New approaches to cooperation with parents through the perspective of class and subject teachers

Abstract

The paper presents a new conceptual framework of mutual cooperation between teachers and parents based on connecting the adults in the function of the development of intrinsic orientation of children/students towards learning and knowledge acquisition. Empirical verification of the new approach was performed on the sample of 1441 teachers (43,2% class teachers and 56,8% subject teachers) from 40 primary schools in Serbia. The aim of the research was to test the grounding of the conceptual framework through positioning of class and subject teachers in the relation to the new determinants of cooperation. For the purpose of this research we created a questionnaire with close-ended questions related to certain thematic aspects of cooperation with parents and the same aspects of teachers? work with students. In data processing we used a set of parametric and nonparametric statistical procedures. The results revealed that some what less than half of teachers assess positively the importance of the existing forms of cooperation with parents, slightly more than one quarter do not see how cooperation can contribute to the enhancement of their work, while one quarter are indecisive. In the opinion of both groups of teachers the problems related to learning and encouragement of students? independence were more prominent topics when talking to parents than in work with students, while the issues of interests, abilities, talents and planning goals were more present in subject teachers? work with students than in talking to parents. The correlation between teacher?s interaction with parents in the aforementioned conceptual framework and teacher?s pedagogical practice in work with students is higher in class teachers than in subject teachers. The obtained findings have confirmed the potential of the established framework for the enhancement of the practice of cooperation, which serves as the foundation for suggesting implications for practice provided in the concluding part of the paper.