Research On The Current Status Of Parent-teacher Interaction From The Perspective Of Kindergarten-primary School Transitio

Children’s early childhood transition requires communication and coordination between the home and school,realizing the articulation and expansion of education in space and time.How to build a complete two-way parent-teacher interaction system has become an important issue.When both parents and teachers work together towards equality,harmony and efficiency,children who are the direct beneficiaries,will be able to receive more attention,understanding and development at home and school.Based on this,this study uses the literature research method、interview method、questionnaire method and physical analysis method to investigate the current situation of parent-teacher interactions in three primary schools in Shanghai from both parent and teacher perspectives.The study is conducted to find out the actual importance of parent-teacher interactions from kindergarten to elementary school,the content,frequency and duration of interactions,the context and channels,the roles of both parents and teachers,the effectiveness of the interactions,and the emotional attitudes during the interactions.It also explores the similarities and differences between parent-teacher interactions in Kindergarten and Grade 1.On the cognitive side,the study finds that both parents and teachers highly agree on the need for parent-teacher interaction from kindergarten to elementary school,and kindergarten valuing it more than first grade.However,the willingness to interact is much higher among kindergarten teachers than first grade teachers,while it is opposite to parents.Both parents and teachers want to interact in an equal and cooperative relationship.In addition,Teachers and parents have the first aim of interaction as ’helping children to develop their learning habits,interests and abilities’.As children enter Year 1,the proportion of interactions between parents and teachers that are aimed at ’helping children to develop their habits and abilities’ decreases and they focus more on ’addressing the child’s social and behavioral issues’.In terms of specific interaction behaviour,the content of interactions has changed from a single knowledge connection to focusing on the child’s overall development.Teachers initiate interactions more frequently than parents and the length of interactions is within 15 minutes.The length of interaction is more often in the kindergarten than in Grade 1.The context for in-school parent-teacher interactions is largely group activities,and the context for out-of-school interactions is mainly meeting online.There are significantly more online than offline interactions,and the frequency of face-to-face interactions is higher in kindergarten than in Grade 1.What’s more,in the actual interaction,the teacher authority may occur.Parent-teacher satisfaction with the interaction needs to be improved,with Grade 1 being slightly lower than Kindergarten classes.In terms of emotional attitudes,both parents and teachers are generally respectful and trusting,but the sense of support needs to be improved,while the sense of respect,trust and support is higher in the kindergarten than in the Grade 1.The majority of teachers and parents are patient in the face of interactive disagreements,and teachers are more aware and implemented than parents.Parents’ mood changes at the end of the interaction are better than those of the teachers and the mood-pleasure index of the interaction is also lower in Grade 1 than in the kindergarten class.In addition,objective background factors of parents and teachers can also have an impact on various aspects of parent-teacher interactions.Parents’ gender,age,family income level and education differ to varying degrees in terms of cognitive level,behavioural and affective attitudes to the interaction.Young parents,highly educated parents and low-income parents place more importance on their children’s learning.Teachers’ age and years of teaching also affect the cognitive,behavioural,emotional aspects of their interactions,and novice teachers interact for more diverse purposes than veteran teachers.Through analysis of the current situation,parent-teacher interaction from kindergarten to elementary school exist the following problems:Parent lack interactive initiative and insufficient knowledge of child articulation;Teacher lack interactive skills and not doing a solid job of bridging the gap for children;Parents are not effectively linked to kindergartens and primary schools.In response to these problems,taking into account the available literature and the recommendations of the research respondents,this study proposes the following responses from parents and teachers respectively:Being aware of your responsibilities as a parent and increase parent-teacher interaction time;Proactive interaction with teachers,more sharing,more understanding and more support;Understanding the goals and directions of child’s articulation and focusing on all-round growth;Developing the right concept of interaction and listening to different voices;Enhancing professional interaction capabilities and improving the interactive experience;Enhancing interaction channels and expanding the depth of interaction.