The Comparative Analysis Of Parent-teacher Collaboration In American And Chinese Public Elementary School From The Perspective Of Constructivism

The organized parent-teacher collaboration in Chinese public elementary school started in Provisional Regulations of Primary Schools(draft)published in 1952,which clearly proposes that primary schools should set up a parents' committee.It in the United States dates back to the national mother's congress,which was founded in 1897.It has developed into a parent-teacher association later.After more than 120 years of development,parent-teacher collaboration in the United States formed its own characteristics.This research makes a comparative study on the parent-teacher collaboration between public elementary school in China and public elementary school in the United States from the perspective of constructivism.It focuses on the different points on the parent-teacher collaboration between Chinese public elementary school and American public elementary school,analyses the typical matters in Chinese public elementary school and American public elementary school,puts forward the effective strategies from the perspective of constructivism.This research applies for the literature method,material objects processing,participatory observation,and depth interview method to do case studies in China and the United States,on this basis,synthetically use the case method and the comparative method.It makes comparative analysis on the fundamental state between Chinese public elementary school and American public elementary school.The parent-teacher collaboration in the United States started early,and has developed into a complete system,but it in China started late and is still in the exploratory stage.Through comparative analysis,there are significant differences between Chinese public elementary school and American public elementary school in terms of subjects,frequency,content,ways,and organization of parent-teacher collaboration,which contain five aspects.First,the members of the cooperative subject of Chinese public elementary schools are mainly teachers and parents,whose dominant position is that teachers are in leadership and parents are in cooperation.The members of the cooperative subject of American public elementary schools are parents,teachers and communities,whose dominant position is equality,cooperation and mutual assistance.Second,Chinese public elementary schools have a high frequency of parent-teacher collaboration but lack of formal cooperation opportunities.In the United States,the frequency of parent-school cooperation is moderate but formal and standardized.Third,parent-teacher collaboration in Chinese public elementary school focuses on homework tutoring;while it in America'^public elementary school focuses on academic development.Fourth,parent-teacher collaboration in Chinese public primary school is relatively simple,and stays in the task assigned by the school.American public primary school has various forms and focuses on the comprehensive development of students.Fifth,the primary responsibility of parent-teacher collaboration organizations in Chinese public primary schools is to transmit information to the public,and they have little autonomy.The primary responsibility of parent-teacher collaboration organizations in American public primary schools is to plan and organize,and they have great autonomy.This study from the perspective of constructivism in the three dimensions:the influence of environment on individual,collaborative learning,students and social contact,with the cases of parents' meeting,job counseling,extracurricular activities,explores and analyses the cooperation carrier,cooperation content and cooperation platform of parent-teacher collaboration in Chinese public primary school and American public primary school,and proposed cooperative carrier should fully reveal the important role of cooperation environment;cooperative content should focus on cultivating the collaborative learning based on learning community,cooperative platform should help build diverse environment of "students and social contacts".From the perspective of the value of parent-teacher collaboration,the parents of Chinese and American public primary schools all highly agree on the significance of parent-teacher collaboration,which helps promote the overall development of individual students and helps students actively cooperate to build new knowledge.The parent-teacher collaboration in public primary schools should establish cooperative learning environment and based on the overall development of students to optimize the content of parent-teacher collaboration.