Post on 08-Apr-2018
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ACUERDO 19 DE 1988 DEL CONSEJO SUPERIOR UNIVERSITARIO
Artculo 167:
La Universidad Distrital Francisco Jos de Caldas no ser responsable por las
ideas expuestas en este trabajo.
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To:
Our effort for making this achievable,
Janeth Velasquez for her guidance and
to our mothers for the energy provided
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PARENTS PERCEPTIONS OF THE ENGLISH CLASS WORK
DANIEL FELIPE FORERO
Code 20011165029
ORLANDO ARTURO OVIEDO
Code 20002165048
UNIVERSIDAD DISTRITAL FRANCISCO JOS DE CALDAS
School of Science and Education
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Licenciatura en Educacin Bsica con nfasis en Ingls
Bogot, 2006
PARENTS PERCEPTIONS OF THE ENGLISH CLASS WORK
Daniel Felipe Forero
Orlando Arturo Oviedo
A Monography work presented as a requirment for the Degree of Licenciado
en Educacin Bsica con nfasis en Ingls como Lengua Extranjera
Director
Professor Janeth Velsquez M.A
UNIVERSIDAD DISTRITAL FRANCISCO JOS DE CALDAS
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School of Science and Education
Licenciatura en Educacin Bsica con nfasis en Ingls
Bogot, 2006
Note of Acceptance
____________________________
____________________________
____________________________
Director: _______________________________Janeth Velsquez M.A
Jury 1:_______________________________Professor:
Jury 2:_______________________________Professor:
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Acknowledgements
It is difficult to mention all people who contributed to our professionaland personal development in this project, however we hope these words may
reach all of them.
First of all, we thank God who gave us the health, support and guidance
of our steps. We also want to thank especially our mothers, they are the source
of our energy, their constant effort and devotion were the main inspiration to
begin and conclude this stage of our lives.
Our gratefulness to our professors who shared their knowledge and
experience. Their advice allowed us to make our goal achievable. Moreover, we
would like to express our sincere thanks to Janeth Velasquez. Her disinterested
right, valuable and unconditional guide as well as her certain words and
devotion helped us to make this research possible.
To the Universidad Distrital for its acceptance and for bearing us along
these years in which we did the best thanks to the support of the professors that
accompanied us along this path.
Finally, we should show our gratitude to the participants of this research,
both parents and children, whose contribution made us understand the
importance of working together.
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Abstract
The purpose of this study is to evidence parents perceptionstowards English class-work when they work collaboratively with their children,
using written productions as a means for communication. To make it possible
we focused on theory about collaborative work referred by Rivers, Beckman and
Vigotsky; also it was necessary to bear in mind the concept of written
productions seen by Shuman, Kazemek & Rigg, Peyton & Staton and Street.
This case study research was implemented with the students of
seventh grade in the C.E.D. de Cultura Popular and their parents. The students
were asked to communicate their feelings, ideas, perceptions, thoughts, etc. in
English through the written way addressing those productions to their parents
who were encouraged to write in response, working in collaboration with their
sons or daughters to build up the writings in English.
After the data analysis, the results showed that written productions
developed a space for interaction among parents and children where they had
the opportunity to both learn from each other expressing high motivation level,
and, at the same time, written productions promoted EFL literacy.
Key words: Parents perceptions, collaborative work, written productions.
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Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................
2
Justification.................................................................................................................................
4
Literature Review.................................................................................................................................
9
Instructional Design.................................................................................................................................
26
Research Design.................................................................................................................................
37
Research Questions.................................................................................................................................
38
Objectives.................................................................................................................................
39
Type of study.................................................................................................................................
40
Instruments
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.................................................................................................................................
41
Setting.................................................................................................................................
44
Data Analysis.................................................................................................................................
47
Analysis of Information.................................................................................................................................
47
Category 1 Parents perceptions of the English class work.................................................................................................................................
50
Sub category 1Positive announcements.................................................................................................................................
52
Sub category 2Expectant comments.................................................................................................................................
55
SubCategory 3 Further suggestions.................................................................................................................................57
Category 2 Parents perceptions of their children.................................................................................................................................
59
Subcategory 4. Parents affection
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.................................................................................................................................
61
Category 3:Parents perceptions of the English Language.................................................................................................................................
64
Conclusions
68
Implications.................................................................................................................................
70
References.................................................................................................................................
72
Annexes.................................................................................................................................
77
DATA ANALYSIS.................................................................................................................................
55
Instruments Piloting.................................................................................................................................
55
Analysis of information.................................................................................................................................
57
Category 1: Collaborative work seen as learning from each other
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.................................................................................................................................
60
Subcategory 1: Parents and children: One world, two lives.................................................................................................................................
62
Subcategory 2: Parents and childrens lack of spaces to interact.................................................................................................................................
65
Category 2: Collaborative work based on exchange of roles.................................................................................................................................
70
Category 3: Developing an interaction space among parents and children.................................................................................................................................
74
Subcategory 1: Making links between home and school.................................................................................................................................
78
CONCLUSIONS.................................................................................................................................
83
IMPLICATIONS
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List of Figures
Figure No. 1 Topics developed in the English class.................................................................................................................................
27
Figure No. 2 Curriculum.................................................................................................................................
34
Figure No. 3 Research design.................................................................................................................................
46
Figure No. 4 Categories and Subcategories.................................................................................................................................
49
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List of annexes
Annexe No. 1 Parents consent form.................................................................................................................................
77
Annexe No. 2 Survey No. 1.................................................................................................................................
78
Annexe No. 3 Survey No. 2.................................................................................................................................
79
Annexe No. 4 Survey No. 3.................................................................................................................................
80
Annexe No. 5 Survey No. 4.................................................................................................................................
81Annexe No. 6 Letters to parents No. 2.................................................................................................................................
82
Annexe No. 7 Letter to students No. 1...................................................................................................................................
83
Annexe No. 8 Letter to parents No. 3...................................................................................................................................
84
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Introduction
This project was born from our concerns about the difficulties presented
in students learning process from the Instituto Distrital de Cultura Popular in
seventh grade when they were asked to produce writings in English. We found
that parents showed great interest in the work to be developed with their sons
and daughters when we introduced ourselves to them, and, taking into account
that we had been wondering how to accomplish the purpose to make students
learn easily English language and doing this apprenticeship really significant we
came up with the idea to involve parents in the process due to the consideration
that in the learning process only important things are stored in the brain.
(Vigotsky,1979).
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In order to make learning significant for the students this research
proposal invited parents to be involved, we supported children to write to theirparents expressing their feelings, emotions and thoughts on different situations
and parents read those writings, interpreted them and learnt how words and
structures meant to express many aspects and ideas. Then parents did write to
us about their perceptions about the activities done and sometimes incorporated
words in English encouraged by themselves to learn as an example for their
sons and daughters.
Children reported how good they did in English class through the
activities presented in class and parents through writings they sent to us every
week.
Moreover beyond the fact we took for granted that parents would be
interested in understanding what their children had written, it was remarkable to
find out in terms of English learning that they were carrying out a literacy
process.
In this paper we are concerned with showing what we did in our
pedagogical research and how we developed it. In that way the reader will find
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the description of the project, the justification, the research method, the literature
review; discussing the constructs of the research questions, the instructional
design describing the approach, the objectives, methodology and evaluation,then the research design exploring the activities done to gather data, data
analysis with the findings of the study and finally the conclusions with explicit
answer to the research questions.
Justification
The core of this study is perception as a means of knowing what parents
consider about the activities performed at English classes of their sons and
daughters using the written productions as the proof through which we are going
to answer the research question and to evidence the way parents make sense
of the world through their writings.
As other main construct of our research we have collaborative work
expecting parents to work with us because they can take advantage of that
process to acquire knowledge by means of their own children and their written
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productions. Several parent/child interactions are important in preparing the
child to learn at school and Parents can even learn (Becher, 1984).
This study as an innovative way of teaching has arisen as a reaction in
opposition to the traditional teaching that we lived through our experience of
secondary school students in which parents did not work in tandem with
students.
In our project we have proposed to involve parents in the process carried
out with the students in the school as an innovative way to plan education.
When parents are involved in their children's education, both children and
parents are likely to benefit (Bowen, 1997).
To achieve an effective English learning and in this case English learning
to write, we require linking childrens written text to their familiar context aiming
those texts to the students personal expression towards their own parents.
Consequently, we have taken into account the principle established by the Ley
General de Educacin: Ley 115 de 1994 in Titulo VI de los Educadores where it
points out that:
La comunidad educativa esta conformada por estudiantes oeducandos, educadores, padres de familia o acudientes de losestudiantes, egresados, directivas, docentes y administradoresescolares and familia como ncleo fundamental de la sociedad y primerresponsable de la educacin de los hijos.
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As mentioned by the Ley General de Educacin, this study looked for
setting down a solid relationship among parents and school in order to worktogether for the benefit of the childrens education, as Sandler (1995) confirms in
the following declaration:
Schools can take steps to increase parents beliefs that they havean important role to play in their childrens school success. Schools cantake also steps to increase parents and teachers sense of mutual
(partnership) responsibility for student educational outcomes.(Sandler,1995).
Furthermore, we wanted to know the socio-cultural background of
students, families and communities we observed and interacted with the
students as they read and write. There are many possible ways to develop
transformative pedagogy and moreover our question is highly related to this
thanks to the collaborative work according to Carr & Wilson:
Students do best when parents and teachers understand eachothers expectations and stay in touch with one another regard-ing the childs learning habits, attitudes toward school, socialinteractions and academic progress. (Carr & Wilson, 1997)
That is related to a current way of interaction between educators and
students that attempt to foster collaborative work among them and parents who
are concerned in the teaching-learning process. It uses collaborative and critical
inquiry to enable students to analyze and understand the social realities in their
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own lives and their communities integrating them with the topics developed at
school.
We intend to provide to a small group of the society represented by the
students of seventh grade and their parents, the teachers and administrative
staff in the C.E.D. Cultura Popular with a pedagogical proposal able to permit
students to stand out and have a high self esteem level and a critical mind that
let them take an active critical role in the society, consequently with the (PEI)
Programa Educativo Institucional of this institution in which the chapter three
gestin academica mentions that:
este enfoque se ha adoptado buscando la formacin de mejoresseres humanos a traves de una propuesta pedagogica clara y de calidadque permita que los estudiantes sobresalgan en las dimensioneshumanas esenciales: intelectuales, cognitivas, expresivas y afectivas,haciendolos ms productivos social y culturalmente,
and with its manual de convivencia in which the chapter 8 is dedicated to the
parents or accompaniers duties and it defines them as son los primeros y
principales educadores de sus hijos, artifices de la unidad familiar in other
words, parents are their childrens main educators consequently they should
perform their role as educational agents.
In addition, this study reaffirms the philosophy of Universidad Distrital
Francisco Jos de Caldas that mentions
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la vision de la UD, en su condicin de institucin de educacinsuperior de carcter estatal, popular y democrtica, ha de ser un centro
de produccin de saberes, con reconocimiento local, nacional einternacional, debido a su carcter dinmico, en bsqueda constante dela excelencia, la pertenencia y la competitividad acadmica mediante elfomento a la investigacin, la innovacin, la extensin, y la docencia.
Outcomes of this academic activity must be useful for the society and
compromised with the national identity and with the searching of new relevant
knowledge in the context of Colombian cultural diversity and the specific
academic cultures.
Finally, this study recognizes the vision of El Proyecto Curricular de
Lenguas Modernas that points: El proyecto Curricular permanentemente
involucrado en el proceso de mejoramiento de la calidad del servicio educativo
propicia innovaciones en el contexto investigativo, de extensin y de docencia
con impacto a nivel nacional e internacional, de acuerdo con la propia visin de
la Universidad.
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Literature ReviewBased on the main question of this research that is to analyze how the
perceptions parents have towards English class-work are brought to light
through their written productions when they work collaboratively with their
children, this chapter introduces an overview of the main constructs that oriented
the analysis and interpretation of data. This chapter starts by introducing the
concept ofperceptions then different perspectives on the collaborative work
theory and finally the conceptualization about how writingis conceived.
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On purpose to give an appropriate conceptualization to our proposal, we
conceive the individuals participating in this study as parents and students;
where parent is any person who although not a biological parent has parentalresponsibility for or care of a child or young person, and students those who are
enrolled in the school environment. This conceptualization is also supported by
the ALI [American Law Institute] definition; a de facto parent is a person who
shares (at least) equally in primary childcare responsibilities while residing with a
child for reasons other than money. The de facto parents assumption of
childcare responsibilities must be either with the agreement of the natural parent
or result from a parents inability to care for the child (Mason & Zavac, 2002,
p.232). Furthermore, in this study the concepts of parents and students are both
conceived as learners since they worked collaboratively sharing concepts,
opinions, feelings and knowledge.
Along the study we have done during the current term we found how
expressive parents were when referring to the work done by us at school with
their sons and daughters, that is the main reason why we decided to work on the
perceptions they had in terms of the activities presented during the academic
year. Then we considerperception as what is apprehended through the act of
perceiving when something is presented by the bodily organs or by the mind;
discernment; apprehension; cognition or mental representation also the quality,
state, or capability, of being affected by something external; sensation;
sensibility. Every comment sent from the parents to us is the parents
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perspective; it is the perception that transmitted became part of our data
research. Perception is the process of acquiring, interpreting, selecting, and
organizing sensoryinformation. (The American Heritage Dictionary of theEnglish Language). In large part, the extent of a discussion of perception is
determined by the definition one uses in their discussion. For the purposes of
this paper, we will use a definition proposed by Forgus and Melamed (1976):
"the process of information extraction." Forgus and Melamed based their
description ofperception on cognitive structures. These are the processes that
determine how humans interpret their surroundings. Humans interpret their
surroundings on a "higher" level than those of animals, which perceive the world
in terms of stimulus-response or reflex-tropistic actions. Humans, on the other
hand, perceive their world through information processing. Because all humans
extract information from their environment through the same general process,
Forgus and Melamed proposed that scientists must pursue the concept of
perception by the avenue of information processing. This approach makes
perception the central step in the acquisition of knowledge and higher thought.
Perception is the "superset," composed of learning, memory and thinking as
"subsets" of perception. This understanding requires a more in-depth
understanding of the relationship between learning and perception.
Moreover, in our study we used parents declarations looking for
sentences or even words that showed up as perceptions of their approaching to
English language through the collaborative work with their children in which they
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http://www.reference.com/browse/wiki/The_senseshttp://www.reference.com/browse/wiki/Informationhttp://dictionary.reference.com/search?config=about&q=00-database-info&db=ahd4http://dictionary.reference.com/search?config=about&q=00-database-info&db=ahd4http://www.reference.com/browse/wiki/The_senseshttp://www.reference.com/browse/wiki/Informationhttp://dictionary.reference.com/search?config=about&q=00-database-info&db=ahd4http://dictionary.reference.com/search?config=about&q=00-database-info&db=ahd48/7/2019 Parents Peceptions English Class Work
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had to read and understand some letters or cards wrote by the children or by the
teachers and afterwards they were challenged to write back to those letters. Our
consideration for including collaborative work as part of our theoretical framework and as the structure of the application of this study started as a concern of
linking parents and students, in other words, to establish home-school relations
to make parents able to know and monitor the work performed in classes and to
take advantage of and even learn what children could show them as part of their
academic knowledge.
In order to reaffirm our own considerations on the benefits and
advantages of having collaborative work between the students and the persons
are accompanied them at home we base on Rivers (1983) declares:
Learners are able to build up the foreign language system whenthey use it as a medium of communication. They have to make relationsbetween what they have already acquired and what they are learningnow while exchanging meanings with each other. That means skill-getting practice and skill-using performance have to move on side by sidein the learning process.
Rivers (1983) goes on to say that this skill-using aspects of linguistic
performance can be developed only in interactions. Our project is a search of
better learning environment where the students could share their interest in the
academic content matter and experience direct participation in the learning
community through their active participation in the project.
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Rivers also gave us the key to work on collaborative work. He claims that
students learn better when they are actively committed in the process. This is
evidenced through the work done at school in which we were the onesresponsible of encouraging students to work with their parents and moreover the
papers wrote by the two of them are proof to support this.
Another aspect that we have taken into account is that the collaborative
worklooks forward to enrich learning environment by offering students an
opportunity to express their personal meaning in the target language while at the
same time acquiring the language specific skills (Rivers, 1983). It is important to
clarify that parents are also learners in this study; this learning environment is
also the same learning event to which we are going to refer below.
Eventually the last aspect to research on is the one that says that the
collaborative work is to encourage students to be more active and involved in
sharing their learning process with others (Rivers, 1983). We understand by
others the other students in the classroom and the parents at home.
Bennett (1991) reports that, regardless of the subject matter, students
working in small groups tend to learn more of what is taught and retain it longer
than when the same content is presented in other instructional formats. Students
who work in collaborative groups also appear to be more satisfied with their
classes.
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We, in our experience, first as students and now as student teachers,
have realized that having a good interaction among students and parents ispossible to make them keep in their minds significant aspects that will contribute
to the learning process, in this case the English learning process.
We attempt to state that sometimes the relation school-home is not close
enough that is why we consider interaction through the Collaborative Workis
one of the main reasons to develop this project. The axiom that two heads are
better than one really is true when it comes to strengthening children and
families in a holistic way. By thinking, planning, and working together, the
individuals and groups that make a community can accomplish goals. Foyle
(1995) statesthat knowledge is created through interaction and not 'transferred'
from educator to student. (Foyle, 1995)
The purpose of this study is to evidence theperceptions when parents
are asked to be engaged in the process of learning or acquiring the English as a
foreign language, in this paper we detail how parents-students work is as
important as teachers role when looking for their motivation, our findings have
showed that the relation home-school is useful when reporting on how revealing
the students and parents work has been.
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We consider it is important to take into account that children are not
isolated human beings; in fact, the child is a social being by nature and is always
looking somebody to interact with. (Vigotsky, 1964), teachers, through theirinteractions with parents, play a major role in encouraging parents to support
learning at home. At the beginning of this project we were wondering on how to
sensitize parents to be committed in the activity that we proposed to them on a
school reports day, parents expressed to us their interest at the very beginning
and as the time went by we realized how difficult it was for some of them to have
the time to fulfill their commitment and that was why we decided to make a
choice on the participants more responsive to us and also to the proposal.
Sometimes parents felt with not enough basis to develop the written productions
assigned and we had a challenge to handle this situation because of the time
due to the work developed at school and the time for training students to
perform or to transmit the knowledge to their parents.
We found through the surveys applied at the beginning of the term that
most of the students expressed that they did the homework on their own and
that sometimes they presented some difficulties with ideas and words not clear
enough for them and they tried to ask for collaboration to their parents with not
good response because of their activities or because they considered that those
doubts had to be answered at school, in fact the students were learning, they did
not.
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We have that; language is both personal and social. It serves to think and
to communicate. According to Newman (1985), speaking, listening, reading, and
writing are all learned best in authentic speech and literacy events.We are concerned with literacy since writing is our main means of
communication with the parents and it is the prime source of data analysis in this
research. Street (1993), views reading as a social process that takes into
account the relationship and interaction between author and reader. Meaning
flows from an understanding of the cultural, social, and political contexts in
which the reading takes place (Street, 1993).
Literacy is socially embedded in the daily lives of our learners regardless
of whether they are aware of it or not. The literacy event is an occurrence where
the individual interacts with written text. (Barton, 1998).
In the written productions we have collected we saw how the writer tried
to express ideas and perceptions, even when the grammar was not correct yet a
regular reader is able to give meaning to what the idea was about. In fact since
the commencement we were focused on making the students express
themselves, their ideas, their thoughts and perceptions in a written way rather
than learning the mere grammar.
Learners achieve expressive and communication purposes in a genuine
social context. Learning how to use language is accomplished as learners use
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language to learn about the world (Newman, 1985). In addition, we can say that
the fundamental concern for someone who uses language is making sense.
We are concerned with the socio-cultural dimensions of written language
because it is deeply related with our perception of written texts as a way to know
students perceptions and to foster social interaction with their parents. This can
be evidenced when the idea of performing this project at that school was
received with great curiosity for the head English-Teacher who gave us all the
independence to develop the activities that we describe in the Instructional
Design.
From a socio-cultural perspective, reading and writing are communicative
acts in which readers and writers position one another in particular ways,
drawing in conventions and resources provided by culture. It can be seen in our
project when all the social patterns that surround the students environment
affect them. When we presented the activity to be done on mothers day
students took the social and cultural aspect of this celebration, they invited their
mothers into an unconscious process of literacy and socio-cultural event.
Mothers responded actively when motivated to be part of this new experience as
they have expressed themselves in the surveys. Writing becomes a way of
making sense of experience or discovering what one thinks rather than
performing functionally useful tasks (Peyton & Staton, 1996). According to Freire
(1987), literacy can be viewed as a relationship of learners to the world, as a
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form of cultural politics, and not merely a process of producing knowledge, thus,
he emphasizes literacy role in social as well as personal transformation.
According to Vygotsky (1964), thought and speech have different roots in
humankind, thought being nonverbal and language being nonintellectual in an
early stage. But their development lines are not parallel - they cross again and
again. At a certain moment around the age of two, the curves of development of
thought and speech, until then separated, meet and join to initiate a new form of
behavior. That is when thought becomes verbal and speech becomes rational. A
child first seems to use language for superficial social interaction, but at some
point this language goes underground to become the structure of the child's
thinking. It is then how Vigostkys point of view become into an important tool to
us, the child shows himself as a social being who needs interaction one another
with the purpose to communicate his ideas. We wanted to apply this concept
relating it to the written-production that each student developed.
A person since the early years is looking for the most appropriate words
to express ideas, in this process the adult is the one in charge of teaching new
words and the context to use them, the necessity to communicate is what
encourages the child.
Then is in this part in which we consider that the relation between parents
and students will be really significant even for the kids as for their parents and
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our labor will be the means to encourage the kids to write, to acquire the first
language at the beginning is something that is done into a sequential process in
which the students use to ask for all kind of things that are new for them andthey learn easily those words that are able to remember them a feeling or a
sensation or an attitude.
According to Vygotsky, all fundamental cognitive activities take shape in a
matrix of social history and form the products of sociohistorical development
(Luria, 1976). That is, cognitive skills and patterns of thinking are not primarily
determined by innate factors, but are the products of the activities practiced in
the social institutions of the culture in which the individual grows up.
Many facts will be determinant in the learning process, culture, the
environment and all those aspects that are surrounding the learner can affect his
learning process, society plays a role totally different in terms of culture, it is
difficult to find a parent with his son living in the same culture and with the same
ideals, every one of them has different conceptions that have grown up with the
social conceptions from each time, with our research we are wondering how to
close these two worlds so they will communicate one another using writing as a
means to know about feelings that are focused on the social aspect. Two
different worlds can be gathered when sharing common interests, when we
designed the activities to be developed we tried hard to involve topics in which
they felt part of the same world without differences of age, learning is a social
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event, we found the way to make the learning event worth enough for them and
it is stated in our research and our findings.
Vygotsky explains; the classroom is no longer teacher and students, it
becomes more an interdependent community with all the joys and tensions and
difficulties that attend all communities. This degree of participation often
questions and reshapes power relationships assumed between parents and
their sons or daughters (Vigostky, 1964).
Cooperative learning represents the most carefully structured end of the
collaborative learning. Defined as the instructional use of small groups so that
students work together to maximize their own and each others learning
(Johnson et al. 1990).
In cooperative learning, the development of interpersonal skills is as
important as the learning itself. The development of social skills in group work-
learning to cooperate is key to high quality group work. Many cooperative
learning tasks were assigned to students with both academic objectives and
social skills objectives. This cooperative workis between parents and students
but we cannot left aside that in class the students need also social interaction to
reach the objectives proposed for in the class and moreover, the team work at
school is conceived as a strategy for developing the activities to learn the
language in the academic context, at home they are not with the same patterns
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they have when in class, so that, is what we call the learning event that takes
place in their homes, in their own environment when there is not any person
tutoring what they are doing and how they are doing, it gives them a sense ofresponsibility to behave the best they can in front of the assignment they have to
transmit the information we have taught them at school and that their parents
learned. Built into cooperative learning work is regular group processing, a
debriefing time where students reflect on how they are doing in order to learn
how to become more effective in group learning settings (Johnson, Johnson and
Holubec, 1990).
Discussing about this cooperation process we regard the conception of the
relation parents-students because as we have stated before parents play an
important role in the apprenticeship of the students and of their selves and in
fact parents are part of our research.
As Street claims:
Tanto la investigacin como parte de la prctica de la alfabetizacin haexperimentado cierto desplazamiento hacia lo que podramos llamar unaconcepcin ms social de ella. Evitando caer en una definicin tipodiccionario de la alfabetizacin, como concepto de trabajo consideramosla alfabetizacin como las prcticas sociales de lectura y/o escritura(Street, 1984).
In this sense, the collaborative work in this project searched that parents
and children shared knowledge, ideas, thoughts and life experiences by creating
an interaction where they both had something to contribute one another.
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With our project we are looking for social practice from both parts of this
research; on the one hand students, and on the other hand the parents, as the
students are looking for a means to involve parents the topic should have anaspect quite interesting to be worked on, as Street says: the literacy process
must be considered as the social practices of reading or/ and writing. (Street,
1984)
Shuman, A. (1983) coined the concept of literacy events, like an analogy of
the concept of speech event used in socio-linguistic literature. Literacy event is
that moment in which writing or reading has a role The point is to build on what
people know, and to incorporate their local cultural knowledge into schooling
(Moll, 1992), writing is a vehicle of social and cultural affirmation (Street, 1984).
When a researcher is attempting to investigate literacy, it is necessary to have
identifiable aspect to search for; the function of the concept of literacy event is to
facilitate this.
In this project is intended to organize and structure all the spaces in which
the teaching learning processes take place. We are aware that the place and
time in which parents and students are working together should be determined,
as in a literacy event in which parents-children work collaboratively (Shuman,
1983).
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The writing process is more than a repetitive way of nonsense aspects
that are not longer in our minds, we claim that meaningful words are more
powerful than those that do not express the way we perceived and express ourconceptions about the world.
When children develop tasks and work in cooperation with their parents
all they have the opportunity to notice the view of the world that is laying down
beyond the signs and the written meaning. They learn and know about each
others thinking, conceptions and assumptions of what is their own world in
which they are living in and interacting. As it is evidenced in our data collection
students as parents are allowed to express themselves by other means while it
is provided and build a new space to exchange perceptions and to re-know one
another as Kazemek & Rigg claim (1995).
In the cognitive view, often called the "process" approach to writing, the
focus on meaningful communication for learner-defined purposes derives from
second language acquisition theory. Writing is a vehicle for reflection and
exploration of ideas because writing becomes a way of making sense of
experience or discovering what one thinks rather than performing functionally
useful tasks (Peyton & Staton, 1996).
The point is to build on what people know, and to incorporate their local
cultural knowledge into schooling, drawing on what Luis Moll (1992) calls their
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funds of knowledge. Thus, pedagogical practices may encourage the use of
culture-specific genres, purposes, and content. The message in this approach is
that learners' cultural knowledge and ways of using literacy are valuable and canbecome a bridge to new learning.
A focus on meaning rather than form (grammatical correctness)
encourages students and parents writing development; instruction should
stress writing for real reasons, to real audiences in order to promote authentic
communication; writing should be contextualized and that content should be
meaningful and relevant to learners; learners need some degree of overt
instruction, which includes talk about writing, substantive, specific feedback, and
multiple opportunities for revision; social and cultural variation in writing
practices and genres needs to be taken into account; and all writing pedagogy
reflects a stance about the learner in relation to the social order. The most
important point is that teachers need to be conscious of implications of their
practices and of the power of the messages that their pedagogical practices
convey. Atkinson (1987), Auerbach (1993).
Children who have more exposure to English are often placed in a
position of translating and solving other problems for parents, reversing
traditional roles and creating additional stresses for all involved. Children and
adults are resources for one another (Cummins, 1981; 1996).
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There are many sources of inspiration for innovative work in family and
intergenerational literacy that can make a difference. With movement in the
directions outlined above, it becomes possible to imagine schools thatunderstand and respond to families and communities; families that cooperate
with schools towards agreed-upon goals; and generations who find in one
another the resources to remember their past, to manage the present, and to
take on the future with confidence and joy (Auerbach, 1992).
As a conclusion, we developed a project that sought to see thoroughly
the collaboration that existed among parents, children and school by means of
the implementation of written productions as a space where parents and
students could communicate freely their feelings, thoughts, perceptions, etc;
recognizing the importance that each one of the members of the educational
community has in teaching-learning process.
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Instructional Design
Previously, it was indicated that we applied English written productions in
the classes to work on the topics we had to teach at school based on the
syllabus for seventh grade.These written productions were planned through
topic-based work much as it helped us to relate the exercises to the experiences
and interests of children.
A topic according to our project is best defined by Mc Lean (1994) as a
small piece of learning material that produces a cohesive, meaningful learning
outcome. Part of the aim of a topic is to provide a framework that can help
students and teachers deal with the complexity of a subject
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What distinguishes the topic-based approach from the traditional theme-
based approach is the fact that it concentrates on more general and cross-
sectional topics which involve various cultural issues. It makes students realisethat what they are learning about is not only institutions and systems but real
people, their beliefs and problems (McLean, 1994).
According to Alan McLean (1994), whose article was a direct inspiration
for the diploma:
A topic-based approach can provide an oblique yet original
encounter with life and culture. It deals with key elements of currentliving, such as class, privatisation, education, health, not in isolationbut within a series of unifying contexts.
Thus, the topics we planned in our pedagogical intervention were related
to childrens life and also took into account the participation of their parents. For
that reason, the activities were based on 9 topics that children had already
experienced, in an attempt to develop meaningful learning. The themes were
organized as follows:
27
My
parent-
student
Likes and
Dislikes
My
house
My
Parents
Neighbor-
hood
DAILY
ACTIVITIES
Occupation
s
Personality
The
World I
live
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Activity No.1 Personality
In class, students did a conversation interacting themselves and usingvocabulary previously taught in class. We arranged groups of 5 people, and
each group was responsible of a group of adjectives. We gave them information
about the question to place in order to know about this; what are you like? And
they wrote it on a billboard, with this information they created a billboard using
different materials such as newspaper cuttings, silhouette paper, colors, etc.
Then, we fixed the billboards around the classroom and each group presented
them to their classmates, students realized some perceptions their classmates
had about them.
As a second activity, students made in their notebook the description of
their parents, writing what are they like and everything they thought was
important in their parents personality.
Activity No. 2 Occupations
Each student represented acting the occupation that their parents had.
Then, they wrote on the notebook what it was and why it was important. We
explained them how to work with the verb to be to write about their parents: My
mother is or My father is
Homework for parents:
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Parents wrote about their sons and daughters occupation in the future,
mentioning why they wrote that and why it was important in our society.
Homework for students:
After students developed each task in classroom, they had to explain to
parents the homework. It was for their parents to do the same task but according
to their children information and if they wanted they could write a comment
about the activity.
Activity No. 3 Daily Activities
Teachers gave students some material where there were activities and
dialogues from people with different activities. They organized the dialogues for
these people according to the drawing and the daily activities.
Students drew in a written production comics of their parents daily routine and
in each drawing they wrote the activity and the time filling the gaps in the next
format:
My parent wakes up at_____________. Then he/she/they take/s a shower
at____________Later my parent/s go/es to work at____, he she they has/ve
breakfast at________, brush/es their teeth at__________. At night my parent/s
watch/es T.V. at_________and finally my parent/s go/es to sleep
at____________.
Activity No. 4 Neighborhood
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In class, students drew different places in the city to work on places in
English. Teachers wrote a general description of the places, the location, the
importance, etc. Then, students wrote in their notebook about the neighborhoodthey lived in, mentioning what they have there and the importance of this plan.
Activity No. 5 My parent
In the next class we studied different ways to feel in front to the activities
the parents do, for example: I do not like the work of my mom because she
works a lot.
In this class we worked the negative sentences of the verb like and the
positive ones and reviewed moods.
Individually, and with the use of their own drawings they wrote a letter to
their parents communicating them the way they felt about this, parents sent us
back their perceptions and comments about what they realized about their sons
and daughters thoughts.
Activity No. 6 My house
With some pictures that the teacher gave them in order to know different
ways of houses in terms of space, location, size, etc the students selected those
pictures with the respective vocabulary that fitted better to their own house on
the purpose to write about it and to let their parents know about the way they
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see the place with characteristics of each one of them (cramped, dark, sad,
boring, happy)
Then, students made a drawing in a letter of what they would like to have
as a house and they gave it to their parents who simultaneously wrote to us
comments about the activity.
Activity No. 7 Likes and dislikes
As in the previous class we worked the negative form of the verb like we
decided to work on feelings connected to moods in which students would feel
the freedom of expressing the way they feel in front of some situations and
giving complementary information about what they want to mean.
like / dislike
I to feel happy when my parents (father/mother)_________.
I to feel sad when my parents (father/mother)____________.
I to feel silly when my parents (father/mother)____________.
I to feel angry when my parents (father/mother)____________.
I to feel scared when my parents (father/mother)____________.
I to feel good when my parents (father/mother)____________.
I to feel bad when my parents (father/mother)____________.
Activity No. 8 My parent student
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We gave the students the instructions to make, with the company of their
respective parent, a comic in which they would draw themselves in a sequence
of twelve boxes in which they would show us the moment when parent andstudent decide to start working on the assignments, besides the invented
conversation the parents sent us a comment. This was important to us and our
research to figure out how and where is that moment when the students meet
their parents to accomplish the scholar assignments.
Methodology
Along the different assignments carried out through this study, the teachers
assistance consisted on:
Guiding the development of class activities, and solving different questions
the students had.
Monitoring children and parents activities development. In class, the
teachers were responsible of explaining the students role when working with
their parents and to communicate the information given to them about what
we expected.
Students Role: The student conveyed information between parents and
teachers by explaining the topics and the activities to their parents according
to the activities they did in class. In that sense, we can see students worked
collaboratively with their parents.
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Parents Role: Parents were active participants who developed, with the help
of their children, different activities according to the topics providing us the
information to answer our research question.
Teachers Role: Teachers were guides and facilitators who managed
activities development and simultaneously, they were researchers monitoring
the process, perceptions, and students comments in each one of the
activities. In that sense, they assumed the role of:
Class-counsellor: solving doubts on how to express in a better way the
studentsideas explaining and guiding them how to talk to their parents in
order to make them understand.
Organizers: be actively involved in the organization of the different
activities that students and parents did.
Figure No. 2 Curriculum
UNIT TOPIC GRAMMAR ACTIVITYCOMMUNICATIVE
FUNCTIONWeek 1
Jan.3-Feb.4
Who arewe?
Faces
Simplepresent tense:
Verb to beand question
formUse of
AdjectivesQuestion
word: who
ReadingPair works
Writingdescriptions of
partners, family,friends
Identifying peopleDescribing people
Week 2Feb. 7 -11 Personality
ConversationsWritingdescriptions of
themselvesWeek 3
Feb. 14-18
What arewe
doing?
Occupations Presentprogressive
tenseQuestion
Analysis ofpictures and
representations todescribe ongoing
Talking aboutactions happening
nowAsking for and
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word: what
actions
givinginformation aboutsomeone is doing
Week 3
Feb. 21 25 The World
were living
Oral and writtendescription of real
factsExchanging
points of view ingroups
Week 4
Feb.28Mar.4
How are wechanging?
Appereances Use oflook like
Demostrativepronouns:
These, thoseQuestion
Word:How
Describingpictures and
findingdifferences andsimilarities by
pairs
Talking aboutschool, teachers
and friendsIdentifying
objects/ thingsDescribing
differences inpeople
Week 5
March.711 How are things
different?
Writing acomposition
called How ismy family
different?Week 6
Mar.14 18
How arewe
feeling?
Feelings,moods
Simplepresent tense:
to need,
to want,
to like+infinitiveor object
Role playshighlighting states
of mindWriting a cardexpressing howthey feel while
being in differentplaces
Expressing needs
Expressingfeelings and what
they want toobtain
Expressing likes
and dislikes
Week 7
Mar. 21- 25
HOLY WEEK
Week 8
Mar.28Apr.1
Likes anddislikes
Students askpartners about
what they like anddont like then
they fill in chartsWriting a lettertelling about thegeneral likes and
dislikes of thechildren in theschool
Week 9
April 4 8
What arewe
producing?
GroceryShopping
There is/are
Expressionsof quantity:some/any
Quantitative:
Reading texts andfill in exercises
Asking for foodAsking for andgiving pricesTalking aboutquantity and
Role playsperforming
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many +
shopping at acommon grocery quality
Week
10
Apr. 11
- 15
Whereare we
doing?
Environmental
Studies:describing
placesPrepositionsof Place: in,on, under,
overAdverbs:near, far
Card game tointroduce
vocabulary
Written fill inexercises relatedto pictures andthings in the
school context Locating peopleand places
Describing placesWeek
11
Apr.18 22
Myneighborhood
To make adrawing of theirneighborhood
with somecharacters ,write a
compositiondescribing that
context and thingshappening there
Week
12
Apr.25 29
Whereare we
going?
Travelling
Adverbs:here, there
Prepositions:next to,
behind, in
front of,in
Students locateplaces in picturesHiding game in apark in order touse prepositionsas instructions to
find people orthings
Asking for andgiving
information aboutwhere places are
Week
13
May 2 -6
What do wewish?
Verb to want
+ infinitive orobjectObject
pronouns: me,you, him, her,
it, us, themPrepositions:for, at vs. in
Reading and
comprehensioncheck exercisesStudents write
shortcompositions
about the thingsthey wish
Asking for andgivinginformation about:Pupils objectivesParents objectives
Teacher andschool objectives
Week
14
May 10 13
Whereare wecomingfrom?
Histories andStories
Past tenseverb to be:
was, were (allforms)
There was/there wereSimple past
tense: regularand irregular
verbs
Reading legendsand tales and
comprehensioncheck exercises
Describing peopleand events in the
pastTalking about the
past vs. thepresent
Talking aboutyour childhood,
parents and family
Week
15
May 16 20
Communityhistories
Students searchfor the family and
neighborhoodhistory
Role playsperforming their
findings
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Personalinsights
Students write acomposition with
personalreflections on
their family in thepast vs. in the
presentWeek
16
May 23 27
What arewe
learning?
Writing a letter
All thegrammarviewed
Students writesome letters to the
teacher and totheir parents with
free justexpressing what
they want
Expressing needs,feelings, thoughts
and asking forsomething theywant to know
Week
17
May 31 Jun.3 WholeAssesment
Students selfevaluation
Students teachersevaluation
Teachers processevaluation
self-evaluatingsuccess or lack of
success incommunication
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Research Design
This study had as an initial research question How is the collaborativework revealed when the parents are involved with their sons or daughters
English written productions based on whole language theory? however, during
the implementation of the project in the school, we realized that it should be
changed since the whole language approach could not be carried out as the
basis of our pedagogical implementation like initially we expected. For this
reason, we looked for another concept that was coherent with our information
collected from parents writings and interviews. Consequently, we decided to
omit the whole language theory and to include parents perceptions since this
was more appropriate to what we had in our collection of data.
Furthermore, another part of our main question was "sons or daughters
that was discussed during a presentation of our work in the seminar class at the
university. We realized that this was not related to what we intended to study,
because it has some concerning of genre that we did not concern. Finally, we
listened some suggestions from the audience possible changes and they
allowed us to reconsider this term and look for a wordthat was more in
agreement to our objectives in the study, and then we decided to include in our
research question the word "children" which was more appropriate to our
purposes avoiding genre consideration. Thus, we made the necessary changes
in order for the question to wrap up the objective proposed in our work, and
eventually the following question was posed:
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Research Questions
Main Question:What perceptions do parents have towards English school work when working
collaboratively with their children?
Sub-question:
What do written productions reveal about the manner parents make sense of the
world?
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Objectives
Main Objective:To analyze how the perceptions are revealed when parents work collaboratively
with their childrens English written productions.
Specific Objective:
To identify the role of English written productions when revealing the manner the
parents make sense of the world.
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Type of study
In order to develop an adequate research, a case study methodology wasimplemented because it is aimed to the collection and presentation of detailed
information about a small group of people, including the accounts of the subjects
themselves.
In this study we worked from a qualitative, descriptive and interpretative
standpoint, consequently with the type of data we collected throughout the
development of the research. In fact qualitative researchers build theory from
observations and intuitive understanding gained in the field. In contrast to
deductive researchers who hope to find data to match a theory, inductive
researchers hope to find a theory that explains their data (Goetz and Lecompte,
1984, p.4.)
Besides the fact we made and performed a pedagogical intervention in
the research process in which the role of teachers was played to carry out the
pedagogical intervention, which was used at the same time to collect data, we
wanted to integrate the childrens parents in our activities because we knew
they would provide us with first hand information. Qualitative research is
interested in understanding the meaning people have constructed, implies a
direct concern with experience as it is lived or felt or undergone. (Sherman and
Webb, 1988, p.7)
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That is, the parents are the ones who know more about their own.
Furthermore, we think that it is time to encourage and allow parents to be
involved in the educational dimension of their sons or daughters and to makethem aware of the importance to do it.
We have designed the activities we implemented in the research to carry
out data collection. So, during these activities we collected data in which the
children and parents written productions were gathered to be analyzed and
support findings, the students wrote reflections; and observations were made by
us.
Instruments
Written productions (from children and parents)
Parents and students did all the activities of the pedagogical intervention on
individual sheets. This instrument was a way to show the task developed inclass by students, and at home by parents and students, also it is important to
clarify that through the parents papers we collected a part of the perceptions
parents had about the English class-work with the purpose to answer our
research questions.
Surveys
Nunan (1992) quotes that survey data is collected through questionnaires or
interviews, or a combination of questionnaire and interview. In this study we
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used questionnaires and interviews to collect data since they both were
complementary; one of them could corroborate the information that the other
one had.According to Cohen and Manion (1986):
Surveys are the most commonly used descriptive method in educationalresearch, and may vary in scope from large-scale governmentalinvestigations through to small-scale studies carried out by a singleresearcher. The purpose of a survey is generally to obtain a snapshot ofconditions, attitudes, and/or events at a single point in time.
For that reason, we used three questionnaries along the project, the first
one came into use at the beginning of the research in order to get general
information about parents occupation, level of education, English level, and their
willingness and interest to participate in the education of their children.
The second one was applied to the parents in the middle of the research
process to identify what was happening with the interaction among parent and
their children during the development of the different written production
assignments; and to collect their impressions, suggestions, expectations and
comments about the project.
The third questionnaire was applied to children also in the middle of the
research process in order to know parents perception about their children.
Likewise, we made individual interviews to the students (in the middle of
the research) and to their parents (at the end) with the purpose of identifying and
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reinforcing the obtained data through observations, artifacts, and surveys about
the interaction among the participants through out the study.
Surveys (for children and parents):
Apart from the previous instruments, we prepared a plan of surveys taking into
account what Nunan (1992) claims:
Surveys items can be relatively closed or open ended. A closed item is
one in which the range of possible responses is determined by theresearcher. An open item is one in which the subject can decide what tosay and how to say it. Surveys can consist entirely of closed questions,entirely of open questions, or mixture of closed and open questions.Mixing close and open items to gather punctual information but at thesame time going deeper on what we sought to know.
Interviews (children and parents):
To plan the interviews we considered Nunan (1992) states:
Interviews can be characterized in terms of their degree of formality, andmost can be placed on a continuum ranging from unstructured through semistructured to structured. An unstructured interview is guided by theresponses of the interviewee rather than the agenda of the researcher. Theresearcher exercises little or no control, and the direction of the interview,the interviewer has a general idea of where he or she wants the interview togo, and what should come out of it, but does not enter the interview with alist of predetermined questions. Topics and issues rather than questionsdetermine the course of the interview.
So, it was decided that unstructured interviews were more appropriate for our
project; designing, in this way, more than questions, topics that guided us to get
the required information.
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These interviews were focused on the following topics:
o Feelings during the implementation of the activities where they were
together.
o Learning through learning events.
o Difficulties they found while doing the exercises.
o Help from parents to their daughters or sons in tasks of other subjects
o Comments and suggestions
o Perceptions towards English school work
Furthermore, during the interviews it was important to consider what Nunan
(1992) calls Briefing and explanation. He states that before the interview
begins, the researcher explains the nature of the research and the purpose of
the interview to the interviewee and answers any questions that he or she may
have. So, it was necessary to make an introduction where the participants could
know general information about the project and the purposes we had when
making the interview.
Setting
This research and the pedagogical intervention were implemented with
students between 10 and 12 years of age from seventh grade in the Instituto
Educativo Distrital de Cultura Popular.
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This Institution is a public school and emerged from the integration of three
different institutions in the Puente Aranda Locality. Those institutions were
Instituto Nacional de Cultura Popular, C.E.D. Santa Rita and C.E.D. Diego LuisCordoba and they were integrated in the year of 2002 by the Resolution 2361 of
August 14th, 2002 according to the establishment of the Colombian Political
Constitution, the law 115 of 94, the law 715 of 2001 and the Sectorial Plan of
Education 2001-2004, in order to respond to all the levels of pre-school, basic
and middle education with the direction of only one principal in the institution.
The institution is placed in the Barrio Ciudad Montes 3er Sector (sede A), Santa
Rita (sede B) and Alcal (sede C), the students belong to the 1, 2 and 3 social
stratum.
To implement this project we integrated the whole class in the activities
but for the matter of data analysis we preferred to select only some of the
students with their respective parents. Consequently, this selection did not have
any specific parameters besides the mere intention and disposition to participate
in it because we did not intend to intervene in the research progress.
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Figure No. 3 Research Design
QUESTIONS TYPE OF STUDY CONTEXT AND PARTICIPANTS INSTRUMENTS
Main Question
What perceptions do
parents have towards
English school work
when working
collaboratively with
their sons and
daughters?
Sub-Question
What do written
productions reveal
about the manner
parents make sense
of the world?
Merriam (1998)
Qualitative research is
an effort to understand
situations in their
uniqueness as part of a
particular context and
the interactions there.
Merriam (1998) it is an
examination of a specific
phenomenon such as a
program, event, a
person, a process, an
institution, or a social
group.
Centro Educativo Distrital de
Cultura Popular.
District public school in Bogot.
Students: 4 students from seventh
grade between 10 and 12 years old
Parents: (3) mothers and (1) sister
in law with secondary level studies
and a basic English level.
Written
productions Interviews
Surveys
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Data AnalisisAnalisis of information
In this chapter we are concerned in the findings of our study; consequently
we have already specified the main constructs in a previous chapter in which we
explained detailed each one. We have eight participants among them four
students and four parents who were no selected at random but by the
commitment showed since the beginning of this study.
The research revealed that when parents felt comfortable with the school,
viewed their sons or daughters motivated, and believed they had influence on
their sons or daughters, their reported involvement with the students learning
was high. These perceptions and beliefs were found to be stronger when parents
understood and were knowledgeable about classroom learning and felt like a
partner in their sons or daughters learning. It was also important that many of
the teachers communications with parents were positive instead of conveying
only negative information which often discourages parental involvement.
Parental-role construction for involvement in childrens education reflects
parents expectations and beliefs about what they should do in relation to
childrens schooling. Roles are generally constructed from personal experience
and expectations as well as the perceptions and expectations of pertinent others
(e.g.,Biddle,1986).
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Parents also appear to involve themselves in homework because they
perceive invitations from their sons or daughters or from teachers suggesting that
their homework involvement is wanted and expected (Sandler & Hoover-Dempsey, 1997).
To collect the data we applied three instruments, the first instrument is a
survey from which we collected important information about expectations,
affirmations that parents had about the activity we were in charge of developing
with their sons and daughters.
The second instrument was the written productions. This instrument is a
way to show the task developed in class by students, and at home by parents
and students, also it is important to clarify that through the parents written
productions we collected a part of the perceptions parents had about the English
class-work to answer our research questions.
Finally the third instrument are the interviews with the parents and the
interviews with the students and even it is important to make clear that the
parents interviews were highly remarkable for this study because of the
information collected through this instrument.
Parents' responses to this open-ended instrument's questions were
analyzed using analytic induction to determine any patterns or trends across
categories. Responses that referred to similar or related outcomes were grouped
together. These groups were analyzed, and tentative themes were developed to
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convey the relationship of the responses in category. The themes served as
working hypotheses for later analyses of the data. Confirming and disconfirming
evidence was gathered, and the themes were revised as needed. Throughoutthis process, responses obtained from the parents, anchored item responses,
and information provided by students in the course of the overall evaluation of
the program was reviewed to confirm the validity of the themes. This triangulation
of data across sources and methods served to enhance the validity of the study's
findings.
Figure No. 4 Categories and Subategories
QUESTIONS CATEGORY SUBCATEGORIES
Main Question
What perceptions do
parents have towards
English school work
when working
collaboratively with
their sons and
daughters?
Category 1:
EvidencingParents
perceptions of the
English class work
Subcategory 1: Positive
announcements...
Subcategory 2:Expectant
comments.
Subcategory 3:Further
suggestions
Sub question
What do written
productions reveal
Category 2: Parents'perceptions of their
children
Subcategory 4: Parentsaffection
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Parents Perceptions
about the manner
parents make sense
of the world?
Category 3: Parents
perceptions of the
English Language
Category 1 Parents perceptions of the English class work
In this study we are concerned about finding parents perceptions about
the English class work developed with their sons or daughters at school what is
made evident through their written productions and the interviews. From this we
collected data that when analyzed it was possible to divide it in three sub
categories converging to answer the first and main category. To give validity we
have decided to include bibliography of Dauber and Epstein who helped us in
analyzing some written productions parents did.
In their study of 2,317 inner-city elementary and middle school students,
Dauber and Epstein (1993) determined that parents' perceptions of their
children's school are interconnected with the school's attempts to involve parents:
"Parents' attitudes about the quality of their children's school are morehighly correlated with the school's practices to involve parents (.346) thanwith the parents' practices of involvement (.157). Parents who becomeinvolved at home and at school say that the school has a positive climate.But even more so, parents who believe that the school is actively workingto involve them say that the school is a good one." (p. 67) (Dauber andEpstein, 1993)
In the next excerpt it is possible to see how parent 3 has expressed what
she would like in terms of the English class according to the information taken
home by her son, in fact the student is a bridge between school and home in
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Parents Perceptions
which he is the one responsible of transmitting information about what is
happening at school in the English class work.
The adjectives used are not part of the parents perception in isolation, it isdue to the comments that the students did about the class in which the form to
express their perception about the class is through the adjectives used; amenas,
didacticas y dinamicas.
In the next sample of interview it is possible to perceive that when doing
the precedent interview the parent 1 used a series of adjectives to refer to the
work that was being developed at that moment at school in which she was
committed.
14 T2 Como le parece a usted que sea el colegio el que busque la ayuda15 de ustedes para trabajar con sus hijos?16 P1 Me parece muy bueno, de hecho es como ms interesante ya que a17 veces el compromiso que uno tiene con las cosas es el que lo hace hacerlas18 T1 Se siente usted comprometida en este momento?19 P1 Pues mas que comprometida me siento a gusto de poder estar20 estudiando con la nia porque a ella le gusta y a mi tambin, adems la veo21 como alegre con las clases y toda como enrgica para cuando me dice que22 vayamos a hacer las tareas me siento que como que soy una parte23 importante de la tarea.24 T2 Como le parece el trabajo que esta implementando el colegio con los25 practicantes; bueno, malo, aceptable?
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26 P1 Pues la verdad es que los tiempos cambian, cuando yo estudiaba no se27 daban estas cosas y yo soy de las que pienso que si se inventan nuevas28 cosas es por el beneficio de la gente, y por ejemplo ac me parece que el29 colegio es muy acertado al buscar nuevas formas de ensear pa que no
30 todo siga montono sino que al contrario los nios estn animados, buena31 la labor del colegio.
Also the evidence of parents perceptions is presented in the form of
comparisons with the reference of previous English classes and in the form of
feedback about the results of the work developed in the class.
Sub category 1Positive announcements.
There is a similitude when analyzing the data gathered, and it is related to
the way parents see the process developed in the school, the speech parents
used was divided in three sub categories, the first one is the positive
announcements. that parents have in front to what is happening with their sons
and daughters.
There is a way to express this type of study and also knowing the parents
perceptions in which the verb me gusta takes an important role when expressing
some of the likes that emerge from what parents know about the classes through
the sons or daughters comments at home.
In the next excerpt we present a sample of the information above.
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Parents Perceptions
A number of parents indicated that their children had become more eager
or interested in learning. Some described their children as more focused or goal-
oriented. Parents indicated that their children displayed more positive attitudes
toward school and evidenced a greater understanding of the importance of
education. Parents indicated that they had developed a greater understanding of
the higher educational opportunities that were available to their children as a
result of participation in the study.
In the next sample we present an excerpt from an interview in which it is
possible to seehow the parents perceive the work that is being conducted with
their sons and daughters at school.
65 T1: Como le parece lo que estamos desarrollando actualmente con los66 muchachos?67 P3: Pues la verdad esto es bastante diferente a lo que estbamos68 acostumbrados,
69 incluso la nia me cuenta que le gusta la clase debido a los practicantes 70que la hacen pues diferente, mas chvere.
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Parents Perceptions
It is then through thehighlighted words that we as researchers are able to
figure out about the perception that parents are having about the English class at
school.
It is important to remember that a written production is a way of making
sense of experience the parents were trying to express themselves through
English even when itwas not a mandatory activity but beyond that we were not
interes