Teacher – parent partnership in the light of ensuring better pupils’ learning achievements

Dr. Jana Kalin

Summary:  In this paper, we try to determine to what extent co-operation between teachers and parents, as well as the involvement of parents in their child’s school work both at home and at school, contributes to better learning achievements of that child. Furthermore, it is important to determine how the involvement of parents and co-operation between teachers and parents should be carried out to ensure optimal results. In the first part of this paper, we present conclusions of studies of this question performed abroad, while in the second part we will interpret some of the findings of the study we carried out on a representative sample of primary school teachers and parents of primary school children. We wanted to determine the importance of various reasons for co-operation between teachers and parents from the point of view of both teachers and parents, in relation to the child’s learning achievements, his or her wellbeing among school mates, and the teacher-pupil relationship, as well as to determine what attitudes teachers and parents have in relation to the burden parents feel due to their child’s school obligations, and to what extent parents can help their child prepare for school, in the teachers’ and parents’ opinions. This paper opens new questions on the possibilities and the strength of co-operation between teachers and parents and on the necessary mechanisms for the parents to be adequately involved, which bring concrete results in the area of child’s learning achievement.