Experts' vision:
"Teachers are strong, parents are weak." How does home-school co-education get out of the fuzzy zone
Four Questions on Educational Governance Hotspots (3)
Suhomlins once put forward a famous thesis: "The most complete social education is school-family education." With the continuous deepening of education reform, the issue of family-school co-education has received more and more attention.
In 2018, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out at the National Education Conference that “The family, school, government, and society are all responsible for running education well.” The Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China adopted The "Recommendations for the Development of the Fourteenth Five-Year Plan and the 2035 Long-Term Goals" put forward the establishment of a high-quality education system and a sound system for school, family, and social collaborative education.
Home-school cooperation is a process in which the tripartite cooperation of school, family, and society has a superimposed impact on children’s education and development. Families and schools play an increasingly important role in children’s education, and are increasingly being paid attention to by the state and society. The role of home-school co-education is particularly important for building a high-quality education system.
However, there are still some outstanding problems in the current practice activities of home-school co-education, such as the “marginal participation” or “silence” of parents in home-school co-education, and the correction of students’ homework by parents. This has become a general concern for parents of primary and secondary school students. Hot Issues.
How to conduct family-school co-education in the new era is one of the key issues that need to be resolved urgently in current education governance.
From 2019 to 2020, the research team of the National Institute of Educational Governance of Central China Normal University conducted field investigations in six provinces including Shandong, Guangdong, Hunan, Hubei, Guangxi, and Sichuan, and conducted field investigations on primary and secondary schools in provincial capitals, prefecture-level cities, and county-level cities. In the sample survey, the sample covers more than 10,000 students from more than 130 primary and middle schools in the eastern, central and western regions. The questionnaire conducted a special survey on the content of home-school co-education.
Consensus on family-school education has been initially formed
Parents’ consensus on home-school co-education has initially formed.
According to the survey data of the research group, only 0.2% of parents think that educating their children is “all the responsibility of the school and teachers”, 5.5% think that “it is mainly the responsibility of the school and the teacher”, and that “the school and the parents have the same responsibilities” However, it accounted for 86.5%, while the “mainly the responsibility of the parents” accounted for 7.6%, and the “all the responsibility of the parents” accounted for only 0.1%.
In addition, 99.2% of parents think that “home-school cooperation is needed”, and only 0.8% think that “cooperation is not needed”.
Also, when a child made a mistake at school, only 2.2% of the parents reprimanded, beaten and scolded, only 0.1% of the parents complained about the school teacher, 89% of them actively contacted the teacher, and 8.7% of the others.
The research team believes that most parents are aware of their roles and responsibilities in family education. They affirm the role of home-school co-education and take a positive attitude towards home-school cooperation.
Parents are paying more attention to home-school co-education activities, and the content of home-school contact is more extensive.
According to the survey data of the research group, 97.7% of parents hope to strengthen home-school co-education, while only 2.3% hold a negative attitude.
Regarding the basic content of home-school contact, the top three are: parent meetings (50.0%), family education (44.5%), parent-teacher discussions (39.9%), and parent-child activities (32.3%) and discussing student situations (Including physical, mental and emotional changes) (21.7%) is relatively small.
The research team believes that this is of great benefit to promoting family education to take root.
As people’s awareness of home-school co-education has gradually increased, parents have participated in more and more school activities.
According to the survey data of the research group, the percentages of parents who said they did not participate in school activities in the last semester were: parent meeting (2.9%), listening to school reports (28.3%), parents attending classes (34%), and school open days (29.8%) ), parent-child relationship lectures (40.2%), family education lectures (34.6%), parent-child activities (48.6%); the percentages of those who participated in school activities "twice or more" in the last semester were: parent-child meetings (54.1%), School reports (42.4%), parents attending classes (32.4%), school open days (33.4%), parent-child relationship lectures (25.6%), family education lectures (26.3%), parent-child activities (19.9%).
There are many ways of family-school co-education.
The research team found that in order to carry out home-school co-education, schools and related departments have created many activities. In addition to traditional home-school co-education methods such as home visits, parent meetings and parent schools, as family-school co-education deepens, There are more and more ways of home-school cooperation, such as parent committee (89.2%), school network communication platform (87.3%), parent open day (82.4%), parent volunteers (67.3%), head teacher or teacher self-media platform ( 63.8%), parent visits to school (59.6%), parent mutual aid center (55.5%), parent working day (48.2%), etc.
In addition, some places have creatively developed some home-school co-education methods, such as parent committees participating in school bus management, parents participating in canteen and dormitory management, and parents participating in off-campus practical activities.
Even some social forces are actively participating in home-school co-education, such as the Women’s Federation and the community in close cooperation to gradually carry out the education of parents.
The research team believes that the diversification of home-school co-education methods helps teachers and parents to reach consensus in the collision of ideas, enhance understanding, understanding and understanding, and enhance educational synergy and home-school friendship.
The problem of family-school co-education is still outstanding
Although the home-school co-education has reached a preliminary consensus, the research team found in the survey that some problems with home-school co-education are also prominent.
One is that the students’ homework is corrected by the parents, and the parents have hard to say.
According to the survey data of the research group, only 14.1% of parents think that the number of tutoring homework given to their children per week is “not needed”, 26.8% of parents think “needed but not”, and 23.3% of parents tutoring 1-2 days a week, every week Weekly tutoring for 3-4 days is 11.1%, and parents who tutor almost every day account for 24.7%.
Only about 40% of parents "do not need" or "need but do not" give tutoring homework to their children.
The research team learned through interviews that most parents are quite critical about this. They think that working during the day is very tiring, and they have to tutor their children with homework after work. The difficulty of some homework far exceeds their own abilities.
"If you don't do your homework, you will be kind and filial, and you will jump around when you do your homework." This is a phenomenon that has aroused hot discussion on the Internet.
The Ministry of Education expressly requires that “Parents shall not be assigned or disguised assignments, and parents shall not be required to check or correct assignments.” However, a considerable number of parents are obviously unwilling to assign less assignments or even not assigning assignments, nor dare to defy the teachers’ orders for fear. Teachers neglect or neglect their children.
Therefore, I am in an embarrassing situation of loving and hating the correction of homework.
Second, the burden of schools is reduced and the burdens of parents increase, and parents are faced with a dilemma.
With the frequent introduction of relevant national burden reduction policies, the burden on schools is also showing a trend of declining.
However, some parents are caught in educational anxiety, for fear of their children losing on the starting line, and enrolling their children in various training courses.
According to data from the research group, students spend an average of 0.5 hours in cram school from Monday to Friday, while the average time in cram school on Saturday and Sunday is 2.34 hours.
The burden-reduction policy has added invisible anxiety to some parents. They worry that children lagging behind others will introduce competition into the family prematurely. The education of children is more focused on intellectual investment, and less attention is paid to learning how to live and how to be a person. .
The third is that in home-school cooperation, "teachers are strong and parents are weak", and there is a lack of equal opportunities for dialogue.
The research team found that teachers who have more resources and institutionalized power control the trend of home-school cooperation. Unequal status will inevitably lead to problems such as poor communication between home and school, surface cooperation, and parents’ “marginal participation” status. Or "silence" and so on are common.
For example, many parents complained that the various requirements of teachers had to be "accepted in full", including not only correcting homework, checking and recitation, reading and clocking in, etc., but also leading their children to museums or other social places to complete homework, social activities or communities Activities etc.
Some parents report that the parent group has become a "stress group" and "anxious group", and some parents even chanted "overwhelmed".
This phenomenon of "strong teachers and weak parents" reflects the blurring of the boundaries of family-school responsibilities in the current family-school co-education.
The research team believes that school education and family education should have their own focus. School teachers should not "transfer" educational tasks to parents. Family education should pay more attention to children's behaviors, learning initiative, and physical and mental health.
Fourth, the level of family-school co-education is not high, and the parents' family education literacy needs to be improved urgently.
In 2020, the research team conducted an online questionnaire survey of nearly 1 million parents of primary and secondary school students. Among the home-school cooperation activities carried out during the new crown pneumonia epidemic, the top three are learning supervision reminders (74.81%) and log-in learning platforms (47.25%) ) And accompanying study (46.52%), and seldom engage in communication activities such as psychological counseling (22.1%) and behavioral habit formation (18.5%).
During the epidemic, adolescents with unstable mental development and rebellious period who participate in online learning for a long time often experience psychological problems such as greater mood swings, reduced self-control and self-discipline, development of home procrastination, anxiety and panic. Parents should actively consult the school The psychology teacher asks for help and cooperates with the students in psychological counseling.
In addition, long-term online learning during the epidemic will cause students to experience varying degrees of psychological alienation and loneliness, requiring the careful care and careful companionship of parents.
However, during the epidemic, 30% and 38% of parents who “always accompanied” and “always accompanied” accounted for 30% and 38%, respectively. Parents who said “occasionally accompanied” and “only accompanied for the first time” accounted for 23% and 8%, respectively, and 1% of parents Means "unaccompanied".
How to draw the "concentric circles" for family and school education
To this end, the research team recommends:
One is to clarify the boundaries of family-school education.
Family education and school education have their own tasks and contents, and their respective responsibilities must be clarified.
Although family education and school education have the same objects and the same educational goals, family education and school education are two different types of education.
Therefore, to strengthen home-school co-education, it is necessary to properly handle the relationship between home-school division of labor and cooperation, give play to their respective advantages, and learn from each other's strengths.
For example, the advantages of school education are purposefulness, systematization, and strong professionalism, while the advantages of family education are emotional contagion, clear pertinence, and natural early stage.
The school is responsible for the transmission of systematic cultural knowledge and the cultivation of various abilities. Parents are assistants in this regard, playing the role of urging and reminding; the family should play a greater role in cultivating children's hobbies and life.
The responsibility of parents is to provide family education competence and actively participate in school education. The responsibility of the school is to do a good job in teaching and help parents improve their educational abilities.
Only by giving full play to their respective advantages and conducting effective communication and communication in home-school co-education, can we promote the integration of resources between family education and school education, form a synergy, and improve the overall effect of education.
In addition, it is necessary to fully realize that home-school co-education is not a simple imitation on a purely technical level, nor is it an additional topic independent of the overall work of the school, in particular, respect the laws and characteristics of family education, respect the parental status and responsibility of parents, and guarantee Children's rights.
The second is to formulate guidelines and guidelines for home-school co-education.
Develop a complete code of conduct for home-school co-education, clarify the negative list in home-school co-education, and prohibit irregular behaviors such as assigning homework to parents, asking parents to print homework, and asking parents to correct homework.
Schools are required to formulate home-school co-education behavior guidelines, clarify that the development of morality and children’s behavior and habits is the focus of family-school co-education. Teachers should enhance the ability of family education and guidance, and guide parents to increase their awareness of participating in family-school co-education. Create a good family environment to ensure that the good morals that children develop in school can be further consolidated in the family environment.
Schools and related institutions should cultivate the awareness and ability of cooperative education that parents should possess, such as the awareness and ability to participate in school management, the awareness and ability to self-learn to improve the level of parenting, and so on.
The third is to unblock the cooperation channels between families and schools.
The government has the responsibility to provide necessary policy support for home-school co-education. The government allocates funds specifically for home-school co-education, and incorporates family education guidance and service capabilities into the urban and rural public service system. Parents provide free family education and guidance services.
Both the school and the family must respect and trust each other.
Schools must protect the basic rights of parents, such as the right to know, participate, and supervise. Parents must respect the school’s autonomy in running schools, actively cooperate with school arrangements, and actively advise on school education and management.
Make full use of interactive forms such as better QQ groups, WeChat groups, and official accounts to deliver information in a timely manner, and conduct personalized family education guidance and communication.
The school opened a "home-school through train" on the campus network to showcase class style.
Open the "Internet learning space for everyone", teachers, students, and parents use the Internet-based learning space to carry out home-school interaction and build a platform for home-school co-education.
The fourth is to improve the level of cooperation between families and schools.
Family participation in home-school education requires correct guidance, and exploration and practice should be gradually carried out in practice to gradually increase the breadth and depth of parental participation.
It is necessary to attract parents to participate in home-school co-education and change from being passive to being proactive.
Appropriate introduction of foreign "parent-teacher associations" and "parent advisory committees" and other home-school cooperation methods to meet the needs of partnerships and highlight the function of parents participating in school governance.
Set up a parent school to introduce and exchange experiences and methods of home-school co-education to parents, such as a correct view of education, a scientific view of childcare, and a modern view of talents, to help parents get out of the educational philosophy of emphasizing wisdom and morality, and understanding and neglecting ability. Simple and rude education misunderstandings in educational methods, improve the quality of parents and family education, and promote the physical and mental health of students.
(Fu Weidong is an associate professor of Central China Normal University, Fu Yichao is a professor of the school, Hu is still a doctoral student of the school, and Chen Yiyan is a master student of the school)