Perception Differences between Families and Teachers on the Integral Development of the Child and the Educational Process

Abstract

Educational development should be balanced among the different agents that make-up the entirety of the educational community (students, teachers, families, and external agents), with a prominent role of the family and teachers. However, it seems that reality does not comply with these principles, leading to a decrease in educational effectiveness. Therefore, the aim of this study is to analyze the perceptions of the legal guardian/family (LG), and the class tutor/teacher (CT), on the comprehensive development of students and on the global educational process, in order to clarify their role in this process. For this purpose, students aged 3–8 years were selected and the views of their families and teachers were compared (n = 820 observations), both in terms of the five areas that make-up the comprehensive development of the individual (cognitive, social, emotional, moral, and motor) and in regard to other determining variables that affect the global educational process (adaptive, cultural, digital, and school-type areas). The results show significant differences in the perceptions between both groups, with LGs rating all areas higher, except for the adaptive area, which was rated higher by CTs. The conclusions and the factors that explain these results, highlighting technical training as the most important determining factor, could serve as a starting point to bring the vision of both educational agents closer, which would result in an improvement in the communication channels between teachers and families, and in the optimization of the teaching and learning process itself.

Keywords

• parent–school relationship
• perception
• formal education
• parent participation
• family role
• family education