PALS

I. What Is PALS?

PALS is the acronym for Parents Assist Learning and Schooling, a training program designed to encourage parents to play active roles in their children’s education. The PALS Facilitator’s Manuals and their companion Participant’s Manuals present information and exercises that help parents and guardians understand:

Why it is important for them to be involved in their children’s education;
What they can do to be involved in their children’s education;
How they can create a positive family attitude toward education, school and learning in general.
The PALS program was developed to help both children and parents prepare for the rapid and irreversible changes occurring in society and technology. To prosper and realize their potential within future work, home, or community settings, our children will need at least:

A grade 12 education, to form the foundation for subsequent training and education;
Higher levels of literacy, to absorb increasingly complex information and concepts;
Good computer skills, to operate in an information-based economy;
Good interpersonal skills, to function in a more team-based workplace.
Parents want their children to stay in school and succeed in life. Parental involvement in education produces a number of benefits, including:

Higher grades and test scores;
Long-term academic achievement;
Positive attitudes toward school and better behavior in school;
Educational programs that are more successful and schools that are effective.
PALS recognizes and reinforces the key role that parents can play in their children's success in school and in life. The training program focusses on strategies in school and in life. The training program focusses on strategies parents can adopt to ensure that their children finish school with the best possible education and preparation for the future.

II. Who Is PALS For?

PALS is of value to parents who want or need more information and guidance about their children’s learning and schooling.

PALS is not meant to be a formal parenting course, nor is it meant to replace counseling.

PALS is designed to be accessible to a wide range of parents, including parents who may be considered to be disadvantaged because of social conditions or a lack of formal education. The Facilitator’s Manuals contain suggestions for modifying PALS material to take into account a variety of participant variables. Participants most likely to benefit from PALS share the following characteristics:

they possess basic life skills or attend a life skills program;
they have, as a minimum, the equivalent of a grade eight education;
they are comfortable learning in a group.

III.What Is Distinctive About PALS?

PALS responds to a need to provide parents and their children with the information and strategies needed to thrive under changing global conditions. These changes are affecting both the kinds of work that our children will perform as well as the skills needed for the jobs of the future.

Parents need to be aware of these changing circumstances and of the new or added roles required of everyone. It is more important than ever that parents be involved in their children's learning and schooling.

PALS provides facilitators and parents with distinctive perspectives and subject matter.

PALS reinforces parenting basics.

Pals focusses specifically on the ways in which parents can use basic parenting skills to help their children learn and do well in school. The fundamentals of parenting provide an ideal foundation for the development of strategies and approaches that parents can apply to their children's learning processes. Employers have noted that sound parenting skills teach children precisely the skills and qualities they look for in candidates - responsibility, cooperation, communication, etc.

PALS helps parents help students stay in school.

While students leave school early for many reasons, many of the key factors - poor academic history, irregular attendance, low self-esteem, behavioral problems, family difficulties - are preventable. The influence and impact that parents have on these areas of their children's lives cannot be overstated. By working with parents to show them how they can become more involved in their children's learning at home, PALS strives to enhance both parenting skills and the values that underline education.

PALS strengthens the relationship between home and school.

Studies of the factors that make a school effective have identified parent involvement as one of seven key factors. PALS takes a comprehensive approach to education and stresses the interrelationship between parents, children, teachers, schools, and communities. PALS encourages parents to become involved with parent groups and other groups that have a voice in making decisions about local schools. In addition, parents are provided with concrete strategies for opening and sustaining communication channels among students, parents, and educators.

By shifting the parent's role in the school system from the sidelines to becoming a team player and a decision maker, PALS focuses on what parents can do to help foster cooperative relationships and to get the best possible education for their children.

PALS illustrates how social and technological changes affect our children.

Global influences are changing the ways public and private employers manage their people and resources. The impact of this reorganization is being felt all the way down to the schools. PALS believes it is critical for parents to be aware of and get involved in these changes.

Similarly, technological developments are having profound effects on how our children learn as well as on the post-graduation job market. For instance, the effects of television, computers, and telecommunications are felt in the classroom as well as the boardroom.

The rapid and revolutionary development of information and communications technologies (computer, faxes, modems, satellites, cellular phones, fibre optics, "the electronic highway", etc.) is leading to a major transformation of society. The impact of this transformation is likely to be as extensive and far reaching as the Industrial Revolution was 200 years ago.

These changes in society are, in turn, creating changes in schools. Discussion and debate are occurring about what schools teach, how they teach, how they interact with parents, students and the community, how they are structured and how they are managed. Parents need to understand the important role they can play in these discussions.

The major competitive factors in the new global economy are a highly skilled and intelligent workforce and the introduction of new technologies. Both schools and parents need to face the challenge posed by these factors. PALS is designed to heighten this reality in parents, and show them ways in which they can help prepare their children for this changing environment.

IV Who Might Want To Offer The PALS Program?

Any group, organization or agency composed of parents or that works with parents may find PALS useful and relevant, including:

Home and School Associations/ School Councils/ or Parent - Teacher Groups
Family Resource Centres
Social Service Agencies
Life Skills Classes
Stay-in-School Programs
Parent Education Programs
PALS is user-friendly. Following the principles of experiential education, the material to be delivered in PALS sessions is straightforward, and the learning is based on participants' own experiences.

Facilitators for PALS should have some training and/or experience in leading groups. Whenever possible, co-facilitation - having two group leaders - is preferable. For the convenience of facilitators, a separate section of PALS, A Guide to Facilitating Workshops, contains a review of the basics of group theory and leadership.

PALS can be adapted to many groups. Feel free to adjust this program to the needs of your organization.

PARENTS ASSIST LEARNING AND SCHOOLING
ARE YOU A PARENT WHO WANTS YOUR CHILD
TO SUCCEED IN SCHOOL?

PALS is a workshop program that has been developed by the Stay-In-School Initiative of Human Resources Development Canada. Research has proven that a parent's involvement in her/his children's education produces higher grades and long term academic achievement, as well as a more positive attitude and better behaviour in school. The result is more effective schools and a better future for our children.

Workshop Topics

Topic 1: The Important Role of Parents - Understand the shift to the information age and the need to prepare your child for the resulting social changes. Learn how to help your child to learn.

Topic 2: Building Self-Esteem - Understand the importance and interconnection of self-esteem in your life and in your child's life. Recognize the connection with success in school.

Topic 3: Parenting Styles - Explore the three basic parenting styles and look at the consequences of each one. Recognize your parenting styles and its effectiveness and explore ways to change.

Topic 4: Communication - Understand the role effective parent-child communication plays in learning and schooling. If a child feels listened to, he or she will feel good about themselves.

Topic 5: Being a Role Model - Understand the ways that role modeling can help you make a positive difference in your child's development and learning.

Topic 6: Who's really in Charge? An Approach to Positive Discipline - Learn the importance of discipline. Learn some guidelines for managing your child's behaviour.

Topic 7: Kids and Television - Recognize how TV affects children and their learning. Discuss strategies to influence your child's TV viewing.

Topic 8: Working with Teachers and Schools - Explore the different kinds of parent-teacher relationships and recognize that better communication among parents and teachers and schools helps children learn.

Topic 9: Responsibility and Homework - Understand the connection between problem solving and decision making skills and children taking responsibility. Learn about the importance of homework in developing responsibility and appreciate it.

Topic 10: Reading and Writing - Appreciate the value of literacy and how young children develop literacy skills. Learn ideas and strategies for assisting your child's
language development and reading skills.

Topic 11: Technology and Computers - Understanding the importance of computers and technology and the part computers play in your child's learning and skills development.

Topic 12: Preparing for Careers and Jobs - Understand our changing world and the implications for children and parents. Learn where new jobs might be found.

"There is no doubt that parents and schools together share a common goal of preparing children for a satisfying productive adulthood."

Back