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MOTIVATION OF PARENTS
GOAL
Familiarization of participants with motivation mechanisms for training adults and identification of
techniques for motivating parents to participate in psychosocial activities held with parents.
OBJECTIVES
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Participants learn about mechanisms for motivation of adults to participate in trainings;
Participants identify methods for stimulating parents to participate in psychosocial activities.
TIME
120 minutes
MATERIALS
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Flipchart sheets;
Felt pens;
A4 sheets;
Resource sheets.
STEPS
1.
Brainstorming (20 min.)
Participants are invited to answer general questions:
In what way does adult training differ from that of children? Using the T-graph method, the trainer
simultaneously writes all the participants’ ideas with regard to adult training specifics versus those of
children (Resource Sheet A). Participants’ answers are written down on the flipchart sheet and
subsequently summarized and analysed.
2.
Group work (60 min.)
Participants are divided into 2 groups, each of them having a respective task:
Group I – please, list sources for motivation of adults, according to your opinion (Resource Sheet C);
Group II – based on your opinion, please, list the barriers adults have in relation to their participation in
trainings (Resource Sheet B).
Participants identify sources for motivating adults to participate in psychosocial group activities. Now it
is possible to identify needs for training parents in the matters related to child education.
3.
Activity (40 min.)
Participants are asked to develop a model invitation to invite parents to the meeting with children.
Participants are reminded that invitation should be motivating and attractive for parents.
When the allocated time finishes, participants present invitations one after another. Other participants
and the trainer provide feedback on the invitation models and give recommendations. At the end,
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participants' attention is drawn to the strong points of presented invitations with the latter being
recommended to other participants as a model.
RESOURCE SHEETS 2
RESOURCE SHEETS
Resource Sheet A
Principles of Adult Training Organization
Adult training specifics impact, to a great extent, the training planning, organization and implementation
process. In order to ensure success, it is necessary for the trainer to bear in mind a number of principles
to be integrated in the training program activities.
1. Participants’ experience is important for the adult training activity and it should be, respectively,
included in the training process;
2. Training activities shall be focused on the development of abilities necessary for the adults. It is
important that trainer’s presentations make 10—15% of the total of training; they should be
followed by practical exercises, which will contribute to the development of ability to put new
knowledge into practice and encourage necessary modifications in the future work of participants.
3. Participants feel that they should be actively involved in the training activity. Participants need
activities that would encourage them to confront their previous experiences with the new ones
offered by the trainer who would control the training process. The trainer shall encourage all the
participants involved in the training bearing in mind specifics of each person and using them to the
full.
4. Applied strategies and techniques are important for the adults. Proceeding from the fact that
participants are learning mostly and best of all through correct application of the training process, it
becomes important that the trainer attentively choses strategies and techniques relevant both for
the improvement of previous knowledge and experiences of participants in order to encourage
sharing of ideas and opinions regarding future opportunities to use new information in practice and
to achieve goals of the activities.
5. As long as there are many training styles, strategies and techniques used are adapted to different
styles. It is important to plan and organize the training process in such a way that it becomes
relevant from the point of view of training styles diversity.
6. Use of visual materials is helpful in perception, and respectively, correct integration of presented
information. Involvement of as many information perception channels as possible raises the level of
its assimilation;
7. New information and knowledge are consolidated through practical exercises. Otherwise, it is
highly probable that this information, being important and valuable as it is, will be forgotten
without being subsequently used in professional activities;
8. Training activities clearly show the possibility to use new knowledge and abilities. Anyway, it is not
enough simply to involve participants in any kind of practical activities. It is important that trainer
plan and carry out them based on their relevance in the context of new knowledge proposed via
presentations or hand-out materials.
9. Creation of regardful environment essentially contributes to the adult training success. In order to
emphasise the value and experience of each participant, it is important that the trainer ensure the
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atmosphere of mutual respect between them, as well as between himself/herself and every person
involved in training activities;
10. The trainer’s task is to facilitate learning but not to impose something. Adult training specifics
clearly show what role the trainer should play in the training process. If the trainer insists on
his/her own point of view, it does not stimulate expression of opinions by the participants and this
kind of approach does not contribute to the participants’ learning. It is necessary to mention that
modification of the trainer’s role from full authority with imposing new knowledge in a prescriptive
way to facilitation requires additional professional competences that should be cultivated and
continuously developed by the trainer.
Source: http://hr-club.md/index.php?category=197
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Resource Sheet B
Barriers in Adult Training
As opposed to children and adolescents, adults have more responsibilities, which creates many barriers
for involving them in the learning process.
Reasons most frequently mentioned by adults:
Lack of time: Regardless of the fact whether those are evening or short-time training courses, they
require ‘loss’ of respective time (they call it ‘loss’ while gaining, if fact);
Lack of money: At present, there is an insignificant number of institutions providing free training
services; therefore, the issue of money is one of the most important in the countries with unstable
economy.
Family responsibilities: Care for children, relationships with the spouse, family responsibilities, etc.
‘steal’ too much of the time intended for study;
Time management: Service duties and family require much time, therefore, study process implies
modifications in the time management and sacrifices, etc.;
Motivation problems: Adults have to study because they are forced to do it;
Lack of self-confidence: Low self-esteem, some previous failure that cannot be forgotten or some
other things that left their trace in the adult's life may impede overcoming of frustrations and
apprehensions.
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Resource Sheet C
Motivation of Adults to Study
Another incommensurably important aspect of adult training is motivation that very much differs from
that of children. This is because these two age categories have different sources for motivation.
Sources for motivation of adults:
Social relationships: Adults attend career development courses/retraining or other educational
activities in order to find new friends or to be together with friends/colleagues/relatives;
Social expectations: Adults involve in training activities on the insistence of some authority,
recommendation of a spouse, suggestion of friends;
Social well-being: In order to be ready to serve community interests and to be useful for the
society adults undergo professional basic training courses that are not related to their basic
education;
Professional advancement: Adults get involved in the training process in order to gain financial
benefits, professional advancement, social prestige, to be in step with competitors;
Escape or stimulation: In order to get rid of monotony of life including that of domesticities and
professional life, adults shelter themselves in training;
Cognitive interest: Major part of adults undergo trainings due to their love of study, looking for
new information in order to satisfy curiosity.
Other suggestions to the trainer
There are several ways for motivation of adults by the trainer:
Creation of positive training course environment. Trainer should ensure open and friendly
attitudes to show participants that his/her role is to assist in the learning process,
Establishing an appropriate preoccupation level. The level of preoccupation should correspond to
the level of importance of the subject. If material is very important, the level of preoccupation and
attention in the group should be higher. At the same time, people learn better in the situation of
lesser of moderate stress; if the situation is very tense, stress becomes a barrier for the learning
process;
Establishing an appropriate degree of difficulty. The degree of difficulty should be rather high for
provoking participants but not too high so that it could transform into frustration of being
overloaded with information. Training should be motivating and promising culminating in success;
Identify goal for adult’s participation in the training process or career development course;
Use methods centred on the trainee (group discussions, small group tasks, arrange furniture in
some non-traditional way, use name stories, etc.);
Encourage readiness of adults for change, career and professional growth.
Motivation of parents to participate in psychosocial group activities for parents
For parents to be encouraged to participate in training programs, it is necessary that they see benefits of
these meetings with parents and feel comfortable when attending them. If parents feel being
‘summoned’ to school only when their children have problems with discipline, they will associate school
with something negative and threatening their parental role. Similarly, if parents are criticized, lectured,
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or judged at school they will tend to avoid school as it creates emotional discomfort, which is not helpful
in resolving a problem with child’s behaviour.
Ways to encourage parents to participate in activities held with parents:
Individual meeting with parents planned at short intervals in order to inform them about progress
achieved by the their children (it is NOT recommended to focus on problems or on something that
children DO NOT know or CANNOT do);
Group meetings with parents aimed at presentation and discussion of some topic interesting for all
the parents, for example, methods to discipline children or how to value children’s free time, etc.;
Presenting to parents of a written report of the progress of their children at the end of each
semester with emphasis on positive aspect, abilities and behaviours that parents, in their turn, will
encourage;
Participation of parents in different events organized by the school, festivities, etc.;
Support provided by the school in organization of teacher-parents associations or parents
associations that will organize events in support of parents’ involvement in school life and that of
children.
How to inform parents?
For the parents to participate in these meetings it is necessary that they understand direct their
benefits, for example, they will learn how to resolve difficulties that they have with their children’s
behaviour, to optimize their cognitive, social and emotional development.
Parents have their own questions regarding children’s upbringing: Why their children have this
particular type of behaviour, how to react in a parental way in some situations or how to ensure healthy
environment to the child for it to develop. Assurance of the kind of relationships, when parents can find
answers to these questions is an immediate advantage of these meetings.
Parents' fears and apprehensions
Reasons for fears and apprehensions can be numerous:
As long as it is new activity, parents have no experience with this kind of meetings where they can
learn how to be good parents and they may want to reject the idea not understanding in what way
meetings can be helpful for them;
Some parents have negative experience with school and associate this program with respective
experience;
Some parents may seem uncomfortable or ashamed to speak about their difficulties thinking that a
parent should always know what to do and should be ‘perfect’;
Some parents may be convinced that ‘nobody can tell me how to grow the child' or 'I do not need
any advice'.
How we can overcome such situations:
Presentation of the program ‘face to face’;
Presentation of advantages that can be done by some parents having already participated in the
meetings;
For some of parents it will be sufficient simply to read some informational materials presented by
the school;
These meetings are not aimed for all the parents (some of them need specialized programs).
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The most frequent needs of parents:
Disciplining and ways to manage/modify problematic behaviours;
Elements of psychological development;
Social and emotional abilities of children.
Management of anger and other intense negative emotions.
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