Value-creating education - from a parental and pedagogical perspective
In addition to parents, educators have the greatest role in raising children. This value-creating education requires both sides, as has been the case in recent months, when teachers and parents have been teaching children together in the digital education introduced because of the epidemic. A survey conducted by the Mária Kopp Institute for Demography and Families (KINCS) back in January revealed that the most important thing for both educators and parents is to raise responsible adults. The main goal of the research is to find an answer to how educators and parents think about raising children. Parents of fourth-grade students and teachers of the same students participated in the surveys.
Three-quarters of educators and parents say family and school education principles are consistent (77.3 percent of educators and 76.5 percent of parents think so). According to educators, the vast majority of parents (94.4%) are basically cooperative with the school. 98 per cent of teachers considered the school to be stricter than parental education in terms of educational principles and practice.
Educators and parents mostly agree what kind of an adult they intend to raise. Values such as sense of responsibility, autonomy, honesty, courtesy and selflessness are considered most important, but acceptance of others and patience appear among the top ten qualities mentioned. For parents, this is complemented in third place by the importance of family values as well as friendliness and determination, while for educators, more emphasis is being laid on following rules and being environmentally conscious.
Two-thirds of the educators surveyed are satisfied with the diligence, behavior, and abilities of students in their class and also experience adequate attention from parents. Eighty-three percent of parents report regularly studying with their child, nearly half (49%) every day, and a third several times a week.
According to educators, most children follow school rules. Overall, in the case of fourth graders, one-fifth of students have classroom indiscipline, with verbal aggression towards peers being the most common. One of the biggest challenges for educators is dealing with children with bad behaviour. In their view, dealing with temper, ugly speech, indiscipline, and mental abuse of peers is the most difficult teaching task. It is no coincidence that the majority considers it as important and necessary to involve support professionals, case discussions and further training in order to deal more effectively with educational problems.
Parents would be helped if they could discuss the educator’s experiences with their children more often. Parental meetings and face-to-face meetings provided the most opportunities for this. Prior to the epidemic, barely half of educators (48%) kept in touch with parents on social media and 29 percent via email. The use of digital tools emerged even more of a problem on the part of parents and teachers at the time of the survey, in January this year. The majority of educators and two-thirds of parents thought they needed help to ensure children’s safe and meaningful use of the media, but in April, only a quarter of those raising children still thought so.
In the context of education, parents are fundamentally optimistic about the future. They are most confident about their child’s personal well-being. Among the measures that have an impact on family life, parents say the family tax credit helps them in educating children the most, with free textbooks and school meals, daily physical education, afternoon school sessions and camping opportunities having mentioned related to school.
The value-creating cooperation of parents and educators is essential for the responsible education of children, in which the role of the family and the school is also decisive. It is understandable that as a positive effect of the epidemic, according to two-thirds of Hungarians, the work of teachers will be better appreciated.
Methodology: The survey Value-creating education was conducted in January 2020. In a nationwide representative study, parents of fourth-grade children and children’s teachers were interviewed. A total of 1,156 parents and 144 educators completed the questionnaires. The research Effects of coronavirus on families was conducted in April 2020 with a sample of 1,000.
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