RES 5040: Teacher as Researcher (spring 09)

Stringer has it right in the one size fits all approach does not work in teaching. Matt, I think you will be able to use this approach in looking at your PTA. Maybe do a parent survey and find out what approaches may be the best for different parents. Maybe it will be more active and more useful to the students there at the elementary school. I'm sure my wife would love to see the research you find, b/c she runs into the same problems at her elementary school. Sometimes it goes back to the life we Americans live now...."busy" Stringer also talked in his book about what area you are in, and what type of culture you are dealing with. Do the parents buy in to what you are trying to do for their kids? I look forward to following your findings.
Scott Harrill

Matt a.k.a. Booterteacher~

I loved your idea of doing an action research on PTA participation. Your findings may also help others in their own PTA type events (i.e. High School Parent –Teacher Conferences). In a high school setting, Parent-Teacher Conferences are mostly attended by parents of average-high performing students. It’s often the parents of the low performing students who rarely show up. The way that we try to bribe parents (all) to show up is to offer extra credit.

The only other ways that I have thought about is to make some of these scheduled meetings a classroom project. Have the students to be ambassadors that represent the classroom and/or school. Also other ways that would entice those would be door prizes for the parents. Here’s an article I came across in ehow.com

Step One
Make it easy on them. The typical family's after-school hour is a hard one. There's homework, dinner and other events to deal with. If your group has the funds, consider serving dinner. Or, be flexible about the meeting location. If half of the school has a soccer tournament, book some space nearby for your meeting.

Step Two
Provide childcare. Many families are made up of multi-age children. Having to tote along a toddler or baby can put off even the most dedicated PTA parent. Hit up the neighboring high school for some low cost babysitting so parents can attend and participate without worrying about younger siblings.

Step Three
Invite, and then invite again. The PTA is sometimes viewed as a "club" for other parents. The same parents return year after year. Reach out to get more variety by making use of your regulars. Ask them to specifically invite one new attendee to the next meeting. Stress the fact that every single parent is considered a member of the PTA.

Find this article at: http://www.ehow.com/how_2067879_increase-pta-attendance.html

Deb Elmore

This sounds like an excellent idea. My children's school has an excellent PTA turn-out. I might would even suggest talking with other schools to see how their turnout is and how they go about getting the higher attendance. I know with my children, they coincide the PTA meetings with the science fair, art shows, hot dog suppers, scrap booking -- just to mention a few. It is always standing room only.

Matt,

I also quoted Stringer when he discusses the "one-size-fits-all" approach to teaching doesn't work...it seems so obvious! So why aren't we doing more to make it work for each individual student? I think your idea of looking into parent involvement at your school is a great idea! We all have heard the statistics that more parent involvement leads to a more productive overall student environment, but how do we get them involved? And where do those stats come from anyway??? My school's PTO has a very involved group of leaders, but they struggle to pull in other parents. We have tried invitation parent nights, family meals, open houses, etc. and it seems that the same core group of parents are the main participants. I will be interested in following your research and findings! It might be beneficial for you to research parent involvement at the different age levels (elementary, middle and high) to see what types of events parents are interested in. For example, a good way to get high school parents in might be to offer a college application/financial aid workshop. Good luck as you progress.

Matt-
I had a similar feeling at the beginning of this semester. I was very unsure of what we would be tackling in this class. I did not want to be doing research on something that did not matter in my current classroom or job requirements. I think that is what makes action research works so well for the classroom. It allows us to do things teachers do all the time, observe. In the research process, we are taking these observations a step further.

Your ideas for research are problems that seem to be something all teachers no matter the grade level find difficult. Just last week one of the fourth grade teachers commented that the same children were on silent lunch that are always there. She posed the questions of how they reached that point and what can we do about it. Is there not a cure for students who have reached this point of "not caring." Which is completely discouraging when the students are so young. You can about map out what their middle and high school years will be like. Sad. You have so many different ways to see what will motivate these students. It might be best to just choose one approach at a time to see how well it works. Unfortunately not every child will respond to the same approach. This should be an interesting and helpful research for you classroom. Can't wait to see what comes of it.

I, too, agree that looking into the PTA at your school would make the better project. There is so much you can do with that. This would give you the opportunity to find out how they feel about it's current performance and get a feel for what the parents want to see the PTA do. Sending out surveys prior to the next meeting would be an excellent way to accomplish that. That way, they fill out the survey at their own pace and don't have to worry about making time for another meeting. I also like what was previously said about offering childcare during PTA meetings. That would take care of one of the major hangups most parents face. Most would like to get involved, I think, but have no way of leaving home without the children. Good luck with your project and I look forward to hearing what you find.

Matt,
I too think that the PTA/parental involvement angle would be a better topic for a 4-week study. The way that you have identified the problem is insightful and an excellent starting point. Your idea about going directly to the source -- talking to parents -- will be key. A word on surveys: we're not using surveys as a method for this course, mainly because it takes a long time to develop a valid and reliable instrument, and you'd need at least a 30% response rate, which would be difficult to get in a short time frame. So the key would be to identify a diverse group of parents for interviews. This will be a great research project also because the outcome will, hopefully, be strategies to increase involvement as identified by the people themselves!

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