People Involved in Student Learning - Literature review Example

LЕ INVОLVЕD IN STUDЕNT LЕАRNING An Essay Submitted By: NAME: INSTITUTION: COURSE: INSTRUCTOR: DATE: © 2014 INTRODUCTION In addition to being beneficial to the individual, education is considered a treasure to both the family and the community as a whole. In view of this, provision of quality education to each and every child becomes the core responsibility of the whole community. Meyer et al (2008) strongly argue that just like the economy, a solid democracy of any society is founded on “an educated citizenry and skilled workforce”. On the basis of this argument therefore, student learning is vested upon the goodwill of all the individuals and institutions found within the environs of the learner (Berliner, 2005). Belfield & Levin (2007) further summarise these stakeholders of education into three pillars namely: ‘students, teachers and parents’. Apart from the three pillars, there are other underlying human resources that are concerned with students’ learning process from kindergarten to the highest grade level possible. It is therefore the intention of the present essay to identify at least three such human resources involved in student learning, citing some benefits and challenges associated with each one of them. In addition to teachers, the essay identifies “students; parents and school administrators” for the purpose of discussion. a) Students Themselves From time in memorial, students have never been actively involved in the planning and execution of their own learning in schools but only considered as mere recipients of instructions (Meyer et al, 2008). In fact, both teachers and administrators have been very averse to involving students in the planning of their own education or even taking active role in the leadership of their own affairs. If anything, it is only those students in advanced levels of education that get involved in the governance of their own affairs but only at minimal level. With the current trends in education, it has become imperative to directly involve students more with the decision-making process in schools as well as give them more autonomy in running their educational affairs (Kruse, 2000). It should therefore be understood that students’ needs and individualism are critical to their success in school and should thus be incorporated in the school management system. Doing this is deemed to present a lot of benefits as well as challenges as illustrated below. Benefits When students are allowed to be actively involved in their own education, research indicates that the same students are psychologically stable (Berliner, 2005). This fact is strengthened by findings presented by Meyer and associates (2008) which show tremendous “increases in positive feelings and mental health” among the students. The same studies claim that involving students in their own education results in greatly “decreased cases of depression and stress” on the part of the learners (Henderson et al, 2007). Secondly, students who are fully involved in their own education are found to develop a strong sense of ‘social responsibility’ and desire to reciprocate in the community (Belfield & Levin, 2007). Here, the students are capable of “forging strong ties with each other and hence enhancing their interpersonal skills and cooperation necessary for their survival in the social fabric”. On the intellectual arena, involving students in their own education is found to be very beneficial in ‘knowledge acquisition’ as noted by Patmor & McIntyre (1999). By mandating students with new and challenging tasks, every passing day becomes a new experience with new knowledge. Similarly, this offers the students an opportunity to better their already existing knowledge, thus becoming a lot wiser (Berliner, 2005). The students become more motivated by the mere realization that they can discover new knowledge on their own accord. This sense of confidence is found instrumental in the students’ academic work as demonstrated by the following excerpt from Meyer et al (2008): “Meaningful student involvement encourages motivation, commitment and connection with coursework; promotes positive academic, social, and cultural outcomes; develops strong connections to other students and educators, and; enhances lifelong critical thinking and community building skills”. Challenges In spite of the foregoing benefits, students’ involvement in their own learning has been surrounded with a number of challenges. As is required by law in most educational areas, students in all grade levels are given the freedom to choose what to do during their coursework. Similarly, students in higher grade levels are given an opportunity to have a say in the hiring process of teachers and administrators (Kruse, 2000). This seems to be a particularly challenging task given that learners may not know the qualifications for these officers. Moreover, students’ voices have always been stifled for a long time by the other stakeholders in education. This has been found to effectively curtail meaningful communication between learners and the school. b) Parents The old adage claims that: “it takes a village to raise a child” implying that “the whole community has an essential role to play in the growth and development of its young people” (Arthur & Clements, 2005). This in reality demonstrates that the whole community must join hands with parents and family members to ‘journey with the child’ in education. Based on a number of study findings (Arthur & Clements, 2005); (Henderson et al, 2007); and (Zinth, 2005), parents’ involvement in student learning has been cited as the most significant component in a child’s education. The same studies claim that parental involvement range from ‘volunteer services to raising funds’ in support of student learning (Patmor & McIntyre, 1999). These broader involvement initiatives have been narrowed down to more ‘goal-oriented activities’ focused on ‘student achievement and school success’ in general. The overall effects of this involvement are some benefits enumerated below. Benefits From study findings, it has been established that parental involvement in student learning results in “better grades; increased school attendance rates; higher retention rates of students in school; and increased progression rates from one grade to the next” (Jeynes, 2003). In essence, students become encouraged to complete their coursework when they see their parents being concerned with their education and therefore remain in school more. They also tend to seek greater educational achievements against all odds, including economic deprivation and even cultural beliefs (Arthur & Clements, 2005). Moreover, Belfield & Levin (2007) add that students whose parents get involved in their education tend to have overall improved behavior both at home and at school. The student becomes highly disciplined and motivated and is thus bound to perform well in studies (Foreman, 2011). Challenges In addition to the foregoing benefits, certain challenges reside in parental involvement in their children’s education. It is commonly noticed that parents’ involvement in their child’s education tends to decline with the grade level, dropping dramatically once the child goes beyond middle school level (Patmor & McIntyre, 1999). Proponents argue that this is a major setback in our education system and is attributed to a number of reasons. Some of the parents say that they have very busy schedules that keep them away from attending to their child’s education. Others argue that it doesn’t feel very comfortable dealing with the school administration for a number of reasons. To some, this could be due to ‘language or cultural’ barriers (Foreman, 2011) while to others it is simply ‘school apathy’. The latter explanation is clearly supported by the revelation that most parents are constantly frustrated by ‘school bureaucracies and\or policies which they find impossible to understand and\or change’ (Henderson et al, 2007). A majority of the parents reveal that they don’t have the technical know-how and resources to help their child’s academic work. Some parents fault the common practice by majority of school administration to conduct them only when there is a problem affecting their child, such as indiscipline or poor performance. This affects their involvement in their child’s education and advises that communication should be an on-going process. The school administration should also find out the academic and economic levels of all the parents so as to be able to know the appropriate channels to communicate with each one of them. This will enhance inclusiveness of everyone in the child’s education (Foreman, 2011). This will also be important since some parents (mostly single and guardians) cite economic difficulties for their failure to get involved with their child’s education. c) School administrators School administrators in addition to the presence of school educators must actively get involved in students’ learning. This in one way has to be effected by the school administrators themselves who help in training students to take up leadership roles in the school affairs. The aim of this gesture is to build strong working relationships between students, teachers and administrators. It is also aimed at increasing efficacy among students as argued out by Berliner (2005). The end result of this exercise is to fully engage all the students in meaningful decision-making opportunities in matters of their own education; school affairs and the community at large (Foreman, 2011). School administrators’ involvement in students learning is deemed beneficial in a number of ways. Benefits Firstly, school administrators’ involvement in student learning is necessary in helping to create harmony between the varied cultural differences that exist between the school leadership and students (Kruse, 2000). With a reduced ‘cultural gap’ between these diverse groups, Jeynes (2003) observes that teachers and school administrators have increased commitment to their work. Additionally, the school administrators’ involvement in student learning is found to cause the learner to make connections between knowledge from diverse backgrounds with the “real-world” situations according to observations made by Patmor & McIntyre (1999). Moreover, school administrators’ involvement in student learning is also found fundamental in promoting reasonable relationships between teachers, administrators, and students as they all journey together in the education. Similarly, schools are found to be great beneficiaries of administrators’ involvement in student learning as espoused by Henderson et al (2007). Accordingly, Jeynes (2003) indicates that schools stand to gain tremendously from this venture by helping close the academic achievement gap in students. Additionally, school administrators are seen as mediators between schools and communities in an effort to develop strong connections as noted by Arthur & Clements (2005). According to the views of Zinth (2005), this gesture is important in creating “safe and supportive learning environments for increasingly diverse student populations”. Challenges From the outset, school administrators are faced with the challenge of dealing with ‘bad and irresponsible teachers’ who impact negatively on the students’ academic journey. One way of addressing this challenge is for school administrators to conduct regular ‘teacher evaluations’ in order to ‘sieve through’ the teachers’ body. This will help in retaining good and effective teachers while retiring and dismissing the bad ones immediately so as to forestall the setback they may impact on the students (Jeynes, 2003). Some of these negative setbacks are found resident in the areas of “discipline; students’ motivation; and, self-esteem” which when affected may become irreversible. When students become indiscipline, school administrators tend to spend a lot of time handling them. This causes a lot of distractions, hence eating up into learning time (Patmor & McIntyre, 1999). In the long run, this challenge ends up in impacting negatively on the student’s learning potential and the school’s success in general. Similarly, school administrators are also faced with the problem of inadequate learning\teaching resources probably because of poor funding. This in effect has resulted in very large class sizes coupled with inadequate technology and curriculum materials (Foreman, 2011). Teachers find it very hard to handle such class sizes with very little technology and learning\teaching materials. This makes the students less motivated and inadvertently frustrates both the teacher and the school administrators (Henderson et al, 2007). CONCLUSION From the foregoing discourse, it has been demonstrated that parents are the most important partners in a child's education especially at the early years. But as the years advance in education, the students themselves become equally fundamental in their own learning. For this reason, schools are deemed to benefit most upon capitalizing on the support of learners’ parents (Arthur & Clements, 2005). This cooperation will be maintained by the efforts of both educators and parents. In the same vein, students are also reported to gain great benefits when they get involved in their own learning. Some of these benefits include: “improved academic performance; increased motivation and confidence; greater student awareness of their limitations and their ability to manage them; and enabling teachers to provide differentiated tasks for students” (Zinth, 2005). The same benefits may also be realized if parents and school administrators get involved in students learning as demonstrated throughout this essay. Despite these benefits, numerous challenges also exist as is demonstrated throughout this essay. Suggestions on overcoming these challenges have been offered, which if taken seriously will see a marked improvement in the students’ academic journey. REFERENCES Arthur, R. & Clements, M. (2005). Parental Involvement and Children’s School Success. New York: Teachers College Press. Belfield, C. R. & Levin, H. M. (2007). The Price We Pay: Economic and Social Consequences of Inadequate Education. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press. Berliner, D. C. (2005). Our impoverished view of educational reform. New York: Teachers College Record. Foreman, P (2011). Inclusion in action, 3rd Edition. Cengage Learning, Australia. Henderson, A., Mapp, K., Johnson, V. & Davies, D. (2007). Beyond the Bake Sale: The Essential Guide to Family-School Partnerships. New York: The New Press. Jeynes, W. H. (2003). A meta-analysis: The effects of parental involvement on minority children’s academic achievement. Education & Urban Society 35(2): 202-218. Kruse, S. (2000). “Student Voices: A report from focus group data,” NASSP Bulletin, National Association of Secondary School Principals, pp. 77-85. Meyer, B., Haywood, N., Sachdev, D & Faraday, S (2008). Independent Learning: Literature Review. Department for Children, Schools and Families Research Report 051, London Patmor, G. & McIntyre, J. D. (1999) “Involving Students in School Decision Making,” NASSP Bulletin, pp. 74-78. Zinth, K. (2005). Parental Involvement in Education. State Notes, Education Commission of the States. Denver. Read More