Browsing by Subject "Parent Education"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Cooperating teachers' thinking and actions during conferences with student teachers in parent education.
    (2009-05) Sponsel, Leanne Marie
    Study of cooperating teachers' thoughts (rather than classroom teachers' thoughts) in parent education (rather than in the primary and secondary schools) has been nearly absent from the education field's research pool. This is also true for research on conferencing between teachers in that prior research was conducted from the student teachers' perspective rather than the cooperating teachers'. To better understand the work of cooperating teachers (and their thought-action consistency levels), a stimulated recall methodology was used in this exploratory study. The research questions were: 1) What is the nature of cooperating teachers' thinking during conferences with student teachers in parent education? 2) What is the relationship between cooperating teachers' thinking and their actions during these conferences? 3) What are the observable and reported responses of student teachers to cooperating teachers' actions during the conference? Participants were recruited from colleges and universities in a Midwestern state that offered licensure programs in parent education. Nine pairs of student teachers and cooperating teachers participated. Recruitment was done without consideration of issues such as gender, age, or race, but cooperating teachers were required to be licensed, to have several years of teaching experience, and to have had at least one experience of being a cooperating teacher. Data collection comprised of several steps: observing the parent education class, videotaping the cooperating teacher-student teacher conference, and audio taping separate interviews with the teachers using the video of their conference as a stimulus for their recall of their thoughts during the conference. Data analysis consisted of transcribing all video and audio tapes, indentifying reported thoughts, and assigning a thought type and focus. Transcripts were then combined in several formats to create working tables for data analysis. Results showed that this particular group of cooperating teachers reported "intending", "evaluating", and "reflecting" as the most common thought types during conferences with their student teachers, and there was notable consistency between cooperating teachers' thoughts and actions. When consistency occurred, it was more likely that the student teachers' actions were then related to the cooperating teachers' actions. Overall, cooperating teacher-student teacher relationships (created in part through conferencing) were positive, and a common pattern of communication that impacted the conference process was revealed. A helix pattern - like a spring with periodic stretches in its coil - described the circular aspect of the teachers' communication as well as the changes of direction within their conversations. Some instances of disagreement or personal discord were evident in three of the teaching pairs, and there were times when the participants shared thoughts or feelings with the researcher but not with the other teacher. Advanced levels of teaching skills were shown throughout the present study, and one of the compelling questions for future research is "Are cooperating teachers in parent education better equipped to be cooperating teachers (compared to teachers in elementary and secondary grades)? Patterns of conferencing were remarkably similar among the pairs of teachers and with little exception, the cooperating teacher guided the conference. Questions or statements preceded by intending and evaluating thought types appeared to promote reflection on the part of the student teachers. Participants' reactions to being involved in the study were extremely positive. A common reaction was to say that the experience was fun and interesting, and that they learned through this process. One of the recommendations from this study is to look at the learning that comes out of participating in a study or in using the methodology for personal learning. Other recommendations include assuring that cooperating teachers are aware of concepts related to this study, such as: thought can inform and direct action; conferencing is a tool for teaching future teachers; and the helix pattern of communication during conferences can guide conferencing. Suggestions for future study include using this methodology with an increased number of participants, conducting longitudinal studies, doing follow-up studies with participants after they have worked in the field for several years, and studying the process of conferencing.
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    The experience of Korean immigrant grandmothers with their grandchildren.
    (2010-06) Kim, Soohong
    The purpose of this study was to explore the following research question: “What is the experience of Korean immigrant grandmothers in their relationships with their adolescent, U.S. born grandchildren?” In the United States, the situation of Korean immigrant grandparents is complicated because they live in two cultures. Immigrant grandparents face struggles not only with their own families, including their grandchildren, but also with the American culture which is considerably different from their Korean traditional culture (Kim, 1997). These foreign-born grandparents tend to be marginalized and have been underrepresented in the research literature (Treas & Mazumdar, 2004). The experience of Korean immigrant grandparents’ relationships with their grandchildren has not been a major focus of the research community, and, thus, their experiences merit further research. The hermeneutic phenomenological method was employed for this study because this study focuses on Korean immigrant grandmothers’ everyday lives and their own perspectives of their world. Hermeneutic phenomenology is associated with interpretation of experience via some texts or via some symbolic forms (Van Manen, 2003). The participants in this study were 14 Korean immigrant grandmothers living in Atlanta, Georgia. All of the grandmothers had lived or currently were living with their children and grandchildren. At the time of this study, all the grandmothers had adolescent grandchildren who had been born in the United States. Phenomenological interivews were used to create textual data. The interview texts were analyzed using procedures specified by van Manen (2003) and Dahlberg, Drew, and Nystrom (2008). In addition, songs and poetry were identified to amplify the grandmothers’ experiences. Six themes were revealed. First, Korean immigrant grandmothers experience profound pain and despair as they lose their connection with their grandchildren. Among the several reasons for this disconnection, the lack of a common lanugage is dominant. Second, the grandmothers experience a longing for social interaction which they do not have with their grandchildren. Third, the grandmothers experience a spatial seperation from their grandchildren—whether or not they are in the same space. Fourth, the grandmothers pine for the past when they had close and caring relationships with their grandchidlren. Fifth, the grandmothers struggle to accept the reality of the changed relationships with their grandchildren. And, sixth, the grandmothers live as Koreans and persist in instilling Korean values and identity in their grandchildren. The results of this study could be the basis for developing an immigrant grandparenting education program which would ultimately enhance the quality of Korean immigrant grandparents’ lives in the United States.
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    The Influence of Parenting Stress and Social Support on Parenting Behavior during a Preventative Parenting Education Program for Enhancing School Readiness
    (2015-08) Clayton, Kate
    The purpose of this study was to examine if parents with increased levels of risk (e.g. increased parenting stress and lower perceived social support) and less developed parenting behaviors prior to the intervention would show more change in key parenting behaviors (e.g. parent knowledge and parent-child language interactions) over the course of the intervention. Forty-seven parent-child dyads participated. Participants were recruited through a larger parent study investigating the overall efficacy of the intervention. All participants were English speaking. The majority of families were living below the poverty line. A quasi-experimental, pretest-posttest within-subjects intervention design was employed to evaluate the extent to which elevated parenting stress levels or low levels of social support moderated either a) increases in parenting knowledge or b) increases in CT for parents who participated in the College Bound Babies parenting education program. Dependent variables included change in frequency of parent-child conversational-turns and change in parenting knowledge. Data were collected using the Language ENvironmental Analysis (LENA) system in the participant's natural home environment and parenting knowledge was measured using the Parenting Knowledge and Practices Questionnaire, a self-report measure. Moderator analyses indicated that elevated levels of parenting stress or lower levels of perceived social support did not moderate change in parent-child language interactions or change in parenting knowledge for participants regardless of baseline levels of parenting knowledge or baseline level of parent-child conversational turns. Directions for future research and implications of non-significant findings are discussed.