Programmes > Id f'Id > Services > The Parents' Lifelong Learning Portfolio
The Parents' Lifelong Leaning Portfolio
The main idea is for the portfolio to be used by parents as a tool for reflection, for dialogue between other parents and adult educators/teachers. Besides the reflections they make, their portfolio is another tool for evaluation and to support the development of their diverse talents and skills.
It is one way of communicating clearly and simply, the collection of evidence of parents' knowledge, growth and leadership abilities as a parent leader or a prospective parent leader.
The portfolio is the narrative of parents' growth and development as a lifelong learning parent. It is the story of parents' journey through their lifelong learning process as a parent. In this journey they may look back at what they learnt, so that they reflect about it and set new goals for their improvement.
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Aims of the Parents' Lifelong Learning Portfolio
- To provide an authentic collection of evidence to illustrate parents' academic and practical achievements as a lifelong learning parent.
- To encourage parents reflect about their own learning and growth.
- To enable parents to critically evaluate their strengths and weaknesses and to set realistic targets for future development.
- To enable parents to hold purposeful discussions about their educational needs as a parent with the ‘teacher'/tutor of the children.
- To enable parents to prepare a presentation document, wgich can be presented to present and future employers.
The contents of the Parents' Lifelong Learning Portfolio
The Parents' Lifelong Learning Portfolio has been divided into a number of sections: sections A to G.
Section A consists of the parent's personal details, signature, as well as the starting date of the recordings in the portfolio.
Section B contains details of the family and comprises an account of the parents' achievements, as a parent actively involved in the educational process of their own children.
Section C covers the parent's participation in family literacy initiatives such as the Klabb Hilti and NWAR service. This section includes brief information (footnotes) on these two particular services offered by the Foundation for Educational Services.
Section D gives an account of the courses and training provided by the FES which are addressed specifically to parents such as the Parent-to-Parent Courses. This section also includes a description of the Parents-in-Education Programme and the various educational initiatives addressed to parents.
Section E gives an account of the various lifelong learning activities parents might have undertaken such as their contribution in child-minding service provision, oracy and writing skills, as well as their contribution towards the school and educational activities in their community.
Section F gives an account of training courses parents may have undertaken as adult lifelong learners. The courses may vary from short term courses, certificate level courses, to higher educational training offered by various educational institutions.
Section G is composed of an action plan for the parents' future, both short-term and long-term. This is based on their reflections while compiling their portfolio. By the time they come to fill this section, parents might be even more aware of both their educational strengths and those areas in which they might need to improve and grow.
This section focuses on the parents' educational goals both as parent and as lifelong learners. This section of their portfolio can help parents plan how to achieve their goals and how to overcome any barriers in order to keep on their educational journey.
Evaluation of the Parents' Lifelong Learning Portfolio
The Parents' Lifelong Learning Portfolio was first presented to parents during the Conference of the Parent Empowerment for Family Literacy (P.E.F.a.L.). This project has been carried out with the support of the European Community in the framework of the Socrates programme. The conference took place on the 10 th and 11 th July 2004.
Following this initial stage where the Parent Lifelong Learning Portfolio was presented to the 59 parents who participated in this week-end seminar, another follow-up meeting was carried out at the National Curriculum Centre on the 19 th of October 2004 .
Twenty parents participated and gave their feedback after their first attempt to fill in their Lifelong Learning Portfolio. In brief, the parents' feedback was that this portfolio:
- helped them to become more aware of their strengths and weaknesses,
- helped parents to be able to build an action plan for their future lifelong learning opportunities,
- can be presented as a document to possible future employers,
However, the general feedback was that this portfolio consisted of a lot of (and quite demanding) reflective questions, which the majority found quite hard to answer. Some parents also suggested that this could be translated into the Maltese language. For this reason the Parent Lifelong Learning Portfolio is being reviewed.
Results of the Parents' Lifelong Learning Portfolio:
The major research question which the Programme Co-ordinator
is researching by means of an action research, is whether these parent-in-education initiatives, specifically the parent-to-parent course is leading to parent empowerment, school involvement, improved home-school links, an enhanced home curriculum and if this is leading to life-long learning openings. Results are already indicating that parental involvement in their child's literacy activities has a positive effect on parents' own literacy; some parents have engaged in letter-writing in order to share their learning and appreciation of parents-in-education initiatives while others enrolled in adult courses. Some parents also moved on in their personal life and found employment. The Parent Lifelong Learning Portfolio is one tool from which relevant data will be collected.
tel: (00356) 21455600, 21455607, 21455653 fax: 00356 21455625
e-mail: idfid.fes@gov.mt
