.

On the other hand, the value we attribute to our departed love ones is a strong recognition that life has its end and final destination.  Only, it is a pity to affirm that everybody is saint or everybody is in heaven because in many circumstances our life choices and practices don’t mirror it.  The way alone we remember our dead love ones lacks the sense of propriety and following to the church teachings.  Instead, it has become a pagan feast of the living. 

As a result due to our hard headedness, our society in general is chaotic, self fish and greedy.  Why?  Just because not only that we have become morally corrupted, we too are failing to combat evils in our midst.  How?  In so many ways like loitering, gambling, gossiping, laziness and apathy are just a few examples. 

Behind all these, the message is clear.  Our life is not temporary.  We may all have reasons why we are doing crazy things but we should consider the requirement of our next destination after our sojourn to this world.  Once our journey is over, no longer make up by flashy resting place, fancy gatherings every year can be done, only prayer.

The requirements and passport to the next level of our lives could not be compromised. The Holy Scriptures and the Koran is strict clear about it.  There is no short cuts if that is what we used to think.  So its up for us if we continue our pagan habits.

What about you, what lessons from the dead can you share?