The parent-teacher interaction has been identified as a critical component in the development of children. Teachers' capacity to educate children is influenced by the level of trust parents have in them. Creating a supportive environment at home and cooperating with the school are essential components of a positive educational experience for all parties involved. Prior research, however, found little parental involvement particularly in establishing a quality relationship with the schools in Indonesian kindergartens. This research aimed to examine Indonesian parents’ degrees of trust and communication toward the teachers in 8 kindergartens in Dairi regency, North Sumatra. In constructing the questionnaire, 9 early childhood education practitioners were invited to make content suggestions before conducting a validity test and reliability through factor analysis. The validity is guaranteed by the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure result of .872 and Barlett's Test (Chi-Square = 3451.561, df = 406, p 0.05). The reliability was measured using Cronbach's Alpha obtaining an alpha coefficient of .870, indicating good reliability. The findings from the 203 questionnaires consisting of 29 items that were distributed indicate parents’ favorable attitudes toward teachers. Besides, the parent’s background does not reflect their attitudes and practices. Suggestions, including delivering the concept of partnership to the parents and increasing the opportunities of participating in school activities, are provided to promote greater quality of the parent-teacher relationship.
Contrary to the elementary school and high school, the curriculum of the kindergarten is more flexible and dynamic. In recent years, the integrated curriculum approach and the thematic curriculum approach based on constructivism have being gaining more attention in Taiwan. The thematic curriculum emphasizes that the inter-disciplined and student-centered learning activities is designed based on children's interests, not solely determined by the teachers. Therefore, teachers have to monitor the curriculum development and children's learning status simultaneously. Under these conditions, a system of curriculum analysis is a necessary aid to those teachers. The purposes of this study are: First, design and implement a thematic curriculum analysis system for early childhood education, which provides feedback for curriculum supervisor. Second, evaluate the impacts of this system on the teachers abilities in curriculum design. According to needs assessment of 15 kindergarten teachers and curriculum supervisors, the researchers constructed the curriculum analysis system which provides goals, concept, initiator, activity style, time, skill, attitude, content, and teachers reflective thinking as the analysis units. The system evaluated by the 15 teachers and curriculum supervisor. The reports showed the system improved the quality of thematic curriculum in kindergartens.
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