We all live in an area where online education has flourished equally as offline learning. Due to the introduction of e-learning, the interaction between students and their peers has witnessed a slight decrease. The parents and teachers need to interact to ensure better connectivity between students. This interaction should ideally start from the beginning of a student’s academic journey. Communication between both sides is vital for the overall development of a student in all fields. To mold a student’s future, it is vital to understand the power of a parent-teacher relationship!
Why is parent-teacher interaction important?
The interaction between parents and teachers is considered vital for the overall development of a child in all spheres. Some of the key reasons why parent-teacher interaction is important are:
- Positive impact on academics: It is important to understand that each student has different academic requirements. Some students require lesser scholarly attention and prefer working alone, while others might need extra time to understand the concepts. Certain students find it difficult to convey their issues to the teacher. In such cases, parent-teacher interaction becomes highly crucial. Parents can explain the academic situation to the mentor in a better manner. This helps the teacher identify the weak points and helps the student cope with academic stress.
- Get to know the child even better: Some students behave differently in different environments. While they may be extroverts in home-like situations, they might also be very calm in classrooms and school. To make both the parents and teachers understand the nature of the child in environments other than what they already know, their interactions become very important. Once both the parents and teachers know about the student’s behavior and nature in various surroundings, it becomes easier for the teacher to bring out the best in the child. The student also gradually becomes comfortable with performing better.
- Improvement in the teaching process: Once the teacher comes to know about the strengths and weaknesses of the child, it becomes easier for them to create better learning options for the student. There are several strategies to teach the concepts, and the child doesn't need to understand the general concepts. Depending on each student’s thinking ability, the teacher may need to personalize the teaching process. This personalization in the teaching process is only possible once the teacher knows about the issues the child is facing. The sooner the parent-teacher interaction in such cases, the better the learning outcomes.
- Better communication with the child: As discussed earlier, students are known to behave differently at home and school. This variance in personality may be due to differences in the comfort level that a student experiences when at home or school. To make the child more confident and comfortable, both the parents and teachers must communicate and understand the child better. Once both sides know about the behavior, personality, strengths, and weaknesses, the student also starts finding it very comfortable to convey their ideas to the teacher. This results in better communication between the student and the mentor too.
- Support in overall development: A child’s learning process begins as soon as they are born. A child learns different basic functions in everyday life, including fundamental chores of the day. The overall development of a student includes both physiological and psychological aspects with a focus on communication skills, emotional intelligence, moral values, and social skills. Great communication between the teacher and the parents helps the child absorb better skills and appear to be more confident throughout.
- Understanding expectations: Both the parents and the teacher have expectations from the students regarding academic and co-curricular performance. Scheduled meetings between both can help understand the expectations better. This can also help the teacher create better learning plans for the students and help them to cope with the workload.
- Developing an open communication system: An honest communication system is the basis of a great parent-teacher relationship. It is crucial to put forward all the expectations, problems, and ideas before the mentor. Similarly, the teacher should also convey everything to the parents without hesitation. This is required for the overall development of the student.
How do ensure great parent-teacher interaction?
As most of the time a child spends is either at school or home, the parents and teachers need to discuss regularly the child’s performance. Here are a few ways to ensure great parent-teacher interaction:
- Timely interaction: The sooner the interaction, the better the outcomes! As soon as a child's learning journey begins, the communication between the mentors and the parents becomes equally vital. Interactions at regular intervals can help both sides understand the student's situation and pay attention accordingly.
- A two-way communication: Establishing an honest and open communication system between the parents and the teacher is critical. Regular feedback and updates from the ends can help erase the communication gap between both sides. This assists in an excellent understanding of the picture and helps the teacher implement personalised learning plans.
- Schedule the meets: In today’s world, everyone has a busy lifestyle in today's world. It is quite understandable that both the parents and teachers might find it difficult to have common free slots for interactions. Hence, planning the meets helps in easy conversations.
Conclusion
A great parent-teacher interaction should have clear communication paths right from the beginning of a student’s journey. As online education is becoming more focused nowadays, the cooperation between parents and mentors has become more crucial. A strong interaction is the basis of exceptional academic performance and the amazing overall development of the student!
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