Abstract:

The school places a strong emphasis on ensuring children's wellbeing: helping all children to acquire new skills and expand their opportunities for self-realization, reveal their talents and creativity. In order for a child's education to be successful, the cooperation of parents and pedagogues is very important. One of the most important forms of family and school cooperation is the parent-teacher meetings, which have many functional benefits both for the activities of teachers and for the organization of the educational process, and for the children themselves and their parents: they have a positive impact on educational attainment, children's mental health and social relationships, help teachers to deal more effectively with emerging educational problems, provide information to parents and enable them to act and design the educational process that best addresses their needs and those of their children.

The aim of the research is to identify the situation of parents' meetings at school and the possibilities for improvement from the perspective of parents and teachers.

The methodology was as follows: in order to theoretically justify the relevance for improvement of parents’ meetings in school, scientific, pedagogical, psychological, methodological literature was analyzed. To reveal the situation of parents’ meetings and the possibilities for effective cooperation, a qualitative research strategy was chosen, using a method of structured written interviews with teachers and parents. A qualitative content analysis of the research data was applied. The study sample consisted of 5 teachers and 16 parents with children attending school. Non-probability convenience sampling was applied.

The results of empirical survey revealed that parents were not satisfied with the content and organization of the meetings. Parents find that meetings are too formal, with no regard for their needs. The agenda is not followed at parents’ meetings, general information is provided, or non-essential matters are dealt. The respondents wish to receive more information of an educational nature on the education of children, on planned and organized seminars and training. Teachers surveyed said that they prepare for meetings in advance, are interested in more communication with the parents, and are interested in maintaining close ties, but they lack greater parental involvement. The purpose of the meetings is not only to provide parents with general information but also to discuss various issues concerning the education of children. Comparison of the works of other researchers with the findings showed that the situation in the organization of parents’ meetings had not changed for many years and could be improved both in terms of content and organization. Based on the results of the empirical research, the strategies for improving the effectiveness of parent-teacher meetings are distinguished.

Keywords:

Parents’ meetings, form of cooperation, school, strategies for the effectiveness of parent-teacher meetings.