Section Contents:
In this section, the key issues involved in organising parental involvement are considered: establishing objectives, selecting target groups, recruiting parents, organising access to games or activities, controlling experience of various areas of mathematics and setting up a training or 'launch' meeting. (All these aspects also apply to projects with peers, with the added issue of selection and matching of partners.) Further important issues of organisation discussed in this chapter include the monitoring of the ongoing activities, trouble shooting, feedback of evaluation results and keeping the momentum going. All these aspects are important and all affect the success of the outcomes for both parents and children.
The main features of parental involvement in maths are relatively straightforward. There needs to be a basic agreement between teacher, parent and child, and a commitment to playing maths games for a short period of time for several sessions per week over a period of six weeks for maths. Although the basic principles seem beguilingly simple, the organisational infra-structure necessary to support a project needs to be carefully thought through to ensure that the project will be successful. The first project must be a resounding success - for the children, the parents, the neighbourhood grapevine and (not least) for you. Start off small and invest time to ensure success for all.
The most important aspect of any new project is the interest and determination of the head teacher. If the project is to have more than a transitory effect on one group of pupils, it is important that the reasons for embarking on the project are a clear part of the school's development plan. The objectives for the project will then be clearer, and the measures that will be needed for subsequent evaluation consequently easier to determine. By contrast, if you are unsure why you are doing it, you will not be able to determine whether it was a success or not. Objectives might be in the cognitive domain (to do with mathematical or scientific understanding, skill or achievement), the affective domain (to do with changes in attitudes or motivation), or the social domain (to do with more positive interaction and relationships). By consulting about objectives to clarify them, you help ensure others do not have unrealistic expectations quite different from your own, which could not possibly be met.
For some schools, previous success with Paired Reading will have laid a firm foundation for further involvement with parents. Given this, the introduction of involvement in further curriculum areas based on the same principles will be relatively easy to achieve. For other schools the involvement of parents will be the primary objective in itself, and Problem-Solving with BP serves as a vehicle for their involvement rather than necessarily achieving a curriculum objective.
Where there are high numbers of parents whose facility with English makes Paired Reading difficult, maths games which can be discussed in detail at home in the home language offer a way of immediate involvement. Maths is often seen as a high status subject meriting the involvement of a wider range of family members than is the case with literacy activities. This will, however, also raise other organisational issues, including the possible involvement of language support workers in encouraging, training and on-going discussion.
For yet other schools, the main objective will be to raise the expectation of enjoyment and success in mathematics for the children and the parents. Where this is the objective, changes in attitudes will be the major focus. The organisation of the project might include "maths club" badges, especially attractive games and activities, certificates for involvement and a follow-up Maths party. The extra razzmatazz will affect the planning and running of both the project and its evaluation.
The issue of achievement in mathematics might be seen as secondary to promoting parental involvement and positive attitudes, and the project should be measured against its success in these areas. Where the achievement of increased attainment in maths skills is the first objective, clarifying current levels of achievement and ways of determining increased success become more necessary parts of both preparation and evaluation. Ideally all these objectives will be achieved to some measure through involvement in the project. However, determining from the outset what is the most important element will focus the organisation towards a successful outcome.
Before starting the project it might be necessary or desirable to discuss its aims and practical implications with a wide range of interested parties, such as: the Head Teacher, Class Teachers, Mathematics Advisor or Inspector, Educational Psychologist, Support Assistants, Parent Representatives, Governors, or general school Advisors or Inspector. This period of consultation ensures that everyone is aware of what is being proposed, and has the opportunity to be involved - with the collection and preparation of the games and activities, with the day-to-day encouragement of those more closely involved, or at a more strategic level.
It will certainly be necessary to determine who has the prime responsibility for running the project: the Head, the Maths co-ordinator, the class teacher, the Special Needs co-ordinator? Where does the buck stop? It will also be necessary to decide who else will be supportive in a general sense and be able to give practical support either in preparation or throughout the project.
During this initial consultation period the information about possible funding for the games or activities and equipment will need to be gathered, and means of evaluating the effects of the project will need to be decided. A small working group might prove supportive in considering all the issues. The Paired Maths Handbook (Topping and Bamford 1998a) provides an organisational checklist of the issues that will need to be considered, with space for decisions to be inserted as they are made (this will also be found in the Reproducibles section of this manual, item 1). The completed checklist can then be copied to all interested and involved parties.
The pupils who are to be the focus of the project need to be carefully chosen. The objectives of the project will be the most important element in determining which pupils they might be. Where the object is to engage parents immediately on entry to the school system, the choice of pupils and parents is easy - some schools have chosen to involve their reception class children in their first few weeks in school. The expectations of the parents about their involvement in maths at home are thus first raised at pre-school visits and the project used with all the new entrants.
For other schools where parental involvement in the curriculum has become part of a rolling programme, Problem-Solving with BP may be introduced at the start of the second term and then followed with Paired Reading in the ensuing year and/or Paired Science or Cued Spelling in the year after - or any other combination or order. Where the emphasis is on Special Needs, smaller groups of pupils may be chosen to join the Maths Project in the Junior school, or the Maths Club in the High school. However, care to avoid any stigmatisation of the project among the peer group as "just for slow ones" is required.
When the object is to improve achievement in maths, it is tempting for a first project to choose those pupils who would seem to need most help with the subject or who may benefit most. However, 'nothing succeeds like success', and long term experience suggests that once a project has proved to be successful, it will generate more enthusiasm amongst those involved and suggest to more hesitant parents that it can be of benefit to their children. For the first project, therefore, it is important to include a good proportion of children whose parents are likely to co-operate fully - and who will be able to communicate their enthusiasm to other parents for the next time. However, take care you invite sufficiently widely, since your parent ambassadors do need credibility with the parents you most need to reach.
The number of parents likely to take up the offer of involvement in the project is a further issue to consider. You can be overwhelmed, and then be so stretched that the project cannot be run properly. If this proves to be a danger, you have to be tough minded and prepared to say "no" to people - while of course offering them involvement in the next project after the current one. A waiting list cultivates the desirability of involvement. On the other hand, if you are sure initial take-up will be light, you could offer the project more widely. One Junior school decided to offer the project to the parents of all Year Three pupils - 128 in all. Eventually 35 took part.
How many maths games you have available for the first Problem-Solving with BP project is critical - this will be the major determinant of how many active participants you can support at one time. Other projects can always be arranged later. Another school offered the project to all the parents of the new Reception class. The parents of eleven out of the fifteen children accepted. Concerns about how to support those children whose parents choose not to become involved is another issue which needs considering before the project begins - although a satisfactory resolution is often hard to find.
A successful project draws attention to itself - modesty does not pay. Media and public relations and marketing are worth the time invested, and can help enormously with recruitment for subsequent projects as well as the first. This often also leads to possibilities for gathering more resources at a time when these may still need to be developed.
The major organisational issues are relevant to all contexts, but the time for staff to be involved in the exchange of games or activity sheets, and the number and variety of games and activities available, will vary depending on the number of pupils and/or parents involved.
The division of the games and activities into categories allows a choice from a different area each week, and indeed that is mandatory in the initial intensive period of operation the six or seven week "trial" period. The pair are given a good deal of freedom in choice of activity within an area, but pairs must take any activity from a different area each week. The experience of most schools is that a six or seven week project fits readily into half a term, so that there is no difficulty with the holiday breaks.
In order to run a Problem-Solving with BP project for six weeks for ten pupils, the minimum number of games needed is 25. This number will allow some flexibility at the weekly games exchange and will introduce at least three or four different games to choose from each week - provided you are one of the first to choose! The more pupils are involved, the more games will be needed in order to ensure sufficient flexibility of choice.
It is helpful to have considered ways of keeping games or activities together according to the conceptual area. Coloured stickers which correspond with the conceptual area under which each game or activity is grouped are useful means of identification.
Each of the maths games will need to be labelled and placed in a plastic bag for carrying between home and school, to keep all the pieces together and as clean as possible. Both the game and the bag need to be colour-coded to correspond with the box which contains the choice of games for the specific mathematical concept for the week. Each of the stickers can then be numbered. For example:
Ludo (Concept - Counting = Red) red sticker on box (there may be two Ludo games) red sticker numbered 1 + red sticker numbered 2
Scaredy Cat (Concept - Counting = Red) red sticker numbered 3, - and so on.
The colour and number coding helps with ease of exchange, and also to identification of whether any game is missing.
Each pupil has only one choice from each box (conceptual area) during the initial project period. The choice of game or activity needs to be recorded on the games loan or activity record chart (see Reproducibles in The Paired Maths Handbook, Topping and Bamford 1998a, and this manual).
Each participating child's name is listed on the chart, which is kept posted in school. The basis of the exchange is similar to a library system. Each maths game has given a colour code and number. As a game is chosen, it is recorded on the loan sheet under the category (colour) heading by its number. In Problem-Solving with BP with younger children, when the game is chosen an accompanying diary/language record card (also colour coded) goes home with the game. This is then returned with the game at the end of the week, the returned game is crossed out on the record sheet, and a new game chosen from a different category (colour).
For example (after two weeks):
The Problem-Solving with BP diary/language card record card monitors the time spent on the games at home and suggests appropriate language, while the overall loan chart displays where the child has sampled and where still awaits a visit, as well as providing an easy tracking mechanism for the individual games and activities.
Once the project starts, most parents are happy to do the checking in and out themselves. However there will need to be someone available at "game exchange times" to discuss choices, oversee returns, answer questions and listen to experiences. When the game or activity chosen has proved impossible to live with for a week, some facility for "emergency" early exchange is helpful.
Once the objectives are clear, the preparations complete and the pupils chosen, letters need to be sent out to invite the parents to come and hear about the project. With older pupils, they might create the invitations themselves. There will need to be one meeting for all the parents at the start of the project and one at the end. There are a number of issues to consider: the psychological setting, the explanation of the rationale for the project and the information that needs to be passed on.
It is best if the setting for the meeting can be informal. The experience of successful schools suggests that arranging the room so that parents can come and sit around tables with a number of games or activities ready to be used works well. Then encourage them to try out the games with each other before the explanations begin. The provision of tea or coffee at the outset helps ease this interaction. Some parents quickly get carried away - occasional enquiries about whether they can bet on the final result have been known!
The first meeting gives the parents chance to play the games or explore the activities and ask questions. Unlike Paired Reading (where children attend the launch/training meeting throughout), in Problem-Solving with BP the parents usually feel more comfortable and are more likely to be able to ask about issues of which they are uncertain if initially unaccompanied by their children.
The timing of the meeting is therefore an important issue. During the day working parents may be unable to come and those with pre-school children may need a creche, whereas after school parents may have difficulties with baby sitters. There will need to be some way of ensuring that the information can be given to everyone, irrespective of the different patterns of their lives and needs.
After the first fifteen minutes or so of playing the games or exploring the activities, it is necessary to talk to the whole group about the rationale of the project. The concepts underlying the games and activities are on two levels. The first is at the level of enjoyment - it is necessary to demonstrate that a mathematical or scientific activity can be both enjoyable and achievable. The second at the level of validity - the underlying mathematical or scientific concepts need to be clear from the activity and the importance of the language made explicit. Both these underlying concepts needed to be fully explained to the parents, and related to their own experience.
An important part of the initial meeting with the parents is the opportunity to discuss the universal acceptance of the notion that "maths is hard". Expect to encounter some striking gender stereotyping during the conversations, and be prepared to deal with it gently but firmly. Not many people say they like maths, and parents can easily pass a negative or defeatist attitude on to their children. However, adults often feel they are "no good at maths" because they do not like formal "sums" - not appreciating that the wide range of different types of mathematical (and indeed scientific) activity they use in their everyday lives, in which they may in fact be perfectly competent. Parents are actually good at maths, and use maths in decorating, driving a car, baking, dressmaking, sharing things out equally, paying for purchases and budgeting, estimating journey times, and so on. Parents know more than they think! The opportunities to discuss these examples with the children can be explored.
Research into the differences between the mathematical achievements of children in Canada and children in Hong Kong has highlighted the difference in expectation of high achievement of the children's parents (Kwok and Lytton, 1996). The launch meeting gives the opportunity to stress the importance of enjoyment and the expectation of success.
Of equal importance is the use of the games and activities as a vehicle for the exploration and understanding of the specific mathematical use of language. The discussion can help the parents to see that although the children may have grasped the everyday use of certain words, the slight change in the use of this language in a mathematical context is very important. Most children know what 'more' means when it is a question at tea time and they are being asked if they would like more chips. When the question at school is" tell me the number that is one more than three", it is not nearly as easy to understand. Maths games also have the advantage that they do not seem like "homework" - the maths content might not be immediately visible on the surface - so children are less likely to invest energy avoiding them. The importance of the chance element in games and its equalising effect (enabling everyone to lose and reducing any danger of parents from becoming more like school teachers) can also be emphasised.
This is an ideal point at which to bring the children in to the meeting. The main points can then be recapitulated and summarised (as if just for the children's benefit). Specific points at this stage in the meeting are:
After these points have been raised, a discussion of the games or activities is necessary. A practical demonstration of at least one of the games or activities with a clarification of the mathematical or scientific concepts and language involved is always helpful. Two members of staff might feel able to demonstrate through role play, one pretending to be the child (this always goes down well - especially with the children in the audience). During the first fifteen minutes while the parents are playing the games and exploring the activities, the members of staff will have been able to talk with the parents individually and any questions or issues raised at that time can be included in the general discussion.
It is necessary to clarify what the commitments are for both the school staff and for parents. These are:
for the parents
for the school staff
The families need to be told where the games/activities will be kept, what days and times are scheduled for game/activity exchange, who the key people are in school to ask for help and advice, and how to record which games/activities have been borrowed.
It is important that the parents themselves come into school to change the games/activities, to ensure access to on-going support and encouragement, but some special arrangements may need to be made where this is not possible.
It needs to be stressed to the parents that twenty minutes should be a maximum in order to avoid over-exposure to the games and resulting boredom. They may need to think of ways of shortening potentially long sessions, e.g. stop when the first person gets to .... The record cards give space to say how long the games have been played for. It is helpful to check when the games/activities are returned and to talk to parents who may be being over-enthusiastic (or children who are wearing out their parents).
It is also necessary to point out that, on occasion, the children may become bored with a particular game or activity before the week is over. In this case, either a different game or activity can be devised from the one that is available, or a different game/activity used which may already be available at home, or an early exchange with school could be arranged. It is unlikely to happen but it is necessary to know what to do if it does. Parents may also need advice about playing games and carrying out activities at different levels, progressing to use games/activities in new and various ways, using other games/activities at home, and relating the mathematical and scientific language in the games to mathematical and scientific language used in "real life" applications.
Telling the parents what to do when the dog chews up a vital piece or the baby leaves interesting stains on the game is very important. The parents need to know that the most important point is to let the school know about damaged or missing pieces, so that they can be replaced. The 'no blame' policy needs to be made clear to ensure that taking part is the most important thing - some wear and tear is inevitable. Ways of fund-raising or a working group to oversee mending or replacing are both options to support maintenance and/or restocking.
The mathematical and scientific words provided on the record cards and emboldened on the activity sheets need to be used, and the time spent is an opportunity for parents to use this language with their children to ensure that they are clear about the meaning. It is therefore usually necessary for the parents themselves to play the games with their children rather than leaving it to a sibling (although it varies with different siblings). If the other members of the family want to play, it may be worth finding a different time and a different game or activity that can include everyone. However, experience suggests that part of the value of Problem-Solving with BP for the participating target child is that it legitimises obtaining some positive individual attention from one or other parent, so siblings pushing their noses in might not necessarily be welcome - it depends on the specific culture and sociology of the family in question.
Toward the end of the meeting, ask if there are any remaining questions. Once these have been dealt with (but not before), add that any other questions people think of can be discussed individually at the end of the meeting (some parents will be very reluctant to ask their question in a large group setting).
At the end of the meeting, a leaflet should be given to the family which reminds them of the main points that have been discussed (see Reproducibles section in the Paired Maths Handbook, Topping and Bamford 1998a, and this manual). These parent leaflets can also serve as part of the "script" for a slightly nervous teacher conducting their first launch meeting. Do not however give out the leaflets early in the meeting, as reading will interfere with listening.
When all the practical details have been discussed, the parents can be asked to choose a game or activity to take home for the first week. At the end of the meeting, the parents should have:
Sometimes a badge for the participant children taking part is made available. (Sometimes parents want one as well!) This helps promote group bonding and mutual excitation and support, and also makes the badge wearers a walking advertisement for future projects.
Before the parents leave, the system of recording should be used to record their choice of game or activity.
This serves a number of functions:
For the exchange of feedback, the meeting should be more open and relaxed, without the children. Sitting in a circle with tea or coffee provided helps the discussion to be more informal. Getting some sort of feedback or evaluation from the children beforehand (either on tape or through questionnaires) is a way of giving the parents the children's views and prompting a discussion of the parents' and teachers' viewpoints. Try to bring in the quieter parents and avoid domination of the meeting by the vocal - be they parents or teachers! The leader of the discussion will need to have a number of possible points or questions already in mind so that all the issues are covered, e.g. ease of taking part, appropriateness of the games or activities, particular favourites (this usually elicits some funny stories), good things to celebrate, problems to address for next time, and so on.
The parents' comments on maths diary record cards will already have given valuable information, a distillation of which will be appropriate to share with the parents at the meeting. The feedback session will also provide the opportunity for exchanging a great deal of information about the positive effects and about any problems that were encountered. As soon as the parents arrive they could be asked to complete a parent evaluation sheet (see Reproducibles in The Paired Maths Handbook, Topping and Bamford 1998a, and this manual), which will help them to focus on some of the questions under consideration and which will provide further formal results for future planning. See section 7 of this manual for more detailed discussion of evaluation.
Many parents and children may well wish the project to continue in some form, albeit less intensively. Each family or set of partners should feel able to make whatever choice seems right for them - and of course reserve the right to change their mind. If they wish to continue after the trial period, they have complete free choice across all areas, and can pursue their own current enthusiasms. Of course this means that in any week, most pairs will be doing a different activity from other pairs. Thus any formal discussion and review in class is even less feasible, although as children informally discuss their experiences and begin to recommend activities to each other, some interchange does spontaneously occur.
The meeting needs to be a celebration of all the commitment and continuing involvement that has been shown. Certificates for the children or rosettes for their badges can be a part of the celebration. For the parents a pocket book of ideas for further maths games could be given as a "thank you" offering and stimulus to continue.
For some schools the whole meeting becomes a celebration of maths, with further activities available for the parents to see and to try, some school curriculum related, others home oriented. For other schools, especially where the parents have home languages that are not English, the next potential project group of parents is invited to come and hear the experiences of the parents who have been involved, so that they can talk together about what it was like. This capitalises on the modelling effect and marketing power of enthusiastic participant parents, whose influence in reassuring and encouraging potential recruits is enormous.
The follow-up meeting also provides the opportunity to discuss with parents other proposals from the school or to ask the parents for suggestions, e.g. having a games or activities library in school, forming a parent (and teacher) group to make more games or activities, or raising money to fund further projects. Ideas may be put forward that will lead to further involvement. Once parents have had their own self esteem boosted, know they are valued by the school and see specifically how they can help, they can be a very powerful force for their children's learning.
Particularly in schools with no tradition or history of parental involvement, the first project might meet with only a limited or rather lukewarm response. Don't worry. This is not unusual in communities where families have learnt to see the school as an institution and teachers as authority figures who blame parents rather than helping them. Families do not automatically trust schools - that trust has to be earned. Once your first project has been successful (as it must be), the word will begin to spread through the community. More parents will become interested, and an increasing proportion of them will be parents you had considered difficult or hard to reach. As you persist, continuing to organise well and avoiding over- reaching yourself and compromising the quality of implementation, eventually a critical mass of interest will develop, and the project will take on a life and energy of its own. After that, your main problem might be keeping it from growing so large it is completely out of control!