Seminar Proposal

Seminar Proposal

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Seminar Proposal

Introduction

            Across the world, employee development and training is largely guided by the conventional seminar model. One of the major qualities that appeals to most managers concerning this approach is that it facilitates the development of employee capabilities. The basic seminar model is designed in a way that allows the participants to attend a seminar for a specific duration with the intention of studying a preplanned set of topics. Within the seminar, the main topic being covered with the participants is parental involvement in school affairs. In particular, the topic will cover the complications that arise from parental involvement and the effect on student achievement. The successive sections of the essay seek to cover the way in which the seminar will be conducted, offering rationale for all the choices made in the process.

Rationale and Justification

The investigation behind the origin and implications of parent involvement in education issues is grounded on the confusion that emerged between teachers and educators. While many teachers complain of parent’s limited concern in their children’s welfare while at school, an equal number of educators are bent on dissuading parents from interfering with school policy, practices, and traditions (Carvalho, 2009). The seminar simply indicates the urgent need to train teachers on the best way to handle parent involvement in school affairs particularly those concerning their children. In the past, the relationship between teachers and students has been characterized by animosity and a divergence of goals and objectives (Robinson, & Harris, 2014). This discord has ensured that teachers cannot exploit the willing participation of parents to their favor in realizing some of the industrial objectives including realizing a wholesome learning experience and reducing cases of distracters at home and in school. Most education administrative bodies hold a wrongful assumption that teachers are naturally equipped to handle a partnership with parents. Although the concept of parental involvement has been used within the education circles for over a decade, a greater section of the literature on the said topic has been addressing parents that are yet to be “involved” or those who are involved but in the wrong way. Such parental involvement programsareusually developed aroundthe theory that there is a single best,normal course for child development. The various types of parental involvement range from the minimal contribution to the total involvement characterized by parents attempting to expose their children to the harsh conditions in the labor sector. Several authors also propose that parental involvement should not be restricted to activities that occur within the school context (Desforges, & Abouchaar, 2003). They suggest the inclusion of other activities and behaviors such as restricting TV and video game time, reducing playtime, and setting ground rules (Hornby, 2011).

After the conclusion of the seminar, the following expectations of the exercise will be expected. One, the seminar is expected to enlighten the majority of the teachers on the need to consider the role played by external factors in determining a child’s success in academic matters. The seminar is expected to pass the message that parental involvement can no longer be neglected as a minor factor. Parents spend a significant amount of time with their children and therefore, this avenue should be investigated with the importance it deserves (Desforges, & Abouchaar, 2003). The seminar is expected to make a revolutionary change in the approach towards teaching students. This change will come in the form of new perspectives into parental involvement with the intention of discovering the beneficial aspects of the practice. The teaching practice has long depended on a rigid set of principles developed several decades in the past (Jeynes, 2011). During this period, several changes have occurred within the teaching profession as well as within the family unit. The seminar will act as an opportunity for teachers to update their understanding and information on their industry. The main areas that will be discussed in detail include the mounting role of the parent in the learning process, the new partnership between parents and teachers, and the challenges that come with this new arrangement.

Target Audience/ Participants

            In this case, the instructors are the primary target audience in the seminar. Most of the state departments concerned with education have the primary goal of ensuring that all the teachers have achieved a certain level of efficiency in addiction to effectiveness. Most of the teacher training seminars in the current context are guided by this mission. Therefore, this particular seminar will be conducted to enhance and develop the skills of each professional in school. The whole industry is fully aware that almost all activities and functions are hinged on the teachers’ capability to administer learning to all the students. Training sessions and seminars on parental involvement, new approaches, and techniques in psychology, orientations on the student curriculums, and other similar activities are being conducted in different regions of the nation with the intention of transforming all the instructors to grasp global standards. Their presence in the seminar will assist in forming a successful learning setting, enhance teaching-learning contexts, keep instructors informed on contemporary instructional instruments, and motivate them to become excellent teachers in the present industry. In most public institutions, the seminars are normally already sponsored and this is intended to motivate the teachers to attend. However, apart from the teachers who handle the students directly, the seminar also targets other education stakeholders. School headmasters and other equivalent school administrators are also targeted in the seminar. This is because they are key managers that sit at the helm of the decision-making hierarchy. Instructing teachers on the proper way to deal with cases of parental involvement without involving the school administrators is futile. Administrators possess the necessary authority, mandate, and financial capability to support or oppose any efforts to adopt contemporary learning practices such as parental involvement. Another group of participants that will grace the seminar includes education stakeholders at the national government level. Given the sweeping education policy reforms that have occurred in the last decade, it is necessary for this group of stakeholders to comprehend the translation of their amendments at the grassroots level. The last group of participants in the seminar will include teachers who were on suspension or extended leave.

Planned Content

The seminar will have a variety of content that will suit the general description of any teacher in any environment. A major aspect of the seminar will be the examination of the existing policies concerning parent involvement in American schools. An intense review session of these policies will be done in the first hour. One of the popular policies to be discussed includes the No Child Left behind Act that has generated much controversy concerning its implementation. The purpose of this session is to review the different provisions that are captured in the laws governing parent participation in their children’s academic progress. The next session will involve examining the major studies concerned with the involvement of parents in their children’s studies (Jeynes, 2011). The last session in the seminar will involve making pertinent and feasible recommendations on the amendments in parent involvement initiatives. At this stage, the participants are urged to deliberate the compliance of their proposals with the education sector requirements. The seminar staffwill provide several synchronized sessionsthat will offer themost recenteducation policy requirementsand legislativereforms inparental involvement. The organizing staff will also invite experts in parental involvement from across the statetogive presentations illustrating evidence-based studies,practices, and approachesthat willculminate in increased parental involvement, in addition to improved performance for all students. Given the diversity of the participants in the seminar, all the presentations and speeches will be donein several languages. The outlay of the seminar will be an open one that is subdivided into different major stands. While the major issues are being discussed in the main arena, these stands will contain practitioners working in different areas of the education sector. The idea is to furnish the participants of the seminar with as much updated information on parent involvement as possible. Brochures and handouts on the ideas discussed at the seminar will be available.

Planned Method of Delivery

Given the diversity of topics and the participants involved, several methods of delivery will be used. However, all approaches are complimentary in nature and serve to reinforce the main topic that is parent involvement in children’s’ learning process. The two main methods that will be used are digital and verbal methods. All the people giving presentations will be expected to enroll for the public open enrollment courses in identified locations. The course will also be offered a week before the actual seminar at the venue. This course is to prepare the speakers mentally and physically for the task ahead of them. Speakers can have the opportunity to practice new speech styles and organize their material for the final event. The last option for delivering the seminar is by following the online broadcasts and sessions. A selected panel of practitioners who will not be able to attend the seminar physically will be at hand to offer advice and speeches using video conferencing facilities. The face-to-face presentations will be preceded by a short training course for the purposes of organization and smooth flow of the seminar. During the course, all the speakers will be instructed on the way in which they can standardize their materials into PowerPoint format for the purposes of record keeping, time management, and distribution in the future. During this course, the materials will also be translated into Spanish, English, and French for easier delivery to an assorted group of listeners. Further customizations for the purposes of private clients will also be done. All presenters will be awarded a maximum of twelve minutes on the podium to improve the effectiveness of each presentation and allow enough time for face-to-face as well as private consultation session with the audience. The whole seminar will take two days. The reason for this duration is to allow enough time for all the presentations from guest speakers who include federal, state, and international experts on education affairs.

Rationale for Selected Method

            The rationale for the selected method is as follows. One, the implementation of information technology n the learning process has been around for over two decades. Consequently, most, if not all, of the participants in the seminar have a basic knowledge of computers and their associated applications. In fact, most of the practitioners are already accustomed to the practice of using digital material in their presentations. The seminar facilities were also fitted with LCD screens and digitals projectors and this indicated an inclination towards digital formats of delivery. The organizing staff also conceded to the preference since one of the objectives of the seminar was to expose the participants to contemporary methods of teaching. The decision to use PowerPoint slides and Microsoft Word documents as the main methods of delivering information originated from these reasons. Social media was also used to share the information from the seminar to other stakeholders that were not directly related to children’s learning.

The next rationale for selecting the chosen method was to accommodate cultural and physical diversity. Within the participating audience, there were members of different ethnic groups, nationalities, and even age groups. Providing the content of the seminar in different language and formats would circumvent any complications that emerge in terms of language barriers or age. The United States is a melting pot of different cultures and it is right to expect participants from as far as Africa, Asia, and even China. Material from the seminar could then be shared across the universe and comprehended by other experts across different continents.

Level of Intended Audience Participation

            In general, the seminar is designed to be highly interactive. In a manner different from most conventional seminars, this particular one will depend greatly on the feedback of the participants to make radical conclusions and decisions. Albert Bandura presented the observational learning theory that states that human beings learn new things by a process of observation. He further added that human beings use their five basic senses in addition to other facilities to acquire knowledge. Frequently, the model may be unaware that they are acting as an instrument of learning (Jeynes, 2011). Bandura states that elements such as focusing the attention of the observer, offering alternatives for retention of information captured and provision for reinforcement can greatly assist in boosting the efficacy of the learning opportunity. Most of these elements were implemented in the seminar. Therefore, most of the speakers in the seminar will have a question-and-answer session in which the audience will be involved. The participants will also deliberate on the elements of the parent involvement policies that need to be amended or eliminated. This session will be conducted in an open forum style to allow the reception of different opinions. Digital methods of communication will also be exploited. The official website for the organizing group as well as the social media group will be used to collect the opinions of the rest of the stakeholders. This activity will take the form of opinion polls on the bills as well as mini-surveys. The speakers are also permitted to engage in role-playing and demonstrations with the audience provided they adhere to the time limit for each presentation.

Necessary Prior Knowledge

            One category of information that should be acquired beforehand is the estimated number of participants that will attend the seminar. Having this information will determine a myriad of other preparations including the seating, accommodation, refreshments, presentation equipment, time allocations, and even security. Another piece of information that should be known beforehand is the backup main speakers. One main guest will chair the whole seminar and give the concluding authoritative remarks. It is imperative to ensure that an alternative is found in the event that the chief guest is committed elsewhere. Other minor information includes the contact information for all the service providers including the venue management. This will allow for quick changeovers in the event that emergencies occur.

Intended Outcomes

One of the pertinent intended outcomes of the seminar on parental involvement is to improve the performance of students in academic exercises. Within the education context, there is a misplaced notion that students from middle and upper class succeed academically because of high parental involvement among other things. One of the motivators of the developers of parent involvement theory is that it could shed more light on the devices that place children from middle and upper class households to an advantage. Some parent actions have been linked to these devices (Ho, & Kwong, 2013). The seminar is intended to dispel these speculations and clarify the exact practices and habits that allow middle and upper class students present averagely higher performance compared to their low class counterparts (Desforges, & Abouchaar, 2003). The seminar intends for the conclusions of the training to help schools in low-income areas to produce competitive students and results.

The cultural capital theory argues that several symbolic elements exist collectively within a society. Consequently, there occur pockets of population that share similar cultural capital and this separates them by creating a sense of collective identity (Salem Press, 2011). The proponent Pierre Bourdieu put forward three manifestations of cultural capital: the embodied, objectified, and institutionalized form (Dovi, 2012). This latter one has been used extensively to explain the way in which the middle and upper class used their qualifications to symbolize their cultural authority and ability (Ule, Živoder, & Du, 2015).

The next intended outcome from the seminar is teaching reforms or at least, the implementation of prerequisites that will facilitate the change. The core objective of the seminar is to sensitize the stakeholders on the presence and role played by the parents in enriching the overall quality of learning in schools. Therefore, the seminar is designed to commence then process of reforms. At the very least, the seminar should provide the federal government administrators with enough evidence to start amendments on current policies such as NCLB and other related ones (Wartman, & Savage, 2008). At the lower level, the seminar should facilitate the consideration of contemporary approaches within schools. Lastly, the seminar intends to generate a sweeping perception change and greater understanding of the concept of parent involvement. As mentioned in the introductory paragraph, many teachers and parents alike have a poor understanding of the concept. Therefore, its adaptation has been skewed and unprofessional. After the seminar, it is intended for such institution to realign their thought concerning the inclusion of parents in the learning process. The seminar definitely intends to reduce conflict between different stakeholders over the practice. In conclusion, the seminar on parental involvement in children learning processes is a necessary affair that should reveal constructive solutions for the future.

References

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Carvalho, M. E. P. (2009). Rethinking family-school relations: A critique of parental involvement in schooling. New York: Routledge.

Desforges, C., & Abouchaar, A. (2003). The impact of parental involvement, parental support, and family education on pupil achievement and adjustment: A review of literature. Nottingham: DfES Publications.

Dovi, C. (2012). A three-ingredient recipe: Three city elementary schools mix community support, a strong principal and parental involvement for success. Richmond: the Magazine of Metropolitan Richmond, 2012, 80-85.

Ho, E. S., & Kwong, W.-M. (2013). Parental involvement on children’s education: What works in Hong Kong. Singapore: Springer.

Hornby, G. (2011). Parental involvement in childhood education: Building effective school-family partnerships. New York: Springer.

Jeynes, W. (2011). Parental involvement and academic success. New York: Routledge.

Robinson, K., & Harris, A. L. (2014). The broken compass: Parental involvement with children’s education. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.

Salem Press. (2011). Parental involvement in the school system. Ipswich, Massachusetts: Salem Press.

Ule, M., Živoder, A., & Du, B.-R. M. (2015). Simply the best for my children: Patterns of parental involvement in education. Qse. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 28, 3, 329-348.

Wartman, K. L., & Savage, M. (2008). Parental involvement in higher education: Understanding the relationship among students, parents, and the institution. San Francisco: Wiley/Jossey-Bass.

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