Recently, we’ve been talking about how we need better teachers. There’s no doubt that great teacher can help in a student’s learning but here’s what some new studies are also showing: We need better parents.
Every three years, the organization called O.E.C.D. organizes exams as part of the Program for International Student Assessment(评估), or PISA, which tests 15-year-olds on their abilities to deal with real problems. America’s 15-year-olds have not done as well as students in Singapore, Finland and Shanghai in the PISA exams.
To better understand the reasons, the PISA team, starting with four countries in 2006, and then adding 14 more in 2009, went to the parents of 5,000 students. They interviewed them about how they raised their kids and then compared it with the test results for each of those years. Two weeks ago, the PISA team published the main finding of its study.
Fifteen-year-olds whose parents often read books with them during their first year of primary school get much higher scores in PISA 2009 than students whose parents don’t often read with them or not at all. Parents’ concern for their children is strongly connected with better results in PISA.
According to Schleicher, the leader of the team, just asking your children how their school day was and showing great interest in their learning can help a lot. It is something every parent can do, no matter what their education level is.
The study found that getting parents concerned about their children’s learning at home is more powerful than parents attending parent-teacher meetings, volunteering in classrooms, taking part in money-raising, and showing up at back-to-back nights.
To be sure, nothing can replace a good teacher. But let’s stop putting the whole duty on teachers. We also need better parents. Better parents can make teaching more beneficial.
【小题1】What can we learn about the organization O.E.C.D ?| A．It tests teenagers’ learning skills. |
| B．It calls for better teachers. |
| C．It organizes PISA exams every 3 years. |
| D．It compares parents from different countries. |
| A．To understand students better. |
| B．To get along well with parents. |
| C．To help students with bad test results. |
| D．To find out why students have different test results. |
| A．try to search for better teachers |
| B．put the whole duty on teachers |
| C．care about their children’s school life |
| D．ask their children to read more books. |
| A．Better Parents Are Needed | B．Better Teachers Are Appreciated |
| C．A Study by the PISA Team | D．An Interview with Parents. |
