The rain brought an eventful end to the week with us needing to send the children home early in the interest of health and safety. A lot of people have made travel plans for this weekend and we really hope they make it to their respective destinations, though I think there will be some significant delays! The metaphor of a journey is often applied to a student’s education, with not many knowing where they are going, or when they do know where they want to go, how many know how to get there? Moreover, many studies have also shown that students go through growth spurts in both their physical and intellectual development, which accounts for why there can be delays in their journey as they struggle to grasp new concepts and ideas. Here are some interesting findings based on over 55 000 studies on factors most affecting student achievement that parents can support. The big 5 are as follows:
1) Parental expectations – have high hopes for the child and basically demonstrate belief in them, their ability and their future.
2) Parental Involvement and participation – discuss learning and show genuine interest in what is being learned and being completed for homework.
3) Home environment – create a varied environment which has resources for learning and ‘developmental play’ with clear structures and family rituals.
4) Praise effort more often than achievement.
5) Listening to children read (and not the other way round) and discuss writer techniques, etc.
Oddly enough ‘surveillance’, where parents simply check if homework is done has little positive impact and can even be negative, as the goal is give students ‘control’ of their studies. Unsurprisingly, too much time (i.e. more than two hours) spent on video games, browsing the internet and watching TV and movies has a negative impact on achievement, though all of these can be used as powerful “reward strategies” for hard work or homework/school work completion. i.e. let’s get this done first then enjoy your reward!
Neil and I are very interested in educational research and would love to discuss these areas with you as well as hear any feedback or information that helps us improve student achievement and the school’s services to students. You are welcome to drop in and discuss this. More to come soon.
N.B. Information extracted from ‘Visible Learning’, a synthesis of over 50 000 studies made into education, by Professor John Hattie.
