Budaya Organisasi - Terjemahan What Makes a Leader (Dosen Dipl. Ing. Julius Hassan)
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Transcript of Dejana Tavas, dipl. učiteljica
Dejana Tavas dipl učiteljica
OŠ Vladimira Nazora Rovinj
dtavasyahoocom
Sanja Bilač dipl učiteljica
OŠ Spinut Split
sanja9stgmailcom
ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE -
MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE - MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S
RODITELJIMA
Sažetak Posljednjih petnaestak godina u svjetskoj i hrvatskoj
obrazovnoj praksi provedena su brojna istraživanja o važnosti suradnje roditelja
sa školom a dobiveni rezultati pokazuju da je ona iznimno važna za sve
sudionike te da partnerski odnos škole i roditelja donosi svima višestruke koristi
Osim uobičajenih načina komuniciranja putem individualnih razgovora i
roditeljskih sastanaka pisanih poruka neformalnih sastanaka edukativnih
radionica uključivanjem roditelja u nastavni proces u ulozi pomagača i sl
najsuvremeniji načini komunikacije s roditeljima su web stranice škola web
mjesta učitelja e-mail i SMS poruke Cilj istraživanja bio je ispitati imaju li web
stranice hrvatskih osnovnih škola sadržaje koji će potaknuti roditelje na česte
posjete i omogućiti učenicima stjecanje novih znanja Dugoročni je cilj potaknuti
škole na redovito postavljanje novih sadržaja koji će rezultirati kvalitetnom
suradnjom doma i škole te poticati učenike na istraživački rad iz svojih domova i
time unaprjeđivati kvalitetu učenja Istraživanje je obuhvatilo po 25 web stranica
osnovnih škola iz Istarske i Splitsko-dalmatinske županije odabranih slučajnim
izborom Dobiveni rezultati pokazuju da web stranice hrvatskih osnovnih škola
svojim sadržajima nisu model za intenziviranje suradnje s roditeljima te
postavljanje temelja novoj kulturi učenja i da ne postoji statistički značajna
razlika u sadržajima među dvjema županijama
Ključne riječi suradnja s roditeljima načini suradnje
roditelja i škole suvremeni oblici suradnje sadržaji
školskih web stranica
1 Suradnja roditelja i škole
Suradnja roditelja sa školom iznimno je važna i donosi
višestruke koristi svim sudionicima odgojno ndash obrazovnog
procesa Partnerstvom roditelja i učitelja stvaraju se dobri
odnosi jer svaki partner unosi svoju kompetenciju u
obrazovanje djeteta Za dobra postignuća nužno je da
suradnja roditelja i učitelja odnosno škole bude što
bolja Berger (1991) smatra kako se danas modelima
obiteljskog uključivanja pristupa aktivnije nego 60-ih
godina 20 st kada se smatralo da obitelj i škola imaju
različite odgovornosti Danas se suradnja s roditeljima
tretira kao jedna od bitnih odrednica opće pedagoški
djelotvorne škole a istraživanja pokazuju da 22 učitelja
nedostatak roditeljske uključenosti smatra ozbiljnim
problemom (Ryan i Cooper 2010) Ta suradnja tek je dijelom
usmjerena na prevenciju odnosno na rješavanje disciplinskih
problema jer su dobiti takve suradnje za dijete višestruke
a očituju se u boljim ocjenama redovitijem polasku u školu
većom voljom za radom kod kuće te razvijanju pozitivnijih
stavova i ponašanja Roditeljska uključenost u školski život
pozitivno utječe na postignuća učenika i njihovu motivaciju
a roditelji su partnerskim odnosom sa školom bolje
informirani o događajima u školi postižu pozitivniju sliku
u očima učitelja daju doprinos kvalitetnijem radu škole
jačaju svoje samopouzdanje i sigurnost u pružanju pomoći
djetetu kod kuće i postaju sudionici a ne pasivni
promatrači školskoga života svoga djeteta Učitelji također
imaju koristi od partnerskog odnosa s roditeljima jer u
roditeljima dobivaju saveznike u rješavanju problema
postaju motiviraniji i zadovoljniji poslom postižu veće
povjerenje roditelja i imaju bolji ugled u društvenoj
zajednici
Ove a i ostale dobrobiti za sve sudionike odgojno-
obrazovnoga procesa rezultat su sve veće želje i potreba
uključenosti roditelja u školski život Prema Walsh (2002)
jedan od načina kojima se postiže uspješna veza između
roditelja i škole jest dosljedna i jasna dvosmjerna
komunikacija
Epstein (1995) navodi tri konteksta u kojima učenici
uče u obitelji školi i zajednici te ističe šest vrsta
roditeljskoga uključivanja To su roditeljstvo
komuniciranje volontiranje učenje kod kuće odlučivanje i
suradnja sa zajednicom Međutim svi ovi načini suradnje
roditelja sa školom pretpostavljaju izravnu komunikaciju
koja ponekad ni uz najbolju volju roditelja nije moguća
Mnogi roditelji rade u vrijeme planiranih školskih
aktivnosti ili sastanaka i nisu u mogućnosti biti nazočni
pogotovo u školama koje rade u jednoj smjeni Današnji način
života i zaposlenost oba roditelja onemogućuju komunikaciju
licem u lice i aktivnije sudjelovanje roditelja sa školom
2 Suvremeni oblici suradnje roditelja i škole
Jedna od ključnih značajki ljudskoga roda je sposobnost
komuniciranja Iznimna sposobnost pohranjivanja podataka te
brza informacijska razmjena ogromnih razmjera
revolucionalizirali su poslovanje i svakodnevni život
čovjeka Pristup informacijama postaje neograničen
razmjena ideja i misli slobodna transformira se svjetsko
gospodarstvo i ekonomija Značajne su promjene i u pristupu
obrazovanju Brze komunikacije postaju trend u oblikovanju
budućnosti pa su sve zastupljeniji revolucionarni modeli
učenja (primjerice korištenje interaktivne kompjutorske
tehnologije ubrzano učenje) Učenik preuzima
odgovornost za život u svijetu u kojem bdquooni koji prekinu
školovanje nemaju budućnostldquo (Dryden i Vos 2001 str 39)
Snažnije je i kritiziranje obrazovnog sustava kao tromog
sustava u procesu promjena a pozitivne inicijative osnažene
znanstvenim istraživanjima postaju poveznica za
osuvremenjivanje i unaprjeđivanje škole 21 stoljeća
Tehnologija je postala kritična komponenta svakodnevnog
života i posljednjih nekoliko godina vidljiv je porast u
razvoju i korištenju školskih web stranica (Hartshorne i
sur 2008) Istraživanja (Aronson 1995 Cameron i Lee 1997
Clemens-Brower 1997 Clevenson 1999 Ramirez 2001)
pokazuju da mnogi učitelji eksperimentiraju s raznim
tehnologijama pri komuniciranju s roditeljima (telefoni u
učionicama glasovna pošta video tehnologije radio najave
i sl) a sve kako bi unaprijedili suradnju Školske web
stranice pružaju korisne sadržaje za roditelje kao što su
odgojni savjeti domaće zadaće elektronsku poštu ili
jelovnik školske kuhinje te šire granice komunikacije i
omogućuju komunikaciju između doma i škole dvadeset i četiri
sata dnevno sedam dana u tjednu To omogućuje roditeljima
kojima dnevni rasporedi ne pružaju mogućnost za redovne
posjete školi i interakciju licem u lice sa svojim djetetom
ili učiteljem da budu informiraniji o tome što se događa u
školi Internet postaje izvrsno sredstvo za povezivanje doma
i škole
Swan (2006) smatra da škole imaju puno informacija a
roditelji žele znati više o akademskih postignućima
izvannastavnim aktivnostima terminima informacija
sadržajima poput autobusnog prijevoza ili ručka te da je
važno da školske web stranice sadrže točne i korisne
informacije a ne uzbudljiv dizajn i najnovije tehnološke
bdquoukraserdquo
Online istraživanje (Unal 2008) pokazuje da roditelji
i učitelji prepoznaju važnost web stranica škola iako se ne
slažu u potpunosti oko njihova sadržaja Dok su učitelji
sugerirali kako bi poveznice (linkovi) unutar škole
razredna pravila nastavni program i standardi spisak
(obveznog) školskog pribora statistika posjetitelja web
stranice i knjiga gostiju bili esencijalni za školske web
stranice u značajnom odstupanju (plt05) se pokazalo kako se
roditelji nisu složili s učiteljima u vezi tih elemenata S
druge strane roditelji izjavljuju kako bi rado vidjeli
online praktične testove akademske savjetodavne
informacije vijesti u vezi administrativnih pitanja i
školske uprave te životopise učitelja Naposljetku i
učitelji i roditelji složni su kako rezultati školskih
športskih natjecanja i aktivnosti prosvjetna filozofija
plan nastavnih lekcija poveznice izvan institucije online
članci ili letci s vijestima razredni foto album razredne
vijesti ili blog učitelja meniji primjerci didaktičkih
kartica osobne poveznice (linkovi) i informacije o obitelji
učitelja nisu esencijalni elementi školskih web stranica
Može se zaključiti da bez obzira što mnoge škole sada imaju
web stranice nisu sve značajne za komunikaciju roditelja i
učitelja Prethodna istraživanja pokazuju da struktura i
sadržaj školske web stranice trebaju biti pažljivo planirane
i osmišljene
Prema McKenzie J (1997) najbolja školska web mjesta
imaju četiri svrhe 1 upoznati posjetitelje sa svojom
misijom karakterom ponudama za učenike i stajalištem o
novim tehnologijama 2 pružiti mogućnost objave učeničkih
radova i edukacije roditelja 3 djelovati kao posrednik
većem dijelu informacija i 4 pružiti bogatu zbirku
podataka lokalno prikupljenih uz nastavni plan i program
(kao što je lokalna povijest) Neke školske stranice
sadržavaju sva četiri elementa ali većina se koncentrira na
pružanje kvalitetne usluge za dva ili tri od ovih elemenata
21 Suradnja roditelja i škole u Republici Hrvatskoj
U osnovnoškolskom obrazovanju u Republici Hrvatskoj
propisani su (najčešće školskim Statutom) sljedeći oblici
suradnje s roditeljima roditeljski sastanci individualni
razgovori s učiteljima i stručnim suradnicima i pismene
poruke roditeljima Prema Zakonu o osnovnoškolskom i
srednjem obrazovanju (MZOŠ 2008) propisuje se osnivanje
Vijeća roditelja koje sačinjava po jedan roditelj iz svakoga
razreda a predsjednik Vijeća roditelja postaje i član
Školskoga odbora Praksa pokazuje da ovi propisani načini
suradnje ne zadovoljavaju ni učitelje a ni roditelje
Roditeljsko sudjelovanje je tek formalno bez stvarne
mogućnosti utjecaja na donošenje bitnih odluka
Centraliziranost i normiranost kurikuluma ne ostavlja
dovoljno prostora školama da svoj program prilagođavaju
potrebama lokalne sredine roditeljski sastanci se svode na
prenošenje informacija pri čemu su roditelji najčešće
pasivni primatelji informacija a vrlo rijetki roditelji su
pozvani na sudjelovanje u nekim aktivnostima škole
Istraživanje provedeno među roditeljima učenika deset
osnovnih škola četvrtoga i sedmoga razreda iz svih hrvatskih
regija te njihovih učitelja (Marušić 2007) pokazuje da
dvije trećine roditelja smatra da imaju premalo mogućnosti
sudjelovati u donošenju odluka u školi više od 90
roditelja nije nikada sudjelovalo u aktivnostima vezanima uz
suradnju obitelji i škole tri četvrtine roditelja navode da
se u školi ne organiziraju predavanja i radionice a trećina
roditelja ne zna organiziraju li se takve radionice Znatan
broj roditelja je iskazao zainteresiranost za sudjelovanje u
različitim aktivnostima škole ali inicijativu čekaju od
strane učitelja
Ipak praksa u hrvatskim školama posljednjih godina
pokazuje poduzimanje dodatnih strategija u suradnji s
roditeljima Održavaju se brojne radionice uključuju se kao
suradnici u projektu a u zajedničkoj komunikaciji na
relaciji obitelj - škola unaprjeđuje se praćenje i
procjenjivanje učeničkog napretka te ostvaruje kvalitetnija
povratna informacija o napretku djeteta (sve su
zastupljenije učeničke mape kao primjer sustavne autentične
i razvojne procjene napretka učenika)
Što se elektroničkih oblika suradnje tiče Hrvatska je
korak unatrag Projekt Net u školi započeo je 2003godine
i u sve hrvatske škole uveden je ISDN priključak s ciljem
unaprjeđenja procesa učenja korištenjem interneta u nastavi
i istraživanju učenika iz vlastitog doma te postavljanju
temelja novoj kulturi učenja koja se bazira na otvorenosti k
novim spoznajama novim medijima i tehnologijama Danas sve
hrvatske škole imaju mogućnost postavljanja svoje web
stranice a učitelji otvaranje elektronske adrese
U Hrvatskoj su web mjesta pojedinoga učitelja rijetka
pojava ali su pokrenuti projekti Školski infocentar i SMS
informativka kojima je omogućeno informiranje roditelja o
uspjehu izostancima i ostalim školskim zbivanjima
jednostavnim i većini roditelja dostupnim načinima
komunikacije (SMS e-mail internet i govorne poruke) Mali
broj škola uveo je i web imenike gdje razrednici jednom
mjesečno ažuriraju podatke pa ih roditelji pomoću posebne
lozinke mogu pogledati u svako doba dana Iako nije
najvažnije ne treba zanemariti ni podatak da prema Zavodu
za državnu statistiku u Hrvatskoj tek oko 38 kućanstava ima
Internet (2009) što otežava komunikaciju putem web
stranica a ni svi učitelji nisu informatički pismeni Takva
suradnja ima svoje prednosti i nedostatke
Tablica 1 ndash prednosti i nedostatci suradnje putem
elektroničkih medija
PREDNOSTI NEDOSTATCISvakodnevno primanje obavijesti o
djetetu
Brzina slanja informacija
Neograničenost vremenom i mjestom
Ušteda vremena za roditelje
Ušteda vremena za učitelja pri
slanju općih obavijesti
Roditelj u školu dolazi
pripremljen teme za razgovor su s
područja odgoja i obrazovanja
I roditelji i učitelji moraju biti
informatički pismeni
Svi sudionici (roditelji učitelji)
moraju imati internet
Dodatni posao za učitelje (redovito
ažuriranje podataka)
Rjeđi susreti roditelja i učitelja
Izostanak komunikacije bdquolicem u
licerdquo
Financijski trošak za roditelje pri
slanju SMS poruka
Mogućnost zlouporabe (lozinka)
3 Metodologija istraživanja
31 Cilj istraživanja
Cilj istraživanja bio je ispitati imaju li web stranice
hrvatskih osnovnih škola sadržaje koji će potaknuti
roditelje na česte posjete i omogućiti učenicima stjecanje
novih znanja Dugoročni je cilj potaknuti škole na redovito
postavljanje novih sadržaja koji će rezultirati kvalitetnom
suradnjom doma i škole te poticati učenike na istraživački
rad iz svojih domova i time unaprjeđivati kvalitetu učenja
32 Problem
Problem ovoga rada jest utvrditi trenutnu svrhu
hrvatskih osnovnoškolskih web stranica (objaviti postignuća
učenika omogućiti roditeljima uvid u svakodnevne
aktivnosti informirati roditelje i širu zajednicu o budućim
aktivnostima i jačanje suradnje između škole doma i
lokalne zajednice)
33 Hipoteze
H-1 Web stranice hrvatskih osnovnih škola svojim
sadržajima nisu model za intenziviranje suradnje s
roditeljima te postavljanje temelja novoj kulturi učenja
H-2 Ne postoji statistički značajna razlika u
sadržajima među dvjema županijama ni u jednoj od jedanaest
kategorija
34 Ispitanici i postupak
Školske web stranice javne su isprave i dobrodošlica
vanjskome svijetu u školu kao i poveznica učenika i
učitelja s vanjskim izvorima informacija te mogućnost
kvalitetnije suradnje s roditeljima Svrha školskih web
stranica je objaviti postignuća učenika omogućiti
roditeljima uvid u svakodnevne aktivnosti informirati
roditelje i širu zajednicu o budućim aktivnostima i jačanje
suradnje između škole doma i lokalne zajednice Svrha
školskih web stranica ne bi trebala biti elektronička
verzija oglasne ploče i slika škole koja rijetko mijenja
svoj izgled
Istraživanje je provedeno metodom analize sadržaja
slučajnim odabirom na 50 web stranica osnovnih škola u
Istarskoj i Splitsko-dalmatinskoj županiji (25 škola po
županiji) Korišten je internetski popis škola Portal za
škole Budući da u Hrvatskoj nije provedeno istraživanje s
roditeljima u kojemu bi se ispitalo koje sadržaje oni
smatraju bitnima i relevantnima autorice su se vodile
istraživanjem provedenim online studijom u Americi (Unal
2008) i elementima koje su u toj studiji izabrali učitelji
i roditelji Analizirani su sljedeći sadržaji web stranica
plan i program o školi (povijest škole) brojač posjeta
kućni red (razredna pravila) raspored sati i informacija za
roditelje rezultati športskih natjecanja foto albumi
online testovi (materijali za učenje) životopisi učitelja
savjeti za roditelje i forum Analiza je obavljena početkom
mjeseca prosinca 2010 pred kraj prvoga polugodišta što je
školama dalo dovoljno vremena za ažuriranje i popunjavanje
stranica U ovom istraživanju nije analiziran dizajn web
stranica jer su u većini slučajeva stranice postavljene
koristeći Carnet hosting uslugu i nude slične poveznice S
obzirom da većina škola ima isti preglednik smatrano je da
škola ima sadržaj ako je unesen vlastiti dokument ili
poveznica
4 Rezultati i rasprava
Tablica 2 - ukupni analizirani sadržaji u postotcima
SADRŽAJ OBJE
ŽUPANIJE DA POSTOTAK NE POSTOTAK
PLAN I
PROGRAM41 82 9 18
BROJAČ
POSJETA8 16 42 84
KUĆNI RED 10 20 40 80 RASPORED
INFORMACIJA28 56 22 44
ŠPORTSKI
USPJESI23 46 27 54
FOTO ALBUMI 43 86 7 14 TESTOVI
ONLINE
(MATERIJALI
ZA UČENJE)
17 34 33 66
ŽIVOTOPIS
UČITELJA2 4 48 96
SAVJETI ZA
RODITELJE18 36 32 64
FORUM 12 24 38 76
O ŠKOLI
(POVIJEST)50 100 0 0
Iz tablice 2 vidljivo je da sve škole na svojim
stranicama imaju podatke o školi odnosno njezinoj povijesti
(100) a najveći dio škola foto albume (86) te plan i
program (82) Više od polovice škola (56) imaju raspored
informacija a nešto manje od polovice (46) športske
uspjehe svojih učenika Najmanji broj škola na svojim
stranicama objavljuju životopise učitelja (4) i brojač
posjeta (16) Materijale za učenje i savjete za roditelje
ima tek nešto više od trećine stranica (34 36)
Grafikon 1 - sadržaji prema županijama
Iz grafikona 1 vidljivo je da se rezultati među županijama
ne razlikuju mnogo Najviše razlika je u sadržaju športskih
uspjeha (Istarska županija 72 Splitsko- dalmatinska 20)
a razlika od 20 pojavila se u kategorijama foto albuma i
materijala za učenje Sve ostale razlike su manje od 20
Hipoteza 2 testirana je hi ndash kvadrat testom Hipoteza se
smatra prihvaćenom u slučaju da je vjerojatnost pogreške
pri tvrdnji da postoji statistički značajna povezanost
analiziranog para varijabli manja od 5
Tablica 3 Relacije među županijama
PLAN
I
PROGR
AM
BRO
JAČ
POSJE
TA
KUĆNI
RED
RASPO
RED
INFOR
MACI
JA
ŠPORT
SKI
USPJE
SI
FOTO
ALBUM
ONLINE
TESTOVI
ŽIVOTOPIS
UČITELJA
SAVJETI
ZA
RODI
TELJE FORUM
10486462 00240148
80125 0081
1159
4
2657
81471 05208 07812 01096
df 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
p 0876
88491
0
0479
50012
0527
0892
0705
31663
0006
71374
0
044
5920
62
02251
8798
0157299
21
03457
4844
05638
979
Nije teško uočiti da se statistički značajna razlika
javlja samo u sadržaju športskih uspjeha a u ostalim
elementima ne postoji što potvrđuje postavljenu hipotezu
Može se dakle zaključiti da nema razlika u sadržajima među
dvjema županijama
Sadržaji web stranica mogu se podijeliti u dvije
kategorije sadržaji namijenjeni roditeljima i učenicima
(plan i program raspored informacija životopis učitelja
savjeti za roditelje forum testovi ili materijali za
učenje kućni red) i sadržaji namijenjeni promociji školskih
aktivnosti i uspjeha (športski uspjesi foto albumi o
školi brojač posjeta)
Tablica 4 - analiza sadržaja prema svrsi
SADRŽAJ OBJE
ŽUPANIJE NAMIJENJENI
RODITELJIMA
I UČENICIMADA
POSTOTAK NE POSTOTAK
TESTOVI
ONLINE
(MATERIJALI
ZA UČENJE)
17 34 33 66
PLAN I
PROGRAM41 82 9 18
SAVJETI ZA
RODITELJE18 36 32 64
KUĆNI RED 10 20 40 80 RASPORED
INFORMACIJA28 56 22 44
FORUM 12 24 38 76 ŽIVOTOPIS
UČITELJA2 4 48 96
PROMOCIJA
ŠKOLSKIH
AKTIVNOSTI
DA POSTOTAK NE POSTOTAK
I USPJEHA
ŠPORTSKI
USPJESI23 46 27 54
FOTO ALBUMI 43 86 7 14 BROJAČ
POSJETA8 16 42 84
O ŠKOLI
(POVIJEST)50 100 0 0
Od sadržaja koji su namijenjeni roditeljima i
učenicima a koji bi učenicima omogućili stjecanje novih
znanja i roditelje potaknuli na česte posjete škole u
visokom postotku (82) nude plan i program što je i
zakonska obveza škole (javna objava) a tek nešto više od
polovice škola (56) objavljuje raspored informacija za
roditelje Nešto više od trećine škola (34 36) na svojim
web stranicama ima materijale za učenje i savjete za
roditelje a tek 24 škola ima aktivan forum za razmjenu
mišljenja iako je i na tim forumima bio zanemariv broj
otvorenih tema od kojih niti jednu nije otvorio roditelj
Materijali za učenje najčešće su online testovi za što
postoji poveznica sa školske web stranice a savjeti za
roditelje tekstovi koje su sastavili stručni suradnici S
obzirom na manjak stručnih suradnika u našim školama moguće
je da je to razlog relativno malog postotka tih sadržaja U
nekim školama u rubrici savjeta za roditelje nalaze se
poveznice sa zanimljivim člancima na internetu
Kategorije koje služe za promociju školskih uspjeha i
aktivnosti imaju više sadržaja svaka škola ima uređenu
stranicu o povijesti škole 86 škola ažurira stranicu s
foto albumima a nešto manje od polovice škola (46) na
svoje stranice stavlja športske uspjehe svojih učenika U
navedenim foto albumima škole nude fotografije s izleta
izvanučioničke nastave priredbi i sl O opravdanosti
velikoga broja fotografija učenika moglo bi se raspravljati
s obzirom da niti jedan objavljeni sadržaj nije zaštićen
lozinkom već je dostupan svima pa se postavlja pitanje
imaju li škole suglasnost roditelja za to Tek 16 škola
vodi računa o posjećenosti svojih stranica a to bi mogao
biti značajan podatak o tome koliko ih učenici i roditelji
posjećuju
Iz navedenih podataka može se zaključiti da je školama
veoma važna promocija aktivnosti i uspjeha škole povijest
ustanove i raspored individualnih informacija a savjeti za
roditelje i materijali za učenike te razmjena mišljenja
nisu prioritetni sadržaji Škole smatraju da je roditeljima
potpuno nevažan stručni životopis učitelja najave
roditeljskih sastanaka ili jelovnici školskih kuhinja Iz
toga proizlazi da su web stranice škola u Hrvatskoj
elektroničke oglasne ploče a ne mogućnost komunikacije
5 Zaključak
Zadnjih desetak godina suradnja s roditeljima i kod nas
se mijenja na bolje ali u našim školama još uvijek
prevladavaju tradicionalni oblici suradnje s roditeljima
Iako u svijetu postoje roditeljski radio i Tv kanali
časopisi i internet stranice za razmjenu iskustava (Mendel
1998) kod nas takva praksa nije zaživjela no posljednjih
godina započela je suradnja putem web stranica e mail i sms
poruka Sumirajući prednosti i nedostatke a s obzirom na
današnji način života i ovaj način suradnje treba
intenzivirati u našim školama Suvremeni načini
komuniciranja mogu dodatno poboljšati komunikaciju između
roditelja i škole ali samo kao još jedan od načina uz sve
ostale navedene načine suradnje Iz toga proizlazi da iako
suvremeno doba pretpostavlja korištenje suvremenih
tehnologija nikakva tehnologija ne bi smjela zamijeniti
komunikaciju bdquolicem u licerdquo roditelja i učitelja a
odgovornost za dobru suradnju s roditeljima i dalje ostaje
na školi
Istraživanje pokazuje mogućnosti komuniciranja obitelji
i škole suvremenom tehnologijom Prikazani su elementi
školskih web stranica te način planiranja sadržaja web
stranice Ovo istraživanje smatramo važnim za informiranje
učitelja i rukovodstva škola o mogućnostima suvremenog
komuniciranja obitelji i škole Školska web stranica otvara
mogućnosti za uspostavljanje brze informacije no samim
postojanjem ne jamči učenicima stjecanje novih znanja i
kvalitetnije povezivanje obitelji i škole Može biti dobar
primjer vodstvu škole u stvaranju školskog kurikuluma kao
segmenta kojim će se omogućavati brza razmjena informacija s
roditeljima Nažalost obrazovni sustav u Hrvatskoj
tradicionalan je i trom neprimjeren vremenu i suvremenim
zanimanjima Ne zadovoljava individualne potrebe pojedinca
a tradicionalnim poučavanjem uz tehnologijski i
informacijski minimum potpuno je nemotivirajući kako za
učenika tako i za obitelj Rezultati ovoga istraživanja
pokazuju da školske web stranice u Hrvatskoj ne ostvaruju
sasvim svoju svrhu objavljivanje postignuća učenika
omogućavanje roditeljima uvid u svakodnevne aktivnosti
informiranje roditelja i šire zajednice o budućim
aktivnostima i jačanje suradnje između škole doma i
lokalne zajednice Iako svrha školskih web stranica ne bi
trebala biti elektronička verzija oglasne ploče i slika
škole koja rijetko mijenja svoj izgled trenutno stanje
hrvatskih web stranica u analiziranim županijama pokazuje
upravo to što potvrđuje početnu hipotezu
U narednim istraživanjima trebalo bi ispitati stavove
roditelja u Hrvatskoj o tome koje sadržaje oni smatraju
važnima te bi se tada dobili relevantni podatci koje bi
učitelji mogli upotrijebiti za kreiranje svojih web
stranica
Literatura
Berger E H (1991) Parent Involvement Yesterday and
Today The Elementary School Journal 91 (3) 209-219
Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb
Educa
Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships
Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76
httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20Articles
ParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
Epstein JL i Sheldon S B (2006) Moving Forward Ideas
for Research on School Family and Community Partnerships
httpwwwcsosjhuedup2000pdfLiterature20Review
2020Epstein20and20Sheldon2006pdf (15112010)
Graham- Clay S (2005) Communicating with Parents
Strategies for Teachers School Community Journal 16 (1)
117-129
Hartshorne R Friedman A Algozzine B i Kaur D
(2008) Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites Educational
Technology amp Society 11 (1) 291-303
Hitrec G(ur) (2006) Škola otvorena roditeljima Zagreb
Udruga roditelja Korak po korak
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
Deana Tavas graduate teacher
Vladimir Nazor Elementary School Rovinj
dtavasyahoocom
Sanja Bilač graduate teacher
Spinut Elementary School Split
sanja9stgmailcom
SCHOOL WEBSITES ndash
POSSIBILITY OF COOPERATION WITH PARENTS
SCHOOL WEBSITES ndash POSSIBILITY OF COOPERATION WITH PARENTS
Abstract In the last fifteen years in Croatia as well as around the world
much research has been done dealing with the importance of cooperation
between parents and school and the obtained results show its importance for all
the parties and that partnership relation between school and parents produces
numerous benefits Besides customary ways of communication like individual
talk and parent meetings written messages informal meetings educational
workshops the involvement of parents in the educational process in the role of
accessory etc the most modern way of communicating with parents is via school
websites teacherrsquos websites e-mails and SMS messages The goal of the
research was to examine if Croatian schoolsrsquo websites had the content which
would prompt the parents for frequent visits and enable pupils to acquire new
knowledge A long term goal was to persuade schools to a regular update of new
materials which would result in quality cooperation between home and school
and persuade pupils to do research from their home and therefore increase the
quality of learning The research has randomly selected 25 elementary school
websites from the county of Istra and 25 websites from the county Split ndash
Dalmatia Collected data show that Croatiarsquos elementary school websites are not
a model neither for increasing the cooperation with parents nor laying the
foundation towards a new culture of learning and that there is no statistically
significant variation in content between the two counties
Key words cooperation with parents Internet school websites website
content
1 Parents and school cooperation
The cooperation between parents and schools is
extremely important and offers manifold benefits for all the
participants in the education process A partnership between
parents and teachers establishes good relations since every
partner introduces their competences in the childrsquos
education The cooperation between parents and teachers
ie school should be the best possible to achieve
outstanding goals Berger (1991) considers that models of
parent involvement are approached more actively nowadays
then it was in the 1960s when the responsibilities of
parents and schools were considered distinct Cooperation
with parents is today considered on of the essential
determinants of an efficient school in terms of general
pedagogy and research has shown that 22 of teachers
consider the lack of parent involvement a serious problem
(Ryan and Cooper 2010) Such cooperation is only partially
directed at prevention ie solution of disciplinary
problems since its benefits are manifold and are
manifested in better grades increased regular attendance
more willingness to work at home and development of more
positive attitudes and behavior Parental involvement in
school life has a positive effect on pupilrsquos achievements
and their motivation and the partnership relation between
parents and schools makes the parents more informed of
school affairs gives them a more positive image in the eyes
of the teachers they contribute to a better functioning of
the school strengthen their self-confidence and assurance
in helping their child at home and they become
participants not mere observers of the education of their
child Teachers have also to gain from a partnership
relation with parents since the parents become allies in
solving problems they become more motivated and satisfied
with their job receive more confidence from parents and
have a better reputation in society
These and other benefits for all the participants in
the education process are the result of growing willingness
and need of parent involvement in the school life According
to Walsh (2002) one way of achieving a successful bond
between parents and school is a consistent and clear two-way
communication
Epstein (1995) lists three learning contexts for
pupils in the family in school and in the community and
lists 6 ways of parent involvement These are parenting
communication volunteering learning at home decision
making and collaborating with the community However all of
these ways of cooperation between parents and school presume
direct communication which at times regardless of the
parentsrsquo willingness is impossible Many parents work
during planned school activities or meetings and have not
the possibility to participate especially in schools which
work in a single shift Todayrsquos way of life and both parents
working prevents personal communication and a more active
involvement of parents with schools
2 Contemporary ways of cooperation between parents and
school
One of the key features of humans is the ability to
communicate The exceptional ability of storing data and
fast sharing of enormous amounts of information have
revolutionized business as well as the everyday life of
mankind The access to information is unlimited the sharing
of ideas and thoughts free the worldrsquos business and economy
are being transformed Significant are the changes in the
approach to education Fast communication is becoming a
trend in shaping the future and therefore revolutionary
models of learning are more and more inherent (eg using
interactive computer technology fast learning) Pupils
are assuming responsibility for their life in a world in
which ldquothose who end their education have no futurerdquo (Dryden
and Vos 2001 p 39) Stronger is the criticism of the
educational system for its inertness in the process of
change and positive initiatives empowered by scientific
research become the link for modernization and improvement
of the school in the 21st century
Technology has become a critical component of everyday
life and an increase in the development and use of school
websites over the last few years is evident (Hartshorne and
ass 2008) Research (Aronson 1995 Cameron and Lee 1997
Clemens-Brower 1997 Cleverson 1999 Ramirez 2001) show that
many teachers experiment with various technologies when
communicating with parents (telephones in classrooms voice
mail video technology radio announcements etc) to
improve cooperation School websites provide parents with
useful content such as educational tips homework e-mails
or the school cafeteria menu and expand the borders of
communication between home and school to a 24 hours a day 7
days a week contact That allows parents whose daily
timetable doesnrsquot permit regular visits to the school and
face-to-face interaction with their child or teacher to be
more informed of what is happening at school Internet
becomes an excellent means of connecting home and school
Swan (2008) believes that schools have a lot of
information and parents want to know more about academic
achievements extracurricular activities parentsrsquo meeting
schedule information such as bus transport or lunch and
that it is important that school websites include accurate
and useful information not an exciting design or newest
technological ldquoornamentsrdquo
Online research (Unal 2008) shows that parents and
teachers recognize the importance of school websites
although they do not agree completely on their content
While teachers suggest that links inside the school
classroom rules teaching curriculum and standards list of
obligatory accessories statistics of websites visitors and
guest book should be essential to a school website
significant divergence (plt05) was seen in parents
disagreeing on these elements On the other hand parents
declare they would like to see online practical tests
academic advisory information information about
administrative issues and school direction as well as
teachers CVs Eventually teachers and parents agree that
results of school sport competition and activities
educational philosophy lesson plans links outside the
institution online articles and newsletters class photo
albums and news teachersrsquo blogs menus examples of
didactic cards personal links and teachersrsquo family
information are not essential elements of schoolsrsquo websites
It can be concluded that regardless of many schools today
having their own website not all are important for the
communication of parents and teachers Past research shows
that the structure and content of school websites should be
carefully planned and developed
According to McKenzie J (1997) the best websites have
four purposes 1 introduce visitors to its mission its
character its offerings to children its stance on new
technologies 2 offer an opportunity for the publishing of
student works and parents education 3 act as a mediator to
a larger share of information and 4 provide rich data
locally collected on curriculum related topics (such as
local history) Some school websites contain all four of
these elements but the majority is concentrated upon
providing a quality service in two or three of these
elements
21 Cooperation between parents and school in Croatia
In the elementary education in Croatia prescribed are
(most often by School statute) the following ways of
cooperation with parents parent meeting individual talks
with teachers and school assistants and written messages to
parents According to Law on Primary and Secondary
Education (Ministry of Education Science and Technology
2008) prescribed is the formation a Parentsrsquo Council which
comprises one parent from every class and the president of
the Parentrsquos Council is appointed a member of the School
Committee Practice shows that these prescribed ways of
cooperation do not satisfy the teachers or the parents
Parent participation is merely formal without real
possibility of influencing important decisions
Centralization and standardization of the curriculum do not
allow schools enough space for adapting to the needs of the
local community parent meeting come down to mere
information sharing where parents are usually passive
recipients of information and parents asked to participate
in some kind of school activity are rare A research
conducted among parents of pupil of the 4th and 7th grade
from all Croatian regions and their teachers (Marušić 2007)
shows that two thirds of parents believes that they have too
little possibility of participating in decision making in
schools more than 90 of parents have never taken part in
activities related to cooperation between family and school
three quarters of parents state that there are no lectures
or workshops organized in schools and a third of parents
does not know if such workshops are organized A substantial
number of parents have shown interest in participating in
various school activities but the initiative is expected to
come from teachers
However the practice in Croatian schools in recent
years has shown undertaking additional strategies for
cooperation with parents Many workshops are being held
parents are involved as assistants on projects and in the
communication between parents and school improvement has
been made in following and assessing the pupilsrsquo progress as
well as in the feedback information on the pupilsrsquo progress
(increasingly common are the pupilsrsquo maps as an example of
systematic authentic and development assessment of pupilsrsquo
progress)
As far as electronic cooperation is concerned Croatia
is one step back The project ldquoNet u školirdquo ndash ldquoNet in the
schoolrdquo was initiated in 2003 and all schools in Croatia
have been equipped with ISDN terminals with the aim to
improve the process of learning by using Internet in
teaching and pupilsrsquo research from home and by laying the
foundation for a new culture of learning based on openness
to new knowledge new media and technology Today all
schools in Croatia have the possibility to set up a website
and the teachers to open e-mail accounts
In Croatia websites of teachers are a rare appearance
but the projects ldquoŠkolski infocentarrdquo and ldquoSMS informativkardquo
have been initiated through which informing parents on
success absence and other school activities via simple and
to the majority accessible way of communication (SMS e-
mail Internet and voicemail) has been enabled A small
number of schools have incorporated a web directory updated
monthly by class masters which parents with a special
password can check at any time Although not the most
important fact it should not be ignored that according to
the Central Bureau of Statistics in 2009 only 38 of
households in Croatia had access to the Internet which
complicates communication via websites and not all teachers
are computer literate Such cooperation has its advantages
and disadvantages
Table 1 ndash advantages and disadvantages of cooperation
via electronic media
ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGESInformation on child received daily
Fast information transmission
Not limited by time or place
Time saving for parents
Time saving for teachers when
sending general information
Parents come to school prepared
themes for conversation are
educational
Both parents and teachers must be
computer literate
All participants (parents
teachers) must have Internet access
Additional work for teachers
(regular updating of data)
Rarer encounters among parents and
teachers
Lack of face-to-face communication
Financial expense for parents when
sending SMS messages
Possible abuse (password)
3 Research methodology
31 Aim of research
The aim of the research was to examine whether the
content of Croatian elementary schools websites encourages
frequent parentsrsquo visits and allows pupils to acquire new
knowledge A long term goal is to encourage schools to post
new materials regularly which would result in high-quality
cooperation between home and school along with encouraging
students to research work from their homes and therefore
advancing the quality of learning
32 Problem
The problem of this work is to determine the current
purpose of Croatian elementary schools websites
33 Hypothesis
H-1 Websites of Croatian elementary schools with its
contents do not pose a model for a more intensive
cooperation with parents or lay the foundations for a new
culture of learning
H-2 There is no statistically significant difference in
content between the two counties in neither of the eleven
categories
34 Participants and procedure
School websites are public documents and welcome the
outer world into the school as well as a link between
pupils and teachers with outer sources of information and a
possibility of better cooperation with parents The function
of school websites is to make public the achievements of
pupils to allow parents insight into daily activities and
to inform parents and the larger community of future
activities as well as strengthening cooperation between
school home and the local community The function of the
schoolsrsquo websites should not be a mere electronic version of
a notice board or a picture of a school that seldom changes
its appearance
The research was conducted by content analysis method
on a random selection of 50 elementary school websites in
the counties of Istria and Split ndash Dalmatia (25 schools per
county) The Internet school directory of ldquoPortal za školerdquo
was used Since in Croatia a research has not been conducted
on parents and the content the parents believed to be
important and relevant the authors were led by a research
done by an online study in USA (Unal 2008) and the elements
selected by teachers and parents in that study The
following website content was analysed curriculum about
the school (school history) web counters house rules
(classroom rules) timetable and information for parents
results of school competition photo albums online tests
(study materials) teachersrsquo CV tips for parents and forum
The analysis was done at the beginning of December 2010 by
the end of the first term giving the schools enough time to
update and enrich the websites This research did not take
into consideration the design of websites since in the
majority of cases it has been done using Carnet hosting
services and offered similar links Regarding the fact that
most schools have the same browser a school is considered
to have a website if a private document or link has been
updated
4 Results and discussion
Table 2 ndash Overall analysed content in percentage
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIES
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCETAGECURRICULUM 41 82 9 18 WEBSITE
COUNTER8 16 42 84
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTSrsquo
INFORMATION28 56 22 44
RESULTS OF
SCHOOL
COMPETITION
23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 ONLINE
TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
TEACHERSrsquo 2 4 48 96
CV
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
FORUM 12 24 38 76 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL
(SCHOOL
HISTORY)
50 100 0 0
For table 2 it is evident that all schools have information
about the school on the website ie about its history
(100) the majority has school photo alums (86) and the
curriculum (82) More than half the schools (56) have the
timetable for parentsrsquo information and less then half (46)
have sport achievements of their pupils The fewest schools
publish teachersrsquo CVs (4) and website counters Study
materials and tips for parents are present on just above a
third the websites (34 36)
Chart 1 ndash content according to county
It is visible from Chart 1 that results do not vary much
between counties The most discrepancy is shown in sportsrsquo
achievements (Istria 72 Split ndash Dalmatia 20) and a 20
discrepancy is present in categories photo album and study
material Other discrepancies are smaller than 20 The 2nd
hypothesis was tested with the chi-square test The
hypothesis is considered valid in case that the probability
of error is less than 5 considering that there is a
statistically significant link between the analysed pair of
variables
Table 3 ndash Relations between counties
CURRI
CULUM
WEB
COUNT
ERS
HOUSE
RULES
INFOR
MATIO
N
TIMET
ABLE
SPORT
S
ACHIE
VEMEN
TS
PHOTO
ALBUM
ONLINE
TESTS
TEACHERS
CVs
TIPS
FOR
PARENTS FORUM
10486462 0024 0148 0125 0081 1159 2657 1471 05208 07812 01096
8 4 8
df 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
p 0876
88491
0
0479
50012
0527
0892
0705
31663
0006
71374
0
044
5920
62
02251
8798
0157299
21
03457
4844
05638
979
It is not difficult to notice that a significant
discrepancy is present only in sportsrsquo achievement whereas
in other elements it does not exist which confirms the
stated hypothesis It can be concluded that there are no
differences between the content in the two counties
The website content can be divided into two categories
content intended for parents and pupils (curriculum
timetable for parentsrsquo information teachersrsquo CVs tips for
parents forum online tests and study material house
rules) and content for promoting school activities and
achievements (sportsrsquo achievements photo albums about the
school web counters)
Table 4 ndash analysis according to purpose
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIESINTENDEED FOR
PARENTS AND
PUPILSYES
PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
ONLINE TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
CURRICULUM 41 82 9 18
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTS
INFORMATION
TIMETABLE
28 56 22 44
FORUM 12 24 38 76 TEACHERSrsquo CV 2 4 48 96 PROMOTION OF
SCHOOL
ACTIVITIES
AND
ACVIEVEMENTS
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
SPORTS
ACHIEVEMENTS23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 WEB COUNTERS 8 16 42 84 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL50 100 0 0
Among the content intended for parents and pupils
which would allow pupils to acquire new knowledge and
encourage parents to visit regularly schools offer in high
percentage (82) the curriculum which is a legal obligation
(public notice) and just over half the schools (56) offer
the timetable for parentsrsquo information About one third of
schools (34 36) publish on its websites study materials
and tips for parents and only 24 have an active forum for
exchanging opinions although these forums have an
insignificant number of open themes none of which were
opened by parents Study materials are most often online
tests with a link from the website and tips for parents are
texts compiled by schools assistants Considering the lack
of assistants in schools this may be the cause for a small
percentage of these materials Some schools under the
section tips for parents have links to interesting Internet
articles
Categories intended for the promotion of school
achievements and activities have more contents every school
has a page dedicated to school history 86 updates the
photo album section and less then half the schools (46)
publish sportsrsquo achievements of the pupils The photo albums
offer pictures from school trips out-of-classroom teaching
school events etc Justifying such a large number of
pictures is debatable since none of the published materials
are protected by password but available to everybody the
question arises if the schools have the parentsrsquo permission
Only 16 of schools pay attention to visits which could be
a significant information showing the number of parents and
pupils visiting the website
The mentioned data show that schools consider relevant
the promotion of school activities and success the history
of the school and the timetable for parentsrsquo information
but tips for parents and school materials along with
exchanging opinions are not a priority Schools consider the
teachersrsquo CVs parentsrsquo meeting announcements or the school
cafeteria menu of no relevance to parents These facts point
to the fact that school websites in Croatia are more online
notice-boards than a real possibility for communication
5 Conclusion
Over the last decade cooperation with parents in
Croatia has been improving however in our schools
traditional forms of cooperation with parents are still
prevailing Although in the world there are specialized
radio and TV channels magazines and Internet sites for
exchanging experiences (Mendel 1998) such practice has not
flung into being in Croatia However over the last couple
of years cooperation via websites e-mails and SMS messages
Summarising its advantages and disadvantages and
considering todayrsquos lifestyle this way of cooperation
should be intensified in our schools Contemporary ways of
communication can additionally improve the communication
between parents and school but just as one more way
alongside other ways Consequently although the modern age
presupposes the use of modern technologies no technology
should replace face-to-face communication between parents
and teachers and the responsibility for a good cooperation
still lies on the school
The research demonstrates the possibilities of
communication between family and school by using modern
technology Elements of school websites are shown as well
as ways of planning the content of a website We consider
this research important for informing teachers and school
management of the possibilities of modern communication
between families and school A school website allows for the
possibility of establishing fast communication however its
mere existence does not guarantee the pupils acquiring new
knowledge and a quality relation between the family and
school It can be a good example for the school management
in creating the school curriculum as a segment allowing for
a fast exchange of information with parents Unfortunately
the educational system in Croatia is traditional and inert
unsuitable for the times and contemporary professions It
does not satisfy the need of the individual and traditional
teaching by using a minimum of technology and information is
utterly un-motivational for the student as well as for the
family The results of this research show that school
websites in Croatia donrsquot fulfil their purpose presenting
pupilsrsquo achievements allowing the parents insight into
everyday activities informing the parents and the wider
community on future activities and strengthening the
cooperation between school home and the local community
Although the purpose of school websites should not be merely
an electronic version of the notice board and an image of
the school that rarely changes its appearance the current
condition of the Croatian school websites in the analysed
counties shows just that therefore confirming the initial
hypothesis
Future research should inquire into the stance of
parents in Croatia on which content they consider important
therefore receiving relevant data which could later be used
by teachers for creating their websites
References
Berger E H (1991) Parent Involvement Yesterday and
Today The Elementary School Journal 91 (3) 209-219
Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb
Educa
Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships
Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76
httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20Articles
ParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
Epstein JL i Sheldon S B (2006) Moving Forward Ideas
for Research on School Family and Community Partnerships
httpwwwcsosjhuedup2000pdfLiterature20Review
2020Epstein20and20Sheldon2006pdf (15112010)
Graham- Clay S (2005) Communicating with Parents
Strategies for Teachers School Community Journal 16 (1)
117-129
Hartshorne R Friedman A Algozzine B i Kaur D
(2008) Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites Educational
Technology amp Society 11 (1) 291-303
Hitrec G(ur) (2006) Škola otvorena roditeljima Zagreb
Udruga roditelja Korak po korak
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE -
- MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE - MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
-
ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE - MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S
RODITELJIMA
Sažetak Posljednjih petnaestak godina u svjetskoj i hrvatskoj
obrazovnoj praksi provedena su brojna istraživanja o važnosti suradnje roditelja
sa školom a dobiveni rezultati pokazuju da je ona iznimno važna za sve
sudionike te da partnerski odnos škole i roditelja donosi svima višestruke koristi
Osim uobičajenih načina komuniciranja putem individualnih razgovora i
roditeljskih sastanaka pisanih poruka neformalnih sastanaka edukativnih
radionica uključivanjem roditelja u nastavni proces u ulozi pomagača i sl
najsuvremeniji načini komunikacije s roditeljima su web stranice škola web
mjesta učitelja e-mail i SMS poruke Cilj istraživanja bio je ispitati imaju li web
stranice hrvatskih osnovnih škola sadržaje koji će potaknuti roditelje na česte
posjete i omogućiti učenicima stjecanje novih znanja Dugoročni je cilj potaknuti
škole na redovito postavljanje novih sadržaja koji će rezultirati kvalitetnom
suradnjom doma i škole te poticati učenike na istraživački rad iz svojih domova i
time unaprjeđivati kvalitetu učenja Istraživanje je obuhvatilo po 25 web stranica
osnovnih škola iz Istarske i Splitsko-dalmatinske županije odabranih slučajnim
izborom Dobiveni rezultati pokazuju da web stranice hrvatskih osnovnih škola
svojim sadržajima nisu model za intenziviranje suradnje s roditeljima te
postavljanje temelja novoj kulturi učenja i da ne postoji statistički značajna
razlika u sadržajima među dvjema županijama
Ključne riječi suradnja s roditeljima načini suradnje
roditelja i škole suvremeni oblici suradnje sadržaji
školskih web stranica
1 Suradnja roditelja i škole
Suradnja roditelja sa školom iznimno je važna i donosi
višestruke koristi svim sudionicima odgojno ndash obrazovnog
procesa Partnerstvom roditelja i učitelja stvaraju se dobri
odnosi jer svaki partner unosi svoju kompetenciju u
obrazovanje djeteta Za dobra postignuća nužno je da
suradnja roditelja i učitelja odnosno škole bude što
bolja Berger (1991) smatra kako se danas modelima
obiteljskog uključivanja pristupa aktivnije nego 60-ih
godina 20 st kada se smatralo da obitelj i škola imaju
različite odgovornosti Danas se suradnja s roditeljima
tretira kao jedna od bitnih odrednica opće pedagoški
djelotvorne škole a istraživanja pokazuju da 22 učitelja
nedostatak roditeljske uključenosti smatra ozbiljnim
problemom (Ryan i Cooper 2010) Ta suradnja tek je dijelom
usmjerena na prevenciju odnosno na rješavanje disciplinskih
problema jer su dobiti takve suradnje za dijete višestruke
a očituju se u boljim ocjenama redovitijem polasku u školu
većom voljom za radom kod kuće te razvijanju pozitivnijih
stavova i ponašanja Roditeljska uključenost u školski život
pozitivno utječe na postignuća učenika i njihovu motivaciju
a roditelji su partnerskim odnosom sa školom bolje
informirani o događajima u školi postižu pozitivniju sliku
u očima učitelja daju doprinos kvalitetnijem radu škole
jačaju svoje samopouzdanje i sigurnost u pružanju pomoći
djetetu kod kuće i postaju sudionici a ne pasivni
promatrači školskoga života svoga djeteta Učitelji također
imaju koristi od partnerskog odnosa s roditeljima jer u
roditeljima dobivaju saveznike u rješavanju problema
postaju motiviraniji i zadovoljniji poslom postižu veće
povjerenje roditelja i imaju bolji ugled u društvenoj
zajednici
Ove a i ostale dobrobiti za sve sudionike odgojno-
obrazovnoga procesa rezultat su sve veće želje i potreba
uključenosti roditelja u školski život Prema Walsh (2002)
jedan od načina kojima se postiže uspješna veza između
roditelja i škole jest dosljedna i jasna dvosmjerna
komunikacija
Epstein (1995) navodi tri konteksta u kojima učenici
uče u obitelji školi i zajednici te ističe šest vrsta
roditeljskoga uključivanja To su roditeljstvo
komuniciranje volontiranje učenje kod kuće odlučivanje i
suradnja sa zajednicom Međutim svi ovi načini suradnje
roditelja sa školom pretpostavljaju izravnu komunikaciju
koja ponekad ni uz najbolju volju roditelja nije moguća
Mnogi roditelji rade u vrijeme planiranih školskih
aktivnosti ili sastanaka i nisu u mogućnosti biti nazočni
pogotovo u školama koje rade u jednoj smjeni Današnji način
života i zaposlenost oba roditelja onemogućuju komunikaciju
licem u lice i aktivnije sudjelovanje roditelja sa školom
2 Suvremeni oblici suradnje roditelja i škole
Jedna od ključnih značajki ljudskoga roda je sposobnost
komuniciranja Iznimna sposobnost pohranjivanja podataka te
brza informacijska razmjena ogromnih razmjera
revolucionalizirali su poslovanje i svakodnevni život
čovjeka Pristup informacijama postaje neograničen
razmjena ideja i misli slobodna transformira se svjetsko
gospodarstvo i ekonomija Značajne su promjene i u pristupu
obrazovanju Brze komunikacije postaju trend u oblikovanju
budućnosti pa su sve zastupljeniji revolucionarni modeli
učenja (primjerice korištenje interaktivne kompjutorske
tehnologije ubrzano učenje) Učenik preuzima
odgovornost za život u svijetu u kojem bdquooni koji prekinu
školovanje nemaju budućnostldquo (Dryden i Vos 2001 str 39)
Snažnije je i kritiziranje obrazovnog sustava kao tromog
sustava u procesu promjena a pozitivne inicijative osnažene
znanstvenim istraživanjima postaju poveznica za
osuvremenjivanje i unaprjeđivanje škole 21 stoljeća
Tehnologija je postala kritična komponenta svakodnevnog
života i posljednjih nekoliko godina vidljiv je porast u
razvoju i korištenju školskih web stranica (Hartshorne i
sur 2008) Istraživanja (Aronson 1995 Cameron i Lee 1997
Clemens-Brower 1997 Clevenson 1999 Ramirez 2001)
pokazuju da mnogi učitelji eksperimentiraju s raznim
tehnologijama pri komuniciranju s roditeljima (telefoni u
učionicama glasovna pošta video tehnologije radio najave
i sl) a sve kako bi unaprijedili suradnju Školske web
stranice pružaju korisne sadržaje za roditelje kao što su
odgojni savjeti domaće zadaće elektronsku poštu ili
jelovnik školske kuhinje te šire granice komunikacije i
omogućuju komunikaciju između doma i škole dvadeset i četiri
sata dnevno sedam dana u tjednu To omogućuje roditeljima
kojima dnevni rasporedi ne pružaju mogućnost za redovne
posjete školi i interakciju licem u lice sa svojim djetetom
ili učiteljem da budu informiraniji o tome što se događa u
školi Internet postaje izvrsno sredstvo za povezivanje doma
i škole
Swan (2006) smatra da škole imaju puno informacija a
roditelji žele znati više o akademskih postignućima
izvannastavnim aktivnostima terminima informacija
sadržajima poput autobusnog prijevoza ili ručka te da je
važno da školske web stranice sadrže točne i korisne
informacije a ne uzbudljiv dizajn i najnovije tehnološke
bdquoukraserdquo
Online istraživanje (Unal 2008) pokazuje da roditelji
i učitelji prepoznaju važnost web stranica škola iako se ne
slažu u potpunosti oko njihova sadržaja Dok su učitelji
sugerirali kako bi poveznice (linkovi) unutar škole
razredna pravila nastavni program i standardi spisak
(obveznog) školskog pribora statistika posjetitelja web
stranice i knjiga gostiju bili esencijalni za školske web
stranice u značajnom odstupanju (plt05) se pokazalo kako se
roditelji nisu složili s učiteljima u vezi tih elemenata S
druge strane roditelji izjavljuju kako bi rado vidjeli
online praktične testove akademske savjetodavne
informacije vijesti u vezi administrativnih pitanja i
školske uprave te životopise učitelja Naposljetku i
učitelji i roditelji složni su kako rezultati školskih
športskih natjecanja i aktivnosti prosvjetna filozofija
plan nastavnih lekcija poveznice izvan institucije online
članci ili letci s vijestima razredni foto album razredne
vijesti ili blog učitelja meniji primjerci didaktičkih
kartica osobne poveznice (linkovi) i informacije o obitelji
učitelja nisu esencijalni elementi školskih web stranica
Može se zaključiti da bez obzira što mnoge škole sada imaju
web stranice nisu sve značajne za komunikaciju roditelja i
učitelja Prethodna istraživanja pokazuju da struktura i
sadržaj školske web stranice trebaju biti pažljivo planirane
i osmišljene
Prema McKenzie J (1997) najbolja školska web mjesta
imaju četiri svrhe 1 upoznati posjetitelje sa svojom
misijom karakterom ponudama za učenike i stajalištem o
novim tehnologijama 2 pružiti mogućnost objave učeničkih
radova i edukacije roditelja 3 djelovati kao posrednik
većem dijelu informacija i 4 pružiti bogatu zbirku
podataka lokalno prikupljenih uz nastavni plan i program
(kao što je lokalna povijest) Neke školske stranice
sadržavaju sva četiri elementa ali većina se koncentrira na
pružanje kvalitetne usluge za dva ili tri od ovih elemenata
21 Suradnja roditelja i škole u Republici Hrvatskoj
U osnovnoškolskom obrazovanju u Republici Hrvatskoj
propisani su (najčešće školskim Statutom) sljedeći oblici
suradnje s roditeljima roditeljski sastanci individualni
razgovori s učiteljima i stručnim suradnicima i pismene
poruke roditeljima Prema Zakonu o osnovnoškolskom i
srednjem obrazovanju (MZOŠ 2008) propisuje se osnivanje
Vijeća roditelja koje sačinjava po jedan roditelj iz svakoga
razreda a predsjednik Vijeća roditelja postaje i član
Školskoga odbora Praksa pokazuje da ovi propisani načini
suradnje ne zadovoljavaju ni učitelje a ni roditelje
Roditeljsko sudjelovanje je tek formalno bez stvarne
mogućnosti utjecaja na donošenje bitnih odluka
Centraliziranost i normiranost kurikuluma ne ostavlja
dovoljno prostora školama da svoj program prilagođavaju
potrebama lokalne sredine roditeljski sastanci se svode na
prenošenje informacija pri čemu su roditelji najčešće
pasivni primatelji informacija a vrlo rijetki roditelji su
pozvani na sudjelovanje u nekim aktivnostima škole
Istraživanje provedeno među roditeljima učenika deset
osnovnih škola četvrtoga i sedmoga razreda iz svih hrvatskih
regija te njihovih učitelja (Marušić 2007) pokazuje da
dvije trećine roditelja smatra da imaju premalo mogućnosti
sudjelovati u donošenju odluka u školi više od 90
roditelja nije nikada sudjelovalo u aktivnostima vezanima uz
suradnju obitelji i škole tri četvrtine roditelja navode da
se u školi ne organiziraju predavanja i radionice a trećina
roditelja ne zna organiziraju li se takve radionice Znatan
broj roditelja je iskazao zainteresiranost za sudjelovanje u
različitim aktivnostima škole ali inicijativu čekaju od
strane učitelja
Ipak praksa u hrvatskim školama posljednjih godina
pokazuje poduzimanje dodatnih strategija u suradnji s
roditeljima Održavaju se brojne radionice uključuju se kao
suradnici u projektu a u zajedničkoj komunikaciji na
relaciji obitelj - škola unaprjeđuje se praćenje i
procjenjivanje učeničkog napretka te ostvaruje kvalitetnija
povratna informacija o napretku djeteta (sve su
zastupljenije učeničke mape kao primjer sustavne autentične
i razvojne procjene napretka učenika)
Što se elektroničkih oblika suradnje tiče Hrvatska je
korak unatrag Projekt Net u školi započeo je 2003godine
i u sve hrvatske škole uveden je ISDN priključak s ciljem
unaprjeđenja procesa učenja korištenjem interneta u nastavi
i istraživanju učenika iz vlastitog doma te postavljanju
temelja novoj kulturi učenja koja se bazira na otvorenosti k
novim spoznajama novim medijima i tehnologijama Danas sve
hrvatske škole imaju mogućnost postavljanja svoje web
stranice a učitelji otvaranje elektronske adrese
U Hrvatskoj su web mjesta pojedinoga učitelja rijetka
pojava ali su pokrenuti projekti Školski infocentar i SMS
informativka kojima je omogućeno informiranje roditelja o
uspjehu izostancima i ostalim školskim zbivanjima
jednostavnim i većini roditelja dostupnim načinima
komunikacije (SMS e-mail internet i govorne poruke) Mali
broj škola uveo je i web imenike gdje razrednici jednom
mjesečno ažuriraju podatke pa ih roditelji pomoću posebne
lozinke mogu pogledati u svako doba dana Iako nije
najvažnije ne treba zanemariti ni podatak da prema Zavodu
za državnu statistiku u Hrvatskoj tek oko 38 kućanstava ima
Internet (2009) što otežava komunikaciju putem web
stranica a ni svi učitelji nisu informatički pismeni Takva
suradnja ima svoje prednosti i nedostatke
Tablica 1 ndash prednosti i nedostatci suradnje putem
elektroničkih medija
PREDNOSTI NEDOSTATCISvakodnevno primanje obavijesti o
djetetu
Brzina slanja informacija
Neograničenost vremenom i mjestom
Ušteda vremena za roditelje
Ušteda vremena za učitelja pri
slanju općih obavijesti
Roditelj u školu dolazi
pripremljen teme za razgovor su s
područja odgoja i obrazovanja
I roditelji i učitelji moraju biti
informatički pismeni
Svi sudionici (roditelji učitelji)
moraju imati internet
Dodatni posao za učitelje (redovito
ažuriranje podataka)
Rjeđi susreti roditelja i učitelja
Izostanak komunikacije bdquolicem u
licerdquo
Financijski trošak za roditelje pri
slanju SMS poruka
Mogućnost zlouporabe (lozinka)
3 Metodologija istraživanja
31 Cilj istraživanja
Cilj istraživanja bio je ispitati imaju li web stranice
hrvatskih osnovnih škola sadržaje koji će potaknuti
roditelje na česte posjete i omogućiti učenicima stjecanje
novih znanja Dugoročni je cilj potaknuti škole na redovito
postavljanje novih sadržaja koji će rezultirati kvalitetnom
suradnjom doma i škole te poticati učenike na istraživački
rad iz svojih domova i time unaprjeđivati kvalitetu učenja
32 Problem
Problem ovoga rada jest utvrditi trenutnu svrhu
hrvatskih osnovnoškolskih web stranica (objaviti postignuća
učenika omogućiti roditeljima uvid u svakodnevne
aktivnosti informirati roditelje i širu zajednicu o budućim
aktivnostima i jačanje suradnje između škole doma i
lokalne zajednice)
33 Hipoteze
H-1 Web stranice hrvatskih osnovnih škola svojim
sadržajima nisu model za intenziviranje suradnje s
roditeljima te postavljanje temelja novoj kulturi učenja
H-2 Ne postoji statistički značajna razlika u
sadržajima među dvjema županijama ni u jednoj od jedanaest
kategorija
34 Ispitanici i postupak
Školske web stranice javne su isprave i dobrodošlica
vanjskome svijetu u školu kao i poveznica učenika i
učitelja s vanjskim izvorima informacija te mogućnost
kvalitetnije suradnje s roditeljima Svrha školskih web
stranica je objaviti postignuća učenika omogućiti
roditeljima uvid u svakodnevne aktivnosti informirati
roditelje i širu zajednicu o budućim aktivnostima i jačanje
suradnje između škole doma i lokalne zajednice Svrha
školskih web stranica ne bi trebala biti elektronička
verzija oglasne ploče i slika škole koja rijetko mijenja
svoj izgled
Istraživanje je provedeno metodom analize sadržaja
slučajnim odabirom na 50 web stranica osnovnih škola u
Istarskoj i Splitsko-dalmatinskoj županiji (25 škola po
županiji) Korišten je internetski popis škola Portal za
škole Budući da u Hrvatskoj nije provedeno istraživanje s
roditeljima u kojemu bi se ispitalo koje sadržaje oni
smatraju bitnima i relevantnima autorice su se vodile
istraživanjem provedenim online studijom u Americi (Unal
2008) i elementima koje su u toj studiji izabrali učitelji
i roditelji Analizirani su sljedeći sadržaji web stranica
plan i program o školi (povijest škole) brojač posjeta
kućni red (razredna pravila) raspored sati i informacija za
roditelje rezultati športskih natjecanja foto albumi
online testovi (materijali za učenje) životopisi učitelja
savjeti za roditelje i forum Analiza je obavljena početkom
mjeseca prosinca 2010 pred kraj prvoga polugodišta što je
školama dalo dovoljno vremena za ažuriranje i popunjavanje
stranica U ovom istraživanju nije analiziran dizajn web
stranica jer su u većini slučajeva stranice postavljene
koristeći Carnet hosting uslugu i nude slične poveznice S
obzirom da većina škola ima isti preglednik smatrano je da
škola ima sadržaj ako je unesen vlastiti dokument ili
poveznica
4 Rezultati i rasprava
Tablica 2 - ukupni analizirani sadržaji u postotcima
SADRŽAJ OBJE
ŽUPANIJE DA POSTOTAK NE POSTOTAK
PLAN I
PROGRAM41 82 9 18
BROJAČ
POSJETA8 16 42 84
KUĆNI RED 10 20 40 80 RASPORED
INFORMACIJA28 56 22 44
ŠPORTSKI
USPJESI23 46 27 54
FOTO ALBUMI 43 86 7 14 TESTOVI
ONLINE
(MATERIJALI
ZA UČENJE)
17 34 33 66
ŽIVOTOPIS
UČITELJA2 4 48 96
SAVJETI ZA
RODITELJE18 36 32 64
FORUM 12 24 38 76
O ŠKOLI
(POVIJEST)50 100 0 0
Iz tablice 2 vidljivo je da sve škole na svojim
stranicama imaju podatke o školi odnosno njezinoj povijesti
(100) a najveći dio škola foto albume (86) te plan i
program (82) Više od polovice škola (56) imaju raspored
informacija a nešto manje od polovice (46) športske
uspjehe svojih učenika Najmanji broj škola na svojim
stranicama objavljuju životopise učitelja (4) i brojač
posjeta (16) Materijale za učenje i savjete za roditelje
ima tek nešto više od trećine stranica (34 36)
Grafikon 1 - sadržaji prema županijama
Iz grafikona 1 vidljivo je da se rezultati među županijama
ne razlikuju mnogo Najviše razlika je u sadržaju športskih
uspjeha (Istarska županija 72 Splitsko- dalmatinska 20)
a razlika od 20 pojavila se u kategorijama foto albuma i
materijala za učenje Sve ostale razlike su manje od 20
Hipoteza 2 testirana je hi ndash kvadrat testom Hipoteza se
smatra prihvaćenom u slučaju da je vjerojatnost pogreške
pri tvrdnji da postoji statistički značajna povezanost
analiziranog para varijabli manja od 5
Tablica 3 Relacije među županijama
PLAN
I
PROGR
AM
BRO
JAČ
POSJE
TA
KUĆNI
RED
RASPO
RED
INFOR
MACI
JA
ŠPORT
SKI
USPJE
SI
FOTO
ALBUM
ONLINE
TESTOVI
ŽIVOTOPIS
UČITELJA
SAVJETI
ZA
RODI
TELJE FORUM
10486462 00240148
80125 0081
1159
4
2657
81471 05208 07812 01096
df 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
p 0876
88491
0
0479
50012
0527
0892
0705
31663
0006
71374
0
044
5920
62
02251
8798
0157299
21
03457
4844
05638
979
Nije teško uočiti da se statistički značajna razlika
javlja samo u sadržaju športskih uspjeha a u ostalim
elementima ne postoji što potvrđuje postavljenu hipotezu
Može se dakle zaključiti da nema razlika u sadržajima među
dvjema županijama
Sadržaji web stranica mogu se podijeliti u dvije
kategorije sadržaji namijenjeni roditeljima i učenicima
(plan i program raspored informacija životopis učitelja
savjeti za roditelje forum testovi ili materijali za
učenje kućni red) i sadržaji namijenjeni promociji školskih
aktivnosti i uspjeha (športski uspjesi foto albumi o
školi brojač posjeta)
Tablica 4 - analiza sadržaja prema svrsi
SADRŽAJ OBJE
ŽUPANIJE NAMIJENJENI
RODITELJIMA
I UČENICIMADA
POSTOTAK NE POSTOTAK
TESTOVI
ONLINE
(MATERIJALI
ZA UČENJE)
17 34 33 66
PLAN I
PROGRAM41 82 9 18
SAVJETI ZA
RODITELJE18 36 32 64
KUĆNI RED 10 20 40 80 RASPORED
INFORMACIJA28 56 22 44
FORUM 12 24 38 76 ŽIVOTOPIS
UČITELJA2 4 48 96
PROMOCIJA
ŠKOLSKIH
AKTIVNOSTI
DA POSTOTAK NE POSTOTAK
I USPJEHA
ŠPORTSKI
USPJESI23 46 27 54
FOTO ALBUMI 43 86 7 14 BROJAČ
POSJETA8 16 42 84
O ŠKOLI
(POVIJEST)50 100 0 0
Od sadržaja koji su namijenjeni roditeljima i
učenicima a koji bi učenicima omogućili stjecanje novih
znanja i roditelje potaknuli na česte posjete škole u
visokom postotku (82) nude plan i program što je i
zakonska obveza škole (javna objava) a tek nešto više od
polovice škola (56) objavljuje raspored informacija za
roditelje Nešto više od trećine škola (34 36) na svojim
web stranicama ima materijale za učenje i savjete za
roditelje a tek 24 škola ima aktivan forum za razmjenu
mišljenja iako je i na tim forumima bio zanemariv broj
otvorenih tema od kojih niti jednu nije otvorio roditelj
Materijali za učenje najčešće su online testovi za što
postoji poveznica sa školske web stranice a savjeti za
roditelje tekstovi koje su sastavili stručni suradnici S
obzirom na manjak stručnih suradnika u našim školama moguće
je da je to razlog relativno malog postotka tih sadržaja U
nekim školama u rubrici savjeta za roditelje nalaze se
poveznice sa zanimljivim člancima na internetu
Kategorije koje služe za promociju školskih uspjeha i
aktivnosti imaju više sadržaja svaka škola ima uređenu
stranicu o povijesti škole 86 škola ažurira stranicu s
foto albumima a nešto manje od polovice škola (46) na
svoje stranice stavlja športske uspjehe svojih učenika U
navedenim foto albumima škole nude fotografije s izleta
izvanučioničke nastave priredbi i sl O opravdanosti
velikoga broja fotografija učenika moglo bi se raspravljati
s obzirom da niti jedan objavljeni sadržaj nije zaštićen
lozinkom već je dostupan svima pa se postavlja pitanje
imaju li škole suglasnost roditelja za to Tek 16 škola
vodi računa o posjećenosti svojih stranica a to bi mogao
biti značajan podatak o tome koliko ih učenici i roditelji
posjećuju
Iz navedenih podataka može se zaključiti da je školama
veoma važna promocija aktivnosti i uspjeha škole povijest
ustanove i raspored individualnih informacija a savjeti za
roditelje i materijali za učenike te razmjena mišljenja
nisu prioritetni sadržaji Škole smatraju da je roditeljima
potpuno nevažan stručni životopis učitelja najave
roditeljskih sastanaka ili jelovnici školskih kuhinja Iz
toga proizlazi da su web stranice škola u Hrvatskoj
elektroničke oglasne ploče a ne mogućnost komunikacije
5 Zaključak
Zadnjih desetak godina suradnja s roditeljima i kod nas
se mijenja na bolje ali u našim školama još uvijek
prevladavaju tradicionalni oblici suradnje s roditeljima
Iako u svijetu postoje roditeljski radio i Tv kanali
časopisi i internet stranice za razmjenu iskustava (Mendel
1998) kod nas takva praksa nije zaživjela no posljednjih
godina započela je suradnja putem web stranica e mail i sms
poruka Sumirajući prednosti i nedostatke a s obzirom na
današnji način života i ovaj način suradnje treba
intenzivirati u našim školama Suvremeni načini
komuniciranja mogu dodatno poboljšati komunikaciju između
roditelja i škole ali samo kao još jedan od načina uz sve
ostale navedene načine suradnje Iz toga proizlazi da iako
suvremeno doba pretpostavlja korištenje suvremenih
tehnologija nikakva tehnologija ne bi smjela zamijeniti
komunikaciju bdquolicem u licerdquo roditelja i učitelja a
odgovornost za dobru suradnju s roditeljima i dalje ostaje
na školi
Istraživanje pokazuje mogućnosti komuniciranja obitelji
i škole suvremenom tehnologijom Prikazani su elementi
školskih web stranica te način planiranja sadržaja web
stranice Ovo istraživanje smatramo važnim za informiranje
učitelja i rukovodstva škola o mogućnostima suvremenog
komuniciranja obitelji i škole Školska web stranica otvara
mogućnosti za uspostavljanje brze informacije no samim
postojanjem ne jamči učenicima stjecanje novih znanja i
kvalitetnije povezivanje obitelji i škole Može biti dobar
primjer vodstvu škole u stvaranju školskog kurikuluma kao
segmenta kojim će se omogućavati brza razmjena informacija s
roditeljima Nažalost obrazovni sustav u Hrvatskoj
tradicionalan je i trom neprimjeren vremenu i suvremenim
zanimanjima Ne zadovoljava individualne potrebe pojedinca
a tradicionalnim poučavanjem uz tehnologijski i
informacijski minimum potpuno je nemotivirajući kako za
učenika tako i za obitelj Rezultati ovoga istraživanja
pokazuju da školske web stranice u Hrvatskoj ne ostvaruju
sasvim svoju svrhu objavljivanje postignuća učenika
omogućavanje roditeljima uvid u svakodnevne aktivnosti
informiranje roditelja i šire zajednice o budućim
aktivnostima i jačanje suradnje između škole doma i
lokalne zajednice Iako svrha školskih web stranica ne bi
trebala biti elektronička verzija oglasne ploče i slika
škole koja rijetko mijenja svoj izgled trenutno stanje
hrvatskih web stranica u analiziranim županijama pokazuje
upravo to što potvrđuje početnu hipotezu
U narednim istraživanjima trebalo bi ispitati stavove
roditelja u Hrvatskoj o tome koje sadržaje oni smatraju
važnima te bi se tada dobili relevantni podatci koje bi
učitelji mogli upotrijebiti za kreiranje svojih web
stranica
Literatura
Berger E H (1991) Parent Involvement Yesterday and
Today The Elementary School Journal 91 (3) 209-219
Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb
Educa
Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships
Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76
httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20Articles
ParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
Epstein JL i Sheldon S B (2006) Moving Forward Ideas
for Research on School Family and Community Partnerships
httpwwwcsosjhuedup2000pdfLiterature20Review
2020Epstein20and20Sheldon2006pdf (15112010)
Graham- Clay S (2005) Communicating with Parents
Strategies for Teachers School Community Journal 16 (1)
117-129
Hartshorne R Friedman A Algozzine B i Kaur D
(2008) Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites Educational
Technology amp Society 11 (1) 291-303
Hitrec G(ur) (2006) Škola otvorena roditeljima Zagreb
Udruga roditelja Korak po korak
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
Deana Tavas graduate teacher
Vladimir Nazor Elementary School Rovinj
dtavasyahoocom
Sanja Bilač graduate teacher
Spinut Elementary School Split
sanja9stgmailcom
SCHOOL WEBSITES ndash
POSSIBILITY OF COOPERATION WITH PARENTS
SCHOOL WEBSITES ndash POSSIBILITY OF COOPERATION WITH PARENTS
Abstract In the last fifteen years in Croatia as well as around the world
much research has been done dealing with the importance of cooperation
between parents and school and the obtained results show its importance for all
the parties and that partnership relation between school and parents produces
numerous benefits Besides customary ways of communication like individual
talk and parent meetings written messages informal meetings educational
workshops the involvement of parents in the educational process in the role of
accessory etc the most modern way of communicating with parents is via school
websites teacherrsquos websites e-mails and SMS messages The goal of the
research was to examine if Croatian schoolsrsquo websites had the content which
would prompt the parents for frequent visits and enable pupils to acquire new
knowledge A long term goal was to persuade schools to a regular update of new
materials which would result in quality cooperation between home and school
and persuade pupils to do research from their home and therefore increase the
quality of learning The research has randomly selected 25 elementary school
websites from the county of Istra and 25 websites from the county Split ndash
Dalmatia Collected data show that Croatiarsquos elementary school websites are not
a model neither for increasing the cooperation with parents nor laying the
foundation towards a new culture of learning and that there is no statistically
significant variation in content between the two counties
Key words cooperation with parents Internet school websites website
content
1 Parents and school cooperation
The cooperation between parents and schools is
extremely important and offers manifold benefits for all the
participants in the education process A partnership between
parents and teachers establishes good relations since every
partner introduces their competences in the childrsquos
education The cooperation between parents and teachers
ie school should be the best possible to achieve
outstanding goals Berger (1991) considers that models of
parent involvement are approached more actively nowadays
then it was in the 1960s when the responsibilities of
parents and schools were considered distinct Cooperation
with parents is today considered on of the essential
determinants of an efficient school in terms of general
pedagogy and research has shown that 22 of teachers
consider the lack of parent involvement a serious problem
(Ryan and Cooper 2010) Such cooperation is only partially
directed at prevention ie solution of disciplinary
problems since its benefits are manifold and are
manifested in better grades increased regular attendance
more willingness to work at home and development of more
positive attitudes and behavior Parental involvement in
school life has a positive effect on pupilrsquos achievements
and their motivation and the partnership relation between
parents and schools makes the parents more informed of
school affairs gives them a more positive image in the eyes
of the teachers they contribute to a better functioning of
the school strengthen their self-confidence and assurance
in helping their child at home and they become
participants not mere observers of the education of their
child Teachers have also to gain from a partnership
relation with parents since the parents become allies in
solving problems they become more motivated and satisfied
with their job receive more confidence from parents and
have a better reputation in society
These and other benefits for all the participants in
the education process are the result of growing willingness
and need of parent involvement in the school life According
to Walsh (2002) one way of achieving a successful bond
between parents and school is a consistent and clear two-way
communication
Epstein (1995) lists three learning contexts for
pupils in the family in school and in the community and
lists 6 ways of parent involvement These are parenting
communication volunteering learning at home decision
making and collaborating with the community However all of
these ways of cooperation between parents and school presume
direct communication which at times regardless of the
parentsrsquo willingness is impossible Many parents work
during planned school activities or meetings and have not
the possibility to participate especially in schools which
work in a single shift Todayrsquos way of life and both parents
working prevents personal communication and a more active
involvement of parents with schools
2 Contemporary ways of cooperation between parents and
school
One of the key features of humans is the ability to
communicate The exceptional ability of storing data and
fast sharing of enormous amounts of information have
revolutionized business as well as the everyday life of
mankind The access to information is unlimited the sharing
of ideas and thoughts free the worldrsquos business and economy
are being transformed Significant are the changes in the
approach to education Fast communication is becoming a
trend in shaping the future and therefore revolutionary
models of learning are more and more inherent (eg using
interactive computer technology fast learning) Pupils
are assuming responsibility for their life in a world in
which ldquothose who end their education have no futurerdquo (Dryden
and Vos 2001 p 39) Stronger is the criticism of the
educational system for its inertness in the process of
change and positive initiatives empowered by scientific
research become the link for modernization and improvement
of the school in the 21st century
Technology has become a critical component of everyday
life and an increase in the development and use of school
websites over the last few years is evident (Hartshorne and
ass 2008) Research (Aronson 1995 Cameron and Lee 1997
Clemens-Brower 1997 Cleverson 1999 Ramirez 2001) show that
many teachers experiment with various technologies when
communicating with parents (telephones in classrooms voice
mail video technology radio announcements etc) to
improve cooperation School websites provide parents with
useful content such as educational tips homework e-mails
or the school cafeteria menu and expand the borders of
communication between home and school to a 24 hours a day 7
days a week contact That allows parents whose daily
timetable doesnrsquot permit regular visits to the school and
face-to-face interaction with their child or teacher to be
more informed of what is happening at school Internet
becomes an excellent means of connecting home and school
Swan (2008) believes that schools have a lot of
information and parents want to know more about academic
achievements extracurricular activities parentsrsquo meeting
schedule information such as bus transport or lunch and
that it is important that school websites include accurate
and useful information not an exciting design or newest
technological ldquoornamentsrdquo
Online research (Unal 2008) shows that parents and
teachers recognize the importance of school websites
although they do not agree completely on their content
While teachers suggest that links inside the school
classroom rules teaching curriculum and standards list of
obligatory accessories statistics of websites visitors and
guest book should be essential to a school website
significant divergence (plt05) was seen in parents
disagreeing on these elements On the other hand parents
declare they would like to see online practical tests
academic advisory information information about
administrative issues and school direction as well as
teachers CVs Eventually teachers and parents agree that
results of school sport competition and activities
educational philosophy lesson plans links outside the
institution online articles and newsletters class photo
albums and news teachersrsquo blogs menus examples of
didactic cards personal links and teachersrsquo family
information are not essential elements of schoolsrsquo websites
It can be concluded that regardless of many schools today
having their own website not all are important for the
communication of parents and teachers Past research shows
that the structure and content of school websites should be
carefully planned and developed
According to McKenzie J (1997) the best websites have
four purposes 1 introduce visitors to its mission its
character its offerings to children its stance on new
technologies 2 offer an opportunity for the publishing of
student works and parents education 3 act as a mediator to
a larger share of information and 4 provide rich data
locally collected on curriculum related topics (such as
local history) Some school websites contain all four of
these elements but the majority is concentrated upon
providing a quality service in two or three of these
elements
21 Cooperation between parents and school in Croatia
In the elementary education in Croatia prescribed are
(most often by School statute) the following ways of
cooperation with parents parent meeting individual talks
with teachers and school assistants and written messages to
parents According to Law on Primary and Secondary
Education (Ministry of Education Science and Technology
2008) prescribed is the formation a Parentsrsquo Council which
comprises one parent from every class and the president of
the Parentrsquos Council is appointed a member of the School
Committee Practice shows that these prescribed ways of
cooperation do not satisfy the teachers or the parents
Parent participation is merely formal without real
possibility of influencing important decisions
Centralization and standardization of the curriculum do not
allow schools enough space for adapting to the needs of the
local community parent meeting come down to mere
information sharing where parents are usually passive
recipients of information and parents asked to participate
in some kind of school activity are rare A research
conducted among parents of pupil of the 4th and 7th grade
from all Croatian regions and their teachers (Marušić 2007)
shows that two thirds of parents believes that they have too
little possibility of participating in decision making in
schools more than 90 of parents have never taken part in
activities related to cooperation between family and school
three quarters of parents state that there are no lectures
or workshops organized in schools and a third of parents
does not know if such workshops are organized A substantial
number of parents have shown interest in participating in
various school activities but the initiative is expected to
come from teachers
However the practice in Croatian schools in recent
years has shown undertaking additional strategies for
cooperation with parents Many workshops are being held
parents are involved as assistants on projects and in the
communication between parents and school improvement has
been made in following and assessing the pupilsrsquo progress as
well as in the feedback information on the pupilsrsquo progress
(increasingly common are the pupilsrsquo maps as an example of
systematic authentic and development assessment of pupilsrsquo
progress)
As far as electronic cooperation is concerned Croatia
is one step back The project ldquoNet u školirdquo ndash ldquoNet in the
schoolrdquo was initiated in 2003 and all schools in Croatia
have been equipped with ISDN terminals with the aim to
improve the process of learning by using Internet in
teaching and pupilsrsquo research from home and by laying the
foundation for a new culture of learning based on openness
to new knowledge new media and technology Today all
schools in Croatia have the possibility to set up a website
and the teachers to open e-mail accounts
In Croatia websites of teachers are a rare appearance
but the projects ldquoŠkolski infocentarrdquo and ldquoSMS informativkardquo
have been initiated through which informing parents on
success absence and other school activities via simple and
to the majority accessible way of communication (SMS e-
mail Internet and voicemail) has been enabled A small
number of schools have incorporated a web directory updated
monthly by class masters which parents with a special
password can check at any time Although not the most
important fact it should not be ignored that according to
the Central Bureau of Statistics in 2009 only 38 of
households in Croatia had access to the Internet which
complicates communication via websites and not all teachers
are computer literate Such cooperation has its advantages
and disadvantages
Table 1 ndash advantages and disadvantages of cooperation
via electronic media
ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGESInformation on child received daily
Fast information transmission
Not limited by time or place
Time saving for parents
Time saving for teachers when
sending general information
Parents come to school prepared
themes for conversation are
educational
Both parents and teachers must be
computer literate
All participants (parents
teachers) must have Internet access
Additional work for teachers
(regular updating of data)
Rarer encounters among parents and
teachers
Lack of face-to-face communication
Financial expense for parents when
sending SMS messages
Possible abuse (password)
3 Research methodology
31 Aim of research
The aim of the research was to examine whether the
content of Croatian elementary schools websites encourages
frequent parentsrsquo visits and allows pupils to acquire new
knowledge A long term goal is to encourage schools to post
new materials regularly which would result in high-quality
cooperation between home and school along with encouraging
students to research work from their homes and therefore
advancing the quality of learning
32 Problem
The problem of this work is to determine the current
purpose of Croatian elementary schools websites
33 Hypothesis
H-1 Websites of Croatian elementary schools with its
contents do not pose a model for a more intensive
cooperation with parents or lay the foundations for a new
culture of learning
H-2 There is no statistically significant difference in
content between the two counties in neither of the eleven
categories
34 Participants and procedure
School websites are public documents and welcome the
outer world into the school as well as a link between
pupils and teachers with outer sources of information and a
possibility of better cooperation with parents The function
of school websites is to make public the achievements of
pupils to allow parents insight into daily activities and
to inform parents and the larger community of future
activities as well as strengthening cooperation between
school home and the local community The function of the
schoolsrsquo websites should not be a mere electronic version of
a notice board or a picture of a school that seldom changes
its appearance
The research was conducted by content analysis method
on a random selection of 50 elementary school websites in
the counties of Istria and Split ndash Dalmatia (25 schools per
county) The Internet school directory of ldquoPortal za školerdquo
was used Since in Croatia a research has not been conducted
on parents and the content the parents believed to be
important and relevant the authors were led by a research
done by an online study in USA (Unal 2008) and the elements
selected by teachers and parents in that study The
following website content was analysed curriculum about
the school (school history) web counters house rules
(classroom rules) timetable and information for parents
results of school competition photo albums online tests
(study materials) teachersrsquo CV tips for parents and forum
The analysis was done at the beginning of December 2010 by
the end of the first term giving the schools enough time to
update and enrich the websites This research did not take
into consideration the design of websites since in the
majority of cases it has been done using Carnet hosting
services and offered similar links Regarding the fact that
most schools have the same browser a school is considered
to have a website if a private document or link has been
updated
4 Results and discussion
Table 2 ndash Overall analysed content in percentage
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIES
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCETAGECURRICULUM 41 82 9 18 WEBSITE
COUNTER8 16 42 84
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTSrsquo
INFORMATION28 56 22 44
RESULTS OF
SCHOOL
COMPETITION
23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 ONLINE
TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
TEACHERSrsquo 2 4 48 96
CV
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
FORUM 12 24 38 76 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL
(SCHOOL
HISTORY)
50 100 0 0
For table 2 it is evident that all schools have information
about the school on the website ie about its history
(100) the majority has school photo alums (86) and the
curriculum (82) More than half the schools (56) have the
timetable for parentsrsquo information and less then half (46)
have sport achievements of their pupils The fewest schools
publish teachersrsquo CVs (4) and website counters Study
materials and tips for parents are present on just above a
third the websites (34 36)
Chart 1 ndash content according to county
It is visible from Chart 1 that results do not vary much
between counties The most discrepancy is shown in sportsrsquo
achievements (Istria 72 Split ndash Dalmatia 20) and a 20
discrepancy is present in categories photo album and study
material Other discrepancies are smaller than 20 The 2nd
hypothesis was tested with the chi-square test The
hypothesis is considered valid in case that the probability
of error is less than 5 considering that there is a
statistically significant link between the analysed pair of
variables
Table 3 ndash Relations between counties
CURRI
CULUM
WEB
COUNT
ERS
HOUSE
RULES
INFOR
MATIO
N
TIMET
ABLE
SPORT
S
ACHIE
VEMEN
TS
PHOTO
ALBUM
ONLINE
TESTS
TEACHERS
CVs
TIPS
FOR
PARENTS FORUM
10486462 0024 0148 0125 0081 1159 2657 1471 05208 07812 01096
8 4 8
df 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
p 0876
88491
0
0479
50012
0527
0892
0705
31663
0006
71374
0
044
5920
62
02251
8798
0157299
21
03457
4844
05638
979
It is not difficult to notice that a significant
discrepancy is present only in sportsrsquo achievement whereas
in other elements it does not exist which confirms the
stated hypothesis It can be concluded that there are no
differences between the content in the two counties
The website content can be divided into two categories
content intended for parents and pupils (curriculum
timetable for parentsrsquo information teachersrsquo CVs tips for
parents forum online tests and study material house
rules) and content for promoting school activities and
achievements (sportsrsquo achievements photo albums about the
school web counters)
Table 4 ndash analysis according to purpose
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIESINTENDEED FOR
PARENTS AND
PUPILSYES
PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
ONLINE TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
CURRICULUM 41 82 9 18
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTS
INFORMATION
TIMETABLE
28 56 22 44
FORUM 12 24 38 76 TEACHERSrsquo CV 2 4 48 96 PROMOTION OF
SCHOOL
ACTIVITIES
AND
ACVIEVEMENTS
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
SPORTS
ACHIEVEMENTS23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 WEB COUNTERS 8 16 42 84 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL50 100 0 0
Among the content intended for parents and pupils
which would allow pupils to acquire new knowledge and
encourage parents to visit regularly schools offer in high
percentage (82) the curriculum which is a legal obligation
(public notice) and just over half the schools (56) offer
the timetable for parentsrsquo information About one third of
schools (34 36) publish on its websites study materials
and tips for parents and only 24 have an active forum for
exchanging opinions although these forums have an
insignificant number of open themes none of which were
opened by parents Study materials are most often online
tests with a link from the website and tips for parents are
texts compiled by schools assistants Considering the lack
of assistants in schools this may be the cause for a small
percentage of these materials Some schools under the
section tips for parents have links to interesting Internet
articles
Categories intended for the promotion of school
achievements and activities have more contents every school
has a page dedicated to school history 86 updates the
photo album section and less then half the schools (46)
publish sportsrsquo achievements of the pupils The photo albums
offer pictures from school trips out-of-classroom teaching
school events etc Justifying such a large number of
pictures is debatable since none of the published materials
are protected by password but available to everybody the
question arises if the schools have the parentsrsquo permission
Only 16 of schools pay attention to visits which could be
a significant information showing the number of parents and
pupils visiting the website
The mentioned data show that schools consider relevant
the promotion of school activities and success the history
of the school and the timetable for parentsrsquo information
but tips for parents and school materials along with
exchanging opinions are not a priority Schools consider the
teachersrsquo CVs parentsrsquo meeting announcements or the school
cafeteria menu of no relevance to parents These facts point
to the fact that school websites in Croatia are more online
notice-boards than a real possibility for communication
5 Conclusion
Over the last decade cooperation with parents in
Croatia has been improving however in our schools
traditional forms of cooperation with parents are still
prevailing Although in the world there are specialized
radio and TV channels magazines and Internet sites for
exchanging experiences (Mendel 1998) such practice has not
flung into being in Croatia However over the last couple
of years cooperation via websites e-mails and SMS messages
Summarising its advantages and disadvantages and
considering todayrsquos lifestyle this way of cooperation
should be intensified in our schools Contemporary ways of
communication can additionally improve the communication
between parents and school but just as one more way
alongside other ways Consequently although the modern age
presupposes the use of modern technologies no technology
should replace face-to-face communication between parents
and teachers and the responsibility for a good cooperation
still lies on the school
The research demonstrates the possibilities of
communication between family and school by using modern
technology Elements of school websites are shown as well
as ways of planning the content of a website We consider
this research important for informing teachers and school
management of the possibilities of modern communication
between families and school A school website allows for the
possibility of establishing fast communication however its
mere existence does not guarantee the pupils acquiring new
knowledge and a quality relation between the family and
school It can be a good example for the school management
in creating the school curriculum as a segment allowing for
a fast exchange of information with parents Unfortunately
the educational system in Croatia is traditional and inert
unsuitable for the times and contemporary professions It
does not satisfy the need of the individual and traditional
teaching by using a minimum of technology and information is
utterly un-motivational for the student as well as for the
family The results of this research show that school
websites in Croatia donrsquot fulfil their purpose presenting
pupilsrsquo achievements allowing the parents insight into
everyday activities informing the parents and the wider
community on future activities and strengthening the
cooperation between school home and the local community
Although the purpose of school websites should not be merely
an electronic version of the notice board and an image of
the school that rarely changes its appearance the current
condition of the Croatian school websites in the analysed
counties shows just that therefore confirming the initial
hypothesis
Future research should inquire into the stance of
parents in Croatia on which content they consider important
therefore receiving relevant data which could later be used
by teachers for creating their websites
References
Berger E H (1991) Parent Involvement Yesterday and
Today The Elementary School Journal 91 (3) 209-219
Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb
Educa
Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships
Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76
httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20Articles
ParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
Epstein JL i Sheldon S B (2006) Moving Forward Ideas
for Research on School Family and Community Partnerships
httpwwwcsosjhuedup2000pdfLiterature20Review
2020Epstein20and20Sheldon2006pdf (15112010)
Graham- Clay S (2005) Communicating with Parents
Strategies for Teachers School Community Journal 16 (1)
117-129
Hartshorne R Friedman A Algozzine B i Kaur D
(2008) Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites Educational
Technology amp Society 11 (1) 291-303
Hitrec G(ur) (2006) Škola otvorena roditeljima Zagreb
Udruga roditelja Korak po korak
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE -
- MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE - MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
-
suradnjom doma i škole te poticati učenike na istraživački rad iz svojih domova i
time unaprjeđivati kvalitetu učenja Istraživanje je obuhvatilo po 25 web stranica
osnovnih škola iz Istarske i Splitsko-dalmatinske županije odabranih slučajnim
izborom Dobiveni rezultati pokazuju da web stranice hrvatskih osnovnih škola
svojim sadržajima nisu model za intenziviranje suradnje s roditeljima te
postavljanje temelja novoj kulturi učenja i da ne postoji statistički značajna
razlika u sadržajima među dvjema županijama
Ključne riječi suradnja s roditeljima načini suradnje
roditelja i škole suvremeni oblici suradnje sadržaji
školskih web stranica
1 Suradnja roditelja i škole
Suradnja roditelja sa školom iznimno je važna i donosi
višestruke koristi svim sudionicima odgojno ndash obrazovnog
procesa Partnerstvom roditelja i učitelja stvaraju se dobri
odnosi jer svaki partner unosi svoju kompetenciju u
obrazovanje djeteta Za dobra postignuća nužno je da
suradnja roditelja i učitelja odnosno škole bude što
bolja Berger (1991) smatra kako se danas modelima
obiteljskog uključivanja pristupa aktivnije nego 60-ih
godina 20 st kada se smatralo da obitelj i škola imaju
različite odgovornosti Danas se suradnja s roditeljima
tretira kao jedna od bitnih odrednica opće pedagoški
djelotvorne škole a istraživanja pokazuju da 22 učitelja
nedostatak roditeljske uključenosti smatra ozbiljnim
problemom (Ryan i Cooper 2010) Ta suradnja tek je dijelom
usmjerena na prevenciju odnosno na rješavanje disciplinskih
problema jer su dobiti takve suradnje za dijete višestruke
a očituju se u boljim ocjenama redovitijem polasku u školu
većom voljom za radom kod kuće te razvijanju pozitivnijih
stavova i ponašanja Roditeljska uključenost u školski život
pozitivno utječe na postignuća učenika i njihovu motivaciju
a roditelji su partnerskim odnosom sa školom bolje
informirani o događajima u školi postižu pozitivniju sliku
u očima učitelja daju doprinos kvalitetnijem radu škole
jačaju svoje samopouzdanje i sigurnost u pružanju pomoći
djetetu kod kuće i postaju sudionici a ne pasivni
promatrači školskoga života svoga djeteta Učitelji također
imaju koristi od partnerskog odnosa s roditeljima jer u
roditeljima dobivaju saveznike u rješavanju problema
postaju motiviraniji i zadovoljniji poslom postižu veće
povjerenje roditelja i imaju bolji ugled u društvenoj
zajednici
Ove a i ostale dobrobiti za sve sudionike odgojno-
obrazovnoga procesa rezultat su sve veće želje i potreba
uključenosti roditelja u školski život Prema Walsh (2002)
jedan od načina kojima se postiže uspješna veza između
roditelja i škole jest dosljedna i jasna dvosmjerna
komunikacija
Epstein (1995) navodi tri konteksta u kojima učenici
uče u obitelji školi i zajednici te ističe šest vrsta
roditeljskoga uključivanja To su roditeljstvo
komuniciranje volontiranje učenje kod kuće odlučivanje i
suradnja sa zajednicom Međutim svi ovi načini suradnje
roditelja sa školom pretpostavljaju izravnu komunikaciju
koja ponekad ni uz najbolju volju roditelja nije moguća
Mnogi roditelji rade u vrijeme planiranih školskih
aktivnosti ili sastanaka i nisu u mogućnosti biti nazočni
pogotovo u školama koje rade u jednoj smjeni Današnji način
života i zaposlenost oba roditelja onemogućuju komunikaciju
licem u lice i aktivnije sudjelovanje roditelja sa školom
2 Suvremeni oblici suradnje roditelja i škole
Jedna od ključnih značajki ljudskoga roda je sposobnost
komuniciranja Iznimna sposobnost pohranjivanja podataka te
brza informacijska razmjena ogromnih razmjera
revolucionalizirali su poslovanje i svakodnevni život
čovjeka Pristup informacijama postaje neograničen
razmjena ideja i misli slobodna transformira se svjetsko
gospodarstvo i ekonomija Značajne su promjene i u pristupu
obrazovanju Brze komunikacije postaju trend u oblikovanju
budućnosti pa su sve zastupljeniji revolucionarni modeli
učenja (primjerice korištenje interaktivne kompjutorske
tehnologije ubrzano učenje) Učenik preuzima
odgovornost za život u svijetu u kojem bdquooni koji prekinu
školovanje nemaju budućnostldquo (Dryden i Vos 2001 str 39)
Snažnije je i kritiziranje obrazovnog sustava kao tromog
sustava u procesu promjena a pozitivne inicijative osnažene
znanstvenim istraživanjima postaju poveznica za
osuvremenjivanje i unaprjeđivanje škole 21 stoljeća
Tehnologija je postala kritična komponenta svakodnevnog
života i posljednjih nekoliko godina vidljiv je porast u
razvoju i korištenju školskih web stranica (Hartshorne i
sur 2008) Istraživanja (Aronson 1995 Cameron i Lee 1997
Clemens-Brower 1997 Clevenson 1999 Ramirez 2001)
pokazuju da mnogi učitelji eksperimentiraju s raznim
tehnologijama pri komuniciranju s roditeljima (telefoni u
učionicama glasovna pošta video tehnologije radio najave
i sl) a sve kako bi unaprijedili suradnju Školske web
stranice pružaju korisne sadržaje za roditelje kao što su
odgojni savjeti domaće zadaće elektronsku poštu ili
jelovnik školske kuhinje te šire granice komunikacije i
omogućuju komunikaciju između doma i škole dvadeset i četiri
sata dnevno sedam dana u tjednu To omogućuje roditeljima
kojima dnevni rasporedi ne pružaju mogućnost za redovne
posjete školi i interakciju licem u lice sa svojim djetetom
ili učiteljem da budu informiraniji o tome što se događa u
školi Internet postaje izvrsno sredstvo za povezivanje doma
i škole
Swan (2006) smatra da škole imaju puno informacija a
roditelji žele znati više o akademskih postignućima
izvannastavnim aktivnostima terminima informacija
sadržajima poput autobusnog prijevoza ili ručka te da je
važno da školske web stranice sadrže točne i korisne
informacije a ne uzbudljiv dizajn i najnovije tehnološke
bdquoukraserdquo
Online istraživanje (Unal 2008) pokazuje da roditelji
i učitelji prepoznaju važnost web stranica škola iako se ne
slažu u potpunosti oko njihova sadržaja Dok su učitelji
sugerirali kako bi poveznice (linkovi) unutar škole
razredna pravila nastavni program i standardi spisak
(obveznog) školskog pribora statistika posjetitelja web
stranice i knjiga gostiju bili esencijalni za školske web
stranice u značajnom odstupanju (plt05) se pokazalo kako se
roditelji nisu složili s učiteljima u vezi tih elemenata S
druge strane roditelji izjavljuju kako bi rado vidjeli
online praktične testove akademske savjetodavne
informacije vijesti u vezi administrativnih pitanja i
školske uprave te životopise učitelja Naposljetku i
učitelji i roditelji složni su kako rezultati školskih
športskih natjecanja i aktivnosti prosvjetna filozofija
plan nastavnih lekcija poveznice izvan institucije online
članci ili letci s vijestima razredni foto album razredne
vijesti ili blog učitelja meniji primjerci didaktičkih
kartica osobne poveznice (linkovi) i informacije o obitelji
učitelja nisu esencijalni elementi školskih web stranica
Može se zaključiti da bez obzira što mnoge škole sada imaju
web stranice nisu sve značajne za komunikaciju roditelja i
učitelja Prethodna istraživanja pokazuju da struktura i
sadržaj školske web stranice trebaju biti pažljivo planirane
i osmišljene
Prema McKenzie J (1997) najbolja školska web mjesta
imaju četiri svrhe 1 upoznati posjetitelje sa svojom
misijom karakterom ponudama za učenike i stajalištem o
novim tehnologijama 2 pružiti mogućnost objave učeničkih
radova i edukacije roditelja 3 djelovati kao posrednik
većem dijelu informacija i 4 pružiti bogatu zbirku
podataka lokalno prikupljenih uz nastavni plan i program
(kao što je lokalna povijest) Neke školske stranice
sadržavaju sva četiri elementa ali većina se koncentrira na
pružanje kvalitetne usluge za dva ili tri od ovih elemenata
21 Suradnja roditelja i škole u Republici Hrvatskoj
U osnovnoškolskom obrazovanju u Republici Hrvatskoj
propisani su (najčešće školskim Statutom) sljedeći oblici
suradnje s roditeljima roditeljski sastanci individualni
razgovori s učiteljima i stručnim suradnicima i pismene
poruke roditeljima Prema Zakonu o osnovnoškolskom i
srednjem obrazovanju (MZOŠ 2008) propisuje se osnivanje
Vijeća roditelja koje sačinjava po jedan roditelj iz svakoga
razreda a predsjednik Vijeća roditelja postaje i član
Školskoga odbora Praksa pokazuje da ovi propisani načini
suradnje ne zadovoljavaju ni učitelje a ni roditelje
Roditeljsko sudjelovanje je tek formalno bez stvarne
mogućnosti utjecaja na donošenje bitnih odluka
Centraliziranost i normiranost kurikuluma ne ostavlja
dovoljno prostora školama da svoj program prilagođavaju
potrebama lokalne sredine roditeljski sastanci se svode na
prenošenje informacija pri čemu su roditelji najčešće
pasivni primatelji informacija a vrlo rijetki roditelji su
pozvani na sudjelovanje u nekim aktivnostima škole
Istraživanje provedeno među roditeljima učenika deset
osnovnih škola četvrtoga i sedmoga razreda iz svih hrvatskih
regija te njihovih učitelja (Marušić 2007) pokazuje da
dvije trećine roditelja smatra da imaju premalo mogućnosti
sudjelovati u donošenju odluka u školi više od 90
roditelja nije nikada sudjelovalo u aktivnostima vezanima uz
suradnju obitelji i škole tri četvrtine roditelja navode da
se u školi ne organiziraju predavanja i radionice a trećina
roditelja ne zna organiziraju li se takve radionice Znatan
broj roditelja je iskazao zainteresiranost za sudjelovanje u
različitim aktivnostima škole ali inicijativu čekaju od
strane učitelja
Ipak praksa u hrvatskim školama posljednjih godina
pokazuje poduzimanje dodatnih strategija u suradnji s
roditeljima Održavaju se brojne radionice uključuju se kao
suradnici u projektu a u zajedničkoj komunikaciji na
relaciji obitelj - škola unaprjeđuje se praćenje i
procjenjivanje učeničkog napretka te ostvaruje kvalitetnija
povratna informacija o napretku djeteta (sve su
zastupljenije učeničke mape kao primjer sustavne autentične
i razvojne procjene napretka učenika)
Što se elektroničkih oblika suradnje tiče Hrvatska je
korak unatrag Projekt Net u školi započeo je 2003godine
i u sve hrvatske škole uveden je ISDN priključak s ciljem
unaprjeđenja procesa učenja korištenjem interneta u nastavi
i istraživanju učenika iz vlastitog doma te postavljanju
temelja novoj kulturi učenja koja se bazira na otvorenosti k
novim spoznajama novim medijima i tehnologijama Danas sve
hrvatske škole imaju mogućnost postavljanja svoje web
stranice a učitelji otvaranje elektronske adrese
U Hrvatskoj su web mjesta pojedinoga učitelja rijetka
pojava ali su pokrenuti projekti Školski infocentar i SMS
informativka kojima je omogućeno informiranje roditelja o
uspjehu izostancima i ostalim školskim zbivanjima
jednostavnim i većini roditelja dostupnim načinima
komunikacije (SMS e-mail internet i govorne poruke) Mali
broj škola uveo je i web imenike gdje razrednici jednom
mjesečno ažuriraju podatke pa ih roditelji pomoću posebne
lozinke mogu pogledati u svako doba dana Iako nije
najvažnije ne treba zanemariti ni podatak da prema Zavodu
za državnu statistiku u Hrvatskoj tek oko 38 kućanstava ima
Internet (2009) što otežava komunikaciju putem web
stranica a ni svi učitelji nisu informatički pismeni Takva
suradnja ima svoje prednosti i nedostatke
Tablica 1 ndash prednosti i nedostatci suradnje putem
elektroničkih medija
PREDNOSTI NEDOSTATCISvakodnevno primanje obavijesti o
djetetu
Brzina slanja informacija
Neograničenost vremenom i mjestom
Ušteda vremena za roditelje
Ušteda vremena za učitelja pri
slanju općih obavijesti
Roditelj u školu dolazi
pripremljen teme za razgovor su s
područja odgoja i obrazovanja
I roditelji i učitelji moraju biti
informatički pismeni
Svi sudionici (roditelji učitelji)
moraju imati internet
Dodatni posao za učitelje (redovito
ažuriranje podataka)
Rjeđi susreti roditelja i učitelja
Izostanak komunikacije bdquolicem u
licerdquo
Financijski trošak za roditelje pri
slanju SMS poruka
Mogućnost zlouporabe (lozinka)
3 Metodologija istraživanja
31 Cilj istraživanja
Cilj istraživanja bio je ispitati imaju li web stranice
hrvatskih osnovnih škola sadržaje koji će potaknuti
roditelje na česte posjete i omogućiti učenicima stjecanje
novih znanja Dugoročni je cilj potaknuti škole na redovito
postavljanje novih sadržaja koji će rezultirati kvalitetnom
suradnjom doma i škole te poticati učenike na istraživački
rad iz svojih domova i time unaprjeđivati kvalitetu učenja
32 Problem
Problem ovoga rada jest utvrditi trenutnu svrhu
hrvatskih osnovnoškolskih web stranica (objaviti postignuća
učenika omogućiti roditeljima uvid u svakodnevne
aktivnosti informirati roditelje i širu zajednicu o budućim
aktivnostima i jačanje suradnje između škole doma i
lokalne zajednice)
33 Hipoteze
H-1 Web stranice hrvatskih osnovnih škola svojim
sadržajima nisu model za intenziviranje suradnje s
roditeljima te postavljanje temelja novoj kulturi učenja
H-2 Ne postoji statistički značajna razlika u
sadržajima među dvjema županijama ni u jednoj od jedanaest
kategorija
34 Ispitanici i postupak
Školske web stranice javne su isprave i dobrodošlica
vanjskome svijetu u školu kao i poveznica učenika i
učitelja s vanjskim izvorima informacija te mogućnost
kvalitetnije suradnje s roditeljima Svrha školskih web
stranica je objaviti postignuća učenika omogućiti
roditeljima uvid u svakodnevne aktivnosti informirati
roditelje i širu zajednicu o budućim aktivnostima i jačanje
suradnje između škole doma i lokalne zajednice Svrha
školskih web stranica ne bi trebala biti elektronička
verzija oglasne ploče i slika škole koja rijetko mijenja
svoj izgled
Istraživanje je provedeno metodom analize sadržaja
slučajnim odabirom na 50 web stranica osnovnih škola u
Istarskoj i Splitsko-dalmatinskoj županiji (25 škola po
županiji) Korišten je internetski popis škola Portal za
škole Budući da u Hrvatskoj nije provedeno istraživanje s
roditeljima u kojemu bi se ispitalo koje sadržaje oni
smatraju bitnima i relevantnima autorice su se vodile
istraživanjem provedenim online studijom u Americi (Unal
2008) i elementima koje su u toj studiji izabrali učitelji
i roditelji Analizirani su sljedeći sadržaji web stranica
plan i program o školi (povijest škole) brojač posjeta
kućni red (razredna pravila) raspored sati i informacija za
roditelje rezultati športskih natjecanja foto albumi
online testovi (materijali za učenje) životopisi učitelja
savjeti za roditelje i forum Analiza je obavljena početkom
mjeseca prosinca 2010 pred kraj prvoga polugodišta što je
školama dalo dovoljno vremena za ažuriranje i popunjavanje
stranica U ovom istraživanju nije analiziran dizajn web
stranica jer su u većini slučajeva stranice postavljene
koristeći Carnet hosting uslugu i nude slične poveznice S
obzirom da većina škola ima isti preglednik smatrano je da
škola ima sadržaj ako je unesen vlastiti dokument ili
poveznica
4 Rezultati i rasprava
Tablica 2 - ukupni analizirani sadržaji u postotcima
SADRŽAJ OBJE
ŽUPANIJE DA POSTOTAK NE POSTOTAK
PLAN I
PROGRAM41 82 9 18
BROJAČ
POSJETA8 16 42 84
KUĆNI RED 10 20 40 80 RASPORED
INFORMACIJA28 56 22 44
ŠPORTSKI
USPJESI23 46 27 54
FOTO ALBUMI 43 86 7 14 TESTOVI
ONLINE
(MATERIJALI
ZA UČENJE)
17 34 33 66
ŽIVOTOPIS
UČITELJA2 4 48 96
SAVJETI ZA
RODITELJE18 36 32 64
FORUM 12 24 38 76
O ŠKOLI
(POVIJEST)50 100 0 0
Iz tablice 2 vidljivo je da sve škole na svojim
stranicama imaju podatke o školi odnosno njezinoj povijesti
(100) a najveći dio škola foto albume (86) te plan i
program (82) Više od polovice škola (56) imaju raspored
informacija a nešto manje od polovice (46) športske
uspjehe svojih učenika Najmanji broj škola na svojim
stranicama objavljuju životopise učitelja (4) i brojač
posjeta (16) Materijale za učenje i savjete za roditelje
ima tek nešto više od trećine stranica (34 36)
Grafikon 1 - sadržaji prema županijama
Iz grafikona 1 vidljivo je da se rezultati među županijama
ne razlikuju mnogo Najviše razlika je u sadržaju športskih
uspjeha (Istarska županija 72 Splitsko- dalmatinska 20)
a razlika od 20 pojavila se u kategorijama foto albuma i
materijala za učenje Sve ostale razlike su manje od 20
Hipoteza 2 testirana je hi ndash kvadrat testom Hipoteza se
smatra prihvaćenom u slučaju da je vjerojatnost pogreške
pri tvrdnji da postoji statistički značajna povezanost
analiziranog para varijabli manja od 5
Tablica 3 Relacije među županijama
PLAN
I
PROGR
AM
BRO
JAČ
POSJE
TA
KUĆNI
RED
RASPO
RED
INFOR
MACI
JA
ŠPORT
SKI
USPJE
SI
FOTO
ALBUM
ONLINE
TESTOVI
ŽIVOTOPIS
UČITELJA
SAVJETI
ZA
RODI
TELJE FORUM
10486462 00240148
80125 0081
1159
4
2657
81471 05208 07812 01096
df 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
p 0876
88491
0
0479
50012
0527
0892
0705
31663
0006
71374
0
044
5920
62
02251
8798
0157299
21
03457
4844
05638
979
Nije teško uočiti da se statistički značajna razlika
javlja samo u sadržaju športskih uspjeha a u ostalim
elementima ne postoji što potvrđuje postavljenu hipotezu
Može se dakle zaključiti da nema razlika u sadržajima među
dvjema županijama
Sadržaji web stranica mogu se podijeliti u dvije
kategorije sadržaji namijenjeni roditeljima i učenicima
(plan i program raspored informacija životopis učitelja
savjeti za roditelje forum testovi ili materijali za
učenje kućni red) i sadržaji namijenjeni promociji školskih
aktivnosti i uspjeha (športski uspjesi foto albumi o
školi brojač posjeta)
Tablica 4 - analiza sadržaja prema svrsi
SADRŽAJ OBJE
ŽUPANIJE NAMIJENJENI
RODITELJIMA
I UČENICIMADA
POSTOTAK NE POSTOTAK
TESTOVI
ONLINE
(MATERIJALI
ZA UČENJE)
17 34 33 66
PLAN I
PROGRAM41 82 9 18
SAVJETI ZA
RODITELJE18 36 32 64
KUĆNI RED 10 20 40 80 RASPORED
INFORMACIJA28 56 22 44
FORUM 12 24 38 76 ŽIVOTOPIS
UČITELJA2 4 48 96
PROMOCIJA
ŠKOLSKIH
AKTIVNOSTI
DA POSTOTAK NE POSTOTAK
I USPJEHA
ŠPORTSKI
USPJESI23 46 27 54
FOTO ALBUMI 43 86 7 14 BROJAČ
POSJETA8 16 42 84
O ŠKOLI
(POVIJEST)50 100 0 0
Od sadržaja koji su namijenjeni roditeljima i
učenicima a koji bi učenicima omogućili stjecanje novih
znanja i roditelje potaknuli na česte posjete škole u
visokom postotku (82) nude plan i program što je i
zakonska obveza škole (javna objava) a tek nešto više od
polovice škola (56) objavljuje raspored informacija za
roditelje Nešto više od trećine škola (34 36) na svojim
web stranicama ima materijale za učenje i savjete za
roditelje a tek 24 škola ima aktivan forum za razmjenu
mišljenja iako je i na tim forumima bio zanemariv broj
otvorenih tema od kojih niti jednu nije otvorio roditelj
Materijali za učenje najčešće su online testovi za što
postoji poveznica sa školske web stranice a savjeti za
roditelje tekstovi koje su sastavili stručni suradnici S
obzirom na manjak stručnih suradnika u našim školama moguće
je da je to razlog relativno malog postotka tih sadržaja U
nekim školama u rubrici savjeta za roditelje nalaze se
poveznice sa zanimljivim člancima na internetu
Kategorije koje služe za promociju školskih uspjeha i
aktivnosti imaju više sadržaja svaka škola ima uređenu
stranicu o povijesti škole 86 škola ažurira stranicu s
foto albumima a nešto manje od polovice škola (46) na
svoje stranice stavlja športske uspjehe svojih učenika U
navedenim foto albumima škole nude fotografije s izleta
izvanučioničke nastave priredbi i sl O opravdanosti
velikoga broja fotografija učenika moglo bi se raspravljati
s obzirom da niti jedan objavljeni sadržaj nije zaštićen
lozinkom već je dostupan svima pa se postavlja pitanje
imaju li škole suglasnost roditelja za to Tek 16 škola
vodi računa o posjećenosti svojih stranica a to bi mogao
biti značajan podatak o tome koliko ih učenici i roditelji
posjećuju
Iz navedenih podataka može se zaključiti da je školama
veoma važna promocija aktivnosti i uspjeha škole povijest
ustanove i raspored individualnih informacija a savjeti za
roditelje i materijali za učenike te razmjena mišljenja
nisu prioritetni sadržaji Škole smatraju da je roditeljima
potpuno nevažan stručni životopis učitelja najave
roditeljskih sastanaka ili jelovnici školskih kuhinja Iz
toga proizlazi da su web stranice škola u Hrvatskoj
elektroničke oglasne ploče a ne mogućnost komunikacije
5 Zaključak
Zadnjih desetak godina suradnja s roditeljima i kod nas
se mijenja na bolje ali u našim školama još uvijek
prevladavaju tradicionalni oblici suradnje s roditeljima
Iako u svijetu postoje roditeljski radio i Tv kanali
časopisi i internet stranice za razmjenu iskustava (Mendel
1998) kod nas takva praksa nije zaživjela no posljednjih
godina započela je suradnja putem web stranica e mail i sms
poruka Sumirajući prednosti i nedostatke a s obzirom na
današnji način života i ovaj način suradnje treba
intenzivirati u našim školama Suvremeni načini
komuniciranja mogu dodatno poboljšati komunikaciju između
roditelja i škole ali samo kao još jedan od načina uz sve
ostale navedene načine suradnje Iz toga proizlazi da iako
suvremeno doba pretpostavlja korištenje suvremenih
tehnologija nikakva tehnologija ne bi smjela zamijeniti
komunikaciju bdquolicem u licerdquo roditelja i učitelja a
odgovornost za dobru suradnju s roditeljima i dalje ostaje
na školi
Istraživanje pokazuje mogućnosti komuniciranja obitelji
i škole suvremenom tehnologijom Prikazani su elementi
školskih web stranica te način planiranja sadržaja web
stranice Ovo istraživanje smatramo važnim za informiranje
učitelja i rukovodstva škola o mogućnostima suvremenog
komuniciranja obitelji i škole Školska web stranica otvara
mogućnosti za uspostavljanje brze informacije no samim
postojanjem ne jamči učenicima stjecanje novih znanja i
kvalitetnije povezivanje obitelji i škole Može biti dobar
primjer vodstvu škole u stvaranju školskog kurikuluma kao
segmenta kojim će se omogućavati brza razmjena informacija s
roditeljima Nažalost obrazovni sustav u Hrvatskoj
tradicionalan je i trom neprimjeren vremenu i suvremenim
zanimanjima Ne zadovoljava individualne potrebe pojedinca
a tradicionalnim poučavanjem uz tehnologijski i
informacijski minimum potpuno je nemotivirajući kako za
učenika tako i za obitelj Rezultati ovoga istraživanja
pokazuju da školske web stranice u Hrvatskoj ne ostvaruju
sasvim svoju svrhu objavljivanje postignuća učenika
omogućavanje roditeljima uvid u svakodnevne aktivnosti
informiranje roditelja i šire zajednice o budućim
aktivnostima i jačanje suradnje između škole doma i
lokalne zajednice Iako svrha školskih web stranica ne bi
trebala biti elektronička verzija oglasne ploče i slika
škole koja rijetko mijenja svoj izgled trenutno stanje
hrvatskih web stranica u analiziranim županijama pokazuje
upravo to što potvrđuje početnu hipotezu
U narednim istraživanjima trebalo bi ispitati stavove
roditelja u Hrvatskoj o tome koje sadržaje oni smatraju
važnima te bi se tada dobili relevantni podatci koje bi
učitelji mogli upotrijebiti za kreiranje svojih web
stranica
Literatura
Berger E H (1991) Parent Involvement Yesterday and
Today The Elementary School Journal 91 (3) 209-219
Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb
Educa
Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships
Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76
httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20Articles
ParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
Epstein JL i Sheldon S B (2006) Moving Forward Ideas
for Research on School Family and Community Partnerships
httpwwwcsosjhuedup2000pdfLiterature20Review
2020Epstein20and20Sheldon2006pdf (15112010)
Graham- Clay S (2005) Communicating with Parents
Strategies for Teachers School Community Journal 16 (1)
117-129
Hartshorne R Friedman A Algozzine B i Kaur D
(2008) Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites Educational
Technology amp Society 11 (1) 291-303
Hitrec G(ur) (2006) Škola otvorena roditeljima Zagreb
Udruga roditelja Korak po korak
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
Deana Tavas graduate teacher
Vladimir Nazor Elementary School Rovinj
dtavasyahoocom
Sanja Bilač graduate teacher
Spinut Elementary School Split
sanja9stgmailcom
SCHOOL WEBSITES ndash
POSSIBILITY OF COOPERATION WITH PARENTS
SCHOOL WEBSITES ndash POSSIBILITY OF COOPERATION WITH PARENTS
Abstract In the last fifteen years in Croatia as well as around the world
much research has been done dealing with the importance of cooperation
between parents and school and the obtained results show its importance for all
the parties and that partnership relation between school and parents produces
numerous benefits Besides customary ways of communication like individual
talk and parent meetings written messages informal meetings educational
workshops the involvement of parents in the educational process in the role of
accessory etc the most modern way of communicating with parents is via school
websites teacherrsquos websites e-mails and SMS messages The goal of the
research was to examine if Croatian schoolsrsquo websites had the content which
would prompt the parents for frequent visits and enable pupils to acquire new
knowledge A long term goal was to persuade schools to a regular update of new
materials which would result in quality cooperation between home and school
and persuade pupils to do research from their home and therefore increase the
quality of learning The research has randomly selected 25 elementary school
websites from the county of Istra and 25 websites from the county Split ndash
Dalmatia Collected data show that Croatiarsquos elementary school websites are not
a model neither for increasing the cooperation with parents nor laying the
foundation towards a new culture of learning and that there is no statistically
significant variation in content between the two counties
Key words cooperation with parents Internet school websites website
content
1 Parents and school cooperation
The cooperation between parents and schools is
extremely important and offers manifold benefits for all the
participants in the education process A partnership between
parents and teachers establishes good relations since every
partner introduces their competences in the childrsquos
education The cooperation between parents and teachers
ie school should be the best possible to achieve
outstanding goals Berger (1991) considers that models of
parent involvement are approached more actively nowadays
then it was in the 1960s when the responsibilities of
parents and schools were considered distinct Cooperation
with parents is today considered on of the essential
determinants of an efficient school in terms of general
pedagogy and research has shown that 22 of teachers
consider the lack of parent involvement a serious problem
(Ryan and Cooper 2010) Such cooperation is only partially
directed at prevention ie solution of disciplinary
problems since its benefits are manifold and are
manifested in better grades increased regular attendance
more willingness to work at home and development of more
positive attitudes and behavior Parental involvement in
school life has a positive effect on pupilrsquos achievements
and their motivation and the partnership relation between
parents and schools makes the parents more informed of
school affairs gives them a more positive image in the eyes
of the teachers they contribute to a better functioning of
the school strengthen their self-confidence and assurance
in helping their child at home and they become
participants not mere observers of the education of their
child Teachers have also to gain from a partnership
relation with parents since the parents become allies in
solving problems they become more motivated and satisfied
with their job receive more confidence from parents and
have a better reputation in society
These and other benefits for all the participants in
the education process are the result of growing willingness
and need of parent involvement in the school life According
to Walsh (2002) one way of achieving a successful bond
between parents and school is a consistent and clear two-way
communication
Epstein (1995) lists three learning contexts for
pupils in the family in school and in the community and
lists 6 ways of parent involvement These are parenting
communication volunteering learning at home decision
making and collaborating with the community However all of
these ways of cooperation between parents and school presume
direct communication which at times regardless of the
parentsrsquo willingness is impossible Many parents work
during planned school activities or meetings and have not
the possibility to participate especially in schools which
work in a single shift Todayrsquos way of life and both parents
working prevents personal communication and a more active
involvement of parents with schools
2 Contemporary ways of cooperation between parents and
school
One of the key features of humans is the ability to
communicate The exceptional ability of storing data and
fast sharing of enormous amounts of information have
revolutionized business as well as the everyday life of
mankind The access to information is unlimited the sharing
of ideas and thoughts free the worldrsquos business and economy
are being transformed Significant are the changes in the
approach to education Fast communication is becoming a
trend in shaping the future and therefore revolutionary
models of learning are more and more inherent (eg using
interactive computer technology fast learning) Pupils
are assuming responsibility for their life in a world in
which ldquothose who end their education have no futurerdquo (Dryden
and Vos 2001 p 39) Stronger is the criticism of the
educational system for its inertness in the process of
change and positive initiatives empowered by scientific
research become the link for modernization and improvement
of the school in the 21st century
Technology has become a critical component of everyday
life and an increase in the development and use of school
websites over the last few years is evident (Hartshorne and
ass 2008) Research (Aronson 1995 Cameron and Lee 1997
Clemens-Brower 1997 Cleverson 1999 Ramirez 2001) show that
many teachers experiment with various technologies when
communicating with parents (telephones in classrooms voice
mail video technology radio announcements etc) to
improve cooperation School websites provide parents with
useful content such as educational tips homework e-mails
or the school cafeteria menu and expand the borders of
communication between home and school to a 24 hours a day 7
days a week contact That allows parents whose daily
timetable doesnrsquot permit regular visits to the school and
face-to-face interaction with their child or teacher to be
more informed of what is happening at school Internet
becomes an excellent means of connecting home and school
Swan (2008) believes that schools have a lot of
information and parents want to know more about academic
achievements extracurricular activities parentsrsquo meeting
schedule information such as bus transport or lunch and
that it is important that school websites include accurate
and useful information not an exciting design or newest
technological ldquoornamentsrdquo
Online research (Unal 2008) shows that parents and
teachers recognize the importance of school websites
although they do not agree completely on their content
While teachers suggest that links inside the school
classroom rules teaching curriculum and standards list of
obligatory accessories statistics of websites visitors and
guest book should be essential to a school website
significant divergence (plt05) was seen in parents
disagreeing on these elements On the other hand parents
declare they would like to see online practical tests
academic advisory information information about
administrative issues and school direction as well as
teachers CVs Eventually teachers and parents agree that
results of school sport competition and activities
educational philosophy lesson plans links outside the
institution online articles and newsletters class photo
albums and news teachersrsquo blogs menus examples of
didactic cards personal links and teachersrsquo family
information are not essential elements of schoolsrsquo websites
It can be concluded that regardless of many schools today
having their own website not all are important for the
communication of parents and teachers Past research shows
that the structure and content of school websites should be
carefully planned and developed
According to McKenzie J (1997) the best websites have
four purposes 1 introduce visitors to its mission its
character its offerings to children its stance on new
technologies 2 offer an opportunity for the publishing of
student works and parents education 3 act as a mediator to
a larger share of information and 4 provide rich data
locally collected on curriculum related topics (such as
local history) Some school websites contain all four of
these elements but the majority is concentrated upon
providing a quality service in two or three of these
elements
21 Cooperation between parents and school in Croatia
In the elementary education in Croatia prescribed are
(most often by School statute) the following ways of
cooperation with parents parent meeting individual talks
with teachers and school assistants and written messages to
parents According to Law on Primary and Secondary
Education (Ministry of Education Science and Technology
2008) prescribed is the formation a Parentsrsquo Council which
comprises one parent from every class and the president of
the Parentrsquos Council is appointed a member of the School
Committee Practice shows that these prescribed ways of
cooperation do not satisfy the teachers or the parents
Parent participation is merely formal without real
possibility of influencing important decisions
Centralization and standardization of the curriculum do not
allow schools enough space for adapting to the needs of the
local community parent meeting come down to mere
information sharing where parents are usually passive
recipients of information and parents asked to participate
in some kind of school activity are rare A research
conducted among parents of pupil of the 4th and 7th grade
from all Croatian regions and their teachers (Marušić 2007)
shows that two thirds of parents believes that they have too
little possibility of participating in decision making in
schools more than 90 of parents have never taken part in
activities related to cooperation between family and school
three quarters of parents state that there are no lectures
or workshops organized in schools and a third of parents
does not know if such workshops are organized A substantial
number of parents have shown interest in participating in
various school activities but the initiative is expected to
come from teachers
However the practice in Croatian schools in recent
years has shown undertaking additional strategies for
cooperation with parents Many workshops are being held
parents are involved as assistants on projects and in the
communication between parents and school improvement has
been made in following and assessing the pupilsrsquo progress as
well as in the feedback information on the pupilsrsquo progress
(increasingly common are the pupilsrsquo maps as an example of
systematic authentic and development assessment of pupilsrsquo
progress)
As far as electronic cooperation is concerned Croatia
is one step back The project ldquoNet u školirdquo ndash ldquoNet in the
schoolrdquo was initiated in 2003 and all schools in Croatia
have been equipped with ISDN terminals with the aim to
improve the process of learning by using Internet in
teaching and pupilsrsquo research from home and by laying the
foundation for a new culture of learning based on openness
to new knowledge new media and technology Today all
schools in Croatia have the possibility to set up a website
and the teachers to open e-mail accounts
In Croatia websites of teachers are a rare appearance
but the projects ldquoŠkolski infocentarrdquo and ldquoSMS informativkardquo
have been initiated through which informing parents on
success absence and other school activities via simple and
to the majority accessible way of communication (SMS e-
mail Internet and voicemail) has been enabled A small
number of schools have incorporated a web directory updated
monthly by class masters which parents with a special
password can check at any time Although not the most
important fact it should not be ignored that according to
the Central Bureau of Statistics in 2009 only 38 of
households in Croatia had access to the Internet which
complicates communication via websites and not all teachers
are computer literate Such cooperation has its advantages
and disadvantages
Table 1 ndash advantages and disadvantages of cooperation
via electronic media
ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGESInformation on child received daily
Fast information transmission
Not limited by time or place
Time saving for parents
Time saving for teachers when
sending general information
Parents come to school prepared
themes for conversation are
educational
Both parents and teachers must be
computer literate
All participants (parents
teachers) must have Internet access
Additional work for teachers
(regular updating of data)
Rarer encounters among parents and
teachers
Lack of face-to-face communication
Financial expense for parents when
sending SMS messages
Possible abuse (password)
3 Research methodology
31 Aim of research
The aim of the research was to examine whether the
content of Croatian elementary schools websites encourages
frequent parentsrsquo visits and allows pupils to acquire new
knowledge A long term goal is to encourage schools to post
new materials regularly which would result in high-quality
cooperation between home and school along with encouraging
students to research work from their homes and therefore
advancing the quality of learning
32 Problem
The problem of this work is to determine the current
purpose of Croatian elementary schools websites
33 Hypothesis
H-1 Websites of Croatian elementary schools with its
contents do not pose a model for a more intensive
cooperation with parents or lay the foundations for a new
culture of learning
H-2 There is no statistically significant difference in
content between the two counties in neither of the eleven
categories
34 Participants and procedure
School websites are public documents and welcome the
outer world into the school as well as a link between
pupils and teachers with outer sources of information and a
possibility of better cooperation with parents The function
of school websites is to make public the achievements of
pupils to allow parents insight into daily activities and
to inform parents and the larger community of future
activities as well as strengthening cooperation between
school home and the local community The function of the
schoolsrsquo websites should not be a mere electronic version of
a notice board or a picture of a school that seldom changes
its appearance
The research was conducted by content analysis method
on a random selection of 50 elementary school websites in
the counties of Istria and Split ndash Dalmatia (25 schools per
county) The Internet school directory of ldquoPortal za školerdquo
was used Since in Croatia a research has not been conducted
on parents and the content the parents believed to be
important and relevant the authors were led by a research
done by an online study in USA (Unal 2008) and the elements
selected by teachers and parents in that study The
following website content was analysed curriculum about
the school (school history) web counters house rules
(classroom rules) timetable and information for parents
results of school competition photo albums online tests
(study materials) teachersrsquo CV tips for parents and forum
The analysis was done at the beginning of December 2010 by
the end of the first term giving the schools enough time to
update and enrich the websites This research did not take
into consideration the design of websites since in the
majority of cases it has been done using Carnet hosting
services and offered similar links Regarding the fact that
most schools have the same browser a school is considered
to have a website if a private document or link has been
updated
4 Results and discussion
Table 2 ndash Overall analysed content in percentage
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIES
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCETAGECURRICULUM 41 82 9 18 WEBSITE
COUNTER8 16 42 84
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTSrsquo
INFORMATION28 56 22 44
RESULTS OF
SCHOOL
COMPETITION
23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 ONLINE
TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
TEACHERSrsquo 2 4 48 96
CV
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
FORUM 12 24 38 76 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL
(SCHOOL
HISTORY)
50 100 0 0
For table 2 it is evident that all schools have information
about the school on the website ie about its history
(100) the majority has school photo alums (86) and the
curriculum (82) More than half the schools (56) have the
timetable for parentsrsquo information and less then half (46)
have sport achievements of their pupils The fewest schools
publish teachersrsquo CVs (4) and website counters Study
materials and tips for parents are present on just above a
third the websites (34 36)
Chart 1 ndash content according to county
It is visible from Chart 1 that results do not vary much
between counties The most discrepancy is shown in sportsrsquo
achievements (Istria 72 Split ndash Dalmatia 20) and a 20
discrepancy is present in categories photo album and study
material Other discrepancies are smaller than 20 The 2nd
hypothesis was tested with the chi-square test The
hypothesis is considered valid in case that the probability
of error is less than 5 considering that there is a
statistically significant link between the analysed pair of
variables
Table 3 ndash Relations between counties
CURRI
CULUM
WEB
COUNT
ERS
HOUSE
RULES
INFOR
MATIO
N
TIMET
ABLE
SPORT
S
ACHIE
VEMEN
TS
PHOTO
ALBUM
ONLINE
TESTS
TEACHERS
CVs
TIPS
FOR
PARENTS FORUM
10486462 0024 0148 0125 0081 1159 2657 1471 05208 07812 01096
8 4 8
df 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
p 0876
88491
0
0479
50012
0527
0892
0705
31663
0006
71374
0
044
5920
62
02251
8798
0157299
21
03457
4844
05638
979
It is not difficult to notice that a significant
discrepancy is present only in sportsrsquo achievement whereas
in other elements it does not exist which confirms the
stated hypothesis It can be concluded that there are no
differences between the content in the two counties
The website content can be divided into two categories
content intended for parents and pupils (curriculum
timetable for parentsrsquo information teachersrsquo CVs tips for
parents forum online tests and study material house
rules) and content for promoting school activities and
achievements (sportsrsquo achievements photo albums about the
school web counters)
Table 4 ndash analysis according to purpose
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIESINTENDEED FOR
PARENTS AND
PUPILSYES
PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
ONLINE TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
CURRICULUM 41 82 9 18
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTS
INFORMATION
TIMETABLE
28 56 22 44
FORUM 12 24 38 76 TEACHERSrsquo CV 2 4 48 96 PROMOTION OF
SCHOOL
ACTIVITIES
AND
ACVIEVEMENTS
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
SPORTS
ACHIEVEMENTS23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 WEB COUNTERS 8 16 42 84 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL50 100 0 0
Among the content intended for parents and pupils
which would allow pupils to acquire new knowledge and
encourage parents to visit regularly schools offer in high
percentage (82) the curriculum which is a legal obligation
(public notice) and just over half the schools (56) offer
the timetable for parentsrsquo information About one third of
schools (34 36) publish on its websites study materials
and tips for parents and only 24 have an active forum for
exchanging opinions although these forums have an
insignificant number of open themes none of which were
opened by parents Study materials are most often online
tests with a link from the website and tips for parents are
texts compiled by schools assistants Considering the lack
of assistants in schools this may be the cause for a small
percentage of these materials Some schools under the
section tips for parents have links to interesting Internet
articles
Categories intended for the promotion of school
achievements and activities have more contents every school
has a page dedicated to school history 86 updates the
photo album section and less then half the schools (46)
publish sportsrsquo achievements of the pupils The photo albums
offer pictures from school trips out-of-classroom teaching
school events etc Justifying such a large number of
pictures is debatable since none of the published materials
are protected by password but available to everybody the
question arises if the schools have the parentsrsquo permission
Only 16 of schools pay attention to visits which could be
a significant information showing the number of parents and
pupils visiting the website
The mentioned data show that schools consider relevant
the promotion of school activities and success the history
of the school and the timetable for parentsrsquo information
but tips for parents and school materials along with
exchanging opinions are not a priority Schools consider the
teachersrsquo CVs parentsrsquo meeting announcements or the school
cafeteria menu of no relevance to parents These facts point
to the fact that school websites in Croatia are more online
notice-boards than a real possibility for communication
5 Conclusion
Over the last decade cooperation with parents in
Croatia has been improving however in our schools
traditional forms of cooperation with parents are still
prevailing Although in the world there are specialized
radio and TV channels magazines and Internet sites for
exchanging experiences (Mendel 1998) such practice has not
flung into being in Croatia However over the last couple
of years cooperation via websites e-mails and SMS messages
Summarising its advantages and disadvantages and
considering todayrsquos lifestyle this way of cooperation
should be intensified in our schools Contemporary ways of
communication can additionally improve the communication
between parents and school but just as one more way
alongside other ways Consequently although the modern age
presupposes the use of modern technologies no technology
should replace face-to-face communication between parents
and teachers and the responsibility for a good cooperation
still lies on the school
The research demonstrates the possibilities of
communication between family and school by using modern
technology Elements of school websites are shown as well
as ways of planning the content of a website We consider
this research important for informing teachers and school
management of the possibilities of modern communication
between families and school A school website allows for the
possibility of establishing fast communication however its
mere existence does not guarantee the pupils acquiring new
knowledge and a quality relation between the family and
school It can be a good example for the school management
in creating the school curriculum as a segment allowing for
a fast exchange of information with parents Unfortunately
the educational system in Croatia is traditional and inert
unsuitable for the times and contemporary professions It
does not satisfy the need of the individual and traditional
teaching by using a minimum of technology and information is
utterly un-motivational for the student as well as for the
family The results of this research show that school
websites in Croatia donrsquot fulfil their purpose presenting
pupilsrsquo achievements allowing the parents insight into
everyday activities informing the parents and the wider
community on future activities and strengthening the
cooperation between school home and the local community
Although the purpose of school websites should not be merely
an electronic version of the notice board and an image of
the school that rarely changes its appearance the current
condition of the Croatian school websites in the analysed
counties shows just that therefore confirming the initial
hypothesis
Future research should inquire into the stance of
parents in Croatia on which content they consider important
therefore receiving relevant data which could later be used
by teachers for creating their websites
References
Berger E H (1991) Parent Involvement Yesterday and
Today The Elementary School Journal 91 (3) 209-219
Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb
Educa
Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships
Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76
httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20Articles
ParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
Epstein JL i Sheldon S B (2006) Moving Forward Ideas
for Research on School Family and Community Partnerships
httpwwwcsosjhuedup2000pdfLiterature20Review
2020Epstein20and20Sheldon2006pdf (15112010)
Graham- Clay S (2005) Communicating with Parents
Strategies for Teachers School Community Journal 16 (1)
117-129
Hartshorne R Friedman A Algozzine B i Kaur D
(2008) Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites Educational
Technology amp Society 11 (1) 291-303
Hitrec G(ur) (2006) Škola otvorena roditeljima Zagreb
Udruga roditelja Korak po korak
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE -
- MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE - MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
-
problemom (Ryan i Cooper 2010) Ta suradnja tek je dijelom
usmjerena na prevenciju odnosno na rješavanje disciplinskih
problema jer su dobiti takve suradnje za dijete višestruke
a očituju se u boljim ocjenama redovitijem polasku u školu
većom voljom za radom kod kuće te razvijanju pozitivnijih
stavova i ponašanja Roditeljska uključenost u školski život
pozitivno utječe na postignuća učenika i njihovu motivaciju
a roditelji su partnerskim odnosom sa školom bolje
informirani o događajima u školi postižu pozitivniju sliku
u očima učitelja daju doprinos kvalitetnijem radu škole
jačaju svoje samopouzdanje i sigurnost u pružanju pomoći
djetetu kod kuće i postaju sudionici a ne pasivni
promatrači školskoga života svoga djeteta Učitelji također
imaju koristi od partnerskog odnosa s roditeljima jer u
roditeljima dobivaju saveznike u rješavanju problema
postaju motiviraniji i zadovoljniji poslom postižu veće
povjerenje roditelja i imaju bolji ugled u društvenoj
zajednici
Ove a i ostale dobrobiti za sve sudionike odgojno-
obrazovnoga procesa rezultat su sve veće želje i potreba
uključenosti roditelja u školski život Prema Walsh (2002)
jedan od načina kojima se postiže uspješna veza između
roditelja i škole jest dosljedna i jasna dvosmjerna
komunikacija
Epstein (1995) navodi tri konteksta u kojima učenici
uče u obitelji školi i zajednici te ističe šest vrsta
roditeljskoga uključivanja To su roditeljstvo
komuniciranje volontiranje učenje kod kuće odlučivanje i
suradnja sa zajednicom Međutim svi ovi načini suradnje
roditelja sa školom pretpostavljaju izravnu komunikaciju
koja ponekad ni uz najbolju volju roditelja nije moguća
Mnogi roditelji rade u vrijeme planiranih školskih
aktivnosti ili sastanaka i nisu u mogućnosti biti nazočni
pogotovo u školama koje rade u jednoj smjeni Današnji način
života i zaposlenost oba roditelja onemogućuju komunikaciju
licem u lice i aktivnije sudjelovanje roditelja sa školom
2 Suvremeni oblici suradnje roditelja i škole
Jedna od ključnih značajki ljudskoga roda je sposobnost
komuniciranja Iznimna sposobnost pohranjivanja podataka te
brza informacijska razmjena ogromnih razmjera
revolucionalizirali su poslovanje i svakodnevni život
čovjeka Pristup informacijama postaje neograničen
razmjena ideja i misli slobodna transformira se svjetsko
gospodarstvo i ekonomija Značajne su promjene i u pristupu
obrazovanju Brze komunikacije postaju trend u oblikovanju
budućnosti pa su sve zastupljeniji revolucionarni modeli
učenja (primjerice korištenje interaktivne kompjutorske
tehnologije ubrzano učenje) Učenik preuzima
odgovornost za život u svijetu u kojem bdquooni koji prekinu
školovanje nemaju budućnostldquo (Dryden i Vos 2001 str 39)
Snažnije je i kritiziranje obrazovnog sustava kao tromog
sustava u procesu promjena a pozitivne inicijative osnažene
znanstvenim istraživanjima postaju poveznica za
osuvremenjivanje i unaprjeđivanje škole 21 stoljeća
Tehnologija je postala kritična komponenta svakodnevnog
života i posljednjih nekoliko godina vidljiv je porast u
razvoju i korištenju školskih web stranica (Hartshorne i
sur 2008) Istraživanja (Aronson 1995 Cameron i Lee 1997
Clemens-Brower 1997 Clevenson 1999 Ramirez 2001)
pokazuju da mnogi učitelji eksperimentiraju s raznim
tehnologijama pri komuniciranju s roditeljima (telefoni u
učionicama glasovna pošta video tehnologije radio najave
i sl) a sve kako bi unaprijedili suradnju Školske web
stranice pružaju korisne sadržaje za roditelje kao što su
odgojni savjeti domaće zadaće elektronsku poštu ili
jelovnik školske kuhinje te šire granice komunikacije i
omogućuju komunikaciju između doma i škole dvadeset i četiri
sata dnevno sedam dana u tjednu To omogućuje roditeljima
kojima dnevni rasporedi ne pružaju mogućnost za redovne
posjete školi i interakciju licem u lice sa svojim djetetom
ili učiteljem da budu informiraniji o tome što se događa u
školi Internet postaje izvrsno sredstvo za povezivanje doma
i škole
Swan (2006) smatra da škole imaju puno informacija a
roditelji žele znati više o akademskih postignućima
izvannastavnim aktivnostima terminima informacija
sadržajima poput autobusnog prijevoza ili ručka te da je
važno da školske web stranice sadrže točne i korisne
informacije a ne uzbudljiv dizajn i najnovije tehnološke
bdquoukraserdquo
Online istraživanje (Unal 2008) pokazuje da roditelji
i učitelji prepoznaju važnost web stranica škola iako se ne
slažu u potpunosti oko njihova sadržaja Dok su učitelji
sugerirali kako bi poveznice (linkovi) unutar škole
razredna pravila nastavni program i standardi spisak
(obveznog) školskog pribora statistika posjetitelja web
stranice i knjiga gostiju bili esencijalni za školske web
stranice u značajnom odstupanju (plt05) se pokazalo kako se
roditelji nisu složili s učiteljima u vezi tih elemenata S
druge strane roditelji izjavljuju kako bi rado vidjeli
online praktične testove akademske savjetodavne
informacije vijesti u vezi administrativnih pitanja i
školske uprave te životopise učitelja Naposljetku i
učitelji i roditelji složni su kako rezultati školskih
športskih natjecanja i aktivnosti prosvjetna filozofija
plan nastavnih lekcija poveznice izvan institucije online
članci ili letci s vijestima razredni foto album razredne
vijesti ili blog učitelja meniji primjerci didaktičkih
kartica osobne poveznice (linkovi) i informacije o obitelji
učitelja nisu esencijalni elementi školskih web stranica
Može se zaključiti da bez obzira što mnoge škole sada imaju
web stranice nisu sve značajne za komunikaciju roditelja i
učitelja Prethodna istraživanja pokazuju da struktura i
sadržaj školske web stranice trebaju biti pažljivo planirane
i osmišljene
Prema McKenzie J (1997) najbolja školska web mjesta
imaju četiri svrhe 1 upoznati posjetitelje sa svojom
misijom karakterom ponudama za učenike i stajalištem o
novim tehnologijama 2 pružiti mogućnost objave učeničkih
radova i edukacije roditelja 3 djelovati kao posrednik
većem dijelu informacija i 4 pružiti bogatu zbirku
podataka lokalno prikupljenih uz nastavni plan i program
(kao što je lokalna povijest) Neke školske stranice
sadržavaju sva četiri elementa ali većina se koncentrira na
pružanje kvalitetne usluge za dva ili tri od ovih elemenata
21 Suradnja roditelja i škole u Republici Hrvatskoj
U osnovnoškolskom obrazovanju u Republici Hrvatskoj
propisani su (najčešće školskim Statutom) sljedeći oblici
suradnje s roditeljima roditeljski sastanci individualni
razgovori s učiteljima i stručnim suradnicima i pismene
poruke roditeljima Prema Zakonu o osnovnoškolskom i
srednjem obrazovanju (MZOŠ 2008) propisuje se osnivanje
Vijeća roditelja koje sačinjava po jedan roditelj iz svakoga
razreda a predsjednik Vijeća roditelja postaje i član
Školskoga odbora Praksa pokazuje da ovi propisani načini
suradnje ne zadovoljavaju ni učitelje a ni roditelje
Roditeljsko sudjelovanje je tek formalno bez stvarne
mogućnosti utjecaja na donošenje bitnih odluka
Centraliziranost i normiranost kurikuluma ne ostavlja
dovoljno prostora školama da svoj program prilagođavaju
potrebama lokalne sredine roditeljski sastanci se svode na
prenošenje informacija pri čemu su roditelji najčešće
pasivni primatelji informacija a vrlo rijetki roditelji su
pozvani na sudjelovanje u nekim aktivnostima škole
Istraživanje provedeno među roditeljima učenika deset
osnovnih škola četvrtoga i sedmoga razreda iz svih hrvatskih
regija te njihovih učitelja (Marušić 2007) pokazuje da
dvije trećine roditelja smatra da imaju premalo mogućnosti
sudjelovati u donošenju odluka u školi više od 90
roditelja nije nikada sudjelovalo u aktivnostima vezanima uz
suradnju obitelji i škole tri četvrtine roditelja navode da
se u školi ne organiziraju predavanja i radionice a trećina
roditelja ne zna organiziraju li se takve radionice Znatan
broj roditelja je iskazao zainteresiranost za sudjelovanje u
različitim aktivnostima škole ali inicijativu čekaju od
strane učitelja
Ipak praksa u hrvatskim školama posljednjih godina
pokazuje poduzimanje dodatnih strategija u suradnji s
roditeljima Održavaju se brojne radionice uključuju se kao
suradnici u projektu a u zajedničkoj komunikaciji na
relaciji obitelj - škola unaprjeđuje se praćenje i
procjenjivanje učeničkog napretka te ostvaruje kvalitetnija
povratna informacija o napretku djeteta (sve su
zastupljenije učeničke mape kao primjer sustavne autentične
i razvojne procjene napretka učenika)
Što se elektroničkih oblika suradnje tiče Hrvatska je
korak unatrag Projekt Net u školi započeo je 2003godine
i u sve hrvatske škole uveden je ISDN priključak s ciljem
unaprjeđenja procesa učenja korištenjem interneta u nastavi
i istraživanju učenika iz vlastitog doma te postavljanju
temelja novoj kulturi učenja koja se bazira na otvorenosti k
novim spoznajama novim medijima i tehnologijama Danas sve
hrvatske škole imaju mogućnost postavljanja svoje web
stranice a učitelji otvaranje elektronske adrese
U Hrvatskoj su web mjesta pojedinoga učitelja rijetka
pojava ali su pokrenuti projekti Školski infocentar i SMS
informativka kojima je omogućeno informiranje roditelja o
uspjehu izostancima i ostalim školskim zbivanjima
jednostavnim i većini roditelja dostupnim načinima
komunikacije (SMS e-mail internet i govorne poruke) Mali
broj škola uveo je i web imenike gdje razrednici jednom
mjesečno ažuriraju podatke pa ih roditelji pomoću posebne
lozinke mogu pogledati u svako doba dana Iako nije
najvažnije ne treba zanemariti ni podatak da prema Zavodu
za državnu statistiku u Hrvatskoj tek oko 38 kućanstava ima
Internet (2009) što otežava komunikaciju putem web
stranica a ni svi učitelji nisu informatički pismeni Takva
suradnja ima svoje prednosti i nedostatke
Tablica 1 ndash prednosti i nedostatci suradnje putem
elektroničkih medija
PREDNOSTI NEDOSTATCISvakodnevno primanje obavijesti o
djetetu
Brzina slanja informacija
Neograničenost vremenom i mjestom
Ušteda vremena za roditelje
Ušteda vremena za učitelja pri
slanju općih obavijesti
Roditelj u školu dolazi
pripremljen teme za razgovor su s
područja odgoja i obrazovanja
I roditelji i učitelji moraju biti
informatički pismeni
Svi sudionici (roditelji učitelji)
moraju imati internet
Dodatni posao za učitelje (redovito
ažuriranje podataka)
Rjeđi susreti roditelja i učitelja
Izostanak komunikacije bdquolicem u
licerdquo
Financijski trošak za roditelje pri
slanju SMS poruka
Mogućnost zlouporabe (lozinka)
3 Metodologija istraživanja
31 Cilj istraživanja
Cilj istraživanja bio je ispitati imaju li web stranice
hrvatskih osnovnih škola sadržaje koji će potaknuti
roditelje na česte posjete i omogućiti učenicima stjecanje
novih znanja Dugoročni je cilj potaknuti škole na redovito
postavljanje novih sadržaja koji će rezultirati kvalitetnom
suradnjom doma i škole te poticati učenike na istraživački
rad iz svojih domova i time unaprjeđivati kvalitetu učenja
32 Problem
Problem ovoga rada jest utvrditi trenutnu svrhu
hrvatskih osnovnoškolskih web stranica (objaviti postignuća
učenika omogućiti roditeljima uvid u svakodnevne
aktivnosti informirati roditelje i širu zajednicu o budućim
aktivnostima i jačanje suradnje između škole doma i
lokalne zajednice)
33 Hipoteze
H-1 Web stranice hrvatskih osnovnih škola svojim
sadržajima nisu model za intenziviranje suradnje s
roditeljima te postavljanje temelja novoj kulturi učenja
H-2 Ne postoji statistički značajna razlika u
sadržajima među dvjema županijama ni u jednoj od jedanaest
kategorija
34 Ispitanici i postupak
Školske web stranice javne su isprave i dobrodošlica
vanjskome svijetu u školu kao i poveznica učenika i
učitelja s vanjskim izvorima informacija te mogućnost
kvalitetnije suradnje s roditeljima Svrha školskih web
stranica je objaviti postignuća učenika omogućiti
roditeljima uvid u svakodnevne aktivnosti informirati
roditelje i širu zajednicu o budućim aktivnostima i jačanje
suradnje između škole doma i lokalne zajednice Svrha
školskih web stranica ne bi trebala biti elektronička
verzija oglasne ploče i slika škole koja rijetko mijenja
svoj izgled
Istraživanje je provedeno metodom analize sadržaja
slučajnim odabirom na 50 web stranica osnovnih škola u
Istarskoj i Splitsko-dalmatinskoj županiji (25 škola po
županiji) Korišten je internetski popis škola Portal za
škole Budući da u Hrvatskoj nije provedeno istraživanje s
roditeljima u kojemu bi se ispitalo koje sadržaje oni
smatraju bitnima i relevantnima autorice su se vodile
istraživanjem provedenim online studijom u Americi (Unal
2008) i elementima koje su u toj studiji izabrali učitelji
i roditelji Analizirani su sljedeći sadržaji web stranica
plan i program o školi (povijest škole) brojač posjeta
kućni red (razredna pravila) raspored sati i informacija za
roditelje rezultati športskih natjecanja foto albumi
online testovi (materijali za učenje) životopisi učitelja
savjeti za roditelje i forum Analiza je obavljena početkom
mjeseca prosinca 2010 pred kraj prvoga polugodišta što je
školama dalo dovoljno vremena za ažuriranje i popunjavanje
stranica U ovom istraživanju nije analiziran dizajn web
stranica jer su u većini slučajeva stranice postavljene
koristeći Carnet hosting uslugu i nude slične poveznice S
obzirom da većina škola ima isti preglednik smatrano je da
škola ima sadržaj ako je unesen vlastiti dokument ili
poveznica
4 Rezultati i rasprava
Tablica 2 - ukupni analizirani sadržaji u postotcima
SADRŽAJ OBJE
ŽUPANIJE DA POSTOTAK NE POSTOTAK
PLAN I
PROGRAM41 82 9 18
BROJAČ
POSJETA8 16 42 84
KUĆNI RED 10 20 40 80 RASPORED
INFORMACIJA28 56 22 44
ŠPORTSKI
USPJESI23 46 27 54
FOTO ALBUMI 43 86 7 14 TESTOVI
ONLINE
(MATERIJALI
ZA UČENJE)
17 34 33 66
ŽIVOTOPIS
UČITELJA2 4 48 96
SAVJETI ZA
RODITELJE18 36 32 64
FORUM 12 24 38 76
O ŠKOLI
(POVIJEST)50 100 0 0
Iz tablice 2 vidljivo je da sve škole na svojim
stranicama imaju podatke o školi odnosno njezinoj povijesti
(100) a najveći dio škola foto albume (86) te plan i
program (82) Više od polovice škola (56) imaju raspored
informacija a nešto manje od polovice (46) športske
uspjehe svojih učenika Najmanji broj škola na svojim
stranicama objavljuju životopise učitelja (4) i brojač
posjeta (16) Materijale za učenje i savjete za roditelje
ima tek nešto više od trećine stranica (34 36)
Grafikon 1 - sadržaji prema županijama
Iz grafikona 1 vidljivo je da se rezultati među županijama
ne razlikuju mnogo Najviše razlika je u sadržaju športskih
uspjeha (Istarska županija 72 Splitsko- dalmatinska 20)
a razlika od 20 pojavila se u kategorijama foto albuma i
materijala za učenje Sve ostale razlike su manje od 20
Hipoteza 2 testirana je hi ndash kvadrat testom Hipoteza se
smatra prihvaćenom u slučaju da je vjerojatnost pogreške
pri tvrdnji da postoji statistički značajna povezanost
analiziranog para varijabli manja od 5
Tablica 3 Relacije među županijama
PLAN
I
PROGR
AM
BRO
JAČ
POSJE
TA
KUĆNI
RED
RASPO
RED
INFOR
MACI
JA
ŠPORT
SKI
USPJE
SI
FOTO
ALBUM
ONLINE
TESTOVI
ŽIVOTOPIS
UČITELJA
SAVJETI
ZA
RODI
TELJE FORUM
10486462 00240148
80125 0081
1159
4
2657
81471 05208 07812 01096
df 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
p 0876
88491
0
0479
50012
0527
0892
0705
31663
0006
71374
0
044
5920
62
02251
8798
0157299
21
03457
4844
05638
979
Nije teško uočiti da se statistički značajna razlika
javlja samo u sadržaju športskih uspjeha a u ostalim
elementima ne postoji što potvrđuje postavljenu hipotezu
Može se dakle zaključiti da nema razlika u sadržajima među
dvjema županijama
Sadržaji web stranica mogu se podijeliti u dvije
kategorije sadržaji namijenjeni roditeljima i učenicima
(plan i program raspored informacija životopis učitelja
savjeti za roditelje forum testovi ili materijali za
učenje kućni red) i sadržaji namijenjeni promociji školskih
aktivnosti i uspjeha (športski uspjesi foto albumi o
školi brojač posjeta)
Tablica 4 - analiza sadržaja prema svrsi
SADRŽAJ OBJE
ŽUPANIJE NAMIJENJENI
RODITELJIMA
I UČENICIMADA
POSTOTAK NE POSTOTAK
TESTOVI
ONLINE
(MATERIJALI
ZA UČENJE)
17 34 33 66
PLAN I
PROGRAM41 82 9 18
SAVJETI ZA
RODITELJE18 36 32 64
KUĆNI RED 10 20 40 80 RASPORED
INFORMACIJA28 56 22 44
FORUM 12 24 38 76 ŽIVOTOPIS
UČITELJA2 4 48 96
PROMOCIJA
ŠKOLSKIH
AKTIVNOSTI
DA POSTOTAK NE POSTOTAK
I USPJEHA
ŠPORTSKI
USPJESI23 46 27 54
FOTO ALBUMI 43 86 7 14 BROJAČ
POSJETA8 16 42 84
O ŠKOLI
(POVIJEST)50 100 0 0
Od sadržaja koji su namijenjeni roditeljima i
učenicima a koji bi učenicima omogućili stjecanje novih
znanja i roditelje potaknuli na česte posjete škole u
visokom postotku (82) nude plan i program što je i
zakonska obveza škole (javna objava) a tek nešto više od
polovice škola (56) objavljuje raspored informacija za
roditelje Nešto više od trećine škola (34 36) na svojim
web stranicama ima materijale za učenje i savjete za
roditelje a tek 24 škola ima aktivan forum za razmjenu
mišljenja iako je i na tim forumima bio zanemariv broj
otvorenih tema od kojih niti jednu nije otvorio roditelj
Materijali za učenje najčešće su online testovi za što
postoji poveznica sa školske web stranice a savjeti za
roditelje tekstovi koje su sastavili stručni suradnici S
obzirom na manjak stručnih suradnika u našim školama moguće
je da je to razlog relativno malog postotka tih sadržaja U
nekim školama u rubrici savjeta za roditelje nalaze se
poveznice sa zanimljivim člancima na internetu
Kategorije koje služe za promociju školskih uspjeha i
aktivnosti imaju više sadržaja svaka škola ima uređenu
stranicu o povijesti škole 86 škola ažurira stranicu s
foto albumima a nešto manje od polovice škola (46) na
svoje stranice stavlja športske uspjehe svojih učenika U
navedenim foto albumima škole nude fotografije s izleta
izvanučioničke nastave priredbi i sl O opravdanosti
velikoga broja fotografija učenika moglo bi se raspravljati
s obzirom da niti jedan objavljeni sadržaj nije zaštićen
lozinkom već je dostupan svima pa se postavlja pitanje
imaju li škole suglasnost roditelja za to Tek 16 škola
vodi računa o posjećenosti svojih stranica a to bi mogao
biti značajan podatak o tome koliko ih učenici i roditelji
posjećuju
Iz navedenih podataka može se zaključiti da je školama
veoma važna promocija aktivnosti i uspjeha škole povijest
ustanove i raspored individualnih informacija a savjeti za
roditelje i materijali za učenike te razmjena mišljenja
nisu prioritetni sadržaji Škole smatraju da je roditeljima
potpuno nevažan stručni životopis učitelja najave
roditeljskih sastanaka ili jelovnici školskih kuhinja Iz
toga proizlazi da su web stranice škola u Hrvatskoj
elektroničke oglasne ploče a ne mogućnost komunikacije
5 Zaključak
Zadnjih desetak godina suradnja s roditeljima i kod nas
se mijenja na bolje ali u našim školama još uvijek
prevladavaju tradicionalni oblici suradnje s roditeljima
Iako u svijetu postoje roditeljski radio i Tv kanali
časopisi i internet stranice za razmjenu iskustava (Mendel
1998) kod nas takva praksa nije zaživjela no posljednjih
godina započela je suradnja putem web stranica e mail i sms
poruka Sumirajući prednosti i nedostatke a s obzirom na
današnji način života i ovaj način suradnje treba
intenzivirati u našim školama Suvremeni načini
komuniciranja mogu dodatno poboljšati komunikaciju između
roditelja i škole ali samo kao još jedan od načina uz sve
ostale navedene načine suradnje Iz toga proizlazi da iako
suvremeno doba pretpostavlja korištenje suvremenih
tehnologija nikakva tehnologija ne bi smjela zamijeniti
komunikaciju bdquolicem u licerdquo roditelja i učitelja a
odgovornost za dobru suradnju s roditeljima i dalje ostaje
na školi
Istraživanje pokazuje mogućnosti komuniciranja obitelji
i škole suvremenom tehnologijom Prikazani su elementi
školskih web stranica te način planiranja sadržaja web
stranice Ovo istraživanje smatramo važnim za informiranje
učitelja i rukovodstva škola o mogućnostima suvremenog
komuniciranja obitelji i škole Školska web stranica otvara
mogućnosti za uspostavljanje brze informacije no samim
postojanjem ne jamči učenicima stjecanje novih znanja i
kvalitetnije povezivanje obitelji i škole Može biti dobar
primjer vodstvu škole u stvaranju školskog kurikuluma kao
segmenta kojim će se omogućavati brza razmjena informacija s
roditeljima Nažalost obrazovni sustav u Hrvatskoj
tradicionalan je i trom neprimjeren vremenu i suvremenim
zanimanjima Ne zadovoljava individualne potrebe pojedinca
a tradicionalnim poučavanjem uz tehnologijski i
informacijski minimum potpuno je nemotivirajući kako za
učenika tako i za obitelj Rezultati ovoga istraživanja
pokazuju da školske web stranice u Hrvatskoj ne ostvaruju
sasvim svoju svrhu objavljivanje postignuća učenika
omogućavanje roditeljima uvid u svakodnevne aktivnosti
informiranje roditelja i šire zajednice o budućim
aktivnostima i jačanje suradnje između škole doma i
lokalne zajednice Iako svrha školskih web stranica ne bi
trebala biti elektronička verzija oglasne ploče i slika
škole koja rijetko mijenja svoj izgled trenutno stanje
hrvatskih web stranica u analiziranim županijama pokazuje
upravo to što potvrđuje početnu hipotezu
U narednim istraživanjima trebalo bi ispitati stavove
roditelja u Hrvatskoj o tome koje sadržaje oni smatraju
važnima te bi se tada dobili relevantni podatci koje bi
učitelji mogli upotrijebiti za kreiranje svojih web
stranica
Literatura
Berger E H (1991) Parent Involvement Yesterday and
Today The Elementary School Journal 91 (3) 209-219
Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb
Educa
Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships
Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76
httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20Articles
ParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
Epstein JL i Sheldon S B (2006) Moving Forward Ideas
for Research on School Family and Community Partnerships
httpwwwcsosjhuedup2000pdfLiterature20Review
2020Epstein20and20Sheldon2006pdf (15112010)
Graham- Clay S (2005) Communicating with Parents
Strategies for Teachers School Community Journal 16 (1)
117-129
Hartshorne R Friedman A Algozzine B i Kaur D
(2008) Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites Educational
Technology amp Society 11 (1) 291-303
Hitrec G(ur) (2006) Škola otvorena roditeljima Zagreb
Udruga roditelja Korak po korak
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
Deana Tavas graduate teacher
Vladimir Nazor Elementary School Rovinj
dtavasyahoocom
Sanja Bilač graduate teacher
Spinut Elementary School Split
sanja9stgmailcom
SCHOOL WEBSITES ndash
POSSIBILITY OF COOPERATION WITH PARENTS
SCHOOL WEBSITES ndash POSSIBILITY OF COOPERATION WITH PARENTS
Abstract In the last fifteen years in Croatia as well as around the world
much research has been done dealing with the importance of cooperation
between parents and school and the obtained results show its importance for all
the parties and that partnership relation between school and parents produces
numerous benefits Besides customary ways of communication like individual
talk and parent meetings written messages informal meetings educational
workshops the involvement of parents in the educational process in the role of
accessory etc the most modern way of communicating with parents is via school
websites teacherrsquos websites e-mails and SMS messages The goal of the
research was to examine if Croatian schoolsrsquo websites had the content which
would prompt the parents for frequent visits and enable pupils to acquire new
knowledge A long term goal was to persuade schools to a regular update of new
materials which would result in quality cooperation between home and school
and persuade pupils to do research from their home and therefore increase the
quality of learning The research has randomly selected 25 elementary school
websites from the county of Istra and 25 websites from the county Split ndash
Dalmatia Collected data show that Croatiarsquos elementary school websites are not
a model neither for increasing the cooperation with parents nor laying the
foundation towards a new culture of learning and that there is no statistically
significant variation in content between the two counties
Key words cooperation with parents Internet school websites website
content
1 Parents and school cooperation
The cooperation between parents and schools is
extremely important and offers manifold benefits for all the
participants in the education process A partnership between
parents and teachers establishes good relations since every
partner introduces their competences in the childrsquos
education The cooperation between parents and teachers
ie school should be the best possible to achieve
outstanding goals Berger (1991) considers that models of
parent involvement are approached more actively nowadays
then it was in the 1960s when the responsibilities of
parents and schools were considered distinct Cooperation
with parents is today considered on of the essential
determinants of an efficient school in terms of general
pedagogy and research has shown that 22 of teachers
consider the lack of parent involvement a serious problem
(Ryan and Cooper 2010) Such cooperation is only partially
directed at prevention ie solution of disciplinary
problems since its benefits are manifold and are
manifested in better grades increased regular attendance
more willingness to work at home and development of more
positive attitudes and behavior Parental involvement in
school life has a positive effect on pupilrsquos achievements
and their motivation and the partnership relation between
parents and schools makes the parents more informed of
school affairs gives them a more positive image in the eyes
of the teachers they contribute to a better functioning of
the school strengthen their self-confidence and assurance
in helping their child at home and they become
participants not mere observers of the education of their
child Teachers have also to gain from a partnership
relation with parents since the parents become allies in
solving problems they become more motivated and satisfied
with their job receive more confidence from parents and
have a better reputation in society
These and other benefits for all the participants in
the education process are the result of growing willingness
and need of parent involvement in the school life According
to Walsh (2002) one way of achieving a successful bond
between parents and school is a consistent and clear two-way
communication
Epstein (1995) lists three learning contexts for
pupils in the family in school and in the community and
lists 6 ways of parent involvement These are parenting
communication volunteering learning at home decision
making and collaborating with the community However all of
these ways of cooperation between parents and school presume
direct communication which at times regardless of the
parentsrsquo willingness is impossible Many parents work
during planned school activities or meetings and have not
the possibility to participate especially in schools which
work in a single shift Todayrsquos way of life and both parents
working prevents personal communication and a more active
involvement of parents with schools
2 Contemporary ways of cooperation between parents and
school
One of the key features of humans is the ability to
communicate The exceptional ability of storing data and
fast sharing of enormous amounts of information have
revolutionized business as well as the everyday life of
mankind The access to information is unlimited the sharing
of ideas and thoughts free the worldrsquos business and economy
are being transformed Significant are the changes in the
approach to education Fast communication is becoming a
trend in shaping the future and therefore revolutionary
models of learning are more and more inherent (eg using
interactive computer technology fast learning) Pupils
are assuming responsibility for their life in a world in
which ldquothose who end their education have no futurerdquo (Dryden
and Vos 2001 p 39) Stronger is the criticism of the
educational system for its inertness in the process of
change and positive initiatives empowered by scientific
research become the link for modernization and improvement
of the school in the 21st century
Technology has become a critical component of everyday
life and an increase in the development and use of school
websites over the last few years is evident (Hartshorne and
ass 2008) Research (Aronson 1995 Cameron and Lee 1997
Clemens-Brower 1997 Cleverson 1999 Ramirez 2001) show that
many teachers experiment with various technologies when
communicating with parents (telephones in classrooms voice
mail video technology radio announcements etc) to
improve cooperation School websites provide parents with
useful content such as educational tips homework e-mails
or the school cafeteria menu and expand the borders of
communication between home and school to a 24 hours a day 7
days a week contact That allows parents whose daily
timetable doesnrsquot permit regular visits to the school and
face-to-face interaction with their child or teacher to be
more informed of what is happening at school Internet
becomes an excellent means of connecting home and school
Swan (2008) believes that schools have a lot of
information and parents want to know more about academic
achievements extracurricular activities parentsrsquo meeting
schedule information such as bus transport or lunch and
that it is important that school websites include accurate
and useful information not an exciting design or newest
technological ldquoornamentsrdquo
Online research (Unal 2008) shows that parents and
teachers recognize the importance of school websites
although they do not agree completely on their content
While teachers suggest that links inside the school
classroom rules teaching curriculum and standards list of
obligatory accessories statistics of websites visitors and
guest book should be essential to a school website
significant divergence (plt05) was seen in parents
disagreeing on these elements On the other hand parents
declare they would like to see online practical tests
academic advisory information information about
administrative issues and school direction as well as
teachers CVs Eventually teachers and parents agree that
results of school sport competition and activities
educational philosophy lesson plans links outside the
institution online articles and newsletters class photo
albums and news teachersrsquo blogs menus examples of
didactic cards personal links and teachersrsquo family
information are not essential elements of schoolsrsquo websites
It can be concluded that regardless of many schools today
having their own website not all are important for the
communication of parents and teachers Past research shows
that the structure and content of school websites should be
carefully planned and developed
According to McKenzie J (1997) the best websites have
four purposes 1 introduce visitors to its mission its
character its offerings to children its stance on new
technologies 2 offer an opportunity for the publishing of
student works and parents education 3 act as a mediator to
a larger share of information and 4 provide rich data
locally collected on curriculum related topics (such as
local history) Some school websites contain all four of
these elements but the majority is concentrated upon
providing a quality service in two or three of these
elements
21 Cooperation between parents and school in Croatia
In the elementary education in Croatia prescribed are
(most often by School statute) the following ways of
cooperation with parents parent meeting individual talks
with teachers and school assistants and written messages to
parents According to Law on Primary and Secondary
Education (Ministry of Education Science and Technology
2008) prescribed is the formation a Parentsrsquo Council which
comprises one parent from every class and the president of
the Parentrsquos Council is appointed a member of the School
Committee Practice shows that these prescribed ways of
cooperation do not satisfy the teachers or the parents
Parent participation is merely formal without real
possibility of influencing important decisions
Centralization and standardization of the curriculum do not
allow schools enough space for adapting to the needs of the
local community parent meeting come down to mere
information sharing where parents are usually passive
recipients of information and parents asked to participate
in some kind of school activity are rare A research
conducted among parents of pupil of the 4th and 7th grade
from all Croatian regions and their teachers (Marušić 2007)
shows that two thirds of parents believes that they have too
little possibility of participating in decision making in
schools more than 90 of parents have never taken part in
activities related to cooperation between family and school
three quarters of parents state that there are no lectures
or workshops organized in schools and a third of parents
does not know if such workshops are organized A substantial
number of parents have shown interest in participating in
various school activities but the initiative is expected to
come from teachers
However the practice in Croatian schools in recent
years has shown undertaking additional strategies for
cooperation with parents Many workshops are being held
parents are involved as assistants on projects and in the
communication between parents and school improvement has
been made in following and assessing the pupilsrsquo progress as
well as in the feedback information on the pupilsrsquo progress
(increasingly common are the pupilsrsquo maps as an example of
systematic authentic and development assessment of pupilsrsquo
progress)
As far as electronic cooperation is concerned Croatia
is one step back The project ldquoNet u školirdquo ndash ldquoNet in the
schoolrdquo was initiated in 2003 and all schools in Croatia
have been equipped with ISDN terminals with the aim to
improve the process of learning by using Internet in
teaching and pupilsrsquo research from home and by laying the
foundation for a new culture of learning based on openness
to new knowledge new media and technology Today all
schools in Croatia have the possibility to set up a website
and the teachers to open e-mail accounts
In Croatia websites of teachers are a rare appearance
but the projects ldquoŠkolski infocentarrdquo and ldquoSMS informativkardquo
have been initiated through which informing parents on
success absence and other school activities via simple and
to the majority accessible way of communication (SMS e-
mail Internet and voicemail) has been enabled A small
number of schools have incorporated a web directory updated
monthly by class masters which parents with a special
password can check at any time Although not the most
important fact it should not be ignored that according to
the Central Bureau of Statistics in 2009 only 38 of
households in Croatia had access to the Internet which
complicates communication via websites and not all teachers
are computer literate Such cooperation has its advantages
and disadvantages
Table 1 ndash advantages and disadvantages of cooperation
via electronic media
ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGESInformation on child received daily
Fast information transmission
Not limited by time or place
Time saving for parents
Time saving for teachers when
sending general information
Parents come to school prepared
themes for conversation are
educational
Both parents and teachers must be
computer literate
All participants (parents
teachers) must have Internet access
Additional work for teachers
(regular updating of data)
Rarer encounters among parents and
teachers
Lack of face-to-face communication
Financial expense for parents when
sending SMS messages
Possible abuse (password)
3 Research methodology
31 Aim of research
The aim of the research was to examine whether the
content of Croatian elementary schools websites encourages
frequent parentsrsquo visits and allows pupils to acquire new
knowledge A long term goal is to encourage schools to post
new materials regularly which would result in high-quality
cooperation between home and school along with encouraging
students to research work from their homes and therefore
advancing the quality of learning
32 Problem
The problem of this work is to determine the current
purpose of Croatian elementary schools websites
33 Hypothesis
H-1 Websites of Croatian elementary schools with its
contents do not pose a model for a more intensive
cooperation with parents or lay the foundations for a new
culture of learning
H-2 There is no statistically significant difference in
content between the two counties in neither of the eleven
categories
34 Participants and procedure
School websites are public documents and welcome the
outer world into the school as well as a link between
pupils and teachers with outer sources of information and a
possibility of better cooperation with parents The function
of school websites is to make public the achievements of
pupils to allow parents insight into daily activities and
to inform parents and the larger community of future
activities as well as strengthening cooperation between
school home and the local community The function of the
schoolsrsquo websites should not be a mere electronic version of
a notice board or a picture of a school that seldom changes
its appearance
The research was conducted by content analysis method
on a random selection of 50 elementary school websites in
the counties of Istria and Split ndash Dalmatia (25 schools per
county) The Internet school directory of ldquoPortal za školerdquo
was used Since in Croatia a research has not been conducted
on parents and the content the parents believed to be
important and relevant the authors were led by a research
done by an online study in USA (Unal 2008) and the elements
selected by teachers and parents in that study The
following website content was analysed curriculum about
the school (school history) web counters house rules
(classroom rules) timetable and information for parents
results of school competition photo albums online tests
(study materials) teachersrsquo CV tips for parents and forum
The analysis was done at the beginning of December 2010 by
the end of the first term giving the schools enough time to
update and enrich the websites This research did not take
into consideration the design of websites since in the
majority of cases it has been done using Carnet hosting
services and offered similar links Regarding the fact that
most schools have the same browser a school is considered
to have a website if a private document or link has been
updated
4 Results and discussion
Table 2 ndash Overall analysed content in percentage
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIES
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCETAGECURRICULUM 41 82 9 18 WEBSITE
COUNTER8 16 42 84
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTSrsquo
INFORMATION28 56 22 44
RESULTS OF
SCHOOL
COMPETITION
23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 ONLINE
TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
TEACHERSrsquo 2 4 48 96
CV
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
FORUM 12 24 38 76 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL
(SCHOOL
HISTORY)
50 100 0 0
For table 2 it is evident that all schools have information
about the school on the website ie about its history
(100) the majority has school photo alums (86) and the
curriculum (82) More than half the schools (56) have the
timetable for parentsrsquo information and less then half (46)
have sport achievements of their pupils The fewest schools
publish teachersrsquo CVs (4) and website counters Study
materials and tips for parents are present on just above a
third the websites (34 36)
Chart 1 ndash content according to county
It is visible from Chart 1 that results do not vary much
between counties The most discrepancy is shown in sportsrsquo
achievements (Istria 72 Split ndash Dalmatia 20) and a 20
discrepancy is present in categories photo album and study
material Other discrepancies are smaller than 20 The 2nd
hypothesis was tested with the chi-square test The
hypothesis is considered valid in case that the probability
of error is less than 5 considering that there is a
statistically significant link between the analysed pair of
variables
Table 3 ndash Relations between counties
CURRI
CULUM
WEB
COUNT
ERS
HOUSE
RULES
INFOR
MATIO
N
TIMET
ABLE
SPORT
S
ACHIE
VEMEN
TS
PHOTO
ALBUM
ONLINE
TESTS
TEACHERS
CVs
TIPS
FOR
PARENTS FORUM
10486462 0024 0148 0125 0081 1159 2657 1471 05208 07812 01096
8 4 8
df 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
p 0876
88491
0
0479
50012
0527
0892
0705
31663
0006
71374
0
044
5920
62
02251
8798
0157299
21
03457
4844
05638
979
It is not difficult to notice that a significant
discrepancy is present only in sportsrsquo achievement whereas
in other elements it does not exist which confirms the
stated hypothesis It can be concluded that there are no
differences between the content in the two counties
The website content can be divided into two categories
content intended for parents and pupils (curriculum
timetable for parentsrsquo information teachersrsquo CVs tips for
parents forum online tests and study material house
rules) and content for promoting school activities and
achievements (sportsrsquo achievements photo albums about the
school web counters)
Table 4 ndash analysis according to purpose
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIESINTENDEED FOR
PARENTS AND
PUPILSYES
PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
ONLINE TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
CURRICULUM 41 82 9 18
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTS
INFORMATION
TIMETABLE
28 56 22 44
FORUM 12 24 38 76 TEACHERSrsquo CV 2 4 48 96 PROMOTION OF
SCHOOL
ACTIVITIES
AND
ACVIEVEMENTS
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
SPORTS
ACHIEVEMENTS23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 WEB COUNTERS 8 16 42 84 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL50 100 0 0
Among the content intended for parents and pupils
which would allow pupils to acquire new knowledge and
encourage parents to visit regularly schools offer in high
percentage (82) the curriculum which is a legal obligation
(public notice) and just over half the schools (56) offer
the timetable for parentsrsquo information About one third of
schools (34 36) publish on its websites study materials
and tips for parents and only 24 have an active forum for
exchanging opinions although these forums have an
insignificant number of open themes none of which were
opened by parents Study materials are most often online
tests with a link from the website and tips for parents are
texts compiled by schools assistants Considering the lack
of assistants in schools this may be the cause for a small
percentage of these materials Some schools under the
section tips for parents have links to interesting Internet
articles
Categories intended for the promotion of school
achievements and activities have more contents every school
has a page dedicated to school history 86 updates the
photo album section and less then half the schools (46)
publish sportsrsquo achievements of the pupils The photo albums
offer pictures from school trips out-of-classroom teaching
school events etc Justifying such a large number of
pictures is debatable since none of the published materials
are protected by password but available to everybody the
question arises if the schools have the parentsrsquo permission
Only 16 of schools pay attention to visits which could be
a significant information showing the number of parents and
pupils visiting the website
The mentioned data show that schools consider relevant
the promotion of school activities and success the history
of the school and the timetable for parentsrsquo information
but tips for parents and school materials along with
exchanging opinions are not a priority Schools consider the
teachersrsquo CVs parentsrsquo meeting announcements or the school
cafeteria menu of no relevance to parents These facts point
to the fact that school websites in Croatia are more online
notice-boards than a real possibility for communication
5 Conclusion
Over the last decade cooperation with parents in
Croatia has been improving however in our schools
traditional forms of cooperation with parents are still
prevailing Although in the world there are specialized
radio and TV channels magazines and Internet sites for
exchanging experiences (Mendel 1998) such practice has not
flung into being in Croatia However over the last couple
of years cooperation via websites e-mails and SMS messages
Summarising its advantages and disadvantages and
considering todayrsquos lifestyle this way of cooperation
should be intensified in our schools Contemporary ways of
communication can additionally improve the communication
between parents and school but just as one more way
alongside other ways Consequently although the modern age
presupposes the use of modern technologies no technology
should replace face-to-face communication between parents
and teachers and the responsibility for a good cooperation
still lies on the school
The research demonstrates the possibilities of
communication between family and school by using modern
technology Elements of school websites are shown as well
as ways of planning the content of a website We consider
this research important for informing teachers and school
management of the possibilities of modern communication
between families and school A school website allows for the
possibility of establishing fast communication however its
mere existence does not guarantee the pupils acquiring new
knowledge and a quality relation between the family and
school It can be a good example for the school management
in creating the school curriculum as a segment allowing for
a fast exchange of information with parents Unfortunately
the educational system in Croatia is traditional and inert
unsuitable for the times and contemporary professions It
does not satisfy the need of the individual and traditional
teaching by using a minimum of technology and information is
utterly un-motivational for the student as well as for the
family The results of this research show that school
websites in Croatia donrsquot fulfil their purpose presenting
pupilsrsquo achievements allowing the parents insight into
everyday activities informing the parents and the wider
community on future activities and strengthening the
cooperation between school home and the local community
Although the purpose of school websites should not be merely
an electronic version of the notice board and an image of
the school that rarely changes its appearance the current
condition of the Croatian school websites in the analysed
counties shows just that therefore confirming the initial
hypothesis
Future research should inquire into the stance of
parents in Croatia on which content they consider important
therefore receiving relevant data which could later be used
by teachers for creating their websites
References
Berger E H (1991) Parent Involvement Yesterday and
Today The Elementary School Journal 91 (3) 209-219
Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb
Educa
Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships
Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76
httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20Articles
ParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
Epstein JL i Sheldon S B (2006) Moving Forward Ideas
for Research on School Family and Community Partnerships
httpwwwcsosjhuedup2000pdfLiterature20Review
2020Epstein20and20Sheldon2006pdf (15112010)
Graham- Clay S (2005) Communicating with Parents
Strategies for Teachers School Community Journal 16 (1)
117-129
Hartshorne R Friedman A Algozzine B i Kaur D
(2008) Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites Educational
Technology amp Society 11 (1) 291-303
Hitrec G(ur) (2006) Škola otvorena roditeljima Zagreb
Udruga roditelja Korak po korak
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE -
- MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE - MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
-
roditeljskoga uključivanja To su roditeljstvo
komuniciranje volontiranje učenje kod kuće odlučivanje i
suradnja sa zajednicom Međutim svi ovi načini suradnje
roditelja sa školom pretpostavljaju izravnu komunikaciju
koja ponekad ni uz najbolju volju roditelja nije moguća
Mnogi roditelji rade u vrijeme planiranih školskih
aktivnosti ili sastanaka i nisu u mogućnosti biti nazočni
pogotovo u školama koje rade u jednoj smjeni Današnji način
života i zaposlenost oba roditelja onemogućuju komunikaciju
licem u lice i aktivnije sudjelovanje roditelja sa školom
2 Suvremeni oblici suradnje roditelja i škole
Jedna od ključnih značajki ljudskoga roda je sposobnost
komuniciranja Iznimna sposobnost pohranjivanja podataka te
brza informacijska razmjena ogromnih razmjera
revolucionalizirali su poslovanje i svakodnevni život
čovjeka Pristup informacijama postaje neograničen
razmjena ideja i misli slobodna transformira se svjetsko
gospodarstvo i ekonomija Značajne su promjene i u pristupu
obrazovanju Brze komunikacije postaju trend u oblikovanju
budućnosti pa su sve zastupljeniji revolucionarni modeli
učenja (primjerice korištenje interaktivne kompjutorske
tehnologije ubrzano učenje) Učenik preuzima
odgovornost za život u svijetu u kojem bdquooni koji prekinu
školovanje nemaju budućnostldquo (Dryden i Vos 2001 str 39)
Snažnije je i kritiziranje obrazovnog sustava kao tromog
sustava u procesu promjena a pozitivne inicijative osnažene
znanstvenim istraživanjima postaju poveznica za
osuvremenjivanje i unaprjeđivanje škole 21 stoljeća
Tehnologija je postala kritična komponenta svakodnevnog
života i posljednjih nekoliko godina vidljiv je porast u
razvoju i korištenju školskih web stranica (Hartshorne i
sur 2008) Istraživanja (Aronson 1995 Cameron i Lee 1997
Clemens-Brower 1997 Clevenson 1999 Ramirez 2001)
pokazuju da mnogi učitelji eksperimentiraju s raznim
tehnologijama pri komuniciranju s roditeljima (telefoni u
učionicama glasovna pošta video tehnologije radio najave
i sl) a sve kako bi unaprijedili suradnju Školske web
stranice pružaju korisne sadržaje za roditelje kao što su
odgojni savjeti domaće zadaće elektronsku poštu ili
jelovnik školske kuhinje te šire granice komunikacije i
omogućuju komunikaciju između doma i škole dvadeset i četiri
sata dnevno sedam dana u tjednu To omogućuje roditeljima
kojima dnevni rasporedi ne pružaju mogućnost za redovne
posjete školi i interakciju licem u lice sa svojim djetetom
ili učiteljem da budu informiraniji o tome što se događa u
školi Internet postaje izvrsno sredstvo za povezivanje doma
i škole
Swan (2006) smatra da škole imaju puno informacija a
roditelji žele znati više o akademskih postignućima
izvannastavnim aktivnostima terminima informacija
sadržajima poput autobusnog prijevoza ili ručka te da je
važno da školske web stranice sadrže točne i korisne
informacije a ne uzbudljiv dizajn i najnovije tehnološke
bdquoukraserdquo
Online istraživanje (Unal 2008) pokazuje da roditelji
i učitelji prepoznaju važnost web stranica škola iako se ne
slažu u potpunosti oko njihova sadržaja Dok su učitelji
sugerirali kako bi poveznice (linkovi) unutar škole
razredna pravila nastavni program i standardi spisak
(obveznog) školskog pribora statistika posjetitelja web
stranice i knjiga gostiju bili esencijalni za školske web
stranice u značajnom odstupanju (plt05) se pokazalo kako se
roditelji nisu složili s učiteljima u vezi tih elemenata S
druge strane roditelji izjavljuju kako bi rado vidjeli
online praktične testove akademske savjetodavne
informacije vijesti u vezi administrativnih pitanja i
školske uprave te životopise učitelja Naposljetku i
učitelji i roditelji složni su kako rezultati školskih
športskih natjecanja i aktivnosti prosvjetna filozofija
plan nastavnih lekcija poveznice izvan institucije online
članci ili letci s vijestima razredni foto album razredne
vijesti ili blog učitelja meniji primjerci didaktičkih
kartica osobne poveznice (linkovi) i informacije o obitelji
učitelja nisu esencijalni elementi školskih web stranica
Može se zaključiti da bez obzira što mnoge škole sada imaju
web stranice nisu sve značajne za komunikaciju roditelja i
učitelja Prethodna istraživanja pokazuju da struktura i
sadržaj školske web stranice trebaju biti pažljivo planirane
i osmišljene
Prema McKenzie J (1997) najbolja školska web mjesta
imaju četiri svrhe 1 upoznati posjetitelje sa svojom
misijom karakterom ponudama za učenike i stajalištem o
novim tehnologijama 2 pružiti mogućnost objave učeničkih
radova i edukacije roditelja 3 djelovati kao posrednik
većem dijelu informacija i 4 pružiti bogatu zbirku
podataka lokalno prikupljenih uz nastavni plan i program
(kao što je lokalna povijest) Neke školske stranice
sadržavaju sva četiri elementa ali većina se koncentrira na
pružanje kvalitetne usluge za dva ili tri od ovih elemenata
21 Suradnja roditelja i škole u Republici Hrvatskoj
U osnovnoškolskom obrazovanju u Republici Hrvatskoj
propisani su (najčešće školskim Statutom) sljedeći oblici
suradnje s roditeljima roditeljski sastanci individualni
razgovori s učiteljima i stručnim suradnicima i pismene
poruke roditeljima Prema Zakonu o osnovnoškolskom i
srednjem obrazovanju (MZOŠ 2008) propisuje se osnivanje
Vijeća roditelja koje sačinjava po jedan roditelj iz svakoga
razreda a predsjednik Vijeća roditelja postaje i član
Školskoga odbora Praksa pokazuje da ovi propisani načini
suradnje ne zadovoljavaju ni učitelje a ni roditelje
Roditeljsko sudjelovanje je tek formalno bez stvarne
mogućnosti utjecaja na donošenje bitnih odluka
Centraliziranost i normiranost kurikuluma ne ostavlja
dovoljno prostora školama da svoj program prilagođavaju
potrebama lokalne sredine roditeljski sastanci se svode na
prenošenje informacija pri čemu su roditelji najčešće
pasivni primatelji informacija a vrlo rijetki roditelji su
pozvani na sudjelovanje u nekim aktivnostima škole
Istraživanje provedeno među roditeljima učenika deset
osnovnih škola četvrtoga i sedmoga razreda iz svih hrvatskih
regija te njihovih učitelja (Marušić 2007) pokazuje da
dvije trećine roditelja smatra da imaju premalo mogućnosti
sudjelovati u donošenju odluka u školi više od 90
roditelja nije nikada sudjelovalo u aktivnostima vezanima uz
suradnju obitelji i škole tri četvrtine roditelja navode da
se u školi ne organiziraju predavanja i radionice a trećina
roditelja ne zna organiziraju li se takve radionice Znatan
broj roditelja je iskazao zainteresiranost za sudjelovanje u
različitim aktivnostima škole ali inicijativu čekaju od
strane učitelja
Ipak praksa u hrvatskim školama posljednjih godina
pokazuje poduzimanje dodatnih strategija u suradnji s
roditeljima Održavaju se brojne radionice uključuju se kao
suradnici u projektu a u zajedničkoj komunikaciji na
relaciji obitelj - škola unaprjeđuje se praćenje i
procjenjivanje učeničkog napretka te ostvaruje kvalitetnija
povratna informacija o napretku djeteta (sve su
zastupljenije učeničke mape kao primjer sustavne autentične
i razvojne procjene napretka učenika)
Što se elektroničkih oblika suradnje tiče Hrvatska je
korak unatrag Projekt Net u školi započeo je 2003godine
i u sve hrvatske škole uveden je ISDN priključak s ciljem
unaprjeđenja procesa učenja korištenjem interneta u nastavi
i istraživanju učenika iz vlastitog doma te postavljanju
temelja novoj kulturi učenja koja se bazira na otvorenosti k
novim spoznajama novim medijima i tehnologijama Danas sve
hrvatske škole imaju mogućnost postavljanja svoje web
stranice a učitelji otvaranje elektronske adrese
U Hrvatskoj su web mjesta pojedinoga učitelja rijetka
pojava ali su pokrenuti projekti Školski infocentar i SMS
informativka kojima je omogućeno informiranje roditelja o
uspjehu izostancima i ostalim školskim zbivanjima
jednostavnim i većini roditelja dostupnim načinima
komunikacije (SMS e-mail internet i govorne poruke) Mali
broj škola uveo je i web imenike gdje razrednici jednom
mjesečno ažuriraju podatke pa ih roditelji pomoću posebne
lozinke mogu pogledati u svako doba dana Iako nije
najvažnije ne treba zanemariti ni podatak da prema Zavodu
za državnu statistiku u Hrvatskoj tek oko 38 kućanstava ima
Internet (2009) što otežava komunikaciju putem web
stranica a ni svi učitelji nisu informatički pismeni Takva
suradnja ima svoje prednosti i nedostatke
Tablica 1 ndash prednosti i nedostatci suradnje putem
elektroničkih medija
PREDNOSTI NEDOSTATCISvakodnevno primanje obavijesti o
djetetu
Brzina slanja informacija
Neograničenost vremenom i mjestom
Ušteda vremena za roditelje
Ušteda vremena za učitelja pri
slanju općih obavijesti
Roditelj u školu dolazi
pripremljen teme za razgovor su s
područja odgoja i obrazovanja
I roditelji i učitelji moraju biti
informatički pismeni
Svi sudionici (roditelji učitelji)
moraju imati internet
Dodatni posao za učitelje (redovito
ažuriranje podataka)
Rjeđi susreti roditelja i učitelja
Izostanak komunikacije bdquolicem u
licerdquo
Financijski trošak za roditelje pri
slanju SMS poruka
Mogućnost zlouporabe (lozinka)
3 Metodologija istraživanja
31 Cilj istraživanja
Cilj istraživanja bio je ispitati imaju li web stranice
hrvatskih osnovnih škola sadržaje koji će potaknuti
roditelje na česte posjete i omogućiti učenicima stjecanje
novih znanja Dugoročni je cilj potaknuti škole na redovito
postavljanje novih sadržaja koji će rezultirati kvalitetnom
suradnjom doma i škole te poticati učenike na istraživački
rad iz svojih domova i time unaprjeđivati kvalitetu učenja
32 Problem
Problem ovoga rada jest utvrditi trenutnu svrhu
hrvatskih osnovnoškolskih web stranica (objaviti postignuća
učenika omogućiti roditeljima uvid u svakodnevne
aktivnosti informirati roditelje i širu zajednicu o budućim
aktivnostima i jačanje suradnje između škole doma i
lokalne zajednice)
33 Hipoteze
H-1 Web stranice hrvatskih osnovnih škola svojim
sadržajima nisu model za intenziviranje suradnje s
roditeljima te postavljanje temelja novoj kulturi učenja
H-2 Ne postoji statistički značajna razlika u
sadržajima među dvjema županijama ni u jednoj od jedanaest
kategorija
34 Ispitanici i postupak
Školske web stranice javne su isprave i dobrodošlica
vanjskome svijetu u školu kao i poveznica učenika i
učitelja s vanjskim izvorima informacija te mogućnost
kvalitetnije suradnje s roditeljima Svrha školskih web
stranica je objaviti postignuća učenika omogućiti
roditeljima uvid u svakodnevne aktivnosti informirati
roditelje i širu zajednicu o budućim aktivnostima i jačanje
suradnje između škole doma i lokalne zajednice Svrha
školskih web stranica ne bi trebala biti elektronička
verzija oglasne ploče i slika škole koja rijetko mijenja
svoj izgled
Istraživanje je provedeno metodom analize sadržaja
slučajnim odabirom na 50 web stranica osnovnih škola u
Istarskoj i Splitsko-dalmatinskoj županiji (25 škola po
županiji) Korišten je internetski popis škola Portal za
škole Budući da u Hrvatskoj nije provedeno istraživanje s
roditeljima u kojemu bi se ispitalo koje sadržaje oni
smatraju bitnima i relevantnima autorice su se vodile
istraživanjem provedenim online studijom u Americi (Unal
2008) i elementima koje su u toj studiji izabrali učitelji
i roditelji Analizirani su sljedeći sadržaji web stranica
plan i program o školi (povijest škole) brojač posjeta
kućni red (razredna pravila) raspored sati i informacija za
roditelje rezultati športskih natjecanja foto albumi
online testovi (materijali za učenje) životopisi učitelja
savjeti za roditelje i forum Analiza je obavljena početkom
mjeseca prosinca 2010 pred kraj prvoga polugodišta što je
školama dalo dovoljno vremena za ažuriranje i popunjavanje
stranica U ovom istraživanju nije analiziran dizajn web
stranica jer su u većini slučajeva stranice postavljene
koristeći Carnet hosting uslugu i nude slične poveznice S
obzirom da većina škola ima isti preglednik smatrano je da
škola ima sadržaj ako je unesen vlastiti dokument ili
poveznica
4 Rezultati i rasprava
Tablica 2 - ukupni analizirani sadržaji u postotcima
SADRŽAJ OBJE
ŽUPANIJE DA POSTOTAK NE POSTOTAK
PLAN I
PROGRAM41 82 9 18
BROJAČ
POSJETA8 16 42 84
KUĆNI RED 10 20 40 80 RASPORED
INFORMACIJA28 56 22 44
ŠPORTSKI
USPJESI23 46 27 54
FOTO ALBUMI 43 86 7 14 TESTOVI
ONLINE
(MATERIJALI
ZA UČENJE)
17 34 33 66
ŽIVOTOPIS
UČITELJA2 4 48 96
SAVJETI ZA
RODITELJE18 36 32 64
FORUM 12 24 38 76
O ŠKOLI
(POVIJEST)50 100 0 0
Iz tablice 2 vidljivo je da sve škole na svojim
stranicama imaju podatke o školi odnosno njezinoj povijesti
(100) a najveći dio škola foto albume (86) te plan i
program (82) Više od polovice škola (56) imaju raspored
informacija a nešto manje od polovice (46) športske
uspjehe svojih učenika Najmanji broj škola na svojim
stranicama objavljuju životopise učitelja (4) i brojač
posjeta (16) Materijale za učenje i savjete za roditelje
ima tek nešto više od trećine stranica (34 36)
Grafikon 1 - sadržaji prema županijama
Iz grafikona 1 vidljivo je da se rezultati među županijama
ne razlikuju mnogo Najviše razlika je u sadržaju športskih
uspjeha (Istarska županija 72 Splitsko- dalmatinska 20)
a razlika od 20 pojavila se u kategorijama foto albuma i
materijala za učenje Sve ostale razlike su manje od 20
Hipoteza 2 testirana je hi ndash kvadrat testom Hipoteza se
smatra prihvaćenom u slučaju da je vjerojatnost pogreške
pri tvrdnji da postoji statistički značajna povezanost
analiziranog para varijabli manja od 5
Tablica 3 Relacije među županijama
PLAN
I
PROGR
AM
BRO
JAČ
POSJE
TA
KUĆNI
RED
RASPO
RED
INFOR
MACI
JA
ŠPORT
SKI
USPJE
SI
FOTO
ALBUM
ONLINE
TESTOVI
ŽIVOTOPIS
UČITELJA
SAVJETI
ZA
RODI
TELJE FORUM
10486462 00240148
80125 0081
1159
4
2657
81471 05208 07812 01096
df 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
p 0876
88491
0
0479
50012
0527
0892
0705
31663
0006
71374
0
044
5920
62
02251
8798
0157299
21
03457
4844
05638
979
Nije teško uočiti da se statistički značajna razlika
javlja samo u sadržaju športskih uspjeha a u ostalim
elementima ne postoji što potvrđuje postavljenu hipotezu
Može se dakle zaključiti da nema razlika u sadržajima među
dvjema županijama
Sadržaji web stranica mogu se podijeliti u dvije
kategorije sadržaji namijenjeni roditeljima i učenicima
(plan i program raspored informacija životopis učitelja
savjeti za roditelje forum testovi ili materijali za
učenje kućni red) i sadržaji namijenjeni promociji školskih
aktivnosti i uspjeha (športski uspjesi foto albumi o
školi brojač posjeta)
Tablica 4 - analiza sadržaja prema svrsi
SADRŽAJ OBJE
ŽUPANIJE NAMIJENJENI
RODITELJIMA
I UČENICIMADA
POSTOTAK NE POSTOTAK
TESTOVI
ONLINE
(MATERIJALI
ZA UČENJE)
17 34 33 66
PLAN I
PROGRAM41 82 9 18
SAVJETI ZA
RODITELJE18 36 32 64
KUĆNI RED 10 20 40 80 RASPORED
INFORMACIJA28 56 22 44
FORUM 12 24 38 76 ŽIVOTOPIS
UČITELJA2 4 48 96
PROMOCIJA
ŠKOLSKIH
AKTIVNOSTI
DA POSTOTAK NE POSTOTAK
I USPJEHA
ŠPORTSKI
USPJESI23 46 27 54
FOTO ALBUMI 43 86 7 14 BROJAČ
POSJETA8 16 42 84
O ŠKOLI
(POVIJEST)50 100 0 0
Od sadržaja koji su namijenjeni roditeljima i
učenicima a koji bi učenicima omogućili stjecanje novih
znanja i roditelje potaknuli na česte posjete škole u
visokom postotku (82) nude plan i program što je i
zakonska obveza škole (javna objava) a tek nešto više od
polovice škola (56) objavljuje raspored informacija za
roditelje Nešto više od trećine škola (34 36) na svojim
web stranicama ima materijale za učenje i savjete za
roditelje a tek 24 škola ima aktivan forum za razmjenu
mišljenja iako je i na tim forumima bio zanemariv broj
otvorenih tema od kojih niti jednu nije otvorio roditelj
Materijali za učenje najčešće su online testovi za što
postoji poveznica sa školske web stranice a savjeti za
roditelje tekstovi koje su sastavili stručni suradnici S
obzirom na manjak stručnih suradnika u našim školama moguće
je da je to razlog relativno malog postotka tih sadržaja U
nekim školama u rubrici savjeta za roditelje nalaze se
poveznice sa zanimljivim člancima na internetu
Kategorije koje služe za promociju školskih uspjeha i
aktivnosti imaju više sadržaja svaka škola ima uređenu
stranicu o povijesti škole 86 škola ažurira stranicu s
foto albumima a nešto manje od polovice škola (46) na
svoje stranice stavlja športske uspjehe svojih učenika U
navedenim foto albumima škole nude fotografije s izleta
izvanučioničke nastave priredbi i sl O opravdanosti
velikoga broja fotografija učenika moglo bi se raspravljati
s obzirom da niti jedan objavljeni sadržaj nije zaštićen
lozinkom već je dostupan svima pa se postavlja pitanje
imaju li škole suglasnost roditelja za to Tek 16 škola
vodi računa o posjećenosti svojih stranica a to bi mogao
biti značajan podatak o tome koliko ih učenici i roditelji
posjećuju
Iz navedenih podataka može se zaključiti da je školama
veoma važna promocija aktivnosti i uspjeha škole povijest
ustanove i raspored individualnih informacija a savjeti za
roditelje i materijali za učenike te razmjena mišljenja
nisu prioritetni sadržaji Škole smatraju da je roditeljima
potpuno nevažan stručni životopis učitelja najave
roditeljskih sastanaka ili jelovnici školskih kuhinja Iz
toga proizlazi da su web stranice škola u Hrvatskoj
elektroničke oglasne ploče a ne mogućnost komunikacije
5 Zaključak
Zadnjih desetak godina suradnja s roditeljima i kod nas
se mijenja na bolje ali u našim školama još uvijek
prevladavaju tradicionalni oblici suradnje s roditeljima
Iako u svijetu postoje roditeljski radio i Tv kanali
časopisi i internet stranice za razmjenu iskustava (Mendel
1998) kod nas takva praksa nije zaživjela no posljednjih
godina započela je suradnja putem web stranica e mail i sms
poruka Sumirajući prednosti i nedostatke a s obzirom na
današnji način života i ovaj način suradnje treba
intenzivirati u našim školama Suvremeni načini
komuniciranja mogu dodatno poboljšati komunikaciju između
roditelja i škole ali samo kao još jedan od načina uz sve
ostale navedene načine suradnje Iz toga proizlazi da iako
suvremeno doba pretpostavlja korištenje suvremenih
tehnologija nikakva tehnologija ne bi smjela zamijeniti
komunikaciju bdquolicem u licerdquo roditelja i učitelja a
odgovornost za dobru suradnju s roditeljima i dalje ostaje
na školi
Istraživanje pokazuje mogućnosti komuniciranja obitelji
i škole suvremenom tehnologijom Prikazani su elementi
školskih web stranica te način planiranja sadržaja web
stranice Ovo istraživanje smatramo važnim za informiranje
učitelja i rukovodstva škola o mogućnostima suvremenog
komuniciranja obitelji i škole Školska web stranica otvara
mogućnosti za uspostavljanje brze informacije no samim
postojanjem ne jamči učenicima stjecanje novih znanja i
kvalitetnije povezivanje obitelji i škole Može biti dobar
primjer vodstvu škole u stvaranju školskog kurikuluma kao
segmenta kojim će se omogućavati brza razmjena informacija s
roditeljima Nažalost obrazovni sustav u Hrvatskoj
tradicionalan je i trom neprimjeren vremenu i suvremenim
zanimanjima Ne zadovoljava individualne potrebe pojedinca
a tradicionalnim poučavanjem uz tehnologijski i
informacijski minimum potpuno je nemotivirajući kako za
učenika tako i za obitelj Rezultati ovoga istraživanja
pokazuju da školske web stranice u Hrvatskoj ne ostvaruju
sasvim svoju svrhu objavljivanje postignuća učenika
omogućavanje roditeljima uvid u svakodnevne aktivnosti
informiranje roditelja i šire zajednice o budućim
aktivnostima i jačanje suradnje između škole doma i
lokalne zajednice Iako svrha školskih web stranica ne bi
trebala biti elektronička verzija oglasne ploče i slika
škole koja rijetko mijenja svoj izgled trenutno stanje
hrvatskih web stranica u analiziranim županijama pokazuje
upravo to što potvrđuje početnu hipotezu
U narednim istraživanjima trebalo bi ispitati stavove
roditelja u Hrvatskoj o tome koje sadržaje oni smatraju
važnima te bi se tada dobili relevantni podatci koje bi
učitelji mogli upotrijebiti za kreiranje svojih web
stranica
Literatura
Berger E H (1991) Parent Involvement Yesterday and
Today The Elementary School Journal 91 (3) 209-219
Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb
Educa
Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships
Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76
httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20Articles
ParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
Epstein JL i Sheldon S B (2006) Moving Forward Ideas
for Research on School Family and Community Partnerships
httpwwwcsosjhuedup2000pdfLiterature20Review
2020Epstein20and20Sheldon2006pdf (15112010)
Graham- Clay S (2005) Communicating with Parents
Strategies for Teachers School Community Journal 16 (1)
117-129
Hartshorne R Friedman A Algozzine B i Kaur D
(2008) Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites Educational
Technology amp Society 11 (1) 291-303
Hitrec G(ur) (2006) Škola otvorena roditeljima Zagreb
Udruga roditelja Korak po korak
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
Deana Tavas graduate teacher
Vladimir Nazor Elementary School Rovinj
dtavasyahoocom
Sanja Bilač graduate teacher
Spinut Elementary School Split
sanja9stgmailcom
SCHOOL WEBSITES ndash
POSSIBILITY OF COOPERATION WITH PARENTS
SCHOOL WEBSITES ndash POSSIBILITY OF COOPERATION WITH PARENTS
Abstract In the last fifteen years in Croatia as well as around the world
much research has been done dealing with the importance of cooperation
between parents and school and the obtained results show its importance for all
the parties and that partnership relation between school and parents produces
numerous benefits Besides customary ways of communication like individual
talk and parent meetings written messages informal meetings educational
workshops the involvement of parents in the educational process in the role of
accessory etc the most modern way of communicating with parents is via school
websites teacherrsquos websites e-mails and SMS messages The goal of the
research was to examine if Croatian schoolsrsquo websites had the content which
would prompt the parents for frequent visits and enable pupils to acquire new
knowledge A long term goal was to persuade schools to a regular update of new
materials which would result in quality cooperation between home and school
and persuade pupils to do research from their home and therefore increase the
quality of learning The research has randomly selected 25 elementary school
websites from the county of Istra and 25 websites from the county Split ndash
Dalmatia Collected data show that Croatiarsquos elementary school websites are not
a model neither for increasing the cooperation with parents nor laying the
foundation towards a new culture of learning and that there is no statistically
significant variation in content between the two counties
Key words cooperation with parents Internet school websites website
content
1 Parents and school cooperation
The cooperation between parents and schools is
extremely important and offers manifold benefits for all the
participants in the education process A partnership between
parents and teachers establishes good relations since every
partner introduces their competences in the childrsquos
education The cooperation between parents and teachers
ie school should be the best possible to achieve
outstanding goals Berger (1991) considers that models of
parent involvement are approached more actively nowadays
then it was in the 1960s when the responsibilities of
parents and schools were considered distinct Cooperation
with parents is today considered on of the essential
determinants of an efficient school in terms of general
pedagogy and research has shown that 22 of teachers
consider the lack of parent involvement a serious problem
(Ryan and Cooper 2010) Such cooperation is only partially
directed at prevention ie solution of disciplinary
problems since its benefits are manifold and are
manifested in better grades increased regular attendance
more willingness to work at home and development of more
positive attitudes and behavior Parental involvement in
school life has a positive effect on pupilrsquos achievements
and their motivation and the partnership relation between
parents and schools makes the parents more informed of
school affairs gives them a more positive image in the eyes
of the teachers they contribute to a better functioning of
the school strengthen their self-confidence and assurance
in helping their child at home and they become
participants not mere observers of the education of their
child Teachers have also to gain from a partnership
relation with parents since the parents become allies in
solving problems they become more motivated and satisfied
with their job receive more confidence from parents and
have a better reputation in society
These and other benefits for all the participants in
the education process are the result of growing willingness
and need of parent involvement in the school life According
to Walsh (2002) one way of achieving a successful bond
between parents and school is a consistent and clear two-way
communication
Epstein (1995) lists three learning contexts for
pupils in the family in school and in the community and
lists 6 ways of parent involvement These are parenting
communication volunteering learning at home decision
making and collaborating with the community However all of
these ways of cooperation between parents and school presume
direct communication which at times regardless of the
parentsrsquo willingness is impossible Many parents work
during planned school activities or meetings and have not
the possibility to participate especially in schools which
work in a single shift Todayrsquos way of life and both parents
working prevents personal communication and a more active
involvement of parents with schools
2 Contemporary ways of cooperation between parents and
school
One of the key features of humans is the ability to
communicate The exceptional ability of storing data and
fast sharing of enormous amounts of information have
revolutionized business as well as the everyday life of
mankind The access to information is unlimited the sharing
of ideas and thoughts free the worldrsquos business and economy
are being transformed Significant are the changes in the
approach to education Fast communication is becoming a
trend in shaping the future and therefore revolutionary
models of learning are more and more inherent (eg using
interactive computer technology fast learning) Pupils
are assuming responsibility for their life in a world in
which ldquothose who end their education have no futurerdquo (Dryden
and Vos 2001 p 39) Stronger is the criticism of the
educational system for its inertness in the process of
change and positive initiatives empowered by scientific
research become the link for modernization and improvement
of the school in the 21st century
Technology has become a critical component of everyday
life and an increase in the development and use of school
websites over the last few years is evident (Hartshorne and
ass 2008) Research (Aronson 1995 Cameron and Lee 1997
Clemens-Brower 1997 Cleverson 1999 Ramirez 2001) show that
many teachers experiment with various technologies when
communicating with parents (telephones in classrooms voice
mail video technology radio announcements etc) to
improve cooperation School websites provide parents with
useful content such as educational tips homework e-mails
or the school cafeteria menu and expand the borders of
communication between home and school to a 24 hours a day 7
days a week contact That allows parents whose daily
timetable doesnrsquot permit regular visits to the school and
face-to-face interaction with their child or teacher to be
more informed of what is happening at school Internet
becomes an excellent means of connecting home and school
Swan (2008) believes that schools have a lot of
information and parents want to know more about academic
achievements extracurricular activities parentsrsquo meeting
schedule information such as bus transport or lunch and
that it is important that school websites include accurate
and useful information not an exciting design or newest
technological ldquoornamentsrdquo
Online research (Unal 2008) shows that parents and
teachers recognize the importance of school websites
although they do not agree completely on their content
While teachers suggest that links inside the school
classroom rules teaching curriculum and standards list of
obligatory accessories statistics of websites visitors and
guest book should be essential to a school website
significant divergence (plt05) was seen in parents
disagreeing on these elements On the other hand parents
declare they would like to see online practical tests
academic advisory information information about
administrative issues and school direction as well as
teachers CVs Eventually teachers and parents agree that
results of school sport competition and activities
educational philosophy lesson plans links outside the
institution online articles and newsletters class photo
albums and news teachersrsquo blogs menus examples of
didactic cards personal links and teachersrsquo family
information are not essential elements of schoolsrsquo websites
It can be concluded that regardless of many schools today
having their own website not all are important for the
communication of parents and teachers Past research shows
that the structure and content of school websites should be
carefully planned and developed
According to McKenzie J (1997) the best websites have
four purposes 1 introduce visitors to its mission its
character its offerings to children its stance on new
technologies 2 offer an opportunity for the publishing of
student works and parents education 3 act as a mediator to
a larger share of information and 4 provide rich data
locally collected on curriculum related topics (such as
local history) Some school websites contain all four of
these elements but the majority is concentrated upon
providing a quality service in two or three of these
elements
21 Cooperation between parents and school in Croatia
In the elementary education in Croatia prescribed are
(most often by School statute) the following ways of
cooperation with parents parent meeting individual talks
with teachers and school assistants and written messages to
parents According to Law on Primary and Secondary
Education (Ministry of Education Science and Technology
2008) prescribed is the formation a Parentsrsquo Council which
comprises one parent from every class and the president of
the Parentrsquos Council is appointed a member of the School
Committee Practice shows that these prescribed ways of
cooperation do not satisfy the teachers or the parents
Parent participation is merely formal without real
possibility of influencing important decisions
Centralization and standardization of the curriculum do not
allow schools enough space for adapting to the needs of the
local community parent meeting come down to mere
information sharing where parents are usually passive
recipients of information and parents asked to participate
in some kind of school activity are rare A research
conducted among parents of pupil of the 4th and 7th grade
from all Croatian regions and their teachers (Marušić 2007)
shows that two thirds of parents believes that they have too
little possibility of participating in decision making in
schools more than 90 of parents have never taken part in
activities related to cooperation between family and school
three quarters of parents state that there are no lectures
or workshops organized in schools and a third of parents
does not know if such workshops are organized A substantial
number of parents have shown interest in participating in
various school activities but the initiative is expected to
come from teachers
However the practice in Croatian schools in recent
years has shown undertaking additional strategies for
cooperation with parents Many workshops are being held
parents are involved as assistants on projects and in the
communication between parents and school improvement has
been made in following and assessing the pupilsrsquo progress as
well as in the feedback information on the pupilsrsquo progress
(increasingly common are the pupilsrsquo maps as an example of
systematic authentic and development assessment of pupilsrsquo
progress)
As far as electronic cooperation is concerned Croatia
is one step back The project ldquoNet u školirdquo ndash ldquoNet in the
schoolrdquo was initiated in 2003 and all schools in Croatia
have been equipped with ISDN terminals with the aim to
improve the process of learning by using Internet in
teaching and pupilsrsquo research from home and by laying the
foundation for a new culture of learning based on openness
to new knowledge new media and technology Today all
schools in Croatia have the possibility to set up a website
and the teachers to open e-mail accounts
In Croatia websites of teachers are a rare appearance
but the projects ldquoŠkolski infocentarrdquo and ldquoSMS informativkardquo
have been initiated through which informing parents on
success absence and other school activities via simple and
to the majority accessible way of communication (SMS e-
mail Internet and voicemail) has been enabled A small
number of schools have incorporated a web directory updated
monthly by class masters which parents with a special
password can check at any time Although not the most
important fact it should not be ignored that according to
the Central Bureau of Statistics in 2009 only 38 of
households in Croatia had access to the Internet which
complicates communication via websites and not all teachers
are computer literate Such cooperation has its advantages
and disadvantages
Table 1 ndash advantages and disadvantages of cooperation
via electronic media
ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGESInformation on child received daily
Fast information transmission
Not limited by time or place
Time saving for parents
Time saving for teachers when
sending general information
Parents come to school prepared
themes for conversation are
educational
Both parents and teachers must be
computer literate
All participants (parents
teachers) must have Internet access
Additional work for teachers
(regular updating of data)
Rarer encounters among parents and
teachers
Lack of face-to-face communication
Financial expense for parents when
sending SMS messages
Possible abuse (password)
3 Research methodology
31 Aim of research
The aim of the research was to examine whether the
content of Croatian elementary schools websites encourages
frequent parentsrsquo visits and allows pupils to acquire new
knowledge A long term goal is to encourage schools to post
new materials regularly which would result in high-quality
cooperation between home and school along with encouraging
students to research work from their homes and therefore
advancing the quality of learning
32 Problem
The problem of this work is to determine the current
purpose of Croatian elementary schools websites
33 Hypothesis
H-1 Websites of Croatian elementary schools with its
contents do not pose a model for a more intensive
cooperation with parents or lay the foundations for a new
culture of learning
H-2 There is no statistically significant difference in
content between the two counties in neither of the eleven
categories
34 Participants and procedure
School websites are public documents and welcome the
outer world into the school as well as a link between
pupils and teachers with outer sources of information and a
possibility of better cooperation with parents The function
of school websites is to make public the achievements of
pupils to allow parents insight into daily activities and
to inform parents and the larger community of future
activities as well as strengthening cooperation between
school home and the local community The function of the
schoolsrsquo websites should not be a mere electronic version of
a notice board or a picture of a school that seldom changes
its appearance
The research was conducted by content analysis method
on a random selection of 50 elementary school websites in
the counties of Istria and Split ndash Dalmatia (25 schools per
county) The Internet school directory of ldquoPortal za školerdquo
was used Since in Croatia a research has not been conducted
on parents and the content the parents believed to be
important and relevant the authors were led by a research
done by an online study in USA (Unal 2008) and the elements
selected by teachers and parents in that study The
following website content was analysed curriculum about
the school (school history) web counters house rules
(classroom rules) timetable and information for parents
results of school competition photo albums online tests
(study materials) teachersrsquo CV tips for parents and forum
The analysis was done at the beginning of December 2010 by
the end of the first term giving the schools enough time to
update and enrich the websites This research did not take
into consideration the design of websites since in the
majority of cases it has been done using Carnet hosting
services and offered similar links Regarding the fact that
most schools have the same browser a school is considered
to have a website if a private document or link has been
updated
4 Results and discussion
Table 2 ndash Overall analysed content in percentage
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIES
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCETAGECURRICULUM 41 82 9 18 WEBSITE
COUNTER8 16 42 84
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTSrsquo
INFORMATION28 56 22 44
RESULTS OF
SCHOOL
COMPETITION
23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 ONLINE
TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
TEACHERSrsquo 2 4 48 96
CV
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
FORUM 12 24 38 76 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL
(SCHOOL
HISTORY)
50 100 0 0
For table 2 it is evident that all schools have information
about the school on the website ie about its history
(100) the majority has school photo alums (86) and the
curriculum (82) More than half the schools (56) have the
timetable for parentsrsquo information and less then half (46)
have sport achievements of their pupils The fewest schools
publish teachersrsquo CVs (4) and website counters Study
materials and tips for parents are present on just above a
third the websites (34 36)
Chart 1 ndash content according to county
It is visible from Chart 1 that results do not vary much
between counties The most discrepancy is shown in sportsrsquo
achievements (Istria 72 Split ndash Dalmatia 20) and a 20
discrepancy is present in categories photo album and study
material Other discrepancies are smaller than 20 The 2nd
hypothesis was tested with the chi-square test The
hypothesis is considered valid in case that the probability
of error is less than 5 considering that there is a
statistically significant link between the analysed pair of
variables
Table 3 ndash Relations between counties
CURRI
CULUM
WEB
COUNT
ERS
HOUSE
RULES
INFOR
MATIO
N
TIMET
ABLE
SPORT
S
ACHIE
VEMEN
TS
PHOTO
ALBUM
ONLINE
TESTS
TEACHERS
CVs
TIPS
FOR
PARENTS FORUM
10486462 0024 0148 0125 0081 1159 2657 1471 05208 07812 01096
8 4 8
df 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
p 0876
88491
0
0479
50012
0527
0892
0705
31663
0006
71374
0
044
5920
62
02251
8798
0157299
21
03457
4844
05638
979
It is not difficult to notice that a significant
discrepancy is present only in sportsrsquo achievement whereas
in other elements it does not exist which confirms the
stated hypothesis It can be concluded that there are no
differences between the content in the two counties
The website content can be divided into two categories
content intended for parents and pupils (curriculum
timetable for parentsrsquo information teachersrsquo CVs tips for
parents forum online tests and study material house
rules) and content for promoting school activities and
achievements (sportsrsquo achievements photo albums about the
school web counters)
Table 4 ndash analysis according to purpose
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIESINTENDEED FOR
PARENTS AND
PUPILSYES
PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
ONLINE TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
CURRICULUM 41 82 9 18
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTS
INFORMATION
TIMETABLE
28 56 22 44
FORUM 12 24 38 76 TEACHERSrsquo CV 2 4 48 96 PROMOTION OF
SCHOOL
ACTIVITIES
AND
ACVIEVEMENTS
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
SPORTS
ACHIEVEMENTS23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 WEB COUNTERS 8 16 42 84 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL50 100 0 0
Among the content intended for parents and pupils
which would allow pupils to acquire new knowledge and
encourage parents to visit regularly schools offer in high
percentage (82) the curriculum which is a legal obligation
(public notice) and just over half the schools (56) offer
the timetable for parentsrsquo information About one third of
schools (34 36) publish on its websites study materials
and tips for parents and only 24 have an active forum for
exchanging opinions although these forums have an
insignificant number of open themes none of which were
opened by parents Study materials are most often online
tests with a link from the website and tips for parents are
texts compiled by schools assistants Considering the lack
of assistants in schools this may be the cause for a small
percentage of these materials Some schools under the
section tips for parents have links to interesting Internet
articles
Categories intended for the promotion of school
achievements and activities have more contents every school
has a page dedicated to school history 86 updates the
photo album section and less then half the schools (46)
publish sportsrsquo achievements of the pupils The photo albums
offer pictures from school trips out-of-classroom teaching
school events etc Justifying such a large number of
pictures is debatable since none of the published materials
are protected by password but available to everybody the
question arises if the schools have the parentsrsquo permission
Only 16 of schools pay attention to visits which could be
a significant information showing the number of parents and
pupils visiting the website
The mentioned data show that schools consider relevant
the promotion of school activities and success the history
of the school and the timetable for parentsrsquo information
but tips for parents and school materials along with
exchanging opinions are not a priority Schools consider the
teachersrsquo CVs parentsrsquo meeting announcements or the school
cafeteria menu of no relevance to parents These facts point
to the fact that school websites in Croatia are more online
notice-boards than a real possibility for communication
5 Conclusion
Over the last decade cooperation with parents in
Croatia has been improving however in our schools
traditional forms of cooperation with parents are still
prevailing Although in the world there are specialized
radio and TV channels magazines and Internet sites for
exchanging experiences (Mendel 1998) such practice has not
flung into being in Croatia However over the last couple
of years cooperation via websites e-mails and SMS messages
Summarising its advantages and disadvantages and
considering todayrsquos lifestyle this way of cooperation
should be intensified in our schools Contemporary ways of
communication can additionally improve the communication
between parents and school but just as one more way
alongside other ways Consequently although the modern age
presupposes the use of modern technologies no technology
should replace face-to-face communication between parents
and teachers and the responsibility for a good cooperation
still lies on the school
The research demonstrates the possibilities of
communication between family and school by using modern
technology Elements of school websites are shown as well
as ways of planning the content of a website We consider
this research important for informing teachers and school
management of the possibilities of modern communication
between families and school A school website allows for the
possibility of establishing fast communication however its
mere existence does not guarantee the pupils acquiring new
knowledge and a quality relation between the family and
school It can be a good example for the school management
in creating the school curriculum as a segment allowing for
a fast exchange of information with parents Unfortunately
the educational system in Croatia is traditional and inert
unsuitable for the times and contemporary professions It
does not satisfy the need of the individual and traditional
teaching by using a minimum of technology and information is
utterly un-motivational for the student as well as for the
family The results of this research show that school
websites in Croatia donrsquot fulfil their purpose presenting
pupilsrsquo achievements allowing the parents insight into
everyday activities informing the parents and the wider
community on future activities and strengthening the
cooperation between school home and the local community
Although the purpose of school websites should not be merely
an electronic version of the notice board and an image of
the school that rarely changes its appearance the current
condition of the Croatian school websites in the analysed
counties shows just that therefore confirming the initial
hypothesis
Future research should inquire into the stance of
parents in Croatia on which content they consider important
therefore receiving relevant data which could later be used
by teachers for creating their websites
References
Berger E H (1991) Parent Involvement Yesterday and
Today The Elementary School Journal 91 (3) 209-219
Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb
Educa
Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships
Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76
httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20Articles
ParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
Epstein JL i Sheldon S B (2006) Moving Forward Ideas
for Research on School Family and Community Partnerships
httpwwwcsosjhuedup2000pdfLiterature20Review
2020Epstein20and20Sheldon2006pdf (15112010)
Graham- Clay S (2005) Communicating with Parents
Strategies for Teachers School Community Journal 16 (1)
117-129
Hartshorne R Friedman A Algozzine B i Kaur D
(2008) Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites Educational
Technology amp Society 11 (1) 291-303
Hitrec G(ur) (2006) Škola otvorena roditeljima Zagreb
Udruga roditelja Korak po korak
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE -
- MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE - MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
-
Snažnije je i kritiziranje obrazovnog sustava kao tromog
sustava u procesu promjena a pozitivne inicijative osnažene
znanstvenim istraživanjima postaju poveznica za
osuvremenjivanje i unaprjeđivanje škole 21 stoljeća
Tehnologija je postala kritična komponenta svakodnevnog
života i posljednjih nekoliko godina vidljiv je porast u
razvoju i korištenju školskih web stranica (Hartshorne i
sur 2008) Istraživanja (Aronson 1995 Cameron i Lee 1997
Clemens-Brower 1997 Clevenson 1999 Ramirez 2001)
pokazuju da mnogi učitelji eksperimentiraju s raznim
tehnologijama pri komuniciranju s roditeljima (telefoni u
učionicama glasovna pošta video tehnologije radio najave
i sl) a sve kako bi unaprijedili suradnju Školske web
stranice pružaju korisne sadržaje za roditelje kao što su
odgojni savjeti domaće zadaće elektronsku poštu ili
jelovnik školske kuhinje te šire granice komunikacije i
omogućuju komunikaciju između doma i škole dvadeset i četiri
sata dnevno sedam dana u tjednu To omogućuje roditeljima
kojima dnevni rasporedi ne pružaju mogućnost za redovne
posjete školi i interakciju licem u lice sa svojim djetetom
ili učiteljem da budu informiraniji o tome što se događa u
školi Internet postaje izvrsno sredstvo za povezivanje doma
i škole
Swan (2006) smatra da škole imaju puno informacija a
roditelji žele znati više o akademskih postignućima
izvannastavnim aktivnostima terminima informacija
sadržajima poput autobusnog prijevoza ili ručka te da je
važno da školske web stranice sadrže točne i korisne
informacije a ne uzbudljiv dizajn i najnovije tehnološke
bdquoukraserdquo
Online istraživanje (Unal 2008) pokazuje da roditelji
i učitelji prepoznaju važnost web stranica škola iako se ne
slažu u potpunosti oko njihova sadržaja Dok su učitelji
sugerirali kako bi poveznice (linkovi) unutar škole
razredna pravila nastavni program i standardi spisak
(obveznog) školskog pribora statistika posjetitelja web
stranice i knjiga gostiju bili esencijalni za školske web
stranice u značajnom odstupanju (plt05) se pokazalo kako se
roditelji nisu složili s učiteljima u vezi tih elemenata S
druge strane roditelji izjavljuju kako bi rado vidjeli
online praktične testove akademske savjetodavne
informacije vijesti u vezi administrativnih pitanja i
školske uprave te životopise učitelja Naposljetku i
učitelji i roditelji složni su kako rezultati školskih
športskih natjecanja i aktivnosti prosvjetna filozofija
plan nastavnih lekcija poveznice izvan institucije online
članci ili letci s vijestima razredni foto album razredne
vijesti ili blog učitelja meniji primjerci didaktičkih
kartica osobne poveznice (linkovi) i informacije o obitelji
učitelja nisu esencijalni elementi školskih web stranica
Može se zaključiti da bez obzira što mnoge škole sada imaju
web stranice nisu sve značajne za komunikaciju roditelja i
učitelja Prethodna istraživanja pokazuju da struktura i
sadržaj školske web stranice trebaju biti pažljivo planirane
i osmišljene
Prema McKenzie J (1997) najbolja školska web mjesta
imaju četiri svrhe 1 upoznati posjetitelje sa svojom
misijom karakterom ponudama za učenike i stajalištem o
novim tehnologijama 2 pružiti mogućnost objave učeničkih
radova i edukacije roditelja 3 djelovati kao posrednik
većem dijelu informacija i 4 pružiti bogatu zbirku
podataka lokalno prikupljenih uz nastavni plan i program
(kao što je lokalna povijest) Neke školske stranice
sadržavaju sva četiri elementa ali većina se koncentrira na
pružanje kvalitetne usluge za dva ili tri od ovih elemenata
21 Suradnja roditelja i škole u Republici Hrvatskoj
U osnovnoškolskom obrazovanju u Republici Hrvatskoj
propisani su (najčešće školskim Statutom) sljedeći oblici
suradnje s roditeljima roditeljski sastanci individualni
razgovori s učiteljima i stručnim suradnicima i pismene
poruke roditeljima Prema Zakonu o osnovnoškolskom i
srednjem obrazovanju (MZOŠ 2008) propisuje se osnivanje
Vijeća roditelja koje sačinjava po jedan roditelj iz svakoga
razreda a predsjednik Vijeća roditelja postaje i član
Školskoga odbora Praksa pokazuje da ovi propisani načini
suradnje ne zadovoljavaju ni učitelje a ni roditelje
Roditeljsko sudjelovanje je tek formalno bez stvarne
mogućnosti utjecaja na donošenje bitnih odluka
Centraliziranost i normiranost kurikuluma ne ostavlja
dovoljno prostora školama da svoj program prilagođavaju
potrebama lokalne sredine roditeljski sastanci se svode na
prenošenje informacija pri čemu su roditelji najčešće
pasivni primatelji informacija a vrlo rijetki roditelji su
pozvani na sudjelovanje u nekim aktivnostima škole
Istraživanje provedeno među roditeljima učenika deset
osnovnih škola četvrtoga i sedmoga razreda iz svih hrvatskih
regija te njihovih učitelja (Marušić 2007) pokazuje da
dvije trećine roditelja smatra da imaju premalo mogućnosti
sudjelovati u donošenju odluka u školi više od 90
roditelja nije nikada sudjelovalo u aktivnostima vezanima uz
suradnju obitelji i škole tri četvrtine roditelja navode da
se u školi ne organiziraju predavanja i radionice a trećina
roditelja ne zna organiziraju li se takve radionice Znatan
broj roditelja je iskazao zainteresiranost za sudjelovanje u
različitim aktivnostima škole ali inicijativu čekaju od
strane učitelja
Ipak praksa u hrvatskim školama posljednjih godina
pokazuje poduzimanje dodatnih strategija u suradnji s
roditeljima Održavaju se brojne radionice uključuju se kao
suradnici u projektu a u zajedničkoj komunikaciji na
relaciji obitelj - škola unaprjeđuje se praćenje i
procjenjivanje učeničkog napretka te ostvaruje kvalitetnija
povratna informacija o napretku djeteta (sve su
zastupljenije učeničke mape kao primjer sustavne autentične
i razvojne procjene napretka učenika)
Što se elektroničkih oblika suradnje tiče Hrvatska je
korak unatrag Projekt Net u školi započeo je 2003godine
i u sve hrvatske škole uveden je ISDN priključak s ciljem
unaprjeđenja procesa učenja korištenjem interneta u nastavi
i istraživanju učenika iz vlastitog doma te postavljanju
temelja novoj kulturi učenja koja se bazira na otvorenosti k
novim spoznajama novim medijima i tehnologijama Danas sve
hrvatske škole imaju mogućnost postavljanja svoje web
stranice a učitelji otvaranje elektronske adrese
U Hrvatskoj su web mjesta pojedinoga učitelja rijetka
pojava ali su pokrenuti projekti Školski infocentar i SMS
informativka kojima je omogućeno informiranje roditelja o
uspjehu izostancima i ostalim školskim zbivanjima
jednostavnim i većini roditelja dostupnim načinima
komunikacije (SMS e-mail internet i govorne poruke) Mali
broj škola uveo je i web imenike gdje razrednici jednom
mjesečno ažuriraju podatke pa ih roditelji pomoću posebne
lozinke mogu pogledati u svako doba dana Iako nije
najvažnije ne treba zanemariti ni podatak da prema Zavodu
za državnu statistiku u Hrvatskoj tek oko 38 kućanstava ima
Internet (2009) što otežava komunikaciju putem web
stranica a ni svi učitelji nisu informatički pismeni Takva
suradnja ima svoje prednosti i nedostatke
Tablica 1 ndash prednosti i nedostatci suradnje putem
elektroničkih medija
PREDNOSTI NEDOSTATCISvakodnevno primanje obavijesti o
djetetu
Brzina slanja informacija
Neograničenost vremenom i mjestom
Ušteda vremena za roditelje
Ušteda vremena za učitelja pri
slanju općih obavijesti
Roditelj u školu dolazi
pripremljen teme za razgovor su s
područja odgoja i obrazovanja
I roditelji i učitelji moraju biti
informatički pismeni
Svi sudionici (roditelji učitelji)
moraju imati internet
Dodatni posao za učitelje (redovito
ažuriranje podataka)
Rjeđi susreti roditelja i učitelja
Izostanak komunikacije bdquolicem u
licerdquo
Financijski trošak za roditelje pri
slanju SMS poruka
Mogućnost zlouporabe (lozinka)
3 Metodologija istraživanja
31 Cilj istraživanja
Cilj istraživanja bio je ispitati imaju li web stranice
hrvatskih osnovnih škola sadržaje koji će potaknuti
roditelje na česte posjete i omogućiti učenicima stjecanje
novih znanja Dugoročni je cilj potaknuti škole na redovito
postavljanje novih sadržaja koji će rezultirati kvalitetnom
suradnjom doma i škole te poticati učenike na istraživački
rad iz svojih domova i time unaprjeđivati kvalitetu učenja
32 Problem
Problem ovoga rada jest utvrditi trenutnu svrhu
hrvatskih osnovnoškolskih web stranica (objaviti postignuća
učenika omogućiti roditeljima uvid u svakodnevne
aktivnosti informirati roditelje i širu zajednicu o budućim
aktivnostima i jačanje suradnje između škole doma i
lokalne zajednice)
33 Hipoteze
H-1 Web stranice hrvatskih osnovnih škola svojim
sadržajima nisu model za intenziviranje suradnje s
roditeljima te postavljanje temelja novoj kulturi učenja
H-2 Ne postoji statistički značajna razlika u
sadržajima među dvjema županijama ni u jednoj od jedanaest
kategorija
34 Ispitanici i postupak
Školske web stranice javne su isprave i dobrodošlica
vanjskome svijetu u školu kao i poveznica učenika i
učitelja s vanjskim izvorima informacija te mogućnost
kvalitetnije suradnje s roditeljima Svrha školskih web
stranica je objaviti postignuća učenika omogućiti
roditeljima uvid u svakodnevne aktivnosti informirati
roditelje i širu zajednicu o budućim aktivnostima i jačanje
suradnje između škole doma i lokalne zajednice Svrha
školskih web stranica ne bi trebala biti elektronička
verzija oglasne ploče i slika škole koja rijetko mijenja
svoj izgled
Istraživanje je provedeno metodom analize sadržaja
slučajnim odabirom na 50 web stranica osnovnih škola u
Istarskoj i Splitsko-dalmatinskoj županiji (25 škola po
županiji) Korišten je internetski popis škola Portal za
škole Budući da u Hrvatskoj nije provedeno istraživanje s
roditeljima u kojemu bi se ispitalo koje sadržaje oni
smatraju bitnima i relevantnima autorice su se vodile
istraživanjem provedenim online studijom u Americi (Unal
2008) i elementima koje su u toj studiji izabrali učitelji
i roditelji Analizirani su sljedeći sadržaji web stranica
plan i program o školi (povijest škole) brojač posjeta
kućni red (razredna pravila) raspored sati i informacija za
roditelje rezultati športskih natjecanja foto albumi
online testovi (materijali za učenje) životopisi učitelja
savjeti za roditelje i forum Analiza je obavljena početkom
mjeseca prosinca 2010 pred kraj prvoga polugodišta što je
školama dalo dovoljno vremena za ažuriranje i popunjavanje
stranica U ovom istraživanju nije analiziran dizajn web
stranica jer su u većini slučajeva stranice postavljene
koristeći Carnet hosting uslugu i nude slične poveznice S
obzirom da većina škola ima isti preglednik smatrano je da
škola ima sadržaj ako je unesen vlastiti dokument ili
poveznica
4 Rezultati i rasprava
Tablica 2 - ukupni analizirani sadržaji u postotcima
SADRŽAJ OBJE
ŽUPANIJE DA POSTOTAK NE POSTOTAK
PLAN I
PROGRAM41 82 9 18
BROJAČ
POSJETA8 16 42 84
KUĆNI RED 10 20 40 80 RASPORED
INFORMACIJA28 56 22 44
ŠPORTSKI
USPJESI23 46 27 54
FOTO ALBUMI 43 86 7 14 TESTOVI
ONLINE
(MATERIJALI
ZA UČENJE)
17 34 33 66
ŽIVOTOPIS
UČITELJA2 4 48 96
SAVJETI ZA
RODITELJE18 36 32 64
FORUM 12 24 38 76
O ŠKOLI
(POVIJEST)50 100 0 0
Iz tablice 2 vidljivo je da sve škole na svojim
stranicama imaju podatke o školi odnosno njezinoj povijesti
(100) a najveći dio škola foto albume (86) te plan i
program (82) Više od polovice škola (56) imaju raspored
informacija a nešto manje od polovice (46) športske
uspjehe svojih učenika Najmanji broj škola na svojim
stranicama objavljuju životopise učitelja (4) i brojač
posjeta (16) Materijale za učenje i savjete za roditelje
ima tek nešto više od trećine stranica (34 36)
Grafikon 1 - sadržaji prema županijama
Iz grafikona 1 vidljivo je da se rezultati među županijama
ne razlikuju mnogo Najviše razlika je u sadržaju športskih
uspjeha (Istarska županija 72 Splitsko- dalmatinska 20)
a razlika od 20 pojavila se u kategorijama foto albuma i
materijala za učenje Sve ostale razlike su manje od 20
Hipoteza 2 testirana je hi ndash kvadrat testom Hipoteza se
smatra prihvaćenom u slučaju da je vjerojatnost pogreške
pri tvrdnji da postoji statistički značajna povezanost
analiziranog para varijabli manja od 5
Tablica 3 Relacije među županijama
PLAN
I
PROGR
AM
BRO
JAČ
POSJE
TA
KUĆNI
RED
RASPO
RED
INFOR
MACI
JA
ŠPORT
SKI
USPJE
SI
FOTO
ALBUM
ONLINE
TESTOVI
ŽIVOTOPIS
UČITELJA
SAVJETI
ZA
RODI
TELJE FORUM
10486462 00240148
80125 0081
1159
4
2657
81471 05208 07812 01096
df 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
p 0876
88491
0
0479
50012
0527
0892
0705
31663
0006
71374
0
044
5920
62
02251
8798
0157299
21
03457
4844
05638
979
Nije teško uočiti da se statistički značajna razlika
javlja samo u sadržaju športskih uspjeha a u ostalim
elementima ne postoji što potvrđuje postavljenu hipotezu
Može se dakle zaključiti da nema razlika u sadržajima među
dvjema županijama
Sadržaji web stranica mogu se podijeliti u dvije
kategorije sadržaji namijenjeni roditeljima i učenicima
(plan i program raspored informacija životopis učitelja
savjeti za roditelje forum testovi ili materijali za
učenje kućni red) i sadržaji namijenjeni promociji školskih
aktivnosti i uspjeha (športski uspjesi foto albumi o
školi brojač posjeta)
Tablica 4 - analiza sadržaja prema svrsi
SADRŽAJ OBJE
ŽUPANIJE NAMIJENJENI
RODITELJIMA
I UČENICIMADA
POSTOTAK NE POSTOTAK
TESTOVI
ONLINE
(MATERIJALI
ZA UČENJE)
17 34 33 66
PLAN I
PROGRAM41 82 9 18
SAVJETI ZA
RODITELJE18 36 32 64
KUĆNI RED 10 20 40 80 RASPORED
INFORMACIJA28 56 22 44
FORUM 12 24 38 76 ŽIVOTOPIS
UČITELJA2 4 48 96
PROMOCIJA
ŠKOLSKIH
AKTIVNOSTI
DA POSTOTAK NE POSTOTAK
I USPJEHA
ŠPORTSKI
USPJESI23 46 27 54
FOTO ALBUMI 43 86 7 14 BROJAČ
POSJETA8 16 42 84
O ŠKOLI
(POVIJEST)50 100 0 0
Od sadržaja koji su namijenjeni roditeljima i
učenicima a koji bi učenicima omogućili stjecanje novih
znanja i roditelje potaknuli na česte posjete škole u
visokom postotku (82) nude plan i program što je i
zakonska obveza škole (javna objava) a tek nešto više od
polovice škola (56) objavljuje raspored informacija za
roditelje Nešto više od trećine škola (34 36) na svojim
web stranicama ima materijale za učenje i savjete za
roditelje a tek 24 škola ima aktivan forum za razmjenu
mišljenja iako je i na tim forumima bio zanemariv broj
otvorenih tema od kojih niti jednu nije otvorio roditelj
Materijali za učenje najčešće su online testovi za što
postoji poveznica sa školske web stranice a savjeti za
roditelje tekstovi koje su sastavili stručni suradnici S
obzirom na manjak stručnih suradnika u našim školama moguće
je da je to razlog relativno malog postotka tih sadržaja U
nekim školama u rubrici savjeta za roditelje nalaze se
poveznice sa zanimljivim člancima na internetu
Kategorije koje služe za promociju školskih uspjeha i
aktivnosti imaju više sadržaja svaka škola ima uređenu
stranicu o povijesti škole 86 škola ažurira stranicu s
foto albumima a nešto manje od polovice škola (46) na
svoje stranice stavlja športske uspjehe svojih učenika U
navedenim foto albumima škole nude fotografije s izleta
izvanučioničke nastave priredbi i sl O opravdanosti
velikoga broja fotografija učenika moglo bi se raspravljati
s obzirom da niti jedan objavljeni sadržaj nije zaštićen
lozinkom već je dostupan svima pa se postavlja pitanje
imaju li škole suglasnost roditelja za to Tek 16 škola
vodi računa o posjećenosti svojih stranica a to bi mogao
biti značajan podatak o tome koliko ih učenici i roditelji
posjećuju
Iz navedenih podataka može se zaključiti da je školama
veoma važna promocija aktivnosti i uspjeha škole povijest
ustanove i raspored individualnih informacija a savjeti za
roditelje i materijali za učenike te razmjena mišljenja
nisu prioritetni sadržaji Škole smatraju da je roditeljima
potpuno nevažan stručni životopis učitelja najave
roditeljskih sastanaka ili jelovnici školskih kuhinja Iz
toga proizlazi da su web stranice škola u Hrvatskoj
elektroničke oglasne ploče a ne mogućnost komunikacije
5 Zaključak
Zadnjih desetak godina suradnja s roditeljima i kod nas
se mijenja na bolje ali u našim školama još uvijek
prevladavaju tradicionalni oblici suradnje s roditeljima
Iako u svijetu postoje roditeljski radio i Tv kanali
časopisi i internet stranice za razmjenu iskustava (Mendel
1998) kod nas takva praksa nije zaživjela no posljednjih
godina započela je suradnja putem web stranica e mail i sms
poruka Sumirajući prednosti i nedostatke a s obzirom na
današnji način života i ovaj način suradnje treba
intenzivirati u našim školama Suvremeni načini
komuniciranja mogu dodatno poboljšati komunikaciju između
roditelja i škole ali samo kao još jedan od načina uz sve
ostale navedene načine suradnje Iz toga proizlazi da iako
suvremeno doba pretpostavlja korištenje suvremenih
tehnologija nikakva tehnologija ne bi smjela zamijeniti
komunikaciju bdquolicem u licerdquo roditelja i učitelja a
odgovornost za dobru suradnju s roditeljima i dalje ostaje
na školi
Istraživanje pokazuje mogućnosti komuniciranja obitelji
i škole suvremenom tehnologijom Prikazani su elementi
školskih web stranica te način planiranja sadržaja web
stranice Ovo istraživanje smatramo važnim za informiranje
učitelja i rukovodstva škola o mogućnostima suvremenog
komuniciranja obitelji i škole Školska web stranica otvara
mogućnosti za uspostavljanje brze informacije no samim
postojanjem ne jamči učenicima stjecanje novih znanja i
kvalitetnije povezivanje obitelji i škole Može biti dobar
primjer vodstvu škole u stvaranju školskog kurikuluma kao
segmenta kojim će se omogućavati brza razmjena informacija s
roditeljima Nažalost obrazovni sustav u Hrvatskoj
tradicionalan je i trom neprimjeren vremenu i suvremenim
zanimanjima Ne zadovoljava individualne potrebe pojedinca
a tradicionalnim poučavanjem uz tehnologijski i
informacijski minimum potpuno je nemotivirajući kako za
učenika tako i za obitelj Rezultati ovoga istraživanja
pokazuju da školske web stranice u Hrvatskoj ne ostvaruju
sasvim svoju svrhu objavljivanje postignuća učenika
omogućavanje roditeljima uvid u svakodnevne aktivnosti
informiranje roditelja i šire zajednice o budućim
aktivnostima i jačanje suradnje između škole doma i
lokalne zajednice Iako svrha školskih web stranica ne bi
trebala biti elektronička verzija oglasne ploče i slika
škole koja rijetko mijenja svoj izgled trenutno stanje
hrvatskih web stranica u analiziranim županijama pokazuje
upravo to što potvrđuje početnu hipotezu
U narednim istraživanjima trebalo bi ispitati stavove
roditelja u Hrvatskoj o tome koje sadržaje oni smatraju
važnima te bi se tada dobili relevantni podatci koje bi
učitelji mogli upotrijebiti za kreiranje svojih web
stranica
Literatura
Berger E H (1991) Parent Involvement Yesterday and
Today The Elementary School Journal 91 (3) 209-219
Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb
Educa
Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships
Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76
httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20Articles
ParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
Epstein JL i Sheldon S B (2006) Moving Forward Ideas
for Research on School Family and Community Partnerships
httpwwwcsosjhuedup2000pdfLiterature20Review
2020Epstein20and20Sheldon2006pdf (15112010)
Graham- Clay S (2005) Communicating with Parents
Strategies for Teachers School Community Journal 16 (1)
117-129
Hartshorne R Friedman A Algozzine B i Kaur D
(2008) Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites Educational
Technology amp Society 11 (1) 291-303
Hitrec G(ur) (2006) Škola otvorena roditeljima Zagreb
Udruga roditelja Korak po korak
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
Deana Tavas graduate teacher
Vladimir Nazor Elementary School Rovinj
dtavasyahoocom
Sanja Bilač graduate teacher
Spinut Elementary School Split
sanja9stgmailcom
SCHOOL WEBSITES ndash
POSSIBILITY OF COOPERATION WITH PARENTS
SCHOOL WEBSITES ndash POSSIBILITY OF COOPERATION WITH PARENTS
Abstract In the last fifteen years in Croatia as well as around the world
much research has been done dealing with the importance of cooperation
between parents and school and the obtained results show its importance for all
the parties and that partnership relation between school and parents produces
numerous benefits Besides customary ways of communication like individual
talk and parent meetings written messages informal meetings educational
workshops the involvement of parents in the educational process in the role of
accessory etc the most modern way of communicating with parents is via school
websites teacherrsquos websites e-mails and SMS messages The goal of the
research was to examine if Croatian schoolsrsquo websites had the content which
would prompt the parents for frequent visits and enable pupils to acquire new
knowledge A long term goal was to persuade schools to a regular update of new
materials which would result in quality cooperation between home and school
and persuade pupils to do research from their home and therefore increase the
quality of learning The research has randomly selected 25 elementary school
websites from the county of Istra and 25 websites from the county Split ndash
Dalmatia Collected data show that Croatiarsquos elementary school websites are not
a model neither for increasing the cooperation with parents nor laying the
foundation towards a new culture of learning and that there is no statistically
significant variation in content between the two counties
Key words cooperation with parents Internet school websites website
content
1 Parents and school cooperation
The cooperation between parents and schools is
extremely important and offers manifold benefits for all the
participants in the education process A partnership between
parents and teachers establishes good relations since every
partner introduces their competences in the childrsquos
education The cooperation between parents and teachers
ie school should be the best possible to achieve
outstanding goals Berger (1991) considers that models of
parent involvement are approached more actively nowadays
then it was in the 1960s when the responsibilities of
parents and schools were considered distinct Cooperation
with parents is today considered on of the essential
determinants of an efficient school in terms of general
pedagogy and research has shown that 22 of teachers
consider the lack of parent involvement a serious problem
(Ryan and Cooper 2010) Such cooperation is only partially
directed at prevention ie solution of disciplinary
problems since its benefits are manifold and are
manifested in better grades increased regular attendance
more willingness to work at home and development of more
positive attitudes and behavior Parental involvement in
school life has a positive effect on pupilrsquos achievements
and their motivation and the partnership relation between
parents and schools makes the parents more informed of
school affairs gives them a more positive image in the eyes
of the teachers they contribute to a better functioning of
the school strengthen their self-confidence and assurance
in helping their child at home and they become
participants not mere observers of the education of their
child Teachers have also to gain from a partnership
relation with parents since the parents become allies in
solving problems they become more motivated and satisfied
with their job receive more confidence from parents and
have a better reputation in society
These and other benefits for all the participants in
the education process are the result of growing willingness
and need of parent involvement in the school life According
to Walsh (2002) one way of achieving a successful bond
between parents and school is a consistent and clear two-way
communication
Epstein (1995) lists three learning contexts for
pupils in the family in school and in the community and
lists 6 ways of parent involvement These are parenting
communication volunteering learning at home decision
making and collaborating with the community However all of
these ways of cooperation between parents and school presume
direct communication which at times regardless of the
parentsrsquo willingness is impossible Many parents work
during planned school activities or meetings and have not
the possibility to participate especially in schools which
work in a single shift Todayrsquos way of life and both parents
working prevents personal communication and a more active
involvement of parents with schools
2 Contemporary ways of cooperation between parents and
school
One of the key features of humans is the ability to
communicate The exceptional ability of storing data and
fast sharing of enormous amounts of information have
revolutionized business as well as the everyday life of
mankind The access to information is unlimited the sharing
of ideas and thoughts free the worldrsquos business and economy
are being transformed Significant are the changes in the
approach to education Fast communication is becoming a
trend in shaping the future and therefore revolutionary
models of learning are more and more inherent (eg using
interactive computer technology fast learning) Pupils
are assuming responsibility for their life in a world in
which ldquothose who end their education have no futurerdquo (Dryden
and Vos 2001 p 39) Stronger is the criticism of the
educational system for its inertness in the process of
change and positive initiatives empowered by scientific
research become the link for modernization and improvement
of the school in the 21st century
Technology has become a critical component of everyday
life and an increase in the development and use of school
websites over the last few years is evident (Hartshorne and
ass 2008) Research (Aronson 1995 Cameron and Lee 1997
Clemens-Brower 1997 Cleverson 1999 Ramirez 2001) show that
many teachers experiment with various technologies when
communicating with parents (telephones in classrooms voice
mail video technology radio announcements etc) to
improve cooperation School websites provide parents with
useful content such as educational tips homework e-mails
or the school cafeteria menu and expand the borders of
communication between home and school to a 24 hours a day 7
days a week contact That allows parents whose daily
timetable doesnrsquot permit regular visits to the school and
face-to-face interaction with their child or teacher to be
more informed of what is happening at school Internet
becomes an excellent means of connecting home and school
Swan (2008) believes that schools have a lot of
information and parents want to know more about academic
achievements extracurricular activities parentsrsquo meeting
schedule information such as bus transport or lunch and
that it is important that school websites include accurate
and useful information not an exciting design or newest
technological ldquoornamentsrdquo
Online research (Unal 2008) shows that parents and
teachers recognize the importance of school websites
although they do not agree completely on their content
While teachers suggest that links inside the school
classroom rules teaching curriculum and standards list of
obligatory accessories statistics of websites visitors and
guest book should be essential to a school website
significant divergence (plt05) was seen in parents
disagreeing on these elements On the other hand parents
declare they would like to see online practical tests
academic advisory information information about
administrative issues and school direction as well as
teachers CVs Eventually teachers and parents agree that
results of school sport competition and activities
educational philosophy lesson plans links outside the
institution online articles and newsletters class photo
albums and news teachersrsquo blogs menus examples of
didactic cards personal links and teachersrsquo family
information are not essential elements of schoolsrsquo websites
It can be concluded that regardless of many schools today
having their own website not all are important for the
communication of parents and teachers Past research shows
that the structure and content of school websites should be
carefully planned and developed
According to McKenzie J (1997) the best websites have
four purposes 1 introduce visitors to its mission its
character its offerings to children its stance on new
technologies 2 offer an opportunity for the publishing of
student works and parents education 3 act as a mediator to
a larger share of information and 4 provide rich data
locally collected on curriculum related topics (such as
local history) Some school websites contain all four of
these elements but the majority is concentrated upon
providing a quality service in two or three of these
elements
21 Cooperation between parents and school in Croatia
In the elementary education in Croatia prescribed are
(most often by School statute) the following ways of
cooperation with parents parent meeting individual talks
with teachers and school assistants and written messages to
parents According to Law on Primary and Secondary
Education (Ministry of Education Science and Technology
2008) prescribed is the formation a Parentsrsquo Council which
comprises one parent from every class and the president of
the Parentrsquos Council is appointed a member of the School
Committee Practice shows that these prescribed ways of
cooperation do not satisfy the teachers or the parents
Parent participation is merely formal without real
possibility of influencing important decisions
Centralization and standardization of the curriculum do not
allow schools enough space for adapting to the needs of the
local community parent meeting come down to mere
information sharing where parents are usually passive
recipients of information and parents asked to participate
in some kind of school activity are rare A research
conducted among parents of pupil of the 4th and 7th grade
from all Croatian regions and their teachers (Marušić 2007)
shows that two thirds of parents believes that they have too
little possibility of participating in decision making in
schools more than 90 of parents have never taken part in
activities related to cooperation between family and school
three quarters of parents state that there are no lectures
or workshops organized in schools and a third of parents
does not know if such workshops are organized A substantial
number of parents have shown interest in participating in
various school activities but the initiative is expected to
come from teachers
However the practice in Croatian schools in recent
years has shown undertaking additional strategies for
cooperation with parents Many workshops are being held
parents are involved as assistants on projects and in the
communication between parents and school improvement has
been made in following and assessing the pupilsrsquo progress as
well as in the feedback information on the pupilsrsquo progress
(increasingly common are the pupilsrsquo maps as an example of
systematic authentic and development assessment of pupilsrsquo
progress)
As far as electronic cooperation is concerned Croatia
is one step back The project ldquoNet u školirdquo ndash ldquoNet in the
schoolrdquo was initiated in 2003 and all schools in Croatia
have been equipped with ISDN terminals with the aim to
improve the process of learning by using Internet in
teaching and pupilsrsquo research from home and by laying the
foundation for a new culture of learning based on openness
to new knowledge new media and technology Today all
schools in Croatia have the possibility to set up a website
and the teachers to open e-mail accounts
In Croatia websites of teachers are a rare appearance
but the projects ldquoŠkolski infocentarrdquo and ldquoSMS informativkardquo
have been initiated through which informing parents on
success absence and other school activities via simple and
to the majority accessible way of communication (SMS e-
mail Internet and voicemail) has been enabled A small
number of schools have incorporated a web directory updated
monthly by class masters which parents with a special
password can check at any time Although not the most
important fact it should not be ignored that according to
the Central Bureau of Statistics in 2009 only 38 of
households in Croatia had access to the Internet which
complicates communication via websites and not all teachers
are computer literate Such cooperation has its advantages
and disadvantages
Table 1 ndash advantages and disadvantages of cooperation
via electronic media
ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGESInformation on child received daily
Fast information transmission
Not limited by time or place
Time saving for parents
Time saving for teachers when
sending general information
Parents come to school prepared
themes for conversation are
educational
Both parents and teachers must be
computer literate
All participants (parents
teachers) must have Internet access
Additional work for teachers
(regular updating of data)
Rarer encounters among parents and
teachers
Lack of face-to-face communication
Financial expense for parents when
sending SMS messages
Possible abuse (password)
3 Research methodology
31 Aim of research
The aim of the research was to examine whether the
content of Croatian elementary schools websites encourages
frequent parentsrsquo visits and allows pupils to acquire new
knowledge A long term goal is to encourage schools to post
new materials regularly which would result in high-quality
cooperation between home and school along with encouraging
students to research work from their homes and therefore
advancing the quality of learning
32 Problem
The problem of this work is to determine the current
purpose of Croatian elementary schools websites
33 Hypothesis
H-1 Websites of Croatian elementary schools with its
contents do not pose a model for a more intensive
cooperation with parents or lay the foundations for a new
culture of learning
H-2 There is no statistically significant difference in
content between the two counties in neither of the eleven
categories
34 Participants and procedure
School websites are public documents and welcome the
outer world into the school as well as a link between
pupils and teachers with outer sources of information and a
possibility of better cooperation with parents The function
of school websites is to make public the achievements of
pupils to allow parents insight into daily activities and
to inform parents and the larger community of future
activities as well as strengthening cooperation between
school home and the local community The function of the
schoolsrsquo websites should not be a mere electronic version of
a notice board or a picture of a school that seldom changes
its appearance
The research was conducted by content analysis method
on a random selection of 50 elementary school websites in
the counties of Istria and Split ndash Dalmatia (25 schools per
county) The Internet school directory of ldquoPortal za školerdquo
was used Since in Croatia a research has not been conducted
on parents and the content the parents believed to be
important and relevant the authors were led by a research
done by an online study in USA (Unal 2008) and the elements
selected by teachers and parents in that study The
following website content was analysed curriculum about
the school (school history) web counters house rules
(classroom rules) timetable and information for parents
results of school competition photo albums online tests
(study materials) teachersrsquo CV tips for parents and forum
The analysis was done at the beginning of December 2010 by
the end of the first term giving the schools enough time to
update and enrich the websites This research did not take
into consideration the design of websites since in the
majority of cases it has been done using Carnet hosting
services and offered similar links Regarding the fact that
most schools have the same browser a school is considered
to have a website if a private document or link has been
updated
4 Results and discussion
Table 2 ndash Overall analysed content in percentage
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIES
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCETAGECURRICULUM 41 82 9 18 WEBSITE
COUNTER8 16 42 84
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTSrsquo
INFORMATION28 56 22 44
RESULTS OF
SCHOOL
COMPETITION
23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 ONLINE
TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
TEACHERSrsquo 2 4 48 96
CV
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
FORUM 12 24 38 76 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL
(SCHOOL
HISTORY)
50 100 0 0
For table 2 it is evident that all schools have information
about the school on the website ie about its history
(100) the majority has school photo alums (86) and the
curriculum (82) More than half the schools (56) have the
timetable for parentsrsquo information and less then half (46)
have sport achievements of their pupils The fewest schools
publish teachersrsquo CVs (4) and website counters Study
materials and tips for parents are present on just above a
third the websites (34 36)
Chart 1 ndash content according to county
It is visible from Chart 1 that results do not vary much
between counties The most discrepancy is shown in sportsrsquo
achievements (Istria 72 Split ndash Dalmatia 20) and a 20
discrepancy is present in categories photo album and study
material Other discrepancies are smaller than 20 The 2nd
hypothesis was tested with the chi-square test The
hypothesis is considered valid in case that the probability
of error is less than 5 considering that there is a
statistically significant link between the analysed pair of
variables
Table 3 ndash Relations between counties
CURRI
CULUM
WEB
COUNT
ERS
HOUSE
RULES
INFOR
MATIO
N
TIMET
ABLE
SPORT
S
ACHIE
VEMEN
TS
PHOTO
ALBUM
ONLINE
TESTS
TEACHERS
CVs
TIPS
FOR
PARENTS FORUM
10486462 0024 0148 0125 0081 1159 2657 1471 05208 07812 01096
8 4 8
df 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
p 0876
88491
0
0479
50012
0527
0892
0705
31663
0006
71374
0
044
5920
62
02251
8798
0157299
21
03457
4844
05638
979
It is not difficult to notice that a significant
discrepancy is present only in sportsrsquo achievement whereas
in other elements it does not exist which confirms the
stated hypothesis It can be concluded that there are no
differences between the content in the two counties
The website content can be divided into two categories
content intended for parents and pupils (curriculum
timetable for parentsrsquo information teachersrsquo CVs tips for
parents forum online tests and study material house
rules) and content for promoting school activities and
achievements (sportsrsquo achievements photo albums about the
school web counters)
Table 4 ndash analysis according to purpose
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIESINTENDEED FOR
PARENTS AND
PUPILSYES
PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
ONLINE TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
CURRICULUM 41 82 9 18
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTS
INFORMATION
TIMETABLE
28 56 22 44
FORUM 12 24 38 76 TEACHERSrsquo CV 2 4 48 96 PROMOTION OF
SCHOOL
ACTIVITIES
AND
ACVIEVEMENTS
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
SPORTS
ACHIEVEMENTS23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 WEB COUNTERS 8 16 42 84 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL50 100 0 0
Among the content intended for parents and pupils
which would allow pupils to acquire new knowledge and
encourage parents to visit regularly schools offer in high
percentage (82) the curriculum which is a legal obligation
(public notice) and just over half the schools (56) offer
the timetable for parentsrsquo information About one third of
schools (34 36) publish on its websites study materials
and tips for parents and only 24 have an active forum for
exchanging opinions although these forums have an
insignificant number of open themes none of which were
opened by parents Study materials are most often online
tests with a link from the website and tips for parents are
texts compiled by schools assistants Considering the lack
of assistants in schools this may be the cause for a small
percentage of these materials Some schools under the
section tips for parents have links to interesting Internet
articles
Categories intended for the promotion of school
achievements and activities have more contents every school
has a page dedicated to school history 86 updates the
photo album section and less then half the schools (46)
publish sportsrsquo achievements of the pupils The photo albums
offer pictures from school trips out-of-classroom teaching
school events etc Justifying such a large number of
pictures is debatable since none of the published materials
are protected by password but available to everybody the
question arises if the schools have the parentsrsquo permission
Only 16 of schools pay attention to visits which could be
a significant information showing the number of parents and
pupils visiting the website
The mentioned data show that schools consider relevant
the promotion of school activities and success the history
of the school and the timetable for parentsrsquo information
but tips for parents and school materials along with
exchanging opinions are not a priority Schools consider the
teachersrsquo CVs parentsrsquo meeting announcements or the school
cafeteria menu of no relevance to parents These facts point
to the fact that school websites in Croatia are more online
notice-boards than a real possibility for communication
5 Conclusion
Over the last decade cooperation with parents in
Croatia has been improving however in our schools
traditional forms of cooperation with parents are still
prevailing Although in the world there are specialized
radio and TV channels magazines and Internet sites for
exchanging experiences (Mendel 1998) such practice has not
flung into being in Croatia However over the last couple
of years cooperation via websites e-mails and SMS messages
Summarising its advantages and disadvantages and
considering todayrsquos lifestyle this way of cooperation
should be intensified in our schools Contemporary ways of
communication can additionally improve the communication
between parents and school but just as one more way
alongside other ways Consequently although the modern age
presupposes the use of modern technologies no technology
should replace face-to-face communication between parents
and teachers and the responsibility for a good cooperation
still lies on the school
The research demonstrates the possibilities of
communication between family and school by using modern
technology Elements of school websites are shown as well
as ways of planning the content of a website We consider
this research important for informing teachers and school
management of the possibilities of modern communication
between families and school A school website allows for the
possibility of establishing fast communication however its
mere existence does not guarantee the pupils acquiring new
knowledge and a quality relation between the family and
school It can be a good example for the school management
in creating the school curriculum as a segment allowing for
a fast exchange of information with parents Unfortunately
the educational system in Croatia is traditional and inert
unsuitable for the times and contemporary professions It
does not satisfy the need of the individual and traditional
teaching by using a minimum of technology and information is
utterly un-motivational for the student as well as for the
family The results of this research show that school
websites in Croatia donrsquot fulfil their purpose presenting
pupilsrsquo achievements allowing the parents insight into
everyday activities informing the parents and the wider
community on future activities and strengthening the
cooperation between school home and the local community
Although the purpose of school websites should not be merely
an electronic version of the notice board and an image of
the school that rarely changes its appearance the current
condition of the Croatian school websites in the analysed
counties shows just that therefore confirming the initial
hypothesis
Future research should inquire into the stance of
parents in Croatia on which content they consider important
therefore receiving relevant data which could later be used
by teachers for creating their websites
References
Berger E H (1991) Parent Involvement Yesterday and
Today The Elementary School Journal 91 (3) 209-219
Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb
Educa
Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships
Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76
httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20Articles
ParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
Epstein JL i Sheldon S B (2006) Moving Forward Ideas
for Research on School Family and Community Partnerships
httpwwwcsosjhuedup2000pdfLiterature20Review
2020Epstein20and20Sheldon2006pdf (15112010)
Graham- Clay S (2005) Communicating with Parents
Strategies for Teachers School Community Journal 16 (1)
117-129
Hartshorne R Friedman A Algozzine B i Kaur D
(2008) Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites Educational
Technology amp Society 11 (1) 291-303
Hitrec G(ur) (2006) Škola otvorena roditeljima Zagreb
Udruga roditelja Korak po korak
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE -
- MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE - MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
-
sadržajima poput autobusnog prijevoza ili ručka te da je
važno da školske web stranice sadrže točne i korisne
informacije a ne uzbudljiv dizajn i najnovije tehnološke
bdquoukraserdquo
Online istraživanje (Unal 2008) pokazuje da roditelji
i učitelji prepoznaju važnost web stranica škola iako se ne
slažu u potpunosti oko njihova sadržaja Dok su učitelji
sugerirali kako bi poveznice (linkovi) unutar škole
razredna pravila nastavni program i standardi spisak
(obveznog) školskog pribora statistika posjetitelja web
stranice i knjiga gostiju bili esencijalni za školske web
stranice u značajnom odstupanju (plt05) se pokazalo kako se
roditelji nisu složili s učiteljima u vezi tih elemenata S
druge strane roditelji izjavljuju kako bi rado vidjeli
online praktične testove akademske savjetodavne
informacije vijesti u vezi administrativnih pitanja i
školske uprave te životopise učitelja Naposljetku i
učitelji i roditelji složni su kako rezultati školskih
športskih natjecanja i aktivnosti prosvjetna filozofija
plan nastavnih lekcija poveznice izvan institucije online
članci ili letci s vijestima razredni foto album razredne
vijesti ili blog učitelja meniji primjerci didaktičkih
kartica osobne poveznice (linkovi) i informacije o obitelji
učitelja nisu esencijalni elementi školskih web stranica
Može se zaključiti da bez obzira što mnoge škole sada imaju
web stranice nisu sve značajne za komunikaciju roditelja i
učitelja Prethodna istraživanja pokazuju da struktura i
sadržaj školske web stranice trebaju biti pažljivo planirane
i osmišljene
Prema McKenzie J (1997) najbolja školska web mjesta
imaju četiri svrhe 1 upoznati posjetitelje sa svojom
misijom karakterom ponudama za učenike i stajalištem o
novim tehnologijama 2 pružiti mogućnost objave učeničkih
radova i edukacije roditelja 3 djelovati kao posrednik
većem dijelu informacija i 4 pružiti bogatu zbirku
podataka lokalno prikupljenih uz nastavni plan i program
(kao što je lokalna povijest) Neke školske stranice
sadržavaju sva četiri elementa ali većina se koncentrira na
pružanje kvalitetne usluge za dva ili tri od ovih elemenata
21 Suradnja roditelja i škole u Republici Hrvatskoj
U osnovnoškolskom obrazovanju u Republici Hrvatskoj
propisani su (najčešće školskim Statutom) sljedeći oblici
suradnje s roditeljima roditeljski sastanci individualni
razgovori s učiteljima i stručnim suradnicima i pismene
poruke roditeljima Prema Zakonu o osnovnoškolskom i
srednjem obrazovanju (MZOŠ 2008) propisuje se osnivanje
Vijeća roditelja koje sačinjava po jedan roditelj iz svakoga
razreda a predsjednik Vijeća roditelja postaje i član
Školskoga odbora Praksa pokazuje da ovi propisani načini
suradnje ne zadovoljavaju ni učitelje a ni roditelje
Roditeljsko sudjelovanje je tek formalno bez stvarne
mogućnosti utjecaja na donošenje bitnih odluka
Centraliziranost i normiranost kurikuluma ne ostavlja
dovoljno prostora školama da svoj program prilagođavaju
potrebama lokalne sredine roditeljski sastanci se svode na
prenošenje informacija pri čemu su roditelji najčešće
pasivni primatelji informacija a vrlo rijetki roditelji su
pozvani na sudjelovanje u nekim aktivnostima škole
Istraživanje provedeno među roditeljima učenika deset
osnovnih škola četvrtoga i sedmoga razreda iz svih hrvatskih
regija te njihovih učitelja (Marušić 2007) pokazuje da
dvije trećine roditelja smatra da imaju premalo mogućnosti
sudjelovati u donošenju odluka u školi više od 90
roditelja nije nikada sudjelovalo u aktivnostima vezanima uz
suradnju obitelji i škole tri četvrtine roditelja navode da
se u školi ne organiziraju predavanja i radionice a trećina
roditelja ne zna organiziraju li se takve radionice Znatan
broj roditelja je iskazao zainteresiranost za sudjelovanje u
različitim aktivnostima škole ali inicijativu čekaju od
strane učitelja
Ipak praksa u hrvatskim školama posljednjih godina
pokazuje poduzimanje dodatnih strategija u suradnji s
roditeljima Održavaju se brojne radionice uključuju se kao
suradnici u projektu a u zajedničkoj komunikaciji na
relaciji obitelj - škola unaprjeđuje se praćenje i
procjenjivanje učeničkog napretka te ostvaruje kvalitetnija
povratna informacija o napretku djeteta (sve su
zastupljenije učeničke mape kao primjer sustavne autentične
i razvojne procjene napretka učenika)
Što se elektroničkih oblika suradnje tiče Hrvatska je
korak unatrag Projekt Net u školi započeo je 2003godine
i u sve hrvatske škole uveden je ISDN priključak s ciljem
unaprjeđenja procesa učenja korištenjem interneta u nastavi
i istraživanju učenika iz vlastitog doma te postavljanju
temelja novoj kulturi učenja koja se bazira na otvorenosti k
novim spoznajama novim medijima i tehnologijama Danas sve
hrvatske škole imaju mogućnost postavljanja svoje web
stranice a učitelji otvaranje elektronske adrese
U Hrvatskoj su web mjesta pojedinoga učitelja rijetka
pojava ali su pokrenuti projekti Školski infocentar i SMS
informativka kojima je omogućeno informiranje roditelja o
uspjehu izostancima i ostalim školskim zbivanjima
jednostavnim i većini roditelja dostupnim načinima
komunikacije (SMS e-mail internet i govorne poruke) Mali
broj škola uveo je i web imenike gdje razrednici jednom
mjesečno ažuriraju podatke pa ih roditelji pomoću posebne
lozinke mogu pogledati u svako doba dana Iako nije
najvažnije ne treba zanemariti ni podatak da prema Zavodu
za državnu statistiku u Hrvatskoj tek oko 38 kućanstava ima
Internet (2009) što otežava komunikaciju putem web
stranica a ni svi učitelji nisu informatički pismeni Takva
suradnja ima svoje prednosti i nedostatke
Tablica 1 ndash prednosti i nedostatci suradnje putem
elektroničkih medija
PREDNOSTI NEDOSTATCISvakodnevno primanje obavijesti o
djetetu
Brzina slanja informacija
Neograničenost vremenom i mjestom
Ušteda vremena za roditelje
Ušteda vremena za učitelja pri
slanju općih obavijesti
Roditelj u školu dolazi
pripremljen teme za razgovor su s
područja odgoja i obrazovanja
I roditelji i učitelji moraju biti
informatički pismeni
Svi sudionici (roditelji učitelji)
moraju imati internet
Dodatni posao za učitelje (redovito
ažuriranje podataka)
Rjeđi susreti roditelja i učitelja
Izostanak komunikacije bdquolicem u
licerdquo
Financijski trošak za roditelje pri
slanju SMS poruka
Mogućnost zlouporabe (lozinka)
3 Metodologija istraživanja
31 Cilj istraživanja
Cilj istraživanja bio je ispitati imaju li web stranice
hrvatskih osnovnih škola sadržaje koji će potaknuti
roditelje na česte posjete i omogućiti učenicima stjecanje
novih znanja Dugoročni je cilj potaknuti škole na redovito
postavljanje novih sadržaja koji će rezultirati kvalitetnom
suradnjom doma i škole te poticati učenike na istraživački
rad iz svojih domova i time unaprjeđivati kvalitetu učenja
32 Problem
Problem ovoga rada jest utvrditi trenutnu svrhu
hrvatskih osnovnoškolskih web stranica (objaviti postignuća
učenika omogućiti roditeljima uvid u svakodnevne
aktivnosti informirati roditelje i širu zajednicu o budućim
aktivnostima i jačanje suradnje između škole doma i
lokalne zajednice)
33 Hipoteze
H-1 Web stranice hrvatskih osnovnih škola svojim
sadržajima nisu model za intenziviranje suradnje s
roditeljima te postavljanje temelja novoj kulturi učenja
H-2 Ne postoji statistički značajna razlika u
sadržajima među dvjema županijama ni u jednoj od jedanaest
kategorija
34 Ispitanici i postupak
Školske web stranice javne su isprave i dobrodošlica
vanjskome svijetu u školu kao i poveznica učenika i
učitelja s vanjskim izvorima informacija te mogućnost
kvalitetnije suradnje s roditeljima Svrha školskih web
stranica je objaviti postignuća učenika omogućiti
roditeljima uvid u svakodnevne aktivnosti informirati
roditelje i širu zajednicu o budućim aktivnostima i jačanje
suradnje između škole doma i lokalne zajednice Svrha
školskih web stranica ne bi trebala biti elektronička
verzija oglasne ploče i slika škole koja rijetko mijenja
svoj izgled
Istraživanje je provedeno metodom analize sadržaja
slučajnim odabirom na 50 web stranica osnovnih škola u
Istarskoj i Splitsko-dalmatinskoj županiji (25 škola po
županiji) Korišten je internetski popis škola Portal za
škole Budući da u Hrvatskoj nije provedeno istraživanje s
roditeljima u kojemu bi se ispitalo koje sadržaje oni
smatraju bitnima i relevantnima autorice su se vodile
istraživanjem provedenim online studijom u Americi (Unal
2008) i elementima koje su u toj studiji izabrali učitelji
i roditelji Analizirani su sljedeći sadržaji web stranica
plan i program o školi (povijest škole) brojač posjeta
kućni red (razredna pravila) raspored sati i informacija za
roditelje rezultati športskih natjecanja foto albumi
online testovi (materijali za učenje) životopisi učitelja
savjeti za roditelje i forum Analiza je obavljena početkom
mjeseca prosinca 2010 pred kraj prvoga polugodišta što je
školama dalo dovoljno vremena za ažuriranje i popunjavanje
stranica U ovom istraživanju nije analiziran dizajn web
stranica jer su u većini slučajeva stranice postavljene
koristeći Carnet hosting uslugu i nude slične poveznice S
obzirom da većina škola ima isti preglednik smatrano je da
škola ima sadržaj ako je unesen vlastiti dokument ili
poveznica
4 Rezultati i rasprava
Tablica 2 - ukupni analizirani sadržaji u postotcima
SADRŽAJ OBJE
ŽUPANIJE DA POSTOTAK NE POSTOTAK
PLAN I
PROGRAM41 82 9 18
BROJAČ
POSJETA8 16 42 84
KUĆNI RED 10 20 40 80 RASPORED
INFORMACIJA28 56 22 44
ŠPORTSKI
USPJESI23 46 27 54
FOTO ALBUMI 43 86 7 14 TESTOVI
ONLINE
(MATERIJALI
ZA UČENJE)
17 34 33 66
ŽIVOTOPIS
UČITELJA2 4 48 96
SAVJETI ZA
RODITELJE18 36 32 64
FORUM 12 24 38 76
O ŠKOLI
(POVIJEST)50 100 0 0
Iz tablice 2 vidljivo je da sve škole na svojim
stranicama imaju podatke o školi odnosno njezinoj povijesti
(100) a najveći dio škola foto albume (86) te plan i
program (82) Više od polovice škola (56) imaju raspored
informacija a nešto manje od polovice (46) športske
uspjehe svojih učenika Najmanji broj škola na svojim
stranicama objavljuju životopise učitelja (4) i brojač
posjeta (16) Materijale za učenje i savjete za roditelje
ima tek nešto više od trećine stranica (34 36)
Grafikon 1 - sadržaji prema županijama
Iz grafikona 1 vidljivo je da se rezultati među županijama
ne razlikuju mnogo Najviše razlika je u sadržaju športskih
uspjeha (Istarska županija 72 Splitsko- dalmatinska 20)
a razlika od 20 pojavila se u kategorijama foto albuma i
materijala za učenje Sve ostale razlike su manje od 20
Hipoteza 2 testirana je hi ndash kvadrat testom Hipoteza se
smatra prihvaćenom u slučaju da je vjerojatnost pogreške
pri tvrdnji da postoji statistički značajna povezanost
analiziranog para varijabli manja od 5
Tablica 3 Relacije među županijama
PLAN
I
PROGR
AM
BRO
JAČ
POSJE
TA
KUĆNI
RED
RASPO
RED
INFOR
MACI
JA
ŠPORT
SKI
USPJE
SI
FOTO
ALBUM
ONLINE
TESTOVI
ŽIVOTOPIS
UČITELJA
SAVJETI
ZA
RODI
TELJE FORUM
10486462 00240148
80125 0081
1159
4
2657
81471 05208 07812 01096
df 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
p 0876
88491
0
0479
50012
0527
0892
0705
31663
0006
71374
0
044
5920
62
02251
8798
0157299
21
03457
4844
05638
979
Nije teško uočiti da se statistički značajna razlika
javlja samo u sadržaju športskih uspjeha a u ostalim
elementima ne postoji što potvrđuje postavljenu hipotezu
Može se dakle zaključiti da nema razlika u sadržajima među
dvjema županijama
Sadržaji web stranica mogu se podijeliti u dvije
kategorije sadržaji namijenjeni roditeljima i učenicima
(plan i program raspored informacija životopis učitelja
savjeti za roditelje forum testovi ili materijali za
učenje kućni red) i sadržaji namijenjeni promociji školskih
aktivnosti i uspjeha (športski uspjesi foto albumi o
školi brojač posjeta)
Tablica 4 - analiza sadržaja prema svrsi
SADRŽAJ OBJE
ŽUPANIJE NAMIJENJENI
RODITELJIMA
I UČENICIMADA
POSTOTAK NE POSTOTAK
TESTOVI
ONLINE
(MATERIJALI
ZA UČENJE)
17 34 33 66
PLAN I
PROGRAM41 82 9 18
SAVJETI ZA
RODITELJE18 36 32 64
KUĆNI RED 10 20 40 80 RASPORED
INFORMACIJA28 56 22 44
FORUM 12 24 38 76 ŽIVOTOPIS
UČITELJA2 4 48 96
PROMOCIJA
ŠKOLSKIH
AKTIVNOSTI
DA POSTOTAK NE POSTOTAK
I USPJEHA
ŠPORTSKI
USPJESI23 46 27 54
FOTO ALBUMI 43 86 7 14 BROJAČ
POSJETA8 16 42 84
O ŠKOLI
(POVIJEST)50 100 0 0
Od sadržaja koji su namijenjeni roditeljima i
učenicima a koji bi učenicima omogućili stjecanje novih
znanja i roditelje potaknuli na česte posjete škole u
visokom postotku (82) nude plan i program što je i
zakonska obveza škole (javna objava) a tek nešto više od
polovice škola (56) objavljuje raspored informacija za
roditelje Nešto više od trećine škola (34 36) na svojim
web stranicama ima materijale za učenje i savjete za
roditelje a tek 24 škola ima aktivan forum za razmjenu
mišljenja iako je i na tim forumima bio zanemariv broj
otvorenih tema od kojih niti jednu nije otvorio roditelj
Materijali za učenje najčešće su online testovi za što
postoji poveznica sa školske web stranice a savjeti za
roditelje tekstovi koje su sastavili stručni suradnici S
obzirom na manjak stručnih suradnika u našim školama moguće
je da je to razlog relativno malog postotka tih sadržaja U
nekim školama u rubrici savjeta za roditelje nalaze se
poveznice sa zanimljivim člancima na internetu
Kategorije koje služe za promociju školskih uspjeha i
aktivnosti imaju više sadržaja svaka škola ima uređenu
stranicu o povijesti škole 86 škola ažurira stranicu s
foto albumima a nešto manje od polovice škola (46) na
svoje stranice stavlja športske uspjehe svojih učenika U
navedenim foto albumima škole nude fotografije s izleta
izvanučioničke nastave priredbi i sl O opravdanosti
velikoga broja fotografija učenika moglo bi se raspravljati
s obzirom da niti jedan objavljeni sadržaj nije zaštićen
lozinkom već je dostupan svima pa se postavlja pitanje
imaju li škole suglasnost roditelja za to Tek 16 škola
vodi računa o posjećenosti svojih stranica a to bi mogao
biti značajan podatak o tome koliko ih učenici i roditelji
posjećuju
Iz navedenih podataka može se zaključiti da je školama
veoma važna promocija aktivnosti i uspjeha škole povijest
ustanove i raspored individualnih informacija a savjeti za
roditelje i materijali za učenike te razmjena mišljenja
nisu prioritetni sadržaji Škole smatraju da je roditeljima
potpuno nevažan stručni životopis učitelja najave
roditeljskih sastanaka ili jelovnici školskih kuhinja Iz
toga proizlazi da su web stranice škola u Hrvatskoj
elektroničke oglasne ploče a ne mogućnost komunikacije
5 Zaključak
Zadnjih desetak godina suradnja s roditeljima i kod nas
se mijenja na bolje ali u našim školama još uvijek
prevladavaju tradicionalni oblici suradnje s roditeljima
Iako u svijetu postoje roditeljski radio i Tv kanali
časopisi i internet stranice za razmjenu iskustava (Mendel
1998) kod nas takva praksa nije zaživjela no posljednjih
godina započela je suradnja putem web stranica e mail i sms
poruka Sumirajući prednosti i nedostatke a s obzirom na
današnji način života i ovaj način suradnje treba
intenzivirati u našim školama Suvremeni načini
komuniciranja mogu dodatno poboljšati komunikaciju između
roditelja i škole ali samo kao još jedan od načina uz sve
ostale navedene načine suradnje Iz toga proizlazi da iako
suvremeno doba pretpostavlja korištenje suvremenih
tehnologija nikakva tehnologija ne bi smjela zamijeniti
komunikaciju bdquolicem u licerdquo roditelja i učitelja a
odgovornost za dobru suradnju s roditeljima i dalje ostaje
na školi
Istraživanje pokazuje mogućnosti komuniciranja obitelji
i škole suvremenom tehnologijom Prikazani su elementi
školskih web stranica te način planiranja sadržaja web
stranice Ovo istraživanje smatramo važnim za informiranje
učitelja i rukovodstva škola o mogućnostima suvremenog
komuniciranja obitelji i škole Školska web stranica otvara
mogućnosti za uspostavljanje brze informacije no samim
postojanjem ne jamči učenicima stjecanje novih znanja i
kvalitetnije povezivanje obitelji i škole Može biti dobar
primjer vodstvu škole u stvaranju školskog kurikuluma kao
segmenta kojim će se omogućavati brza razmjena informacija s
roditeljima Nažalost obrazovni sustav u Hrvatskoj
tradicionalan je i trom neprimjeren vremenu i suvremenim
zanimanjima Ne zadovoljava individualne potrebe pojedinca
a tradicionalnim poučavanjem uz tehnologijski i
informacijski minimum potpuno je nemotivirajući kako za
učenika tako i za obitelj Rezultati ovoga istraživanja
pokazuju da školske web stranice u Hrvatskoj ne ostvaruju
sasvim svoju svrhu objavljivanje postignuća učenika
omogućavanje roditeljima uvid u svakodnevne aktivnosti
informiranje roditelja i šire zajednice o budućim
aktivnostima i jačanje suradnje između škole doma i
lokalne zajednice Iako svrha školskih web stranica ne bi
trebala biti elektronička verzija oglasne ploče i slika
škole koja rijetko mijenja svoj izgled trenutno stanje
hrvatskih web stranica u analiziranim županijama pokazuje
upravo to što potvrđuje početnu hipotezu
U narednim istraživanjima trebalo bi ispitati stavove
roditelja u Hrvatskoj o tome koje sadržaje oni smatraju
važnima te bi se tada dobili relevantni podatci koje bi
učitelji mogli upotrijebiti za kreiranje svojih web
stranica
Literatura
Berger E H (1991) Parent Involvement Yesterday and
Today The Elementary School Journal 91 (3) 209-219
Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb
Educa
Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships
Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76
httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20Articles
ParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
Epstein JL i Sheldon S B (2006) Moving Forward Ideas
for Research on School Family and Community Partnerships
httpwwwcsosjhuedup2000pdfLiterature20Review
2020Epstein20and20Sheldon2006pdf (15112010)
Graham- Clay S (2005) Communicating with Parents
Strategies for Teachers School Community Journal 16 (1)
117-129
Hartshorne R Friedman A Algozzine B i Kaur D
(2008) Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites Educational
Technology amp Society 11 (1) 291-303
Hitrec G(ur) (2006) Škola otvorena roditeljima Zagreb
Udruga roditelja Korak po korak
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
Deana Tavas graduate teacher
Vladimir Nazor Elementary School Rovinj
dtavasyahoocom
Sanja Bilač graduate teacher
Spinut Elementary School Split
sanja9stgmailcom
SCHOOL WEBSITES ndash
POSSIBILITY OF COOPERATION WITH PARENTS
SCHOOL WEBSITES ndash POSSIBILITY OF COOPERATION WITH PARENTS
Abstract In the last fifteen years in Croatia as well as around the world
much research has been done dealing with the importance of cooperation
between parents and school and the obtained results show its importance for all
the parties and that partnership relation between school and parents produces
numerous benefits Besides customary ways of communication like individual
talk and parent meetings written messages informal meetings educational
workshops the involvement of parents in the educational process in the role of
accessory etc the most modern way of communicating with parents is via school
websites teacherrsquos websites e-mails and SMS messages The goal of the
research was to examine if Croatian schoolsrsquo websites had the content which
would prompt the parents for frequent visits and enable pupils to acquire new
knowledge A long term goal was to persuade schools to a regular update of new
materials which would result in quality cooperation between home and school
and persuade pupils to do research from their home and therefore increase the
quality of learning The research has randomly selected 25 elementary school
websites from the county of Istra and 25 websites from the county Split ndash
Dalmatia Collected data show that Croatiarsquos elementary school websites are not
a model neither for increasing the cooperation with parents nor laying the
foundation towards a new culture of learning and that there is no statistically
significant variation in content between the two counties
Key words cooperation with parents Internet school websites website
content
1 Parents and school cooperation
The cooperation between parents and schools is
extremely important and offers manifold benefits for all the
participants in the education process A partnership between
parents and teachers establishes good relations since every
partner introduces their competences in the childrsquos
education The cooperation between parents and teachers
ie school should be the best possible to achieve
outstanding goals Berger (1991) considers that models of
parent involvement are approached more actively nowadays
then it was in the 1960s when the responsibilities of
parents and schools were considered distinct Cooperation
with parents is today considered on of the essential
determinants of an efficient school in terms of general
pedagogy and research has shown that 22 of teachers
consider the lack of parent involvement a serious problem
(Ryan and Cooper 2010) Such cooperation is only partially
directed at prevention ie solution of disciplinary
problems since its benefits are manifold and are
manifested in better grades increased regular attendance
more willingness to work at home and development of more
positive attitudes and behavior Parental involvement in
school life has a positive effect on pupilrsquos achievements
and their motivation and the partnership relation between
parents and schools makes the parents more informed of
school affairs gives them a more positive image in the eyes
of the teachers they contribute to a better functioning of
the school strengthen their self-confidence and assurance
in helping their child at home and they become
participants not mere observers of the education of their
child Teachers have also to gain from a partnership
relation with parents since the parents become allies in
solving problems they become more motivated and satisfied
with their job receive more confidence from parents and
have a better reputation in society
These and other benefits for all the participants in
the education process are the result of growing willingness
and need of parent involvement in the school life According
to Walsh (2002) one way of achieving a successful bond
between parents and school is a consistent and clear two-way
communication
Epstein (1995) lists three learning contexts for
pupils in the family in school and in the community and
lists 6 ways of parent involvement These are parenting
communication volunteering learning at home decision
making and collaborating with the community However all of
these ways of cooperation between parents and school presume
direct communication which at times regardless of the
parentsrsquo willingness is impossible Many parents work
during planned school activities or meetings and have not
the possibility to participate especially in schools which
work in a single shift Todayrsquos way of life and both parents
working prevents personal communication and a more active
involvement of parents with schools
2 Contemporary ways of cooperation between parents and
school
One of the key features of humans is the ability to
communicate The exceptional ability of storing data and
fast sharing of enormous amounts of information have
revolutionized business as well as the everyday life of
mankind The access to information is unlimited the sharing
of ideas and thoughts free the worldrsquos business and economy
are being transformed Significant are the changes in the
approach to education Fast communication is becoming a
trend in shaping the future and therefore revolutionary
models of learning are more and more inherent (eg using
interactive computer technology fast learning) Pupils
are assuming responsibility for their life in a world in
which ldquothose who end their education have no futurerdquo (Dryden
and Vos 2001 p 39) Stronger is the criticism of the
educational system for its inertness in the process of
change and positive initiatives empowered by scientific
research become the link for modernization and improvement
of the school in the 21st century
Technology has become a critical component of everyday
life and an increase in the development and use of school
websites over the last few years is evident (Hartshorne and
ass 2008) Research (Aronson 1995 Cameron and Lee 1997
Clemens-Brower 1997 Cleverson 1999 Ramirez 2001) show that
many teachers experiment with various technologies when
communicating with parents (telephones in classrooms voice
mail video technology radio announcements etc) to
improve cooperation School websites provide parents with
useful content such as educational tips homework e-mails
or the school cafeteria menu and expand the borders of
communication between home and school to a 24 hours a day 7
days a week contact That allows parents whose daily
timetable doesnrsquot permit regular visits to the school and
face-to-face interaction with their child or teacher to be
more informed of what is happening at school Internet
becomes an excellent means of connecting home and school
Swan (2008) believes that schools have a lot of
information and parents want to know more about academic
achievements extracurricular activities parentsrsquo meeting
schedule information such as bus transport or lunch and
that it is important that school websites include accurate
and useful information not an exciting design or newest
technological ldquoornamentsrdquo
Online research (Unal 2008) shows that parents and
teachers recognize the importance of school websites
although they do not agree completely on their content
While teachers suggest that links inside the school
classroom rules teaching curriculum and standards list of
obligatory accessories statistics of websites visitors and
guest book should be essential to a school website
significant divergence (plt05) was seen in parents
disagreeing on these elements On the other hand parents
declare they would like to see online practical tests
academic advisory information information about
administrative issues and school direction as well as
teachers CVs Eventually teachers and parents agree that
results of school sport competition and activities
educational philosophy lesson plans links outside the
institution online articles and newsletters class photo
albums and news teachersrsquo blogs menus examples of
didactic cards personal links and teachersrsquo family
information are not essential elements of schoolsrsquo websites
It can be concluded that regardless of many schools today
having their own website not all are important for the
communication of parents and teachers Past research shows
that the structure and content of school websites should be
carefully planned and developed
According to McKenzie J (1997) the best websites have
four purposes 1 introduce visitors to its mission its
character its offerings to children its stance on new
technologies 2 offer an opportunity for the publishing of
student works and parents education 3 act as a mediator to
a larger share of information and 4 provide rich data
locally collected on curriculum related topics (such as
local history) Some school websites contain all four of
these elements but the majority is concentrated upon
providing a quality service in two or three of these
elements
21 Cooperation between parents and school in Croatia
In the elementary education in Croatia prescribed are
(most often by School statute) the following ways of
cooperation with parents parent meeting individual talks
with teachers and school assistants and written messages to
parents According to Law on Primary and Secondary
Education (Ministry of Education Science and Technology
2008) prescribed is the formation a Parentsrsquo Council which
comprises one parent from every class and the president of
the Parentrsquos Council is appointed a member of the School
Committee Practice shows that these prescribed ways of
cooperation do not satisfy the teachers or the parents
Parent participation is merely formal without real
possibility of influencing important decisions
Centralization and standardization of the curriculum do not
allow schools enough space for adapting to the needs of the
local community parent meeting come down to mere
information sharing where parents are usually passive
recipients of information and parents asked to participate
in some kind of school activity are rare A research
conducted among parents of pupil of the 4th and 7th grade
from all Croatian regions and their teachers (Marušić 2007)
shows that two thirds of parents believes that they have too
little possibility of participating in decision making in
schools more than 90 of parents have never taken part in
activities related to cooperation between family and school
three quarters of parents state that there are no lectures
or workshops organized in schools and a third of parents
does not know if such workshops are organized A substantial
number of parents have shown interest in participating in
various school activities but the initiative is expected to
come from teachers
However the practice in Croatian schools in recent
years has shown undertaking additional strategies for
cooperation with parents Many workshops are being held
parents are involved as assistants on projects and in the
communication between parents and school improvement has
been made in following and assessing the pupilsrsquo progress as
well as in the feedback information on the pupilsrsquo progress
(increasingly common are the pupilsrsquo maps as an example of
systematic authentic and development assessment of pupilsrsquo
progress)
As far as electronic cooperation is concerned Croatia
is one step back The project ldquoNet u školirdquo ndash ldquoNet in the
schoolrdquo was initiated in 2003 and all schools in Croatia
have been equipped with ISDN terminals with the aim to
improve the process of learning by using Internet in
teaching and pupilsrsquo research from home and by laying the
foundation for a new culture of learning based on openness
to new knowledge new media and technology Today all
schools in Croatia have the possibility to set up a website
and the teachers to open e-mail accounts
In Croatia websites of teachers are a rare appearance
but the projects ldquoŠkolski infocentarrdquo and ldquoSMS informativkardquo
have been initiated through which informing parents on
success absence and other school activities via simple and
to the majority accessible way of communication (SMS e-
mail Internet and voicemail) has been enabled A small
number of schools have incorporated a web directory updated
monthly by class masters which parents with a special
password can check at any time Although not the most
important fact it should not be ignored that according to
the Central Bureau of Statistics in 2009 only 38 of
households in Croatia had access to the Internet which
complicates communication via websites and not all teachers
are computer literate Such cooperation has its advantages
and disadvantages
Table 1 ndash advantages and disadvantages of cooperation
via electronic media
ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGESInformation on child received daily
Fast information transmission
Not limited by time or place
Time saving for parents
Time saving for teachers when
sending general information
Parents come to school prepared
themes for conversation are
educational
Both parents and teachers must be
computer literate
All participants (parents
teachers) must have Internet access
Additional work for teachers
(regular updating of data)
Rarer encounters among parents and
teachers
Lack of face-to-face communication
Financial expense for parents when
sending SMS messages
Possible abuse (password)
3 Research methodology
31 Aim of research
The aim of the research was to examine whether the
content of Croatian elementary schools websites encourages
frequent parentsrsquo visits and allows pupils to acquire new
knowledge A long term goal is to encourage schools to post
new materials regularly which would result in high-quality
cooperation between home and school along with encouraging
students to research work from their homes and therefore
advancing the quality of learning
32 Problem
The problem of this work is to determine the current
purpose of Croatian elementary schools websites
33 Hypothesis
H-1 Websites of Croatian elementary schools with its
contents do not pose a model for a more intensive
cooperation with parents or lay the foundations for a new
culture of learning
H-2 There is no statistically significant difference in
content between the two counties in neither of the eleven
categories
34 Participants and procedure
School websites are public documents and welcome the
outer world into the school as well as a link between
pupils and teachers with outer sources of information and a
possibility of better cooperation with parents The function
of school websites is to make public the achievements of
pupils to allow parents insight into daily activities and
to inform parents and the larger community of future
activities as well as strengthening cooperation between
school home and the local community The function of the
schoolsrsquo websites should not be a mere electronic version of
a notice board or a picture of a school that seldom changes
its appearance
The research was conducted by content analysis method
on a random selection of 50 elementary school websites in
the counties of Istria and Split ndash Dalmatia (25 schools per
county) The Internet school directory of ldquoPortal za školerdquo
was used Since in Croatia a research has not been conducted
on parents and the content the parents believed to be
important and relevant the authors were led by a research
done by an online study in USA (Unal 2008) and the elements
selected by teachers and parents in that study The
following website content was analysed curriculum about
the school (school history) web counters house rules
(classroom rules) timetable and information for parents
results of school competition photo albums online tests
(study materials) teachersrsquo CV tips for parents and forum
The analysis was done at the beginning of December 2010 by
the end of the first term giving the schools enough time to
update and enrich the websites This research did not take
into consideration the design of websites since in the
majority of cases it has been done using Carnet hosting
services and offered similar links Regarding the fact that
most schools have the same browser a school is considered
to have a website if a private document or link has been
updated
4 Results and discussion
Table 2 ndash Overall analysed content in percentage
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIES
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCETAGECURRICULUM 41 82 9 18 WEBSITE
COUNTER8 16 42 84
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTSrsquo
INFORMATION28 56 22 44
RESULTS OF
SCHOOL
COMPETITION
23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 ONLINE
TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
TEACHERSrsquo 2 4 48 96
CV
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
FORUM 12 24 38 76 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL
(SCHOOL
HISTORY)
50 100 0 0
For table 2 it is evident that all schools have information
about the school on the website ie about its history
(100) the majority has school photo alums (86) and the
curriculum (82) More than half the schools (56) have the
timetable for parentsrsquo information and less then half (46)
have sport achievements of their pupils The fewest schools
publish teachersrsquo CVs (4) and website counters Study
materials and tips for parents are present on just above a
third the websites (34 36)
Chart 1 ndash content according to county
It is visible from Chart 1 that results do not vary much
between counties The most discrepancy is shown in sportsrsquo
achievements (Istria 72 Split ndash Dalmatia 20) and a 20
discrepancy is present in categories photo album and study
material Other discrepancies are smaller than 20 The 2nd
hypothesis was tested with the chi-square test The
hypothesis is considered valid in case that the probability
of error is less than 5 considering that there is a
statistically significant link between the analysed pair of
variables
Table 3 ndash Relations between counties
CURRI
CULUM
WEB
COUNT
ERS
HOUSE
RULES
INFOR
MATIO
N
TIMET
ABLE
SPORT
S
ACHIE
VEMEN
TS
PHOTO
ALBUM
ONLINE
TESTS
TEACHERS
CVs
TIPS
FOR
PARENTS FORUM
10486462 0024 0148 0125 0081 1159 2657 1471 05208 07812 01096
8 4 8
df 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
p 0876
88491
0
0479
50012
0527
0892
0705
31663
0006
71374
0
044
5920
62
02251
8798
0157299
21
03457
4844
05638
979
It is not difficult to notice that a significant
discrepancy is present only in sportsrsquo achievement whereas
in other elements it does not exist which confirms the
stated hypothesis It can be concluded that there are no
differences between the content in the two counties
The website content can be divided into two categories
content intended for parents and pupils (curriculum
timetable for parentsrsquo information teachersrsquo CVs tips for
parents forum online tests and study material house
rules) and content for promoting school activities and
achievements (sportsrsquo achievements photo albums about the
school web counters)
Table 4 ndash analysis according to purpose
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIESINTENDEED FOR
PARENTS AND
PUPILSYES
PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
ONLINE TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
CURRICULUM 41 82 9 18
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTS
INFORMATION
TIMETABLE
28 56 22 44
FORUM 12 24 38 76 TEACHERSrsquo CV 2 4 48 96 PROMOTION OF
SCHOOL
ACTIVITIES
AND
ACVIEVEMENTS
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
SPORTS
ACHIEVEMENTS23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 WEB COUNTERS 8 16 42 84 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL50 100 0 0
Among the content intended for parents and pupils
which would allow pupils to acquire new knowledge and
encourage parents to visit regularly schools offer in high
percentage (82) the curriculum which is a legal obligation
(public notice) and just over half the schools (56) offer
the timetable for parentsrsquo information About one third of
schools (34 36) publish on its websites study materials
and tips for parents and only 24 have an active forum for
exchanging opinions although these forums have an
insignificant number of open themes none of which were
opened by parents Study materials are most often online
tests with a link from the website and tips for parents are
texts compiled by schools assistants Considering the lack
of assistants in schools this may be the cause for a small
percentage of these materials Some schools under the
section tips for parents have links to interesting Internet
articles
Categories intended for the promotion of school
achievements and activities have more contents every school
has a page dedicated to school history 86 updates the
photo album section and less then half the schools (46)
publish sportsrsquo achievements of the pupils The photo albums
offer pictures from school trips out-of-classroom teaching
school events etc Justifying such a large number of
pictures is debatable since none of the published materials
are protected by password but available to everybody the
question arises if the schools have the parentsrsquo permission
Only 16 of schools pay attention to visits which could be
a significant information showing the number of parents and
pupils visiting the website
The mentioned data show that schools consider relevant
the promotion of school activities and success the history
of the school and the timetable for parentsrsquo information
but tips for parents and school materials along with
exchanging opinions are not a priority Schools consider the
teachersrsquo CVs parentsrsquo meeting announcements or the school
cafeteria menu of no relevance to parents These facts point
to the fact that school websites in Croatia are more online
notice-boards than a real possibility for communication
5 Conclusion
Over the last decade cooperation with parents in
Croatia has been improving however in our schools
traditional forms of cooperation with parents are still
prevailing Although in the world there are specialized
radio and TV channels magazines and Internet sites for
exchanging experiences (Mendel 1998) such practice has not
flung into being in Croatia However over the last couple
of years cooperation via websites e-mails and SMS messages
Summarising its advantages and disadvantages and
considering todayrsquos lifestyle this way of cooperation
should be intensified in our schools Contemporary ways of
communication can additionally improve the communication
between parents and school but just as one more way
alongside other ways Consequently although the modern age
presupposes the use of modern technologies no technology
should replace face-to-face communication between parents
and teachers and the responsibility for a good cooperation
still lies on the school
The research demonstrates the possibilities of
communication between family and school by using modern
technology Elements of school websites are shown as well
as ways of planning the content of a website We consider
this research important for informing teachers and school
management of the possibilities of modern communication
between families and school A school website allows for the
possibility of establishing fast communication however its
mere existence does not guarantee the pupils acquiring new
knowledge and a quality relation between the family and
school It can be a good example for the school management
in creating the school curriculum as a segment allowing for
a fast exchange of information with parents Unfortunately
the educational system in Croatia is traditional and inert
unsuitable for the times and contemporary professions It
does not satisfy the need of the individual and traditional
teaching by using a minimum of technology and information is
utterly un-motivational for the student as well as for the
family The results of this research show that school
websites in Croatia donrsquot fulfil their purpose presenting
pupilsrsquo achievements allowing the parents insight into
everyday activities informing the parents and the wider
community on future activities and strengthening the
cooperation between school home and the local community
Although the purpose of school websites should not be merely
an electronic version of the notice board and an image of
the school that rarely changes its appearance the current
condition of the Croatian school websites in the analysed
counties shows just that therefore confirming the initial
hypothesis
Future research should inquire into the stance of
parents in Croatia on which content they consider important
therefore receiving relevant data which could later be used
by teachers for creating their websites
References
Berger E H (1991) Parent Involvement Yesterday and
Today The Elementary School Journal 91 (3) 209-219
Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb
Educa
Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships
Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76
httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20Articles
ParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
Epstein JL i Sheldon S B (2006) Moving Forward Ideas
for Research on School Family and Community Partnerships
httpwwwcsosjhuedup2000pdfLiterature20Review
2020Epstein20and20Sheldon2006pdf (15112010)
Graham- Clay S (2005) Communicating with Parents
Strategies for Teachers School Community Journal 16 (1)
117-129
Hartshorne R Friedman A Algozzine B i Kaur D
(2008) Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites Educational
Technology amp Society 11 (1) 291-303
Hitrec G(ur) (2006) Škola otvorena roditeljima Zagreb
Udruga roditelja Korak po korak
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE -
- MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE - MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
-
učitelja Prethodna istraživanja pokazuju da struktura i
sadržaj školske web stranice trebaju biti pažljivo planirane
i osmišljene
Prema McKenzie J (1997) najbolja školska web mjesta
imaju četiri svrhe 1 upoznati posjetitelje sa svojom
misijom karakterom ponudama za učenike i stajalištem o
novim tehnologijama 2 pružiti mogućnost objave učeničkih
radova i edukacije roditelja 3 djelovati kao posrednik
većem dijelu informacija i 4 pružiti bogatu zbirku
podataka lokalno prikupljenih uz nastavni plan i program
(kao što je lokalna povijest) Neke školske stranice
sadržavaju sva četiri elementa ali većina se koncentrira na
pružanje kvalitetne usluge za dva ili tri od ovih elemenata
21 Suradnja roditelja i škole u Republici Hrvatskoj
U osnovnoškolskom obrazovanju u Republici Hrvatskoj
propisani su (najčešće školskim Statutom) sljedeći oblici
suradnje s roditeljima roditeljski sastanci individualni
razgovori s učiteljima i stručnim suradnicima i pismene
poruke roditeljima Prema Zakonu o osnovnoškolskom i
srednjem obrazovanju (MZOŠ 2008) propisuje se osnivanje
Vijeća roditelja koje sačinjava po jedan roditelj iz svakoga
razreda a predsjednik Vijeća roditelja postaje i član
Školskoga odbora Praksa pokazuje da ovi propisani načini
suradnje ne zadovoljavaju ni učitelje a ni roditelje
Roditeljsko sudjelovanje je tek formalno bez stvarne
mogućnosti utjecaja na donošenje bitnih odluka
Centraliziranost i normiranost kurikuluma ne ostavlja
dovoljno prostora školama da svoj program prilagođavaju
potrebama lokalne sredine roditeljski sastanci se svode na
prenošenje informacija pri čemu su roditelji najčešće
pasivni primatelji informacija a vrlo rijetki roditelji su
pozvani na sudjelovanje u nekim aktivnostima škole
Istraživanje provedeno među roditeljima učenika deset
osnovnih škola četvrtoga i sedmoga razreda iz svih hrvatskih
regija te njihovih učitelja (Marušić 2007) pokazuje da
dvije trećine roditelja smatra da imaju premalo mogućnosti
sudjelovati u donošenju odluka u školi više od 90
roditelja nije nikada sudjelovalo u aktivnostima vezanima uz
suradnju obitelji i škole tri četvrtine roditelja navode da
se u školi ne organiziraju predavanja i radionice a trećina
roditelja ne zna organiziraju li se takve radionice Znatan
broj roditelja je iskazao zainteresiranost za sudjelovanje u
različitim aktivnostima škole ali inicijativu čekaju od
strane učitelja
Ipak praksa u hrvatskim školama posljednjih godina
pokazuje poduzimanje dodatnih strategija u suradnji s
roditeljima Održavaju se brojne radionice uključuju se kao
suradnici u projektu a u zajedničkoj komunikaciji na
relaciji obitelj - škola unaprjeđuje se praćenje i
procjenjivanje učeničkog napretka te ostvaruje kvalitetnija
povratna informacija o napretku djeteta (sve su
zastupljenije učeničke mape kao primjer sustavne autentične
i razvojne procjene napretka učenika)
Što se elektroničkih oblika suradnje tiče Hrvatska je
korak unatrag Projekt Net u školi započeo je 2003godine
i u sve hrvatske škole uveden je ISDN priključak s ciljem
unaprjeđenja procesa učenja korištenjem interneta u nastavi
i istraživanju učenika iz vlastitog doma te postavljanju
temelja novoj kulturi učenja koja se bazira na otvorenosti k
novim spoznajama novim medijima i tehnologijama Danas sve
hrvatske škole imaju mogućnost postavljanja svoje web
stranice a učitelji otvaranje elektronske adrese
U Hrvatskoj su web mjesta pojedinoga učitelja rijetka
pojava ali su pokrenuti projekti Školski infocentar i SMS
informativka kojima je omogućeno informiranje roditelja o
uspjehu izostancima i ostalim školskim zbivanjima
jednostavnim i većini roditelja dostupnim načinima
komunikacije (SMS e-mail internet i govorne poruke) Mali
broj škola uveo je i web imenike gdje razrednici jednom
mjesečno ažuriraju podatke pa ih roditelji pomoću posebne
lozinke mogu pogledati u svako doba dana Iako nije
najvažnije ne treba zanemariti ni podatak da prema Zavodu
za državnu statistiku u Hrvatskoj tek oko 38 kućanstava ima
Internet (2009) što otežava komunikaciju putem web
stranica a ni svi učitelji nisu informatički pismeni Takva
suradnja ima svoje prednosti i nedostatke
Tablica 1 ndash prednosti i nedostatci suradnje putem
elektroničkih medija
PREDNOSTI NEDOSTATCISvakodnevno primanje obavijesti o
djetetu
Brzina slanja informacija
Neograničenost vremenom i mjestom
Ušteda vremena za roditelje
Ušteda vremena za učitelja pri
slanju općih obavijesti
Roditelj u školu dolazi
pripremljen teme za razgovor su s
područja odgoja i obrazovanja
I roditelji i učitelji moraju biti
informatički pismeni
Svi sudionici (roditelji učitelji)
moraju imati internet
Dodatni posao za učitelje (redovito
ažuriranje podataka)
Rjeđi susreti roditelja i učitelja
Izostanak komunikacije bdquolicem u
licerdquo
Financijski trošak za roditelje pri
slanju SMS poruka
Mogućnost zlouporabe (lozinka)
3 Metodologija istraživanja
31 Cilj istraživanja
Cilj istraživanja bio je ispitati imaju li web stranice
hrvatskih osnovnih škola sadržaje koji će potaknuti
roditelje na česte posjete i omogućiti učenicima stjecanje
novih znanja Dugoročni je cilj potaknuti škole na redovito
postavljanje novih sadržaja koji će rezultirati kvalitetnom
suradnjom doma i škole te poticati učenike na istraživački
rad iz svojih domova i time unaprjeđivati kvalitetu učenja
32 Problem
Problem ovoga rada jest utvrditi trenutnu svrhu
hrvatskih osnovnoškolskih web stranica (objaviti postignuća
učenika omogućiti roditeljima uvid u svakodnevne
aktivnosti informirati roditelje i širu zajednicu o budućim
aktivnostima i jačanje suradnje između škole doma i
lokalne zajednice)
33 Hipoteze
H-1 Web stranice hrvatskih osnovnih škola svojim
sadržajima nisu model za intenziviranje suradnje s
roditeljima te postavljanje temelja novoj kulturi učenja
H-2 Ne postoji statistički značajna razlika u
sadržajima među dvjema županijama ni u jednoj od jedanaest
kategorija
34 Ispitanici i postupak
Školske web stranice javne su isprave i dobrodošlica
vanjskome svijetu u školu kao i poveznica učenika i
učitelja s vanjskim izvorima informacija te mogućnost
kvalitetnije suradnje s roditeljima Svrha školskih web
stranica je objaviti postignuća učenika omogućiti
roditeljima uvid u svakodnevne aktivnosti informirati
roditelje i širu zajednicu o budućim aktivnostima i jačanje
suradnje između škole doma i lokalne zajednice Svrha
školskih web stranica ne bi trebala biti elektronička
verzija oglasne ploče i slika škole koja rijetko mijenja
svoj izgled
Istraživanje je provedeno metodom analize sadržaja
slučajnim odabirom na 50 web stranica osnovnih škola u
Istarskoj i Splitsko-dalmatinskoj županiji (25 škola po
županiji) Korišten je internetski popis škola Portal za
škole Budući da u Hrvatskoj nije provedeno istraživanje s
roditeljima u kojemu bi se ispitalo koje sadržaje oni
smatraju bitnima i relevantnima autorice su se vodile
istraživanjem provedenim online studijom u Americi (Unal
2008) i elementima koje su u toj studiji izabrali učitelji
i roditelji Analizirani su sljedeći sadržaji web stranica
plan i program o školi (povijest škole) brojač posjeta
kućni red (razredna pravila) raspored sati i informacija za
roditelje rezultati športskih natjecanja foto albumi
online testovi (materijali za učenje) životopisi učitelja
savjeti za roditelje i forum Analiza je obavljena početkom
mjeseca prosinca 2010 pred kraj prvoga polugodišta što je
školama dalo dovoljno vremena za ažuriranje i popunjavanje
stranica U ovom istraživanju nije analiziran dizajn web
stranica jer su u većini slučajeva stranice postavljene
koristeći Carnet hosting uslugu i nude slične poveznice S
obzirom da većina škola ima isti preglednik smatrano je da
škola ima sadržaj ako je unesen vlastiti dokument ili
poveznica
4 Rezultati i rasprava
Tablica 2 - ukupni analizirani sadržaji u postotcima
SADRŽAJ OBJE
ŽUPANIJE DA POSTOTAK NE POSTOTAK
PLAN I
PROGRAM41 82 9 18
BROJAČ
POSJETA8 16 42 84
KUĆNI RED 10 20 40 80 RASPORED
INFORMACIJA28 56 22 44
ŠPORTSKI
USPJESI23 46 27 54
FOTO ALBUMI 43 86 7 14 TESTOVI
ONLINE
(MATERIJALI
ZA UČENJE)
17 34 33 66
ŽIVOTOPIS
UČITELJA2 4 48 96
SAVJETI ZA
RODITELJE18 36 32 64
FORUM 12 24 38 76
O ŠKOLI
(POVIJEST)50 100 0 0
Iz tablice 2 vidljivo je da sve škole na svojim
stranicama imaju podatke o školi odnosno njezinoj povijesti
(100) a najveći dio škola foto albume (86) te plan i
program (82) Više od polovice škola (56) imaju raspored
informacija a nešto manje od polovice (46) športske
uspjehe svojih učenika Najmanji broj škola na svojim
stranicama objavljuju životopise učitelja (4) i brojač
posjeta (16) Materijale za učenje i savjete za roditelje
ima tek nešto više od trećine stranica (34 36)
Grafikon 1 - sadržaji prema županijama
Iz grafikona 1 vidljivo je da se rezultati među županijama
ne razlikuju mnogo Najviše razlika je u sadržaju športskih
uspjeha (Istarska županija 72 Splitsko- dalmatinska 20)
a razlika od 20 pojavila se u kategorijama foto albuma i
materijala za učenje Sve ostale razlike su manje od 20
Hipoteza 2 testirana je hi ndash kvadrat testom Hipoteza se
smatra prihvaćenom u slučaju da je vjerojatnost pogreške
pri tvrdnji da postoji statistički značajna povezanost
analiziranog para varijabli manja od 5
Tablica 3 Relacije među županijama
PLAN
I
PROGR
AM
BRO
JAČ
POSJE
TA
KUĆNI
RED
RASPO
RED
INFOR
MACI
JA
ŠPORT
SKI
USPJE
SI
FOTO
ALBUM
ONLINE
TESTOVI
ŽIVOTOPIS
UČITELJA
SAVJETI
ZA
RODI
TELJE FORUM
10486462 00240148
80125 0081
1159
4
2657
81471 05208 07812 01096
df 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
p 0876
88491
0
0479
50012
0527
0892
0705
31663
0006
71374
0
044
5920
62
02251
8798
0157299
21
03457
4844
05638
979
Nije teško uočiti da se statistički značajna razlika
javlja samo u sadržaju športskih uspjeha a u ostalim
elementima ne postoji što potvrđuje postavljenu hipotezu
Može se dakle zaključiti da nema razlika u sadržajima među
dvjema županijama
Sadržaji web stranica mogu se podijeliti u dvije
kategorije sadržaji namijenjeni roditeljima i učenicima
(plan i program raspored informacija životopis učitelja
savjeti za roditelje forum testovi ili materijali za
učenje kućni red) i sadržaji namijenjeni promociji školskih
aktivnosti i uspjeha (športski uspjesi foto albumi o
školi brojač posjeta)
Tablica 4 - analiza sadržaja prema svrsi
SADRŽAJ OBJE
ŽUPANIJE NAMIJENJENI
RODITELJIMA
I UČENICIMADA
POSTOTAK NE POSTOTAK
TESTOVI
ONLINE
(MATERIJALI
ZA UČENJE)
17 34 33 66
PLAN I
PROGRAM41 82 9 18
SAVJETI ZA
RODITELJE18 36 32 64
KUĆNI RED 10 20 40 80 RASPORED
INFORMACIJA28 56 22 44
FORUM 12 24 38 76 ŽIVOTOPIS
UČITELJA2 4 48 96
PROMOCIJA
ŠKOLSKIH
AKTIVNOSTI
DA POSTOTAK NE POSTOTAK
I USPJEHA
ŠPORTSKI
USPJESI23 46 27 54
FOTO ALBUMI 43 86 7 14 BROJAČ
POSJETA8 16 42 84
O ŠKOLI
(POVIJEST)50 100 0 0
Od sadržaja koji su namijenjeni roditeljima i
učenicima a koji bi učenicima omogućili stjecanje novih
znanja i roditelje potaknuli na česte posjete škole u
visokom postotku (82) nude plan i program što je i
zakonska obveza škole (javna objava) a tek nešto više od
polovice škola (56) objavljuje raspored informacija za
roditelje Nešto više od trećine škola (34 36) na svojim
web stranicama ima materijale za učenje i savjete za
roditelje a tek 24 škola ima aktivan forum za razmjenu
mišljenja iako je i na tim forumima bio zanemariv broj
otvorenih tema od kojih niti jednu nije otvorio roditelj
Materijali za učenje najčešće su online testovi za što
postoji poveznica sa školske web stranice a savjeti za
roditelje tekstovi koje su sastavili stručni suradnici S
obzirom na manjak stručnih suradnika u našim školama moguće
je da je to razlog relativno malog postotka tih sadržaja U
nekim školama u rubrici savjeta za roditelje nalaze se
poveznice sa zanimljivim člancima na internetu
Kategorije koje služe za promociju školskih uspjeha i
aktivnosti imaju više sadržaja svaka škola ima uređenu
stranicu o povijesti škole 86 škola ažurira stranicu s
foto albumima a nešto manje od polovice škola (46) na
svoje stranice stavlja športske uspjehe svojih učenika U
navedenim foto albumima škole nude fotografije s izleta
izvanučioničke nastave priredbi i sl O opravdanosti
velikoga broja fotografija učenika moglo bi se raspravljati
s obzirom da niti jedan objavljeni sadržaj nije zaštićen
lozinkom već je dostupan svima pa se postavlja pitanje
imaju li škole suglasnost roditelja za to Tek 16 škola
vodi računa o posjećenosti svojih stranica a to bi mogao
biti značajan podatak o tome koliko ih učenici i roditelji
posjećuju
Iz navedenih podataka može se zaključiti da je školama
veoma važna promocija aktivnosti i uspjeha škole povijest
ustanove i raspored individualnih informacija a savjeti za
roditelje i materijali za učenike te razmjena mišljenja
nisu prioritetni sadržaji Škole smatraju da je roditeljima
potpuno nevažan stručni životopis učitelja najave
roditeljskih sastanaka ili jelovnici školskih kuhinja Iz
toga proizlazi da su web stranice škola u Hrvatskoj
elektroničke oglasne ploče a ne mogućnost komunikacije
5 Zaključak
Zadnjih desetak godina suradnja s roditeljima i kod nas
se mijenja na bolje ali u našim školama još uvijek
prevladavaju tradicionalni oblici suradnje s roditeljima
Iako u svijetu postoje roditeljski radio i Tv kanali
časopisi i internet stranice za razmjenu iskustava (Mendel
1998) kod nas takva praksa nije zaživjela no posljednjih
godina započela je suradnja putem web stranica e mail i sms
poruka Sumirajući prednosti i nedostatke a s obzirom na
današnji način života i ovaj način suradnje treba
intenzivirati u našim školama Suvremeni načini
komuniciranja mogu dodatno poboljšati komunikaciju između
roditelja i škole ali samo kao još jedan od načina uz sve
ostale navedene načine suradnje Iz toga proizlazi da iako
suvremeno doba pretpostavlja korištenje suvremenih
tehnologija nikakva tehnologija ne bi smjela zamijeniti
komunikaciju bdquolicem u licerdquo roditelja i učitelja a
odgovornost za dobru suradnju s roditeljima i dalje ostaje
na školi
Istraživanje pokazuje mogućnosti komuniciranja obitelji
i škole suvremenom tehnologijom Prikazani su elementi
školskih web stranica te način planiranja sadržaja web
stranice Ovo istraživanje smatramo važnim za informiranje
učitelja i rukovodstva škola o mogućnostima suvremenog
komuniciranja obitelji i škole Školska web stranica otvara
mogućnosti za uspostavljanje brze informacije no samim
postojanjem ne jamči učenicima stjecanje novih znanja i
kvalitetnije povezivanje obitelji i škole Može biti dobar
primjer vodstvu škole u stvaranju školskog kurikuluma kao
segmenta kojim će se omogućavati brza razmjena informacija s
roditeljima Nažalost obrazovni sustav u Hrvatskoj
tradicionalan je i trom neprimjeren vremenu i suvremenim
zanimanjima Ne zadovoljava individualne potrebe pojedinca
a tradicionalnim poučavanjem uz tehnologijski i
informacijski minimum potpuno je nemotivirajući kako za
učenika tako i za obitelj Rezultati ovoga istraživanja
pokazuju da školske web stranice u Hrvatskoj ne ostvaruju
sasvim svoju svrhu objavljivanje postignuća učenika
omogućavanje roditeljima uvid u svakodnevne aktivnosti
informiranje roditelja i šire zajednice o budućim
aktivnostima i jačanje suradnje između škole doma i
lokalne zajednice Iako svrha školskih web stranica ne bi
trebala biti elektronička verzija oglasne ploče i slika
škole koja rijetko mijenja svoj izgled trenutno stanje
hrvatskih web stranica u analiziranim županijama pokazuje
upravo to što potvrđuje početnu hipotezu
U narednim istraživanjima trebalo bi ispitati stavove
roditelja u Hrvatskoj o tome koje sadržaje oni smatraju
važnima te bi se tada dobili relevantni podatci koje bi
učitelji mogli upotrijebiti za kreiranje svojih web
stranica
Literatura
Berger E H (1991) Parent Involvement Yesterday and
Today The Elementary School Journal 91 (3) 209-219
Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb
Educa
Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships
Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76
httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20Articles
ParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
Epstein JL i Sheldon S B (2006) Moving Forward Ideas
for Research on School Family and Community Partnerships
httpwwwcsosjhuedup2000pdfLiterature20Review
2020Epstein20and20Sheldon2006pdf (15112010)
Graham- Clay S (2005) Communicating with Parents
Strategies for Teachers School Community Journal 16 (1)
117-129
Hartshorne R Friedman A Algozzine B i Kaur D
(2008) Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites Educational
Technology amp Society 11 (1) 291-303
Hitrec G(ur) (2006) Škola otvorena roditeljima Zagreb
Udruga roditelja Korak po korak
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
Deana Tavas graduate teacher
Vladimir Nazor Elementary School Rovinj
dtavasyahoocom
Sanja Bilač graduate teacher
Spinut Elementary School Split
sanja9stgmailcom
SCHOOL WEBSITES ndash
POSSIBILITY OF COOPERATION WITH PARENTS
SCHOOL WEBSITES ndash POSSIBILITY OF COOPERATION WITH PARENTS
Abstract In the last fifteen years in Croatia as well as around the world
much research has been done dealing with the importance of cooperation
between parents and school and the obtained results show its importance for all
the parties and that partnership relation between school and parents produces
numerous benefits Besides customary ways of communication like individual
talk and parent meetings written messages informal meetings educational
workshops the involvement of parents in the educational process in the role of
accessory etc the most modern way of communicating with parents is via school
websites teacherrsquos websites e-mails and SMS messages The goal of the
research was to examine if Croatian schoolsrsquo websites had the content which
would prompt the parents for frequent visits and enable pupils to acquire new
knowledge A long term goal was to persuade schools to a regular update of new
materials which would result in quality cooperation between home and school
and persuade pupils to do research from their home and therefore increase the
quality of learning The research has randomly selected 25 elementary school
websites from the county of Istra and 25 websites from the county Split ndash
Dalmatia Collected data show that Croatiarsquos elementary school websites are not
a model neither for increasing the cooperation with parents nor laying the
foundation towards a new culture of learning and that there is no statistically
significant variation in content between the two counties
Key words cooperation with parents Internet school websites website
content
1 Parents and school cooperation
The cooperation between parents and schools is
extremely important and offers manifold benefits for all the
participants in the education process A partnership between
parents and teachers establishes good relations since every
partner introduces their competences in the childrsquos
education The cooperation between parents and teachers
ie school should be the best possible to achieve
outstanding goals Berger (1991) considers that models of
parent involvement are approached more actively nowadays
then it was in the 1960s when the responsibilities of
parents and schools were considered distinct Cooperation
with parents is today considered on of the essential
determinants of an efficient school in terms of general
pedagogy and research has shown that 22 of teachers
consider the lack of parent involvement a serious problem
(Ryan and Cooper 2010) Such cooperation is only partially
directed at prevention ie solution of disciplinary
problems since its benefits are manifold and are
manifested in better grades increased regular attendance
more willingness to work at home and development of more
positive attitudes and behavior Parental involvement in
school life has a positive effect on pupilrsquos achievements
and their motivation and the partnership relation between
parents and schools makes the parents more informed of
school affairs gives them a more positive image in the eyes
of the teachers they contribute to a better functioning of
the school strengthen their self-confidence and assurance
in helping their child at home and they become
participants not mere observers of the education of their
child Teachers have also to gain from a partnership
relation with parents since the parents become allies in
solving problems they become more motivated and satisfied
with their job receive more confidence from parents and
have a better reputation in society
These and other benefits for all the participants in
the education process are the result of growing willingness
and need of parent involvement in the school life According
to Walsh (2002) one way of achieving a successful bond
between parents and school is a consistent and clear two-way
communication
Epstein (1995) lists three learning contexts for
pupils in the family in school and in the community and
lists 6 ways of parent involvement These are parenting
communication volunteering learning at home decision
making and collaborating with the community However all of
these ways of cooperation between parents and school presume
direct communication which at times regardless of the
parentsrsquo willingness is impossible Many parents work
during planned school activities or meetings and have not
the possibility to participate especially in schools which
work in a single shift Todayrsquos way of life and both parents
working prevents personal communication and a more active
involvement of parents with schools
2 Contemporary ways of cooperation between parents and
school
One of the key features of humans is the ability to
communicate The exceptional ability of storing data and
fast sharing of enormous amounts of information have
revolutionized business as well as the everyday life of
mankind The access to information is unlimited the sharing
of ideas and thoughts free the worldrsquos business and economy
are being transformed Significant are the changes in the
approach to education Fast communication is becoming a
trend in shaping the future and therefore revolutionary
models of learning are more and more inherent (eg using
interactive computer technology fast learning) Pupils
are assuming responsibility for their life in a world in
which ldquothose who end their education have no futurerdquo (Dryden
and Vos 2001 p 39) Stronger is the criticism of the
educational system for its inertness in the process of
change and positive initiatives empowered by scientific
research become the link for modernization and improvement
of the school in the 21st century
Technology has become a critical component of everyday
life and an increase in the development and use of school
websites over the last few years is evident (Hartshorne and
ass 2008) Research (Aronson 1995 Cameron and Lee 1997
Clemens-Brower 1997 Cleverson 1999 Ramirez 2001) show that
many teachers experiment with various technologies when
communicating with parents (telephones in classrooms voice
mail video technology radio announcements etc) to
improve cooperation School websites provide parents with
useful content such as educational tips homework e-mails
or the school cafeteria menu and expand the borders of
communication between home and school to a 24 hours a day 7
days a week contact That allows parents whose daily
timetable doesnrsquot permit regular visits to the school and
face-to-face interaction with their child or teacher to be
more informed of what is happening at school Internet
becomes an excellent means of connecting home and school
Swan (2008) believes that schools have a lot of
information and parents want to know more about academic
achievements extracurricular activities parentsrsquo meeting
schedule information such as bus transport or lunch and
that it is important that school websites include accurate
and useful information not an exciting design or newest
technological ldquoornamentsrdquo
Online research (Unal 2008) shows that parents and
teachers recognize the importance of school websites
although they do not agree completely on their content
While teachers suggest that links inside the school
classroom rules teaching curriculum and standards list of
obligatory accessories statistics of websites visitors and
guest book should be essential to a school website
significant divergence (plt05) was seen in parents
disagreeing on these elements On the other hand parents
declare they would like to see online practical tests
academic advisory information information about
administrative issues and school direction as well as
teachers CVs Eventually teachers and parents agree that
results of school sport competition and activities
educational philosophy lesson plans links outside the
institution online articles and newsletters class photo
albums and news teachersrsquo blogs menus examples of
didactic cards personal links and teachersrsquo family
information are not essential elements of schoolsrsquo websites
It can be concluded that regardless of many schools today
having their own website not all are important for the
communication of parents and teachers Past research shows
that the structure and content of school websites should be
carefully planned and developed
According to McKenzie J (1997) the best websites have
four purposes 1 introduce visitors to its mission its
character its offerings to children its stance on new
technologies 2 offer an opportunity for the publishing of
student works and parents education 3 act as a mediator to
a larger share of information and 4 provide rich data
locally collected on curriculum related topics (such as
local history) Some school websites contain all four of
these elements but the majority is concentrated upon
providing a quality service in two or three of these
elements
21 Cooperation between parents and school in Croatia
In the elementary education in Croatia prescribed are
(most often by School statute) the following ways of
cooperation with parents parent meeting individual talks
with teachers and school assistants and written messages to
parents According to Law on Primary and Secondary
Education (Ministry of Education Science and Technology
2008) prescribed is the formation a Parentsrsquo Council which
comprises one parent from every class and the president of
the Parentrsquos Council is appointed a member of the School
Committee Practice shows that these prescribed ways of
cooperation do not satisfy the teachers or the parents
Parent participation is merely formal without real
possibility of influencing important decisions
Centralization and standardization of the curriculum do not
allow schools enough space for adapting to the needs of the
local community parent meeting come down to mere
information sharing where parents are usually passive
recipients of information and parents asked to participate
in some kind of school activity are rare A research
conducted among parents of pupil of the 4th and 7th grade
from all Croatian regions and their teachers (Marušić 2007)
shows that two thirds of parents believes that they have too
little possibility of participating in decision making in
schools more than 90 of parents have never taken part in
activities related to cooperation between family and school
three quarters of parents state that there are no lectures
or workshops organized in schools and a third of parents
does not know if such workshops are organized A substantial
number of parents have shown interest in participating in
various school activities but the initiative is expected to
come from teachers
However the practice in Croatian schools in recent
years has shown undertaking additional strategies for
cooperation with parents Many workshops are being held
parents are involved as assistants on projects and in the
communication between parents and school improvement has
been made in following and assessing the pupilsrsquo progress as
well as in the feedback information on the pupilsrsquo progress
(increasingly common are the pupilsrsquo maps as an example of
systematic authentic and development assessment of pupilsrsquo
progress)
As far as electronic cooperation is concerned Croatia
is one step back The project ldquoNet u školirdquo ndash ldquoNet in the
schoolrdquo was initiated in 2003 and all schools in Croatia
have been equipped with ISDN terminals with the aim to
improve the process of learning by using Internet in
teaching and pupilsrsquo research from home and by laying the
foundation for a new culture of learning based on openness
to new knowledge new media and technology Today all
schools in Croatia have the possibility to set up a website
and the teachers to open e-mail accounts
In Croatia websites of teachers are a rare appearance
but the projects ldquoŠkolski infocentarrdquo and ldquoSMS informativkardquo
have been initiated through which informing parents on
success absence and other school activities via simple and
to the majority accessible way of communication (SMS e-
mail Internet and voicemail) has been enabled A small
number of schools have incorporated a web directory updated
monthly by class masters which parents with a special
password can check at any time Although not the most
important fact it should not be ignored that according to
the Central Bureau of Statistics in 2009 only 38 of
households in Croatia had access to the Internet which
complicates communication via websites and not all teachers
are computer literate Such cooperation has its advantages
and disadvantages
Table 1 ndash advantages and disadvantages of cooperation
via electronic media
ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGESInformation on child received daily
Fast information transmission
Not limited by time or place
Time saving for parents
Time saving for teachers when
sending general information
Parents come to school prepared
themes for conversation are
educational
Both parents and teachers must be
computer literate
All participants (parents
teachers) must have Internet access
Additional work for teachers
(regular updating of data)
Rarer encounters among parents and
teachers
Lack of face-to-face communication
Financial expense for parents when
sending SMS messages
Possible abuse (password)
3 Research methodology
31 Aim of research
The aim of the research was to examine whether the
content of Croatian elementary schools websites encourages
frequent parentsrsquo visits and allows pupils to acquire new
knowledge A long term goal is to encourage schools to post
new materials regularly which would result in high-quality
cooperation between home and school along with encouraging
students to research work from their homes and therefore
advancing the quality of learning
32 Problem
The problem of this work is to determine the current
purpose of Croatian elementary schools websites
33 Hypothesis
H-1 Websites of Croatian elementary schools with its
contents do not pose a model for a more intensive
cooperation with parents or lay the foundations for a new
culture of learning
H-2 There is no statistically significant difference in
content between the two counties in neither of the eleven
categories
34 Participants and procedure
School websites are public documents and welcome the
outer world into the school as well as a link between
pupils and teachers with outer sources of information and a
possibility of better cooperation with parents The function
of school websites is to make public the achievements of
pupils to allow parents insight into daily activities and
to inform parents and the larger community of future
activities as well as strengthening cooperation between
school home and the local community The function of the
schoolsrsquo websites should not be a mere electronic version of
a notice board or a picture of a school that seldom changes
its appearance
The research was conducted by content analysis method
on a random selection of 50 elementary school websites in
the counties of Istria and Split ndash Dalmatia (25 schools per
county) The Internet school directory of ldquoPortal za školerdquo
was used Since in Croatia a research has not been conducted
on parents and the content the parents believed to be
important and relevant the authors were led by a research
done by an online study in USA (Unal 2008) and the elements
selected by teachers and parents in that study The
following website content was analysed curriculum about
the school (school history) web counters house rules
(classroom rules) timetable and information for parents
results of school competition photo albums online tests
(study materials) teachersrsquo CV tips for parents and forum
The analysis was done at the beginning of December 2010 by
the end of the first term giving the schools enough time to
update and enrich the websites This research did not take
into consideration the design of websites since in the
majority of cases it has been done using Carnet hosting
services and offered similar links Regarding the fact that
most schools have the same browser a school is considered
to have a website if a private document or link has been
updated
4 Results and discussion
Table 2 ndash Overall analysed content in percentage
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIES
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCETAGECURRICULUM 41 82 9 18 WEBSITE
COUNTER8 16 42 84
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTSrsquo
INFORMATION28 56 22 44
RESULTS OF
SCHOOL
COMPETITION
23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 ONLINE
TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
TEACHERSrsquo 2 4 48 96
CV
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
FORUM 12 24 38 76 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL
(SCHOOL
HISTORY)
50 100 0 0
For table 2 it is evident that all schools have information
about the school on the website ie about its history
(100) the majority has school photo alums (86) and the
curriculum (82) More than half the schools (56) have the
timetable for parentsrsquo information and less then half (46)
have sport achievements of their pupils The fewest schools
publish teachersrsquo CVs (4) and website counters Study
materials and tips for parents are present on just above a
third the websites (34 36)
Chart 1 ndash content according to county
It is visible from Chart 1 that results do not vary much
between counties The most discrepancy is shown in sportsrsquo
achievements (Istria 72 Split ndash Dalmatia 20) and a 20
discrepancy is present in categories photo album and study
material Other discrepancies are smaller than 20 The 2nd
hypothesis was tested with the chi-square test The
hypothesis is considered valid in case that the probability
of error is less than 5 considering that there is a
statistically significant link between the analysed pair of
variables
Table 3 ndash Relations between counties
CURRI
CULUM
WEB
COUNT
ERS
HOUSE
RULES
INFOR
MATIO
N
TIMET
ABLE
SPORT
S
ACHIE
VEMEN
TS
PHOTO
ALBUM
ONLINE
TESTS
TEACHERS
CVs
TIPS
FOR
PARENTS FORUM
10486462 0024 0148 0125 0081 1159 2657 1471 05208 07812 01096
8 4 8
df 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
p 0876
88491
0
0479
50012
0527
0892
0705
31663
0006
71374
0
044
5920
62
02251
8798
0157299
21
03457
4844
05638
979
It is not difficult to notice that a significant
discrepancy is present only in sportsrsquo achievement whereas
in other elements it does not exist which confirms the
stated hypothesis It can be concluded that there are no
differences between the content in the two counties
The website content can be divided into two categories
content intended for parents and pupils (curriculum
timetable for parentsrsquo information teachersrsquo CVs tips for
parents forum online tests and study material house
rules) and content for promoting school activities and
achievements (sportsrsquo achievements photo albums about the
school web counters)
Table 4 ndash analysis according to purpose
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIESINTENDEED FOR
PARENTS AND
PUPILSYES
PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
ONLINE TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
CURRICULUM 41 82 9 18
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTS
INFORMATION
TIMETABLE
28 56 22 44
FORUM 12 24 38 76 TEACHERSrsquo CV 2 4 48 96 PROMOTION OF
SCHOOL
ACTIVITIES
AND
ACVIEVEMENTS
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
SPORTS
ACHIEVEMENTS23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 WEB COUNTERS 8 16 42 84 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL50 100 0 0
Among the content intended for parents and pupils
which would allow pupils to acquire new knowledge and
encourage parents to visit regularly schools offer in high
percentage (82) the curriculum which is a legal obligation
(public notice) and just over half the schools (56) offer
the timetable for parentsrsquo information About one third of
schools (34 36) publish on its websites study materials
and tips for parents and only 24 have an active forum for
exchanging opinions although these forums have an
insignificant number of open themes none of which were
opened by parents Study materials are most often online
tests with a link from the website and tips for parents are
texts compiled by schools assistants Considering the lack
of assistants in schools this may be the cause for a small
percentage of these materials Some schools under the
section tips for parents have links to interesting Internet
articles
Categories intended for the promotion of school
achievements and activities have more contents every school
has a page dedicated to school history 86 updates the
photo album section and less then half the schools (46)
publish sportsrsquo achievements of the pupils The photo albums
offer pictures from school trips out-of-classroom teaching
school events etc Justifying such a large number of
pictures is debatable since none of the published materials
are protected by password but available to everybody the
question arises if the schools have the parentsrsquo permission
Only 16 of schools pay attention to visits which could be
a significant information showing the number of parents and
pupils visiting the website
The mentioned data show that schools consider relevant
the promotion of school activities and success the history
of the school and the timetable for parentsrsquo information
but tips for parents and school materials along with
exchanging opinions are not a priority Schools consider the
teachersrsquo CVs parentsrsquo meeting announcements or the school
cafeteria menu of no relevance to parents These facts point
to the fact that school websites in Croatia are more online
notice-boards than a real possibility for communication
5 Conclusion
Over the last decade cooperation with parents in
Croatia has been improving however in our schools
traditional forms of cooperation with parents are still
prevailing Although in the world there are specialized
radio and TV channels magazines and Internet sites for
exchanging experiences (Mendel 1998) such practice has not
flung into being in Croatia However over the last couple
of years cooperation via websites e-mails and SMS messages
Summarising its advantages and disadvantages and
considering todayrsquos lifestyle this way of cooperation
should be intensified in our schools Contemporary ways of
communication can additionally improve the communication
between parents and school but just as one more way
alongside other ways Consequently although the modern age
presupposes the use of modern technologies no technology
should replace face-to-face communication between parents
and teachers and the responsibility for a good cooperation
still lies on the school
The research demonstrates the possibilities of
communication between family and school by using modern
technology Elements of school websites are shown as well
as ways of planning the content of a website We consider
this research important for informing teachers and school
management of the possibilities of modern communication
between families and school A school website allows for the
possibility of establishing fast communication however its
mere existence does not guarantee the pupils acquiring new
knowledge and a quality relation between the family and
school It can be a good example for the school management
in creating the school curriculum as a segment allowing for
a fast exchange of information with parents Unfortunately
the educational system in Croatia is traditional and inert
unsuitable for the times and contemporary professions It
does not satisfy the need of the individual and traditional
teaching by using a minimum of technology and information is
utterly un-motivational for the student as well as for the
family The results of this research show that school
websites in Croatia donrsquot fulfil their purpose presenting
pupilsrsquo achievements allowing the parents insight into
everyday activities informing the parents and the wider
community on future activities and strengthening the
cooperation between school home and the local community
Although the purpose of school websites should not be merely
an electronic version of the notice board and an image of
the school that rarely changes its appearance the current
condition of the Croatian school websites in the analysed
counties shows just that therefore confirming the initial
hypothesis
Future research should inquire into the stance of
parents in Croatia on which content they consider important
therefore receiving relevant data which could later be used
by teachers for creating their websites
References
Berger E H (1991) Parent Involvement Yesterday and
Today The Elementary School Journal 91 (3) 209-219
Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb
Educa
Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships
Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76
httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20Articles
ParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
Epstein JL i Sheldon S B (2006) Moving Forward Ideas
for Research on School Family and Community Partnerships
httpwwwcsosjhuedup2000pdfLiterature20Review
2020Epstein20and20Sheldon2006pdf (15112010)
Graham- Clay S (2005) Communicating with Parents
Strategies for Teachers School Community Journal 16 (1)
117-129
Hartshorne R Friedman A Algozzine B i Kaur D
(2008) Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites Educational
Technology amp Society 11 (1) 291-303
Hitrec G(ur) (2006) Škola otvorena roditeljima Zagreb
Udruga roditelja Korak po korak
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE -
- MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE - MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
-
Roditeljsko sudjelovanje je tek formalno bez stvarne
mogućnosti utjecaja na donošenje bitnih odluka
Centraliziranost i normiranost kurikuluma ne ostavlja
dovoljno prostora školama da svoj program prilagođavaju
potrebama lokalne sredine roditeljski sastanci se svode na
prenošenje informacija pri čemu su roditelji najčešće
pasivni primatelji informacija a vrlo rijetki roditelji su
pozvani na sudjelovanje u nekim aktivnostima škole
Istraživanje provedeno među roditeljima učenika deset
osnovnih škola četvrtoga i sedmoga razreda iz svih hrvatskih
regija te njihovih učitelja (Marušić 2007) pokazuje da
dvije trećine roditelja smatra da imaju premalo mogućnosti
sudjelovati u donošenju odluka u školi više od 90
roditelja nije nikada sudjelovalo u aktivnostima vezanima uz
suradnju obitelji i škole tri četvrtine roditelja navode da
se u školi ne organiziraju predavanja i radionice a trećina
roditelja ne zna organiziraju li se takve radionice Znatan
broj roditelja je iskazao zainteresiranost za sudjelovanje u
različitim aktivnostima škole ali inicijativu čekaju od
strane učitelja
Ipak praksa u hrvatskim školama posljednjih godina
pokazuje poduzimanje dodatnih strategija u suradnji s
roditeljima Održavaju se brojne radionice uključuju se kao
suradnici u projektu a u zajedničkoj komunikaciji na
relaciji obitelj - škola unaprjeđuje se praćenje i
procjenjivanje učeničkog napretka te ostvaruje kvalitetnija
povratna informacija o napretku djeteta (sve su
zastupljenije učeničke mape kao primjer sustavne autentične
i razvojne procjene napretka učenika)
Što se elektroničkih oblika suradnje tiče Hrvatska je
korak unatrag Projekt Net u školi započeo je 2003godine
i u sve hrvatske škole uveden je ISDN priključak s ciljem
unaprjeđenja procesa učenja korištenjem interneta u nastavi
i istraživanju učenika iz vlastitog doma te postavljanju
temelja novoj kulturi učenja koja se bazira na otvorenosti k
novim spoznajama novim medijima i tehnologijama Danas sve
hrvatske škole imaju mogućnost postavljanja svoje web
stranice a učitelji otvaranje elektronske adrese
U Hrvatskoj su web mjesta pojedinoga učitelja rijetka
pojava ali su pokrenuti projekti Školski infocentar i SMS
informativka kojima je omogućeno informiranje roditelja o
uspjehu izostancima i ostalim školskim zbivanjima
jednostavnim i većini roditelja dostupnim načinima
komunikacije (SMS e-mail internet i govorne poruke) Mali
broj škola uveo je i web imenike gdje razrednici jednom
mjesečno ažuriraju podatke pa ih roditelji pomoću posebne
lozinke mogu pogledati u svako doba dana Iako nije
najvažnije ne treba zanemariti ni podatak da prema Zavodu
za državnu statistiku u Hrvatskoj tek oko 38 kućanstava ima
Internet (2009) što otežava komunikaciju putem web
stranica a ni svi učitelji nisu informatički pismeni Takva
suradnja ima svoje prednosti i nedostatke
Tablica 1 ndash prednosti i nedostatci suradnje putem
elektroničkih medija
PREDNOSTI NEDOSTATCISvakodnevno primanje obavijesti o
djetetu
Brzina slanja informacija
Neograničenost vremenom i mjestom
Ušteda vremena za roditelje
Ušteda vremena za učitelja pri
slanju općih obavijesti
Roditelj u školu dolazi
pripremljen teme za razgovor su s
područja odgoja i obrazovanja
I roditelji i učitelji moraju biti
informatički pismeni
Svi sudionici (roditelji učitelji)
moraju imati internet
Dodatni posao za učitelje (redovito
ažuriranje podataka)
Rjeđi susreti roditelja i učitelja
Izostanak komunikacije bdquolicem u
licerdquo
Financijski trošak za roditelje pri
slanju SMS poruka
Mogućnost zlouporabe (lozinka)
3 Metodologija istraživanja
31 Cilj istraživanja
Cilj istraživanja bio je ispitati imaju li web stranice
hrvatskih osnovnih škola sadržaje koji će potaknuti
roditelje na česte posjete i omogućiti učenicima stjecanje
novih znanja Dugoročni je cilj potaknuti škole na redovito
postavljanje novih sadržaja koji će rezultirati kvalitetnom
suradnjom doma i škole te poticati učenike na istraživački
rad iz svojih domova i time unaprjeđivati kvalitetu učenja
32 Problem
Problem ovoga rada jest utvrditi trenutnu svrhu
hrvatskih osnovnoškolskih web stranica (objaviti postignuća
učenika omogućiti roditeljima uvid u svakodnevne
aktivnosti informirati roditelje i širu zajednicu o budućim
aktivnostima i jačanje suradnje između škole doma i
lokalne zajednice)
33 Hipoteze
H-1 Web stranice hrvatskih osnovnih škola svojim
sadržajima nisu model za intenziviranje suradnje s
roditeljima te postavljanje temelja novoj kulturi učenja
H-2 Ne postoji statistički značajna razlika u
sadržajima među dvjema županijama ni u jednoj od jedanaest
kategorija
34 Ispitanici i postupak
Školske web stranice javne su isprave i dobrodošlica
vanjskome svijetu u školu kao i poveznica učenika i
učitelja s vanjskim izvorima informacija te mogućnost
kvalitetnije suradnje s roditeljima Svrha školskih web
stranica je objaviti postignuća učenika omogućiti
roditeljima uvid u svakodnevne aktivnosti informirati
roditelje i širu zajednicu o budućim aktivnostima i jačanje
suradnje između škole doma i lokalne zajednice Svrha
školskih web stranica ne bi trebala biti elektronička
verzija oglasne ploče i slika škole koja rijetko mijenja
svoj izgled
Istraživanje je provedeno metodom analize sadržaja
slučajnim odabirom na 50 web stranica osnovnih škola u
Istarskoj i Splitsko-dalmatinskoj županiji (25 škola po
županiji) Korišten je internetski popis škola Portal za
škole Budući da u Hrvatskoj nije provedeno istraživanje s
roditeljima u kojemu bi se ispitalo koje sadržaje oni
smatraju bitnima i relevantnima autorice su se vodile
istraživanjem provedenim online studijom u Americi (Unal
2008) i elementima koje su u toj studiji izabrali učitelji
i roditelji Analizirani su sljedeći sadržaji web stranica
plan i program o školi (povijest škole) brojač posjeta
kućni red (razredna pravila) raspored sati i informacija za
roditelje rezultati športskih natjecanja foto albumi
online testovi (materijali za učenje) životopisi učitelja
savjeti za roditelje i forum Analiza je obavljena početkom
mjeseca prosinca 2010 pred kraj prvoga polugodišta što je
školama dalo dovoljno vremena za ažuriranje i popunjavanje
stranica U ovom istraživanju nije analiziran dizajn web
stranica jer su u većini slučajeva stranice postavljene
koristeći Carnet hosting uslugu i nude slične poveznice S
obzirom da većina škola ima isti preglednik smatrano je da
škola ima sadržaj ako je unesen vlastiti dokument ili
poveznica
4 Rezultati i rasprava
Tablica 2 - ukupni analizirani sadržaji u postotcima
SADRŽAJ OBJE
ŽUPANIJE DA POSTOTAK NE POSTOTAK
PLAN I
PROGRAM41 82 9 18
BROJAČ
POSJETA8 16 42 84
KUĆNI RED 10 20 40 80 RASPORED
INFORMACIJA28 56 22 44
ŠPORTSKI
USPJESI23 46 27 54
FOTO ALBUMI 43 86 7 14 TESTOVI
ONLINE
(MATERIJALI
ZA UČENJE)
17 34 33 66
ŽIVOTOPIS
UČITELJA2 4 48 96
SAVJETI ZA
RODITELJE18 36 32 64
FORUM 12 24 38 76
O ŠKOLI
(POVIJEST)50 100 0 0
Iz tablice 2 vidljivo je da sve škole na svojim
stranicama imaju podatke o školi odnosno njezinoj povijesti
(100) a najveći dio škola foto albume (86) te plan i
program (82) Više od polovice škola (56) imaju raspored
informacija a nešto manje od polovice (46) športske
uspjehe svojih učenika Najmanji broj škola na svojim
stranicama objavljuju životopise učitelja (4) i brojač
posjeta (16) Materijale za učenje i savjete za roditelje
ima tek nešto više od trećine stranica (34 36)
Grafikon 1 - sadržaji prema županijama
Iz grafikona 1 vidljivo je da se rezultati među županijama
ne razlikuju mnogo Najviše razlika je u sadržaju športskih
uspjeha (Istarska županija 72 Splitsko- dalmatinska 20)
a razlika od 20 pojavila se u kategorijama foto albuma i
materijala za učenje Sve ostale razlike su manje od 20
Hipoteza 2 testirana je hi ndash kvadrat testom Hipoteza se
smatra prihvaćenom u slučaju da je vjerojatnost pogreške
pri tvrdnji da postoji statistički značajna povezanost
analiziranog para varijabli manja od 5
Tablica 3 Relacije među županijama
PLAN
I
PROGR
AM
BRO
JAČ
POSJE
TA
KUĆNI
RED
RASPO
RED
INFOR
MACI
JA
ŠPORT
SKI
USPJE
SI
FOTO
ALBUM
ONLINE
TESTOVI
ŽIVOTOPIS
UČITELJA
SAVJETI
ZA
RODI
TELJE FORUM
10486462 00240148
80125 0081
1159
4
2657
81471 05208 07812 01096
df 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
p 0876
88491
0
0479
50012
0527
0892
0705
31663
0006
71374
0
044
5920
62
02251
8798
0157299
21
03457
4844
05638
979
Nije teško uočiti da se statistički značajna razlika
javlja samo u sadržaju športskih uspjeha a u ostalim
elementima ne postoji što potvrđuje postavljenu hipotezu
Može se dakle zaključiti da nema razlika u sadržajima među
dvjema županijama
Sadržaji web stranica mogu se podijeliti u dvije
kategorije sadržaji namijenjeni roditeljima i učenicima
(plan i program raspored informacija životopis učitelja
savjeti za roditelje forum testovi ili materijali za
učenje kućni red) i sadržaji namijenjeni promociji školskih
aktivnosti i uspjeha (športski uspjesi foto albumi o
školi brojač posjeta)
Tablica 4 - analiza sadržaja prema svrsi
SADRŽAJ OBJE
ŽUPANIJE NAMIJENJENI
RODITELJIMA
I UČENICIMADA
POSTOTAK NE POSTOTAK
TESTOVI
ONLINE
(MATERIJALI
ZA UČENJE)
17 34 33 66
PLAN I
PROGRAM41 82 9 18
SAVJETI ZA
RODITELJE18 36 32 64
KUĆNI RED 10 20 40 80 RASPORED
INFORMACIJA28 56 22 44
FORUM 12 24 38 76 ŽIVOTOPIS
UČITELJA2 4 48 96
PROMOCIJA
ŠKOLSKIH
AKTIVNOSTI
DA POSTOTAK NE POSTOTAK
I USPJEHA
ŠPORTSKI
USPJESI23 46 27 54
FOTO ALBUMI 43 86 7 14 BROJAČ
POSJETA8 16 42 84
O ŠKOLI
(POVIJEST)50 100 0 0
Od sadržaja koji su namijenjeni roditeljima i
učenicima a koji bi učenicima omogućili stjecanje novih
znanja i roditelje potaknuli na česte posjete škole u
visokom postotku (82) nude plan i program što je i
zakonska obveza škole (javna objava) a tek nešto više od
polovice škola (56) objavljuje raspored informacija za
roditelje Nešto više od trećine škola (34 36) na svojim
web stranicama ima materijale za učenje i savjete za
roditelje a tek 24 škola ima aktivan forum za razmjenu
mišljenja iako je i na tim forumima bio zanemariv broj
otvorenih tema od kojih niti jednu nije otvorio roditelj
Materijali za učenje najčešće su online testovi za što
postoji poveznica sa školske web stranice a savjeti za
roditelje tekstovi koje su sastavili stručni suradnici S
obzirom na manjak stručnih suradnika u našim školama moguće
je da je to razlog relativno malog postotka tih sadržaja U
nekim školama u rubrici savjeta za roditelje nalaze se
poveznice sa zanimljivim člancima na internetu
Kategorije koje služe za promociju školskih uspjeha i
aktivnosti imaju više sadržaja svaka škola ima uređenu
stranicu o povijesti škole 86 škola ažurira stranicu s
foto albumima a nešto manje od polovice škola (46) na
svoje stranice stavlja športske uspjehe svojih učenika U
navedenim foto albumima škole nude fotografije s izleta
izvanučioničke nastave priredbi i sl O opravdanosti
velikoga broja fotografija učenika moglo bi se raspravljati
s obzirom da niti jedan objavljeni sadržaj nije zaštićen
lozinkom već je dostupan svima pa se postavlja pitanje
imaju li škole suglasnost roditelja za to Tek 16 škola
vodi računa o posjećenosti svojih stranica a to bi mogao
biti značajan podatak o tome koliko ih učenici i roditelji
posjećuju
Iz navedenih podataka može se zaključiti da je školama
veoma važna promocija aktivnosti i uspjeha škole povijest
ustanove i raspored individualnih informacija a savjeti za
roditelje i materijali za učenike te razmjena mišljenja
nisu prioritetni sadržaji Škole smatraju da je roditeljima
potpuno nevažan stručni životopis učitelja najave
roditeljskih sastanaka ili jelovnici školskih kuhinja Iz
toga proizlazi da su web stranice škola u Hrvatskoj
elektroničke oglasne ploče a ne mogućnost komunikacije
5 Zaključak
Zadnjih desetak godina suradnja s roditeljima i kod nas
se mijenja na bolje ali u našim školama još uvijek
prevladavaju tradicionalni oblici suradnje s roditeljima
Iako u svijetu postoje roditeljski radio i Tv kanali
časopisi i internet stranice za razmjenu iskustava (Mendel
1998) kod nas takva praksa nije zaživjela no posljednjih
godina započela je suradnja putem web stranica e mail i sms
poruka Sumirajući prednosti i nedostatke a s obzirom na
današnji način života i ovaj način suradnje treba
intenzivirati u našim školama Suvremeni načini
komuniciranja mogu dodatno poboljšati komunikaciju između
roditelja i škole ali samo kao još jedan od načina uz sve
ostale navedene načine suradnje Iz toga proizlazi da iako
suvremeno doba pretpostavlja korištenje suvremenih
tehnologija nikakva tehnologija ne bi smjela zamijeniti
komunikaciju bdquolicem u licerdquo roditelja i učitelja a
odgovornost za dobru suradnju s roditeljima i dalje ostaje
na školi
Istraživanje pokazuje mogućnosti komuniciranja obitelji
i škole suvremenom tehnologijom Prikazani su elementi
školskih web stranica te način planiranja sadržaja web
stranice Ovo istraživanje smatramo važnim za informiranje
učitelja i rukovodstva škola o mogućnostima suvremenog
komuniciranja obitelji i škole Školska web stranica otvara
mogućnosti za uspostavljanje brze informacije no samim
postojanjem ne jamči učenicima stjecanje novih znanja i
kvalitetnije povezivanje obitelji i škole Može biti dobar
primjer vodstvu škole u stvaranju školskog kurikuluma kao
segmenta kojim će se omogućavati brza razmjena informacija s
roditeljima Nažalost obrazovni sustav u Hrvatskoj
tradicionalan je i trom neprimjeren vremenu i suvremenim
zanimanjima Ne zadovoljava individualne potrebe pojedinca
a tradicionalnim poučavanjem uz tehnologijski i
informacijski minimum potpuno je nemotivirajući kako za
učenika tako i za obitelj Rezultati ovoga istraživanja
pokazuju da školske web stranice u Hrvatskoj ne ostvaruju
sasvim svoju svrhu objavljivanje postignuća učenika
omogućavanje roditeljima uvid u svakodnevne aktivnosti
informiranje roditelja i šire zajednice o budućim
aktivnostima i jačanje suradnje između škole doma i
lokalne zajednice Iako svrha školskih web stranica ne bi
trebala biti elektronička verzija oglasne ploče i slika
škole koja rijetko mijenja svoj izgled trenutno stanje
hrvatskih web stranica u analiziranim županijama pokazuje
upravo to što potvrđuje početnu hipotezu
U narednim istraživanjima trebalo bi ispitati stavove
roditelja u Hrvatskoj o tome koje sadržaje oni smatraju
važnima te bi se tada dobili relevantni podatci koje bi
učitelji mogli upotrijebiti za kreiranje svojih web
stranica
Literatura
Berger E H (1991) Parent Involvement Yesterday and
Today The Elementary School Journal 91 (3) 209-219
Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb
Educa
Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships
Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76
httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20Articles
ParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
Epstein JL i Sheldon S B (2006) Moving Forward Ideas
for Research on School Family and Community Partnerships
httpwwwcsosjhuedup2000pdfLiterature20Review
2020Epstein20and20Sheldon2006pdf (15112010)
Graham- Clay S (2005) Communicating with Parents
Strategies for Teachers School Community Journal 16 (1)
117-129
Hartshorne R Friedman A Algozzine B i Kaur D
(2008) Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites Educational
Technology amp Society 11 (1) 291-303
Hitrec G(ur) (2006) Škola otvorena roditeljima Zagreb
Udruga roditelja Korak po korak
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
Deana Tavas graduate teacher
Vladimir Nazor Elementary School Rovinj
dtavasyahoocom
Sanja Bilač graduate teacher
Spinut Elementary School Split
sanja9stgmailcom
SCHOOL WEBSITES ndash
POSSIBILITY OF COOPERATION WITH PARENTS
SCHOOL WEBSITES ndash POSSIBILITY OF COOPERATION WITH PARENTS
Abstract In the last fifteen years in Croatia as well as around the world
much research has been done dealing with the importance of cooperation
between parents and school and the obtained results show its importance for all
the parties and that partnership relation between school and parents produces
numerous benefits Besides customary ways of communication like individual
talk and parent meetings written messages informal meetings educational
workshops the involvement of parents in the educational process in the role of
accessory etc the most modern way of communicating with parents is via school
websites teacherrsquos websites e-mails and SMS messages The goal of the
research was to examine if Croatian schoolsrsquo websites had the content which
would prompt the parents for frequent visits and enable pupils to acquire new
knowledge A long term goal was to persuade schools to a regular update of new
materials which would result in quality cooperation between home and school
and persuade pupils to do research from their home and therefore increase the
quality of learning The research has randomly selected 25 elementary school
websites from the county of Istra and 25 websites from the county Split ndash
Dalmatia Collected data show that Croatiarsquos elementary school websites are not
a model neither for increasing the cooperation with parents nor laying the
foundation towards a new culture of learning and that there is no statistically
significant variation in content between the two counties
Key words cooperation with parents Internet school websites website
content
1 Parents and school cooperation
The cooperation between parents and schools is
extremely important and offers manifold benefits for all the
participants in the education process A partnership between
parents and teachers establishes good relations since every
partner introduces their competences in the childrsquos
education The cooperation between parents and teachers
ie school should be the best possible to achieve
outstanding goals Berger (1991) considers that models of
parent involvement are approached more actively nowadays
then it was in the 1960s when the responsibilities of
parents and schools were considered distinct Cooperation
with parents is today considered on of the essential
determinants of an efficient school in terms of general
pedagogy and research has shown that 22 of teachers
consider the lack of parent involvement a serious problem
(Ryan and Cooper 2010) Such cooperation is only partially
directed at prevention ie solution of disciplinary
problems since its benefits are manifold and are
manifested in better grades increased regular attendance
more willingness to work at home and development of more
positive attitudes and behavior Parental involvement in
school life has a positive effect on pupilrsquos achievements
and their motivation and the partnership relation between
parents and schools makes the parents more informed of
school affairs gives them a more positive image in the eyes
of the teachers they contribute to a better functioning of
the school strengthen their self-confidence and assurance
in helping their child at home and they become
participants not mere observers of the education of their
child Teachers have also to gain from a partnership
relation with parents since the parents become allies in
solving problems they become more motivated and satisfied
with their job receive more confidence from parents and
have a better reputation in society
These and other benefits for all the participants in
the education process are the result of growing willingness
and need of parent involvement in the school life According
to Walsh (2002) one way of achieving a successful bond
between parents and school is a consistent and clear two-way
communication
Epstein (1995) lists three learning contexts for
pupils in the family in school and in the community and
lists 6 ways of parent involvement These are parenting
communication volunteering learning at home decision
making and collaborating with the community However all of
these ways of cooperation between parents and school presume
direct communication which at times regardless of the
parentsrsquo willingness is impossible Many parents work
during planned school activities or meetings and have not
the possibility to participate especially in schools which
work in a single shift Todayrsquos way of life and both parents
working prevents personal communication and a more active
involvement of parents with schools
2 Contemporary ways of cooperation between parents and
school
One of the key features of humans is the ability to
communicate The exceptional ability of storing data and
fast sharing of enormous amounts of information have
revolutionized business as well as the everyday life of
mankind The access to information is unlimited the sharing
of ideas and thoughts free the worldrsquos business and economy
are being transformed Significant are the changes in the
approach to education Fast communication is becoming a
trend in shaping the future and therefore revolutionary
models of learning are more and more inherent (eg using
interactive computer technology fast learning) Pupils
are assuming responsibility for their life in a world in
which ldquothose who end their education have no futurerdquo (Dryden
and Vos 2001 p 39) Stronger is the criticism of the
educational system for its inertness in the process of
change and positive initiatives empowered by scientific
research become the link for modernization and improvement
of the school in the 21st century
Technology has become a critical component of everyday
life and an increase in the development and use of school
websites over the last few years is evident (Hartshorne and
ass 2008) Research (Aronson 1995 Cameron and Lee 1997
Clemens-Brower 1997 Cleverson 1999 Ramirez 2001) show that
many teachers experiment with various technologies when
communicating with parents (telephones in classrooms voice
mail video technology radio announcements etc) to
improve cooperation School websites provide parents with
useful content such as educational tips homework e-mails
or the school cafeteria menu and expand the borders of
communication between home and school to a 24 hours a day 7
days a week contact That allows parents whose daily
timetable doesnrsquot permit regular visits to the school and
face-to-face interaction with their child or teacher to be
more informed of what is happening at school Internet
becomes an excellent means of connecting home and school
Swan (2008) believes that schools have a lot of
information and parents want to know more about academic
achievements extracurricular activities parentsrsquo meeting
schedule information such as bus transport or lunch and
that it is important that school websites include accurate
and useful information not an exciting design or newest
technological ldquoornamentsrdquo
Online research (Unal 2008) shows that parents and
teachers recognize the importance of school websites
although they do not agree completely on their content
While teachers suggest that links inside the school
classroom rules teaching curriculum and standards list of
obligatory accessories statistics of websites visitors and
guest book should be essential to a school website
significant divergence (plt05) was seen in parents
disagreeing on these elements On the other hand parents
declare they would like to see online practical tests
academic advisory information information about
administrative issues and school direction as well as
teachers CVs Eventually teachers and parents agree that
results of school sport competition and activities
educational philosophy lesson plans links outside the
institution online articles and newsletters class photo
albums and news teachersrsquo blogs menus examples of
didactic cards personal links and teachersrsquo family
information are not essential elements of schoolsrsquo websites
It can be concluded that regardless of many schools today
having their own website not all are important for the
communication of parents and teachers Past research shows
that the structure and content of school websites should be
carefully planned and developed
According to McKenzie J (1997) the best websites have
four purposes 1 introduce visitors to its mission its
character its offerings to children its stance on new
technologies 2 offer an opportunity for the publishing of
student works and parents education 3 act as a mediator to
a larger share of information and 4 provide rich data
locally collected on curriculum related topics (such as
local history) Some school websites contain all four of
these elements but the majority is concentrated upon
providing a quality service in two or three of these
elements
21 Cooperation between parents and school in Croatia
In the elementary education in Croatia prescribed are
(most often by School statute) the following ways of
cooperation with parents parent meeting individual talks
with teachers and school assistants and written messages to
parents According to Law on Primary and Secondary
Education (Ministry of Education Science and Technology
2008) prescribed is the formation a Parentsrsquo Council which
comprises one parent from every class and the president of
the Parentrsquos Council is appointed a member of the School
Committee Practice shows that these prescribed ways of
cooperation do not satisfy the teachers or the parents
Parent participation is merely formal without real
possibility of influencing important decisions
Centralization and standardization of the curriculum do not
allow schools enough space for adapting to the needs of the
local community parent meeting come down to mere
information sharing where parents are usually passive
recipients of information and parents asked to participate
in some kind of school activity are rare A research
conducted among parents of pupil of the 4th and 7th grade
from all Croatian regions and their teachers (Marušić 2007)
shows that two thirds of parents believes that they have too
little possibility of participating in decision making in
schools more than 90 of parents have never taken part in
activities related to cooperation between family and school
three quarters of parents state that there are no lectures
or workshops organized in schools and a third of parents
does not know if such workshops are organized A substantial
number of parents have shown interest in participating in
various school activities but the initiative is expected to
come from teachers
However the practice in Croatian schools in recent
years has shown undertaking additional strategies for
cooperation with parents Many workshops are being held
parents are involved as assistants on projects and in the
communication between parents and school improvement has
been made in following and assessing the pupilsrsquo progress as
well as in the feedback information on the pupilsrsquo progress
(increasingly common are the pupilsrsquo maps as an example of
systematic authentic and development assessment of pupilsrsquo
progress)
As far as electronic cooperation is concerned Croatia
is one step back The project ldquoNet u školirdquo ndash ldquoNet in the
schoolrdquo was initiated in 2003 and all schools in Croatia
have been equipped with ISDN terminals with the aim to
improve the process of learning by using Internet in
teaching and pupilsrsquo research from home and by laying the
foundation for a new culture of learning based on openness
to new knowledge new media and technology Today all
schools in Croatia have the possibility to set up a website
and the teachers to open e-mail accounts
In Croatia websites of teachers are a rare appearance
but the projects ldquoŠkolski infocentarrdquo and ldquoSMS informativkardquo
have been initiated through which informing parents on
success absence and other school activities via simple and
to the majority accessible way of communication (SMS e-
mail Internet and voicemail) has been enabled A small
number of schools have incorporated a web directory updated
monthly by class masters which parents with a special
password can check at any time Although not the most
important fact it should not be ignored that according to
the Central Bureau of Statistics in 2009 only 38 of
households in Croatia had access to the Internet which
complicates communication via websites and not all teachers
are computer literate Such cooperation has its advantages
and disadvantages
Table 1 ndash advantages and disadvantages of cooperation
via electronic media
ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGESInformation on child received daily
Fast information transmission
Not limited by time or place
Time saving for parents
Time saving for teachers when
sending general information
Parents come to school prepared
themes for conversation are
educational
Both parents and teachers must be
computer literate
All participants (parents
teachers) must have Internet access
Additional work for teachers
(regular updating of data)
Rarer encounters among parents and
teachers
Lack of face-to-face communication
Financial expense for parents when
sending SMS messages
Possible abuse (password)
3 Research methodology
31 Aim of research
The aim of the research was to examine whether the
content of Croatian elementary schools websites encourages
frequent parentsrsquo visits and allows pupils to acquire new
knowledge A long term goal is to encourage schools to post
new materials regularly which would result in high-quality
cooperation between home and school along with encouraging
students to research work from their homes and therefore
advancing the quality of learning
32 Problem
The problem of this work is to determine the current
purpose of Croatian elementary schools websites
33 Hypothesis
H-1 Websites of Croatian elementary schools with its
contents do not pose a model for a more intensive
cooperation with parents or lay the foundations for a new
culture of learning
H-2 There is no statistically significant difference in
content between the two counties in neither of the eleven
categories
34 Participants and procedure
School websites are public documents and welcome the
outer world into the school as well as a link between
pupils and teachers with outer sources of information and a
possibility of better cooperation with parents The function
of school websites is to make public the achievements of
pupils to allow parents insight into daily activities and
to inform parents and the larger community of future
activities as well as strengthening cooperation between
school home and the local community The function of the
schoolsrsquo websites should not be a mere electronic version of
a notice board or a picture of a school that seldom changes
its appearance
The research was conducted by content analysis method
on a random selection of 50 elementary school websites in
the counties of Istria and Split ndash Dalmatia (25 schools per
county) The Internet school directory of ldquoPortal za školerdquo
was used Since in Croatia a research has not been conducted
on parents and the content the parents believed to be
important and relevant the authors were led by a research
done by an online study in USA (Unal 2008) and the elements
selected by teachers and parents in that study The
following website content was analysed curriculum about
the school (school history) web counters house rules
(classroom rules) timetable and information for parents
results of school competition photo albums online tests
(study materials) teachersrsquo CV tips for parents and forum
The analysis was done at the beginning of December 2010 by
the end of the first term giving the schools enough time to
update and enrich the websites This research did not take
into consideration the design of websites since in the
majority of cases it has been done using Carnet hosting
services and offered similar links Regarding the fact that
most schools have the same browser a school is considered
to have a website if a private document or link has been
updated
4 Results and discussion
Table 2 ndash Overall analysed content in percentage
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIES
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCETAGECURRICULUM 41 82 9 18 WEBSITE
COUNTER8 16 42 84
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTSrsquo
INFORMATION28 56 22 44
RESULTS OF
SCHOOL
COMPETITION
23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 ONLINE
TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
TEACHERSrsquo 2 4 48 96
CV
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
FORUM 12 24 38 76 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL
(SCHOOL
HISTORY)
50 100 0 0
For table 2 it is evident that all schools have information
about the school on the website ie about its history
(100) the majority has school photo alums (86) and the
curriculum (82) More than half the schools (56) have the
timetable for parentsrsquo information and less then half (46)
have sport achievements of their pupils The fewest schools
publish teachersrsquo CVs (4) and website counters Study
materials and tips for parents are present on just above a
third the websites (34 36)
Chart 1 ndash content according to county
It is visible from Chart 1 that results do not vary much
between counties The most discrepancy is shown in sportsrsquo
achievements (Istria 72 Split ndash Dalmatia 20) and a 20
discrepancy is present in categories photo album and study
material Other discrepancies are smaller than 20 The 2nd
hypothesis was tested with the chi-square test The
hypothesis is considered valid in case that the probability
of error is less than 5 considering that there is a
statistically significant link between the analysed pair of
variables
Table 3 ndash Relations between counties
CURRI
CULUM
WEB
COUNT
ERS
HOUSE
RULES
INFOR
MATIO
N
TIMET
ABLE
SPORT
S
ACHIE
VEMEN
TS
PHOTO
ALBUM
ONLINE
TESTS
TEACHERS
CVs
TIPS
FOR
PARENTS FORUM
10486462 0024 0148 0125 0081 1159 2657 1471 05208 07812 01096
8 4 8
df 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
p 0876
88491
0
0479
50012
0527
0892
0705
31663
0006
71374
0
044
5920
62
02251
8798
0157299
21
03457
4844
05638
979
It is not difficult to notice that a significant
discrepancy is present only in sportsrsquo achievement whereas
in other elements it does not exist which confirms the
stated hypothesis It can be concluded that there are no
differences between the content in the two counties
The website content can be divided into two categories
content intended for parents and pupils (curriculum
timetable for parentsrsquo information teachersrsquo CVs tips for
parents forum online tests and study material house
rules) and content for promoting school activities and
achievements (sportsrsquo achievements photo albums about the
school web counters)
Table 4 ndash analysis according to purpose
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIESINTENDEED FOR
PARENTS AND
PUPILSYES
PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
ONLINE TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
CURRICULUM 41 82 9 18
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTS
INFORMATION
TIMETABLE
28 56 22 44
FORUM 12 24 38 76 TEACHERSrsquo CV 2 4 48 96 PROMOTION OF
SCHOOL
ACTIVITIES
AND
ACVIEVEMENTS
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
SPORTS
ACHIEVEMENTS23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 WEB COUNTERS 8 16 42 84 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL50 100 0 0
Among the content intended for parents and pupils
which would allow pupils to acquire new knowledge and
encourage parents to visit regularly schools offer in high
percentage (82) the curriculum which is a legal obligation
(public notice) and just over half the schools (56) offer
the timetable for parentsrsquo information About one third of
schools (34 36) publish on its websites study materials
and tips for parents and only 24 have an active forum for
exchanging opinions although these forums have an
insignificant number of open themes none of which were
opened by parents Study materials are most often online
tests with a link from the website and tips for parents are
texts compiled by schools assistants Considering the lack
of assistants in schools this may be the cause for a small
percentage of these materials Some schools under the
section tips for parents have links to interesting Internet
articles
Categories intended for the promotion of school
achievements and activities have more contents every school
has a page dedicated to school history 86 updates the
photo album section and less then half the schools (46)
publish sportsrsquo achievements of the pupils The photo albums
offer pictures from school trips out-of-classroom teaching
school events etc Justifying such a large number of
pictures is debatable since none of the published materials
are protected by password but available to everybody the
question arises if the schools have the parentsrsquo permission
Only 16 of schools pay attention to visits which could be
a significant information showing the number of parents and
pupils visiting the website
The mentioned data show that schools consider relevant
the promotion of school activities and success the history
of the school and the timetable for parentsrsquo information
but tips for parents and school materials along with
exchanging opinions are not a priority Schools consider the
teachersrsquo CVs parentsrsquo meeting announcements or the school
cafeteria menu of no relevance to parents These facts point
to the fact that school websites in Croatia are more online
notice-boards than a real possibility for communication
5 Conclusion
Over the last decade cooperation with parents in
Croatia has been improving however in our schools
traditional forms of cooperation with parents are still
prevailing Although in the world there are specialized
radio and TV channels magazines and Internet sites for
exchanging experiences (Mendel 1998) such practice has not
flung into being in Croatia However over the last couple
of years cooperation via websites e-mails and SMS messages
Summarising its advantages and disadvantages and
considering todayrsquos lifestyle this way of cooperation
should be intensified in our schools Contemporary ways of
communication can additionally improve the communication
between parents and school but just as one more way
alongside other ways Consequently although the modern age
presupposes the use of modern technologies no technology
should replace face-to-face communication between parents
and teachers and the responsibility for a good cooperation
still lies on the school
The research demonstrates the possibilities of
communication between family and school by using modern
technology Elements of school websites are shown as well
as ways of planning the content of a website We consider
this research important for informing teachers and school
management of the possibilities of modern communication
between families and school A school website allows for the
possibility of establishing fast communication however its
mere existence does not guarantee the pupils acquiring new
knowledge and a quality relation between the family and
school It can be a good example for the school management
in creating the school curriculum as a segment allowing for
a fast exchange of information with parents Unfortunately
the educational system in Croatia is traditional and inert
unsuitable for the times and contemporary professions It
does not satisfy the need of the individual and traditional
teaching by using a minimum of technology and information is
utterly un-motivational for the student as well as for the
family The results of this research show that school
websites in Croatia donrsquot fulfil their purpose presenting
pupilsrsquo achievements allowing the parents insight into
everyday activities informing the parents and the wider
community on future activities and strengthening the
cooperation between school home and the local community
Although the purpose of school websites should not be merely
an electronic version of the notice board and an image of
the school that rarely changes its appearance the current
condition of the Croatian school websites in the analysed
counties shows just that therefore confirming the initial
hypothesis
Future research should inquire into the stance of
parents in Croatia on which content they consider important
therefore receiving relevant data which could later be used
by teachers for creating their websites
References
Berger E H (1991) Parent Involvement Yesterday and
Today The Elementary School Journal 91 (3) 209-219
Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb
Educa
Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships
Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76
httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20Articles
ParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
Epstein JL i Sheldon S B (2006) Moving Forward Ideas
for Research on School Family and Community Partnerships
httpwwwcsosjhuedup2000pdfLiterature20Review
2020Epstein20and20Sheldon2006pdf (15112010)
Graham- Clay S (2005) Communicating with Parents
Strategies for Teachers School Community Journal 16 (1)
117-129
Hartshorne R Friedman A Algozzine B i Kaur D
(2008) Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites Educational
Technology amp Society 11 (1) 291-303
Hitrec G(ur) (2006) Škola otvorena roditeljima Zagreb
Udruga roditelja Korak po korak
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE -
- MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE - MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
-
povratna informacija o napretku djeteta (sve su
zastupljenije učeničke mape kao primjer sustavne autentične
i razvojne procjene napretka učenika)
Što se elektroničkih oblika suradnje tiče Hrvatska je
korak unatrag Projekt Net u školi započeo je 2003godine
i u sve hrvatske škole uveden je ISDN priključak s ciljem
unaprjeđenja procesa učenja korištenjem interneta u nastavi
i istraživanju učenika iz vlastitog doma te postavljanju
temelja novoj kulturi učenja koja se bazira na otvorenosti k
novim spoznajama novim medijima i tehnologijama Danas sve
hrvatske škole imaju mogućnost postavljanja svoje web
stranice a učitelji otvaranje elektronske adrese
U Hrvatskoj su web mjesta pojedinoga učitelja rijetka
pojava ali su pokrenuti projekti Školski infocentar i SMS
informativka kojima je omogućeno informiranje roditelja o
uspjehu izostancima i ostalim školskim zbivanjima
jednostavnim i većini roditelja dostupnim načinima
komunikacije (SMS e-mail internet i govorne poruke) Mali
broj škola uveo je i web imenike gdje razrednici jednom
mjesečno ažuriraju podatke pa ih roditelji pomoću posebne
lozinke mogu pogledati u svako doba dana Iako nije
najvažnije ne treba zanemariti ni podatak da prema Zavodu
za državnu statistiku u Hrvatskoj tek oko 38 kućanstava ima
Internet (2009) što otežava komunikaciju putem web
stranica a ni svi učitelji nisu informatički pismeni Takva
suradnja ima svoje prednosti i nedostatke
Tablica 1 ndash prednosti i nedostatci suradnje putem
elektroničkih medija
PREDNOSTI NEDOSTATCISvakodnevno primanje obavijesti o
djetetu
Brzina slanja informacija
Neograničenost vremenom i mjestom
Ušteda vremena za roditelje
Ušteda vremena za učitelja pri
slanju općih obavijesti
Roditelj u školu dolazi
pripremljen teme za razgovor su s
područja odgoja i obrazovanja
I roditelji i učitelji moraju biti
informatički pismeni
Svi sudionici (roditelji učitelji)
moraju imati internet
Dodatni posao za učitelje (redovito
ažuriranje podataka)
Rjeđi susreti roditelja i učitelja
Izostanak komunikacije bdquolicem u
licerdquo
Financijski trošak za roditelje pri
slanju SMS poruka
Mogućnost zlouporabe (lozinka)
3 Metodologija istraživanja
31 Cilj istraživanja
Cilj istraživanja bio je ispitati imaju li web stranice
hrvatskih osnovnih škola sadržaje koji će potaknuti
roditelje na česte posjete i omogućiti učenicima stjecanje
novih znanja Dugoročni je cilj potaknuti škole na redovito
postavljanje novih sadržaja koji će rezultirati kvalitetnom
suradnjom doma i škole te poticati učenike na istraživački
rad iz svojih domova i time unaprjeđivati kvalitetu učenja
32 Problem
Problem ovoga rada jest utvrditi trenutnu svrhu
hrvatskih osnovnoškolskih web stranica (objaviti postignuća
učenika omogućiti roditeljima uvid u svakodnevne
aktivnosti informirati roditelje i širu zajednicu o budućim
aktivnostima i jačanje suradnje između škole doma i
lokalne zajednice)
33 Hipoteze
H-1 Web stranice hrvatskih osnovnih škola svojim
sadržajima nisu model za intenziviranje suradnje s
roditeljima te postavljanje temelja novoj kulturi učenja
H-2 Ne postoji statistički značajna razlika u
sadržajima među dvjema županijama ni u jednoj od jedanaest
kategorija
34 Ispitanici i postupak
Školske web stranice javne su isprave i dobrodošlica
vanjskome svijetu u školu kao i poveznica učenika i
učitelja s vanjskim izvorima informacija te mogućnost
kvalitetnije suradnje s roditeljima Svrha školskih web
stranica je objaviti postignuća učenika omogućiti
roditeljima uvid u svakodnevne aktivnosti informirati
roditelje i širu zajednicu o budućim aktivnostima i jačanje
suradnje između škole doma i lokalne zajednice Svrha
školskih web stranica ne bi trebala biti elektronička
verzija oglasne ploče i slika škole koja rijetko mijenja
svoj izgled
Istraživanje je provedeno metodom analize sadržaja
slučajnim odabirom na 50 web stranica osnovnih škola u
Istarskoj i Splitsko-dalmatinskoj županiji (25 škola po
županiji) Korišten je internetski popis škola Portal za
škole Budući da u Hrvatskoj nije provedeno istraživanje s
roditeljima u kojemu bi se ispitalo koje sadržaje oni
smatraju bitnima i relevantnima autorice su se vodile
istraživanjem provedenim online studijom u Americi (Unal
2008) i elementima koje su u toj studiji izabrali učitelji
i roditelji Analizirani su sljedeći sadržaji web stranica
plan i program o školi (povijest škole) brojač posjeta
kućni red (razredna pravila) raspored sati i informacija za
roditelje rezultati športskih natjecanja foto albumi
online testovi (materijali za učenje) životopisi učitelja
savjeti za roditelje i forum Analiza je obavljena početkom
mjeseca prosinca 2010 pred kraj prvoga polugodišta što je
školama dalo dovoljno vremena za ažuriranje i popunjavanje
stranica U ovom istraživanju nije analiziran dizajn web
stranica jer su u većini slučajeva stranice postavljene
koristeći Carnet hosting uslugu i nude slične poveznice S
obzirom da većina škola ima isti preglednik smatrano je da
škola ima sadržaj ako je unesen vlastiti dokument ili
poveznica
4 Rezultati i rasprava
Tablica 2 - ukupni analizirani sadržaji u postotcima
SADRŽAJ OBJE
ŽUPANIJE DA POSTOTAK NE POSTOTAK
PLAN I
PROGRAM41 82 9 18
BROJAČ
POSJETA8 16 42 84
KUĆNI RED 10 20 40 80 RASPORED
INFORMACIJA28 56 22 44
ŠPORTSKI
USPJESI23 46 27 54
FOTO ALBUMI 43 86 7 14 TESTOVI
ONLINE
(MATERIJALI
ZA UČENJE)
17 34 33 66
ŽIVOTOPIS
UČITELJA2 4 48 96
SAVJETI ZA
RODITELJE18 36 32 64
FORUM 12 24 38 76
O ŠKOLI
(POVIJEST)50 100 0 0
Iz tablice 2 vidljivo je da sve škole na svojim
stranicama imaju podatke o školi odnosno njezinoj povijesti
(100) a najveći dio škola foto albume (86) te plan i
program (82) Više od polovice škola (56) imaju raspored
informacija a nešto manje od polovice (46) športske
uspjehe svojih učenika Najmanji broj škola na svojim
stranicama objavljuju životopise učitelja (4) i brojač
posjeta (16) Materijale za učenje i savjete za roditelje
ima tek nešto više od trećine stranica (34 36)
Grafikon 1 - sadržaji prema županijama
Iz grafikona 1 vidljivo je da se rezultati među županijama
ne razlikuju mnogo Najviše razlika je u sadržaju športskih
uspjeha (Istarska županija 72 Splitsko- dalmatinska 20)
a razlika od 20 pojavila se u kategorijama foto albuma i
materijala za učenje Sve ostale razlike su manje od 20
Hipoteza 2 testirana je hi ndash kvadrat testom Hipoteza se
smatra prihvaćenom u slučaju da je vjerojatnost pogreške
pri tvrdnji da postoji statistički značajna povezanost
analiziranog para varijabli manja od 5
Tablica 3 Relacije među županijama
PLAN
I
PROGR
AM
BRO
JAČ
POSJE
TA
KUĆNI
RED
RASPO
RED
INFOR
MACI
JA
ŠPORT
SKI
USPJE
SI
FOTO
ALBUM
ONLINE
TESTOVI
ŽIVOTOPIS
UČITELJA
SAVJETI
ZA
RODI
TELJE FORUM
10486462 00240148
80125 0081
1159
4
2657
81471 05208 07812 01096
df 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
p 0876
88491
0
0479
50012
0527
0892
0705
31663
0006
71374
0
044
5920
62
02251
8798
0157299
21
03457
4844
05638
979
Nije teško uočiti da se statistički značajna razlika
javlja samo u sadržaju športskih uspjeha a u ostalim
elementima ne postoji što potvrđuje postavljenu hipotezu
Može se dakle zaključiti da nema razlika u sadržajima među
dvjema županijama
Sadržaji web stranica mogu se podijeliti u dvije
kategorije sadržaji namijenjeni roditeljima i učenicima
(plan i program raspored informacija životopis učitelja
savjeti za roditelje forum testovi ili materijali za
učenje kućni red) i sadržaji namijenjeni promociji školskih
aktivnosti i uspjeha (športski uspjesi foto albumi o
školi brojač posjeta)
Tablica 4 - analiza sadržaja prema svrsi
SADRŽAJ OBJE
ŽUPANIJE NAMIJENJENI
RODITELJIMA
I UČENICIMADA
POSTOTAK NE POSTOTAK
TESTOVI
ONLINE
(MATERIJALI
ZA UČENJE)
17 34 33 66
PLAN I
PROGRAM41 82 9 18
SAVJETI ZA
RODITELJE18 36 32 64
KUĆNI RED 10 20 40 80 RASPORED
INFORMACIJA28 56 22 44
FORUM 12 24 38 76 ŽIVOTOPIS
UČITELJA2 4 48 96
PROMOCIJA
ŠKOLSKIH
AKTIVNOSTI
DA POSTOTAK NE POSTOTAK
I USPJEHA
ŠPORTSKI
USPJESI23 46 27 54
FOTO ALBUMI 43 86 7 14 BROJAČ
POSJETA8 16 42 84
O ŠKOLI
(POVIJEST)50 100 0 0
Od sadržaja koji su namijenjeni roditeljima i
učenicima a koji bi učenicima omogućili stjecanje novih
znanja i roditelje potaknuli na česte posjete škole u
visokom postotku (82) nude plan i program što je i
zakonska obveza škole (javna objava) a tek nešto više od
polovice škola (56) objavljuje raspored informacija za
roditelje Nešto više od trećine škola (34 36) na svojim
web stranicama ima materijale za učenje i savjete za
roditelje a tek 24 škola ima aktivan forum za razmjenu
mišljenja iako je i na tim forumima bio zanemariv broj
otvorenih tema od kojih niti jednu nije otvorio roditelj
Materijali za učenje najčešće su online testovi za što
postoji poveznica sa školske web stranice a savjeti za
roditelje tekstovi koje su sastavili stručni suradnici S
obzirom na manjak stručnih suradnika u našim školama moguće
je da je to razlog relativno malog postotka tih sadržaja U
nekim školama u rubrici savjeta za roditelje nalaze se
poveznice sa zanimljivim člancima na internetu
Kategorije koje služe za promociju školskih uspjeha i
aktivnosti imaju više sadržaja svaka škola ima uređenu
stranicu o povijesti škole 86 škola ažurira stranicu s
foto albumima a nešto manje od polovice škola (46) na
svoje stranice stavlja športske uspjehe svojih učenika U
navedenim foto albumima škole nude fotografije s izleta
izvanučioničke nastave priredbi i sl O opravdanosti
velikoga broja fotografija učenika moglo bi se raspravljati
s obzirom da niti jedan objavljeni sadržaj nije zaštićen
lozinkom već je dostupan svima pa se postavlja pitanje
imaju li škole suglasnost roditelja za to Tek 16 škola
vodi računa o posjećenosti svojih stranica a to bi mogao
biti značajan podatak o tome koliko ih učenici i roditelji
posjećuju
Iz navedenih podataka može se zaključiti da je školama
veoma važna promocija aktivnosti i uspjeha škole povijest
ustanove i raspored individualnih informacija a savjeti za
roditelje i materijali za učenike te razmjena mišljenja
nisu prioritetni sadržaji Škole smatraju da je roditeljima
potpuno nevažan stručni životopis učitelja najave
roditeljskih sastanaka ili jelovnici školskih kuhinja Iz
toga proizlazi da su web stranice škola u Hrvatskoj
elektroničke oglasne ploče a ne mogućnost komunikacije
5 Zaključak
Zadnjih desetak godina suradnja s roditeljima i kod nas
se mijenja na bolje ali u našim školama još uvijek
prevladavaju tradicionalni oblici suradnje s roditeljima
Iako u svijetu postoje roditeljski radio i Tv kanali
časopisi i internet stranice za razmjenu iskustava (Mendel
1998) kod nas takva praksa nije zaživjela no posljednjih
godina započela je suradnja putem web stranica e mail i sms
poruka Sumirajući prednosti i nedostatke a s obzirom na
današnji način života i ovaj način suradnje treba
intenzivirati u našim školama Suvremeni načini
komuniciranja mogu dodatno poboljšati komunikaciju između
roditelja i škole ali samo kao još jedan od načina uz sve
ostale navedene načine suradnje Iz toga proizlazi da iako
suvremeno doba pretpostavlja korištenje suvremenih
tehnologija nikakva tehnologija ne bi smjela zamijeniti
komunikaciju bdquolicem u licerdquo roditelja i učitelja a
odgovornost za dobru suradnju s roditeljima i dalje ostaje
na školi
Istraživanje pokazuje mogućnosti komuniciranja obitelji
i škole suvremenom tehnologijom Prikazani su elementi
školskih web stranica te način planiranja sadržaja web
stranice Ovo istraživanje smatramo važnim za informiranje
učitelja i rukovodstva škola o mogućnostima suvremenog
komuniciranja obitelji i škole Školska web stranica otvara
mogućnosti za uspostavljanje brze informacije no samim
postojanjem ne jamči učenicima stjecanje novih znanja i
kvalitetnije povezivanje obitelji i škole Može biti dobar
primjer vodstvu škole u stvaranju školskog kurikuluma kao
segmenta kojim će se omogućavati brza razmjena informacija s
roditeljima Nažalost obrazovni sustav u Hrvatskoj
tradicionalan je i trom neprimjeren vremenu i suvremenim
zanimanjima Ne zadovoljava individualne potrebe pojedinca
a tradicionalnim poučavanjem uz tehnologijski i
informacijski minimum potpuno je nemotivirajući kako za
učenika tako i za obitelj Rezultati ovoga istraživanja
pokazuju da školske web stranice u Hrvatskoj ne ostvaruju
sasvim svoju svrhu objavljivanje postignuća učenika
omogućavanje roditeljima uvid u svakodnevne aktivnosti
informiranje roditelja i šire zajednice o budućim
aktivnostima i jačanje suradnje između škole doma i
lokalne zajednice Iako svrha školskih web stranica ne bi
trebala biti elektronička verzija oglasne ploče i slika
škole koja rijetko mijenja svoj izgled trenutno stanje
hrvatskih web stranica u analiziranim županijama pokazuje
upravo to što potvrđuje početnu hipotezu
U narednim istraživanjima trebalo bi ispitati stavove
roditelja u Hrvatskoj o tome koje sadržaje oni smatraju
važnima te bi se tada dobili relevantni podatci koje bi
učitelji mogli upotrijebiti za kreiranje svojih web
stranica
Literatura
Berger E H (1991) Parent Involvement Yesterday and
Today The Elementary School Journal 91 (3) 209-219
Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb
Educa
Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships
Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76
httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20Articles
ParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
Epstein JL i Sheldon S B (2006) Moving Forward Ideas
for Research on School Family and Community Partnerships
httpwwwcsosjhuedup2000pdfLiterature20Review
2020Epstein20and20Sheldon2006pdf (15112010)
Graham- Clay S (2005) Communicating with Parents
Strategies for Teachers School Community Journal 16 (1)
117-129
Hartshorne R Friedman A Algozzine B i Kaur D
(2008) Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites Educational
Technology amp Society 11 (1) 291-303
Hitrec G(ur) (2006) Škola otvorena roditeljima Zagreb
Udruga roditelja Korak po korak
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
Deana Tavas graduate teacher
Vladimir Nazor Elementary School Rovinj
dtavasyahoocom
Sanja Bilač graduate teacher
Spinut Elementary School Split
sanja9stgmailcom
SCHOOL WEBSITES ndash
POSSIBILITY OF COOPERATION WITH PARENTS
SCHOOL WEBSITES ndash POSSIBILITY OF COOPERATION WITH PARENTS
Abstract In the last fifteen years in Croatia as well as around the world
much research has been done dealing with the importance of cooperation
between parents and school and the obtained results show its importance for all
the parties and that partnership relation between school and parents produces
numerous benefits Besides customary ways of communication like individual
talk and parent meetings written messages informal meetings educational
workshops the involvement of parents in the educational process in the role of
accessory etc the most modern way of communicating with parents is via school
websites teacherrsquos websites e-mails and SMS messages The goal of the
research was to examine if Croatian schoolsrsquo websites had the content which
would prompt the parents for frequent visits and enable pupils to acquire new
knowledge A long term goal was to persuade schools to a regular update of new
materials which would result in quality cooperation between home and school
and persuade pupils to do research from their home and therefore increase the
quality of learning The research has randomly selected 25 elementary school
websites from the county of Istra and 25 websites from the county Split ndash
Dalmatia Collected data show that Croatiarsquos elementary school websites are not
a model neither for increasing the cooperation with parents nor laying the
foundation towards a new culture of learning and that there is no statistically
significant variation in content between the two counties
Key words cooperation with parents Internet school websites website
content
1 Parents and school cooperation
The cooperation between parents and schools is
extremely important and offers manifold benefits for all the
participants in the education process A partnership between
parents and teachers establishes good relations since every
partner introduces their competences in the childrsquos
education The cooperation between parents and teachers
ie school should be the best possible to achieve
outstanding goals Berger (1991) considers that models of
parent involvement are approached more actively nowadays
then it was in the 1960s when the responsibilities of
parents and schools were considered distinct Cooperation
with parents is today considered on of the essential
determinants of an efficient school in terms of general
pedagogy and research has shown that 22 of teachers
consider the lack of parent involvement a serious problem
(Ryan and Cooper 2010) Such cooperation is only partially
directed at prevention ie solution of disciplinary
problems since its benefits are manifold and are
manifested in better grades increased regular attendance
more willingness to work at home and development of more
positive attitudes and behavior Parental involvement in
school life has a positive effect on pupilrsquos achievements
and their motivation and the partnership relation between
parents and schools makes the parents more informed of
school affairs gives them a more positive image in the eyes
of the teachers they contribute to a better functioning of
the school strengthen their self-confidence and assurance
in helping their child at home and they become
participants not mere observers of the education of their
child Teachers have also to gain from a partnership
relation with parents since the parents become allies in
solving problems they become more motivated and satisfied
with their job receive more confidence from parents and
have a better reputation in society
These and other benefits for all the participants in
the education process are the result of growing willingness
and need of parent involvement in the school life According
to Walsh (2002) one way of achieving a successful bond
between parents and school is a consistent and clear two-way
communication
Epstein (1995) lists three learning contexts for
pupils in the family in school and in the community and
lists 6 ways of parent involvement These are parenting
communication volunteering learning at home decision
making and collaborating with the community However all of
these ways of cooperation between parents and school presume
direct communication which at times regardless of the
parentsrsquo willingness is impossible Many parents work
during planned school activities or meetings and have not
the possibility to participate especially in schools which
work in a single shift Todayrsquos way of life and both parents
working prevents personal communication and a more active
involvement of parents with schools
2 Contemporary ways of cooperation between parents and
school
One of the key features of humans is the ability to
communicate The exceptional ability of storing data and
fast sharing of enormous amounts of information have
revolutionized business as well as the everyday life of
mankind The access to information is unlimited the sharing
of ideas and thoughts free the worldrsquos business and economy
are being transformed Significant are the changes in the
approach to education Fast communication is becoming a
trend in shaping the future and therefore revolutionary
models of learning are more and more inherent (eg using
interactive computer technology fast learning) Pupils
are assuming responsibility for their life in a world in
which ldquothose who end their education have no futurerdquo (Dryden
and Vos 2001 p 39) Stronger is the criticism of the
educational system for its inertness in the process of
change and positive initiatives empowered by scientific
research become the link for modernization and improvement
of the school in the 21st century
Technology has become a critical component of everyday
life and an increase in the development and use of school
websites over the last few years is evident (Hartshorne and
ass 2008) Research (Aronson 1995 Cameron and Lee 1997
Clemens-Brower 1997 Cleverson 1999 Ramirez 2001) show that
many teachers experiment with various technologies when
communicating with parents (telephones in classrooms voice
mail video technology radio announcements etc) to
improve cooperation School websites provide parents with
useful content such as educational tips homework e-mails
or the school cafeteria menu and expand the borders of
communication between home and school to a 24 hours a day 7
days a week contact That allows parents whose daily
timetable doesnrsquot permit regular visits to the school and
face-to-face interaction with their child or teacher to be
more informed of what is happening at school Internet
becomes an excellent means of connecting home and school
Swan (2008) believes that schools have a lot of
information and parents want to know more about academic
achievements extracurricular activities parentsrsquo meeting
schedule information such as bus transport or lunch and
that it is important that school websites include accurate
and useful information not an exciting design or newest
technological ldquoornamentsrdquo
Online research (Unal 2008) shows that parents and
teachers recognize the importance of school websites
although they do not agree completely on their content
While teachers suggest that links inside the school
classroom rules teaching curriculum and standards list of
obligatory accessories statistics of websites visitors and
guest book should be essential to a school website
significant divergence (plt05) was seen in parents
disagreeing on these elements On the other hand parents
declare they would like to see online practical tests
academic advisory information information about
administrative issues and school direction as well as
teachers CVs Eventually teachers and parents agree that
results of school sport competition and activities
educational philosophy lesson plans links outside the
institution online articles and newsletters class photo
albums and news teachersrsquo blogs menus examples of
didactic cards personal links and teachersrsquo family
information are not essential elements of schoolsrsquo websites
It can be concluded that regardless of many schools today
having their own website not all are important for the
communication of parents and teachers Past research shows
that the structure and content of school websites should be
carefully planned and developed
According to McKenzie J (1997) the best websites have
four purposes 1 introduce visitors to its mission its
character its offerings to children its stance on new
technologies 2 offer an opportunity for the publishing of
student works and parents education 3 act as a mediator to
a larger share of information and 4 provide rich data
locally collected on curriculum related topics (such as
local history) Some school websites contain all four of
these elements but the majority is concentrated upon
providing a quality service in two or three of these
elements
21 Cooperation between parents and school in Croatia
In the elementary education in Croatia prescribed are
(most often by School statute) the following ways of
cooperation with parents parent meeting individual talks
with teachers and school assistants and written messages to
parents According to Law on Primary and Secondary
Education (Ministry of Education Science and Technology
2008) prescribed is the formation a Parentsrsquo Council which
comprises one parent from every class and the president of
the Parentrsquos Council is appointed a member of the School
Committee Practice shows that these prescribed ways of
cooperation do not satisfy the teachers or the parents
Parent participation is merely formal without real
possibility of influencing important decisions
Centralization and standardization of the curriculum do not
allow schools enough space for adapting to the needs of the
local community parent meeting come down to mere
information sharing where parents are usually passive
recipients of information and parents asked to participate
in some kind of school activity are rare A research
conducted among parents of pupil of the 4th and 7th grade
from all Croatian regions and their teachers (Marušić 2007)
shows that two thirds of parents believes that they have too
little possibility of participating in decision making in
schools more than 90 of parents have never taken part in
activities related to cooperation between family and school
three quarters of parents state that there are no lectures
or workshops organized in schools and a third of parents
does not know if such workshops are organized A substantial
number of parents have shown interest in participating in
various school activities but the initiative is expected to
come from teachers
However the practice in Croatian schools in recent
years has shown undertaking additional strategies for
cooperation with parents Many workshops are being held
parents are involved as assistants on projects and in the
communication between parents and school improvement has
been made in following and assessing the pupilsrsquo progress as
well as in the feedback information on the pupilsrsquo progress
(increasingly common are the pupilsrsquo maps as an example of
systematic authentic and development assessment of pupilsrsquo
progress)
As far as electronic cooperation is concerned Croatia
is one step back The project ldquoNet u školirdquo ndash ldquoNet in the
schoolrdquo was initiated in 2003 and all schools in Croatia
have been equipped with ISDN terminals with the aim to
improve the process of learning by using Internet in
teaching and pupilsrsquo research from home and by laying the
foundation for a new culture of learning based on openness
to new knowledge new media and technology Today all
schools in Croatia have the possibility to set up a website
and the teachers to open e-mail accounts
In Croatia websites of teachers are a rare appearance
but the projects ldquoŠkolski infocentarrdquo and ldquoSMS informativkardquo
have been initiated through which informing parents on
success absence and other school activities via simple and
to the majority accessible way of communication (SMS e-
mail Internet and voicemail) has been enabled A small
number of schools have incorporated a web directory updated
monthly by class masters which parents with a special
password can check at any time Although not the most
important fact it should not be ignored that according to
the Central Bureau of Statistics in 2009 only 38 of
households in Croatia had access to the Internet which
complicates communication via websites and not all teachers
are computer literate Such cooperation has its advantages
and disadvantages
Table 1 ndash advantages and disadvantages of cooperation
via electronic media
ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGESInformation on child received daily
Fast information transmission
Not limited by time or place
Time saving for parents
Time saving for teachers when
sending general information
Parents come to school prepared
themes for conversation are
educational
Both parents and teachers must be
computer literate
All participants (parents
teachers) must have Internet access
Additional work for teachers
(regular updating of data)
Rarer encounters among parents and
teachers
Lack of face-to-face communication
Financial expense for parents when
sending SMS messages
Possible abuse (password)
3 Research methodology
31 Aim of research
The aim of the research was to examine whether the
content of Croatian elementary schools websites encourages
frequent parentsrsquo visits and allows pupils to acquire new
knowledge A long term goal is to encourage schools to post
new materials regularly which would result in high-quality
cooperation between home and school along with encouraging
students to research work from their homes and therefore
advancing the quality of learning
32 Problem
The problem of this work is to determine the current
purpose of Croatian elementary schools websites
33 Hypothesis
H-1 Websites of Croatian elementary schools with its
contents do not pose a model for a more intensive
cooperation with parents or lay the foundations for a new
culture of learning
H-2 There is no statistically significant difference in
content between the two counties in neither of the eleven
categories
34 Participants and procedure
School websites are public documents and welcome the
outer world into the school as well as a link between
pupils and teachers with outer sources of information and a
possibility of better cooperation with parents The function
of school websites is to make public the achievements of
pupils to allow parents insight into daily activities and
to inform parents and the larger community of future
activities as well as strengthening cooperation between
school home and the local community The function of the
schoolsrsquo websites should not be a mere electronic version of
a notice board or a picture of a school that seldom changes
its appearance
The research was conducted by content analysis method
on a random selection of 50 elementary school websites in
the counties of Istria and Split ndash Dalmatia (25 schools per
county) The Internet school directory of ldquoPortal za školerdquo
was used Since in Croatia a research has not been conducted
on parents and the content the parents believed to be
important and relevant the authors were led by a research
done by an online study in USA (Unal 2008) and the elements
selected by teachers and parents in that study The
following website content was analysed curriculum about
the school (school history) web counters house rules
(classroom rules) timetable and information for parents
results of school competition photo albums online tests
(study materials) teachersrsquo CV tips for parents and forum
The analysis was done at the beginning of December 2010 by
the end of the first term giving the schools enough time to
update and enrich the websites This research did not take
into consideration the design of websites since in the
majority of cases it has been done using Carnet hosting
services and offered similar links Regarding the fact that
most schools have the same browser a school is considered
to have a website if a private document or link has been
updated
4 Results and discussion
Table 2 ndash Overall analysed content in percentage
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIES
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCETAGECURRICULUM 41 82 9 18 WEBSITE
COUNTER8 16 42 84
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTSrsquo
INFORMATION28 56 22 44
RESULTS OF
SCHOOL
COMPETITION
23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 ONLINE
TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
TEACHERSrsquo 2 4 48 96
CV
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
FORUM 12 24 38 76 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL
(SCHOOL
HISTORY)
50 100 0 0
For table 2 it is evident that all schools have information
about the school on the website ie about its history
(100) the majority has school photo alums (86) and the
curriculum (82) More than half the schools (56) have the
timetable for parentsrsquo information and less then half (46)
have sport achievements of their pupils The fewest schools
publish teachersrsquo CVs (4) and website counters Study
materials and tips for parents are present on just above a
third the websites (34 36)
Chart 1 ndash content according to county
It is visible from Chart 1 that results do not vary much
between counties The most discrepancy is shown in sportsrsquo
achievements (Istria 72 Split ndash Dalmatia 20) and a 20
discrepancy is present in categories photo album and study
material Other discrepancies are smaller than 20 The 2nd
hypothesis was tested with the chi-square test The
hypothesis is considered valid in case that the probability
of error is less than 5 considering that there is a
statistically significant link between the analysed pair of
variables
Table 3 ndash Relations between counties
CURRI
CULUM
WEB
COUNT
ERS
HOUSE
RULES
INFOR
MATIO
N
TIMET
ABLE
SPORT
S
ACHIE
VEMEN
TS
PHOTO
ALBUM
ONLINE
TESTS
TEACHERS
CVs
TIPS
FOR
PARENTS FORUM
10486462 0024 0148 0125 0081 1159 2657 1471 05208 07812 01096
8 4 8
df 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
p 0876
88491
0
0479
50012
0527
0892
0705
31663
0006
71374
0
044
5920
62
02251
8798
0157299
21
03457
4844
05638
979
It is not difficult to notice that a significant
discrepancy is present only in sportsrsquo achievement whereas
in other elements it does not exist which confirms the
stated hypothesis It can be concluded that there are no
differences between the content in the two counties
The website content can be divided into two categories
content intended for parents and pupils (curriculum
timetable for parentsrsquo information teachersrsquo CVs tips for
parents forum online tests and study material house
rules) and content for promoting school activities and
achievements (sportsrsquo achievements photo albums about the
school web counters)
Table 4 ndash analysis according to purpose
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIESINTENDEED FOR
PARENTS AND
PUPILSYES
PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
ONLINE TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
CURRICULUM 41 82 9 18
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTS
INFORMATION
TIMETABLE
28 56 22 44
FORUM 12 24 38 76 TEACHERSrsquo CV 2 4 48 96 PROMOTION OF
SCHOOL
ACTIVITIES
AND
ACVIEVEMENTS
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
SPORTS
ACHIEVEMENTS23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 WEB COUNTERS 8 16 42 84 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL50 100 0 0
Among the content intended for parents and pupils
which would allow pupils to acquire new knowledge and
encourage parents to visit regularly schools offer in high
percentage (82) the curriculum which is a legal obligation
(public notice) and just over half the schools (56) offer
the timetable for parentsrsquo information About one third of
schools (34 36) publish on its websites study materials
and tips for parents and only 24 have an active forum for
exchanging opinions although these forums have an
insignificant number of open themes none of which were
opened by parents Study materials are most often online
tests with a link from the website and tips for parents are
texts compiled by schools assistants Considering the lack
of assistants in schools this may be the cause for a small
percentage of these materials Some schools under the
section tips for parents have links to interesting Internet
articles
Categories intended for the promotion of school
achievements and activities have more contents every school
has a page dedicated to school history 86 updates the
photo album section and less then half the schools (46)
publish sportsrsquo achievements of the pupils The photo albums
offer pictures from school trips out-of-classroom teaching
school events etc Justifying such a large number of
pictures is debatable since none of the published materials
are protected by password but available to everybody the
question arises if the schools have the parentsrsquo permission
Only 16 of schools pay attention to visits which could be
a significant information showing the number of parents and
pupils visiting the website
The mentioned data show that schools consider relevant
the promotion of school activities and success the history
of the school and the timetable for parentsrsquo information
but tips for parents and school materials along with
exchanging opinions are not a priority Schools consider the
teachersrsquo CVs parentsrsquo meeting announcements or the school
cafeteria menu of no relevance to parents These facts point
to the fact that school websites in Croatia are more online
notice-boards than a real possibility for communication
5 Conclusion
Over the last decade cooperation with parents in
Croatia has been improving however in our schools
traditional forms of cooperation with parents are still
prevailing Although in the world there are specialized
radio and TV channels magazines and Internet sites for
exchanging experiences (Mendel 1998) such practice has not
flung into being in Croatia However over the last couple
of years cooperation via websites e-mails and SMS messages
Summarising its advantages and disadvantages and
considering todayrsquos lifestyle this way of cooperation
should be intensified in our schools Contemporary ways of
communication can additionally improve the communication
between parents and school but just as one more way
alongside other ways Consequently although the modern age
presupposes the use of modern technologies no technology
should replace face-to-face communication between parents
and teachers and the responsibility for a good cooperation
still lies on the school
The research demonstrates the possibilities of
communication between family and school by using modern
technology Elements of school websites are shown as well
as ways of planning the content of a website We consider
this research important for informing teachers and school
management of the possibilities of modern communication
between families and school A school website allows for the
possibility of establishing fast communication however its
mere existence does not guarantee the pupils acquiring new
knowledge and a quality relation between the family and
school It can be a good example for the school management
in creating the school curriculum as a segment allowing for
a fast exchange of information with parents Unfortunately
the educational system in Croatia is traditional and inert
unsuitable for the times and contemporary professions It
does not satisfy the need of the individual and traditional
teaching by using a minimum of technology and information is
utterly un-motivational for the student as well as for the
family The results of this research show that school
websites in Croatia donrsquot fulfil their purpose presenting
pupilsrsquo achievements allowing the parents insight into
everyday activities informing the parents and the wider
community on future activities and strengthening the
cooperation between school home and the local community
Although the purpose of school websites should not be merely
an electronic version of the notice board and an image of
the school that rarely changes its appearance the current
condition of the Croatian school websites in the analysed
counties shows just that therefore confirming the initial
hypothesis
Future research should inquire into the stance of
parents in Croatia on which content they consider important
therefore receiving relevant data which could later be used
by teachers for creating their websites
References
Berger E H (1991) Parent Involvement Yesterday and
Today The Elementary School Journal 91 (3) 209-219
Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb
Educa
Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships
Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76
httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20Articles
ParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
Epstein JL i Sheldon S B (2006) Moving Forward Ideas
for Research on School Family and Community Partnerships
httpwwwcsosjhuedup2000pdfLiterature20Review
2020Epstein20and20Sheldon2006pdf (15112010)
Graham- Clay S (2005) Communicating with Parents
Strategies for Teachers School Community Journal 16 (1)
117-129
Hartshorne R Friedman A Algozzine B i Kaur D
(2008) Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites Educational
Technology amp Society 11 (1) 291-303
Hitrec G(ur) (2006) Škola otvorena roditeljima Zagreb
Udruga roditelja Korak po korak
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE -
- MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE - MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
-
Tablica 1 ndash prednosti i nedostatci suradnje putem
elektroničkih medija
PREDNOSTI NEDOSTATCISvakodnevno primanje obavijesti o
djetetu
Brzina slanja informacija
Neograničenost vremenom i mjestom
Ušteda vremena za roditelje
Ušteda vremena za učitelja pri
slanju općih obavijesti
Roditelj u školu dolazi
pripremljen teme za razgovor su s
područja odgoja i obrazovanja
I roditelji i učitelji moraju biti
informatički pismeni
Svi sudionici (roditelji učitelji)
moraju imati internet
Dodatni posao za učitelje (redovito
ažuriranje podataka)
Rjeđi susreti roditelja i učitelja
Izostanak komunikacije bdquolicem u
licerdquo
Financijski trošak za roditelje pri
slanju SMS poruka
Mogućnost zlouporabe (lozinka)
3 Metodologija istraživanja
31 Cilj istraživanja
Cilj istraživanja bio je ispitati imaju li web stranice
hrvatskih osnovnih škola sadržaje koji će potaknuti
roditelje na česte posjete i omogućiti učenicima stjecanje
novih znanja Dugoročni je cilj potaknuti škole na redovito
postavljanje novih sadržaja koji će rezultirati kvalitetnom
suradnjom doma i škole te poticati učenike na istraživački
rad iz svojih domova i time unaprjeđivati kvalitetu učenja
32 Problem
Problem ovoga rada jest utvrditi trenutnu svrhu
hrvatskih osnovnoškolskih web stranica (objaviti postignuća
učenika omogućiti roditeljima uvid u svakodnevne
aktivnosti informirati roditelje i širu zajednicu o budućim
aktivnostima i jačanje suradnje između škole doma i
lokalne zajednice)
33 Hipoteze
H-1 Web stranice hrvatskih osnovnih škola svojim
sadržajima nisu model za intenziviranje suradnje s
roditeljima te postavljanje temelja novoj kulturi učenja
H-2 Ne postoji statistički značajna razlika u
sadržajima među dvjema županijama ni u jednoj od jedanaest
kategorija
34 Ispitanici i postupak
Školske web stranice javne su isprave i dobrodošlica
vanjskome svijetu u školu kao i poveznica učenika i
učitelja s vanjskim izvorima informacija te mogućnost
kvalitetnije suradnje s roditeljima Svrha školskih web
stranica je objaviti postignuća učenika omogućiti
roditeljima uvid u svakodnevne aktivnosti informirati
roditelje i širu zajednicu o budućim aktivnostima i jačanje
suradnje između škole doma i lokalne zajednice Svrha
školskih web stranica ne bi trebala biti elektronička
verzija oglasne ploče i slika škole koja rijetko mijenja
svoj izgled
Istraživanje je provedeno metodom analize sadržaja
slučajnim odabirom na 50 web stranica osnovnih škola u
Istarskoj i Splitsko-dalmatinskoj županiji (25 škola po
županiji) Korišten je internetski popis škola Portal za
škole Budući da u Hrvatskoj nije provedeno istraživanje s
roditeljima u kojemu bi se ispitalo koje sadržaje oni
smatraju bitnima i relevantnima autorice su se vodile
istraživanjem provedenim online studijom u Americi (Unal
2008) i elementima koje su u toj studiji izabrali učitelji
i roditelji Analizirani su sljedeći sadržaji web stranica
plan i program o školi (povijest škole) brojač posjeta
kućni red (razredna pravila) raspored sati i informacija za
roditelje rezultati športskih natjecanja foto albumi
online testovi (materijali za učenje) životopisi učitelja
savjeti za roditelje i forum Analiza je obavljena početkom
mjeseca prosinca 2010 pred kraj prvoga polugodišta što je
školama dalo dovoljno vremena za ažuriranje i popunjavanje
stranica U ovom istraživanju nije analiziran dizajn web
stranica jer su u većini slučajeva stranice postavljene
koristeći Carnet hosting uslugu i nude slične poveznice S
obzirom da većina škola ima isti preglednik smatrano je da
škola ima sadržaj ako je unesen vlastiti dokument ili
poveznica
4 Rezultati i rasprava
Tablica 2 - ukupni analizirani sadržaji u postotcima
SADRŽAJ OBJE
ŽUPANIJE DA POSTOTAK NE POSTOTAK
PLAN I
PROGRAM41 82 9 18
BROJAČ
POSJETA8 16 42 84
KUĆNI RED 10 20 40 80 RASPORED
INFORMACIJA28 56 22 44
ŠPORTSKI
USPJESI23 46 27 54
FOTO ALBUMI 43 86 7 14 TESTOVI
ONLINE
(MATERIJALI
ZA UČENJE)
17 34 33 66
ŽIVOTOPIS
UČITELJA2 4 48 96
SAVJETI ZA
RODITELJE18 36 32 64
FORUM 12 24 38 76
O ŠKOLI
(POVIJEST)50 100 0 0
Iz tablice 2 vidljivo je da sve škole na svojim
stranicama imaju podatke o školi odnosno njezinoj povijesti
(100) a najveći dio škola foto albume (86) te plan i
program (82) Više od polovice škola (56) imaju raspored
informacija a nešto manje od polovice (46) športske
uspjehe svojih učenika Najmanji broj škola na svojim
stranicama objavljuju životopise učitelja (4) i brojač
posjeta (16) Materijale za učenje i savjete za roditelje
ima tek nešto više od trećine stranica (34 36)
Grafikon 1 - sadržaji prema županijama
Iz grafikona 1 vidljivo je da se rezultati među županijama
ne razlikuju mnogo Najviše razlika je u sadržaju športskih
uspjeha (Istarska županija 72 Splitsko- dalmatinska 20)
a razlika od 20 pojavila se u kategorijama foto albuma i
materijala za učenje Sve ostale razlike su manje od 20
Hipoteza 2 testirana je hi ndash kvadrat testom Hipoteza se
smatra prihvaćenom u slučaju da je vjerojatnost pogreške
pri tvrdnji da postoji statistički značajna povezanost
analiziranog para varijabli manja od 5
Tablica 3 Relacije među županijama
PLAN
I
PROGR
AM
BRO
JAČ
POSJE
TA
KUĆNI
RED
RASPO
RED
INFOR
MACI
JA
ŠPORT
SKI
USPJE
SI
FOTO
ALBUM
ONLINE
TESTOVI
ŽIVOTOPIS
UČITELJA
SAVJETI
ZA
RODI
TELJE FORUM
10486462 00240148
80125 0081
1159
4
2657
81471 05208 07812 01096
df 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
p 0876
88491
0
0479
50012
0527
0892
0705
31663
0006
71374
0
044
5920
62
02251
8798
0157299
21
03457
4844
05638
979
Nije teško uočiti da se statistički značajna razlika
javlja samo u sadržaju športskih uspjeha a u ostalim
elementima ne postoji što potvrđuje postavljenu hipotezu
Može se dakle zaključiti da nema razlika u sadržajima među
dvjema županijama
Sadržaji web stranica mogu se podijeliti u dvije
kategorije sadržaji namijenjeni roditeljima i učenicima
(plan i program raspored informacija životopis učitelja
savjeti za roditelje forum testovi ili materijali za
učenje kućni red) i sadržaji namijenjeni promociji školskih
aktivnosti i uspjeha (športski uspjesi foto albumi o
školi brojač posjeta)
Tablica 4 - analiza sadržaja prema svrsi
SADRŽAJ OBJE
ŽUPANIJE NAMIJENJENI
RODITELJIMA
I UČENICIMADA
POSTOTAK NE POSTOTAK
TESTOVI
ONLINE
(MATERIJALI
ZA UČENJE)
17 34 33 66
PLAN I
PROGRAM41 82 9 18
SAVJETI ZA
RODITELJE18 36 32 64
KUĆNI RED 10 20 40 80 RASPORED
INFORMACIJA28 56 22 44
FORUM 12 24 38 76 ŽIVOTOPIS
UČITELJA2 4 48 96
PROMOCIJA
ŠKOLSKIH
AKTIVNOSTI
DA POSTOTAK NE POSTOTAK
I USPJEHA
ŠPORTSKI
USPJESI23 46 27 54
FOTO ALBUMI 43 86 7 14 BROJAČ
POSJETA8 16 42 84
O ŠKOLI
(POVIJEST)50 100 0 0
Od sadržaja koji su namijenjeni roditeljima i
učenicima a koji bi učenicima omogućili stjecanje novih
znanja i roditelje potaknuli na česte posjete škole u
visokom postotku (82) nude plan i program što je i
zakonska obveza škole (javna objava) a tek nešto više od
polovice škola (56) objavljuje raspored informacija za
roditelje Nešto više od trećine škola (34 36) na svojim
web stranicama ima materijale za učenje i savjete za
roditelje a tek 24 škola ima aktivan forum za razmjenu
mišljenja iako je i na tim forumima bio zanemariv broj
otvorenih tema od kojih niti jednu nije otvorio roditelj
Materijali za učenje najčešće su online testovi za što
postoji poveznica sa školske web stranice a savjeti za
roditelje tekstovi koje su sastavili stručni suradnici S
obzirom na manjak stručnih suradnika u našim školama moguće
je da je to razlog relativno malog postotka tih sadržaja U
nekim školama u rubrici savjeta za roditelje nalaze se
poveznice sa zanimljivim člancima na internetu
Kategorije koje služe za promociju školskih uspjeha i
aktivnosti imaju više sadržaja svaka škola ima uređenu
stranicu o povijesti škole 86 škola ažurira stranicu s
foto albumima a nešto manje od polovice škola (46) na
svoje stranice stavlja športske uspjehe svojih učenika U
navedenim foto albumima škole nude fotografije s izleta
izvanučioničke nastave priredbi i sl O opravdanosti
velikoga broja fotografija učenika moglo bi se raspravljati
s obzirom da niti jedan objavljeni sadržaj nije zaštićen
lozinkom već je dostupan svima pa se postavlja pitanje
imaju li škole suglasnost roditelja za to Tek 16 škola
vodi računa o posjećenosti svojih stranica a to bi mogao
biti značajan podatak o tome koliko ih učenici i roditelji
posjećuju
Iz navedenih podataka može se zaključiti da je školama
veoma važna promocija aktivnosti i uspjeha škole povijest
ustanove i raspored individualnih informacija a savjeti za
roditelje i materijali za učenike te razmjena mišljenja
nisu prioritetni sadržaji Škole smatraju da je roditeljima
potpuno nevažan stručni životopis učitelja najave
roditeljskih sastanaka ili jelovnici školskih kuhinja Iz
toga proizlazi da su web stranice škola u Hrvatskoj
elektroničke oglasne ploče a ne mogućnost komunikacije
5 Zaključak
Zadnjih desetak godina suradnja s roditeljima i kod nas
se mijenja na bolje ali u našim školama još uvijek
prevladavaju tradicionalni oblici suradnje s roditeljima
Iako u svijetu postoje roditeljski radio i Tv kanali
časopisi i internet stranice za razmjenu iskustava (Mendel
1998) kod nas takva praksa nije zaživjela no posljednjih
godina započela je suradnja putem web stranica e mail i sms
poruka Sumirajući prednosti i nedostatke a s obzirom na
današnji način života i ovaj način suradnje treba
intenzivirati u našim školama Suvremeni načini
komuniciranja mogu dodatno poboljšati komunikaciju između
roditelja i škole ali samo kao još jedan od načina uz sve
ostale navedene načine suradnje Iz toga proizlazi da iako
suvremeno doba pretpostavlja korištenje suvremenih
tehnologija nikakva tehnologija ne bi smjela zamijeniti
komunikaciju bdquolicem u licerdquo roditelja i učitelja a
odgovornost za dobru suradnju s roditeljima i dalje ostaje
na školi
Istraživanje pokazuje mogućnosti komuniciranja obitelji
i škole suvremenom tehnologijom Prikazani su elementi
školskih web stranica te način planiranja sadržaja web
stranice Ovo istraživanje smatramo važnim za informiranje
učitelja i rukovodstva škola o mogućnostima suvremenog
komuniciranja obitelji i škole Školska web stranica otvara
mogućnosti za uspostavljanje brze informacije no samim
postojanjem ne jamči učenicima stjecanje novih znanja i
kvalitetnije povezivanje obitelji i škole Može biti dobar
primjer vodstvu škole u stvaranju školskog kurikuluma kao
segmenta kojim će se omogućavati brza razmjena informacija s
roditeljima Nažalost obrazovni sustav u Hrvatskoj
tradicionalan je i trom neprimjeren vremenu i suvremenim
zanimanjima Ne zadovoljava individualne potrebe pojedinca
a tradicionalnim poučavanjem uz tehnologijski i
informacijski minimum potpuno je nemotivirajući kako za
učenika tako i za obitelj Rezultati ovoga istraživanja
pokazuju da školske web stranice u Hrvatskoj ne ostvaruju
sasvim svoju svrhu objavljivanje postignuća učenika
omogućavanje roditeljima uvid u svakodnevne aktivnosti
informiranje roditelja i šire zajednice o budućim
aktivnostima i jačanje suradnje između škole doma i
lokalne zajednice Iako svrha školskih web stranica ne bi
trebala biti elektronička verzija oglasne ploče i slika
škole koja rijetko mijenja svoj izgled trenutno stanje
hrvatskih web stranica u analiziranim županijama pokazuje
upravo to što potvrđuje početnu hipotezu
U narednim istraživanjima trebalo bi ispitati stavove
roditelja u Hrvatskoj o tome koje sadržaje oni smatraju
važnima te bi se tada dobili relevantni podatci koje bi
učitelji mogli upotrijebiti za kreiranje svojih web
stranica
Literatura
Berger E H (1991) Parent Involvement Yesterday and
Today The Elementary School Journal 91 (3) 209-219
Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb
Educa
Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships
Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76
httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20Articles
ParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
Epstein JL i Sheldon S B (2006) Moving Forward Ideas
for Research on School Family and Community Partnerships
httpwwwcsosjhuedup2000pdfLiterature20Review
2020Epstein20and20Sheldon2006pdf (15112010)
Graham- Clay S (2005) Communicating with Parents
Strategies for Teachers School Community Journal 16 (1)
117-129
Hartshorne R Friedman A Algozzine B i Kaur D
(2008) Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites Educational
Technology amp Society 11 (1) 291-303
Hitrec G(ur) (2006) Škola otvorena roditeljima Zagreb
Udruga roditelja Korak po korak
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
Deana Tavas graduate teacher
Vladimir Nazor Elementary School Rovinj
dtavasyahoocom
Sanja Bilač graduate teacher
Spinut Elementary School Split
sanja9stgmailcom
SCHOOL WEBSITES ndash
POSSIBILITY OF COOPERATION WITH PARENTS
SCHOOL WEBSITES ndash POSSIBILITY OF COOPERATION WITH PARENTS
Abstract In the last fifteen years in Croatia as well as around the world
much research has been done dealing with the importance of cooperation
between parents and school and the obtained results show its importance for all
the parties and that partnership relation between school and parents produces
numerous benefits Besides customary ways of communication like individual
talk and parent meetings written messages informal meetings educational
workshops the involvement of parents in the educational process in the role of
accessory etc the most modern way of communicating with parents is via school
websites teacherrsquos websites e-mails and SMS messages The goal of the
research was to examine if Croatian schoolsrsquo websites had the content which
would prompt the parents for frequent visits and enable pupils to acquire new
knowledge A long term goal was to persuade schools to a regular update of new
materials which would result in quality cooperation between home and school
and persuade pupils to do research from their home and therefore increase the
quality of learning The research has randomly selected 25 elementary school
websites from the county of Istra and 25 websites from the county Split ndash
Dalmatia Collected data show that Croatiarsquos elementary school websites are not
a model neither for increasing the cooperation with parents nor laying the
foundation towards a new culture of learning and that there is no statistically
significant variation in content between the two counties
Key words cooperation with parents Internet school websites website
content
1 Parents and school cooperation
The cooperation between parents and schools is
extremely important and offers manifold benefits for all the
participants in the education process A partnership between
parents and teachers establishes good relations since every
partner introduces their competences in the childrsquos
education The cooperation between parents and teachers
ie school should be the best possible to achieve
outstanding goals Berger (1991) considers that models of
parent involvement are approached more actively nowadays
then it was in the 1960s when the responsibilities of
parents and schools were considered distinct Cooperation
with parents is today considered on of the essential
determinants of an efficient school in terms of general
pedagogy and research has shown that 22 of teachers
consider the lack of parent involvement a serious problem
(Ryan and Cooper 2010) Such cooperation is only partially
directed at prevention ie solution of disciplinary
problems since its benefits are manifold and are
manifested in better grades increased regular attendance
more willingness to work at home and development of more
positive attitudes and behavior Parental involvement in
school life has a positive effect on pupilrsquos achievements
and their motivation and the partnership relation between
parents and schools makes the parents more informed of
school affairs gives them a more positive image in the eyes
of the teachers they contribute to a better functioning of
the school strengthen their self-confidence and assurance
in helping their child at home and they become
participants not mere observers of the education of their
child Teachers have also to gain from a partnership
relation with parents since the parents become allies in
solving problems they become more motivated and satisfied
with their job receive more confidence from parents and
have a better reputation in society
These and other benefits for all the participants in
the education process are the result of growing willingness
and need of parent involvement in the school life According
to Walsh (2002) one way of achieving a successful bond
between parents and school is a consistent and clear two-way
communication
Epstein (1995) lists three learning contexts for
pupils in the family in school and in the community and
lists 6 ways of parent involvement These are parenting
communication volunteering learning at home decision
making and collaborating with the community However all of
these ways of cooperation between parents and school presume
direct communication which at times regardless of the
parentsrsquo willingness is impossible Many parents work
during planned school activities or meetings and have not
the possibility to participate especially in schools which
work in a single shift Todayrsquos way of life and both parents
working prevents personal communication and a more active
involvement of parents with schools
2 Contemporary ways of cooperation between parents and
school
One of the key features of humans is the ability to
communicate The exceptional ability of storing data and
fast sharing of enormous amounts of information have
revolutionized business as well as the everyday life of
mankind The access to information is unlimited the sharing
of ideas and thoughts free the worldrsquos business and economy
are being transformed Significant are the changes in the
approach to education Fast communication is becoming a
trend in shaping the future and therefore revolutionary
models of learning are more and more inherent (eg using
interactive computer technology fast learning) Pupils
are assuming responsibility for their life in a world in
which ldquothose who end their education have no futurerdquo (Dryden
and Vos 2001 p 39) Stronger is the criticism of the
educational system for its inertness in the process of
change and positive initiatives empowered by scientific
research become the link for modernization and improvement
of the school in the 21st century
Technology has become a critical component of everyday
life and an increase in the development and use of school
websites over the last few years is evident (Hartshorne and
ass 2008) Research (Aronson 1995 Cameron and Lee 1997
Clemens-Brower 1997 Cleverson 1999 Ramirez 2001) show that
many teachers experiment with various technologies when
communicating with parents (telephones in classrooms voice
mail video technology radio announcements etc) to
improve cooperation School websites provide parents with
useful content such as educational tips homework e-mails
or the school cafeteria menu and expand the borders of
communication between home and school to a 24 hours a day 7
days a week contact That allows parents whose daily
timetable doesnrsquot permit regular visits to the school and
face-to-face interaction with their child or teacher to be
more informed of what is happening at school Internet
becomes an excellent means of connecting home and school
Swan (2008) believes that schools have a lot of
information and parents want to know more about academic
achievements extracurricular activities parentsrsquo meeting
schedule information such as bus transport or lunch and
that it is important that school websites include accurate
and useful information not an exciting design or newest
technological ldquoornamentsrdquo
Online research (Unal 2008) shows that parents and
teachers recognize the importance of school websites
although they do not agree completely on their content
While teachers suggest that links inside the school
classroom rules teaching curriculum and standards list of
obligatory accessories statistics of websites visitors and
guest book should be essential to a school website
significant divergence (plt05) was seen in parents
disagreeing on these elements On the other hand parents
declare they would like to see online practical tests
academic advisory information information about
administrative issues and school direction as well as
teachers CVs Eventually teachers and parents agree that
results of school sport competition and activities
educational philosophy lesson plans links outside the
institution online articles and newsletters class photo
albums and news teachersrsquo blogs menus examples of
didactic cards personal links and teachersrsquo family
information are not essential elements of schoolsrsquo websites
It can be concluded that regardless of many schools today
having their own website not all are important for the
communication of parents and teachers Past research shows
that the structure and content of school websites should be
carefully planned and developed
According to McKenzie J (1997) the best websites have
four purposes 1 introduce visitors to its mission its
character its offerings to children its stance on new
technologies 2 offer an opportunity for the publishing of
student works and parents education 3 act as a mediator to
a larger share of information and 4 provide rich data
locally collected on curriculum related topics (such as
local history) Some school websites contain all four of
these elements but the majority is concentrated upon
providing a quality service in two or three of these
elements
21 Cooperation between parents and school in Croatia
In the elementary education in Croatia prescribed are
(most often by School statute) the following ways of
cooperation with parents parent meeting individual talks
with teachers and school assistants and written messages to
parents According to Law on Primary and Secondary
Education (Ministry of Education Science and Technology
2008) prescribed is the formation a Parentsrsquo Council which
comprises one parent from every class and the president of
the Parentrsquos Council is appointed a member of the School
Committee Practice shows that these prescribed ways of
cooperation do not satisfy the teachers or the parents
Parent participation is merely formal without real
possibility of influencing important decisions
Centralization and standardization of the curriculum do not
allow schools enough space for adapting to the needs of the
local community parent meeting come down to mere
information sharing where parents are usually passive
recipients of information and parents asked to participate
in some kind of school activity are rare A research
conducted among parents of pupil of the 4th and 7th grade
from all Croatian regions and their teachers (Marušić 2007)
shows that two thirds of parents believes that they have too
little possibility of participating in decision making in
schools more than 90 of parents have never taken part in
activities related to cooperation between family and school
three quarters of parents state that there are no lectures
or workshops organized in schools and a third of parents
does not know if such workshops are organized A substantial
number of parents have shown interest in participating in
various school activities but the initiative is expected to
come from teachers
However the practice in Croatian schools in recent
years has shown undertaking additional strategies for
cooperation with parents Many workshops are being held
parents are involved as assistants on projects and in the
communication between parents and school improvement has
been made in following and assessing the pupilsrsquo progress as
well as in the feedback information on the pupilsrsquo progress
(increasingly common are the pupilsrsquo maps as an example of
systematic authentic and development assessment of pupilsrsquo
progress)
As far as electronic cooperation is concerned Croatia
is one step back The project ldquoNet u školirdquo ndash ldquoNet in the
schoolrdquo was initiated in 2003 and all schools in Croatia
have been equipped with ISDN terminals with the aim to
improve the process of learning by using Internet in
teaching and pupilsrsquo research from home and by laying the
foundation for a new culture of learning based on openness
to new knowledge new media and technology Today all
schools in Croatia have the possibility to set up a website
and the teachers to open e-mail accounts
In Croatia websites of teachers are a rare appearance
but the projects ldquoŠkolski infocentarrdquo and ldquoSMS informativkardquo
have been initiated through which informing parents on
success absence and other school activities via simple and
to the majority accessible way of communication (SMS e-
mail Internet and voicemail) has been enabled A small
number of schools have incorporated a web directory updated
monthly by class masters which parents with a special
password can check at any time Although not the most
important fact it should not be ignored that according to
the Central Bureau of Statistics in 2009 only 38 of
households in Croatia had access to the Internet which
complicates communication via websites and not all teachers
are computer literate Such cooperation has its advantages
and disadvantages
Table 1 ndash advantages and disadvantages of cooperation
via electronic media
ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGESInformation on child received daily
Fast information transmission
Not limited by time or place
Time saving for parents
Time saving for teachers when
sending general information
Parents come to school prepared
themes for conversation are
educational
Both parents and teachers must be
computer literate
All participants (parents
teachers) must have Internet access
Additional work for teachers
(regular updating of data)
Rarer encounters among parents and
teachers
Lack of face-to-face communication
Financial expense for parents when
sending SMS messages
Possible abuse (password)
3 Research methodology
31 Aim of research
The aim of the research was to examine whether the
content of Croatian elementary schools websites encourages
frequent parentsrsquo visits and allows pupils to acquire new
knowledge A long term goal is to encourage schools to post
new materials regularly which would result in high-quality
cooperation between home and school along with encouraging
students to research work from their homes and therefore
advancing the quality of learning
32 Problem
The problem of this work is to determine the current
purpose of Croatian elementary schools websites
33 Hypothesis
H-1 Websites of Croatian elementary schools with its
contents do not pose a model for a more intensive
cooperation with parents or lay the foundations for a new
culture of learning
H-2 There is no statistically significant difference in
content between the two counties in neither of the eleven
categories
34 Participants and procedure
School websites are public documents and welcome the
outer world into the school as well as a link between
pupils and teachers with outer sources of information and a
possibility of better cooperation with parents The function
of school websites is to make public the achievements of
pupils to allow parents insight into daily activities and
to inform parents and the larger community of future
activities as well as strengthening cooperation between
school home and the local community The function of the
schoolsrsquo websites should not be a mere electronic version of
a notice board or a picture of a school that seldom changes
its appearance
The research was conducted by content analysis method
on a random selection of 50 elementary school websites in
the counties of Istria and Split ndash Dalmatia (25 schools per
county) The Internet school directory of ldquoPortal za školerdquo
was used Since in Croatia a research has not been conducted
on parents and the content the parents believed to be
important and relevant the authors were led by a research
done by an online study in USA (Unal 2008) and the elements
selected by teachers and parents in that study The
following website content was analysed curriculum about
the school (school history) web counters house rules
(classroom rules) timetable and information for parents
results of school competition photo albums online tests
(study materials) teachersrsquo CV tips for parents and forum
The analysis was done at the beginning of December 2010 by
the end of the first term giving the schools enough time to
update and enrich the websites This research did not take
into consideration the design of websites since in the
majority of cases it has been done using Carnet hosting
services and offered similar links Regarding the fact that
most schools have the same browser a school is considered
to have a website if a private document or link has been
updated
4 Results and discussion
Table 2 ndash Overall analysed content in percentage
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIES
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCETAGECURRICULUM 41 82 9 18 WEBSITE
COUNTER8 16 42 84
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTSrsquo
INFORMATION28 56 22 44
RESULTS OF
SCHOOL
COMPETITION
23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 ONLINE
TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
TEACHERSrsquo 2 4 48 96
CV
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
FORUM 12 24 38 76 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL
(SCHOOL
HISTORY)
50 100 0 0
For table 2 it is evident that all schools have information
about the school on the website ie about its history
(100) the majority has school photo alums (86) and the
curriculum (82) More than half the schools (56) have the
timetable for parentsrsquo information and less then half (46)
have sport achievements of their pupils The fewest schools
publish teachersrsquo CVs (4) and website counters Study
materials and tips for parents are present on just above a
third the websites (34 36)
Chart 1 ndash content according to county
It is visible from Chart 1 that results do not vary much
between counties The most discrepancy is shown in sportsrsquo
achievements (Istria 72 Split ndash Dalmatia 20) and a 20
discrepancy is present in categories photo album and study
material Other discrepancies are smaller than 20 The 2nd
hypothesis was tested with the chi-square test The
hypothesis is considered valid in case that the probability
of error is less than 5 considering that there is a
statistically significant link between the analysed pair of
variables
Table 3 ndash Relations between counties
CURRI
CULUM
WEB
COUNT
ERS
HOUSE
RULES
INFOR
MATIO
N
TIMET
ABLE
SPORT
S
ACHIE
VEMEN
TS
PHOTO
ALBUM
ONLINE
TESTS
TEACHERS
CVs
TIPS
FOR
PARENTS FORUM
10486462 0024 0148 0125 0081 1159 2657 1471 05208 07812 01096
8 4 8
df 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
p 0876
88491
0
0479
50012
0527
0892
0705
31663
0006
71374
0
044
5920
62
02251
8798
0157299
21
03457
4844
05638
979
It is not difficult to notice that a significant
discrepancy is present only in sportsrsquo achievement whereas
in other elements it does not exist which confirms the
stated hypothesis It can be concluded that there are no
differences between the content in the two counties
The website content can be divided into two categories
content intended for parents and pupils (curriculum
timetable for parentsrsquo information teachersrsquo CVs tips for
parents forum online tests and study material house
rules) and content for promoting school activities and
achievements (sportsrsquo achievements photo albums about the
school web counters)
Table 4 ndash analysis according to purpose
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIESINTENDEED FOR
PARENTS AND
PUPILSYES
PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
ONLINE TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
CURRICULUM 41 82 9 18
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTS
INFORMATION
TIMETABLE
28 56 22 44
FORUM 12 24 38 76 TEACHERSrsquo CV 2 4 48 96 PROMOTION OF
SCHOOL
ACTIVITIES
AND
ACVIEVEMENTS
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
SPORTS
ACHIEVEMENTS23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 WEB COUNTERS 8 16 42 84 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL50 100 0 0
Among the content intended for parents and pupils
which would allow pupils to acquire new knowledge and
encourage parents to visit regularly schools offer in high
percentage (82) the curriculum which is a legal obligation
(public notice) and just over half the schools (56) offer
the timetable for parentsrsquo information About one third of
schools (34 36) publish on its websites study materials
and tips for parents and only 24 have an active forum for
exchanging opinions although these forums have an
insignificant number of open themes none of which were
opened by parents Study materials are most often online
tests with a link from the website and tips for parents are
texts compiled by schools assistants Considering the lack
of assistants in schools this may be the cause for a small
percentage of these materials Some schools under the
section tips for parents have links to interesting Internet
articles
Categories intended for the promotion of school
achievements and activities have more contents every school
has a page dedicated to school history 86 updates the
photo album section and less then half the schools (46)
publish sportsrsquo achievements of the pupils The photo albums
offer pictures from school trips out-of-classroom teaching
school events etc Justifying such a large number of
pictures is debatable since none of the published materials
are protected by password but available to everybody the
question arises if the schools have the parentsrsquo permission
Only 16 of schools pay attention to visits which could be
a significant information showing the number of parents and
pupils visiting the website
The mentioned data show that schools consider relevant
the promotion of school activities and success the history
of the school and the timetable for parentsrsquo information
but tips for parents and school materials along with
exchanging opinions are not a priority Schools consider the
teachersrsquo CVs parentsrsquo meeting announcements or the school
cafeteria menu of no relevance to parents These facts point
to the fact that school websites in Croatia are more online
notice-boards than a real possibility for communication
5 Conclusion
Over the last decade cooperation with parents in
Croatia has been improving however in our schools
traditional forms of cooperation with parents are still
prevailing Although in the world there are specialized
radio and TV channels magazines and Internet sites for
exchanging experiences (Mendel 1998) such practice has not
flung into being in Croatia However over the last couple
of years cooperation via websites e-mails and SMS messages
Summarising its advantages and disadvantages and
considering todayrsquos lifestyle this way of cooperation
should be intensified in our schools Contemporary ways of
communication can additionally improve the communication
between parents and school but just as one more way
alongside other ways Consequently although the modern age
presupposes the use of modern technologies no technology
should replace face-to-face communication between parents
and teachers and the responsibility for a good cooperation
still lies on the school
The research demonstrates the possibilities of
communication between family and school by using modern
technology Elements of school websites are shown as well
as ways of planning the content of a website We consider
this research important for informing teachers and school
management of the possibilities of modern communication
between families and school A school website allows for the
possibility of establishing fast communication however its
mere existence does not guarantee the pupils acquiring new
knowledge and a quality relation between the family and
school It can be a good example for the school management
in creating the school curriculum as a segment allowing for
a fast exchange of information with parents Unfortunately
the educational system in Croatia is traditional and inert
unsuitable for the times and contemporary professions It
does not satisfy the need of the individual and traditional
teaching by using a minimum of technology and information is
utterly un-motivational for the student as well as for the
family The results of this research show that school
websites in Croatia donrsquot fulfil their purpose presenting
pupilsrsquo achievements allowing the parents insight into
everyday activities informing the parents and the wider
community on future activities and strengthening the
cooperation between school home and the local community
Although the purpose of school websites should not be merely
an electronic version of the notice board and an image of
the school that rarely changes its appearance the current
condition of the Croatian school websites in the analysed
counties shows just that therefore confirming the initial
hypothesis
Future research should inquire into the stance of
parents in Croatia on which content they consider important
therefore receiving relevant data which could later be used
by teachers for creating their websites
References
Berger E H (1991) Parent Involvement Yesterday and
Today The Elementary School Journal 91 (3) 209-219
Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb
Educa
Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships
Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76
httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20Articles
ParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
Epstein JL i Sheldon S B (2006) Moving Forward Ideas
for Research on School Family and Community Partnerships
httpwwwcsosjhuedup2000pdfLiterature20Review
2020Epstein20and20Sheldon2006pdf (15112010)
Graham- Clay S (2005) Communicating with Parents
Strategies for Teachers School Community Journal 16 (1)
117-129
Hartshorne R Friedman A Algozzine B i Kaur D
(2008) Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites Educational
Technology amp Society 11 (1) 291-303
Hitrec G(ur) (2006) Škola otvorena roditeljima Zagreb
Udruga roditelja Korak po korak
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE -
- MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE - MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
-
postavljanje novih sadržaja koji će rezultirati kvalitetnom
suradnjom doma i škole te poticati učenike na istraživački
rad iz svojih domova i time unaprjeđivati kvalitetu učenja
32 Problem
Problem ovoga rada jest utvrditi trenutnu svrhu
hrvatskih osnovnoškolskih web stranica (objaviti postignuća
učenika omogućiti roditeljima uvid u svakodnevne
aktivnosti informirati roditelje i širu zajednicu o budućim
aktivnostima i jačanje suradnje između škole doma i
lokalne zajednice)
33 Hipoteze
H-1 Web stranice hrvatskih osnovnih škola svojim
sadržajima nisu model za intenziviranje suradnje s
roditeljima te postavljanje temelja novoj kulturi učenja
H-2 Ne postoji statistički značajna razlika u
sadržajima među dvjema županijama ni u jednoj od jedanaest
kategorija
34 Ispitanici i postupak
Školske web stranice javne su isprave i dobrodošlica
vanjskome svijetu u školu kao i poveznica učenika i
učitelja s vanjskim izvorima informacija te mogućnost
kvalitetnije suradnje s roditeljima Svrha školskih web
stranica je objaviti postignuća učenika omogućiti
roditeljima uvid u svakodnevne aktivnosti informirati
roditelje i širu zajednicu o budućim aktivnostima i jačanje
suradnje između škole doma i lokalne zajednice Svrha
školskih web stranica ne bi trebala biti elektronička
verzija oglasne ploče i slika škole koja rijetko mijenja
svoj izgled
Istraživanje je provedeno metodom analize sadržaja
slučajnim odabirom na 50 web stranica osnovnih škola u
Istarskoj i Splitsko-dalmatinskoj županiji (25 škola po
županiji) Korišten je internetski popis škola Portal za
škole Budući da u Hrvatskoj nije provedeno istraživanje s
roditeljima u kojemu bi se ispitalo koje sadržaje oni
smatraju bitnima i relevantnima autorice su se vodile
istraživanjem provedenim online studijom u Americi (Unal
2008) i elementima koje su u toj studiji izabrali učitelji
i roditelji Analizirani su sljedeći sadržaji web stranica
plan i program o školi (povijest škole) brojač posjeta
kućni red (razredna pravila) raspored sati i informacija za
roditelje rezultati športskih natjecanja foto albumi
online testovi (materijali za učenje) životopisi učitelja
savjeti za roditelje i forum Analiza je obavljena početkom
mjeseca prosinca 2010 pred kraj prvoga polugodišta što je
školama dalo dovoljno vremena za ažuriranje i popunjavanje
stranica U ovom istraživanju nije analiziran dizajn web
stranica jer su u većini slučajeva stranice postavljene
koristeći Carnet hosting uslugu i nude slične poveznice S
obzirom da većina škola ima isti preglednik smatrano je da
škola ima sadržaj ako je unesen vlastiti dokument ili
poveznica
4 Rezultati i rasprava
Tablica 2 - ukupni analizirani sadržaji u postotcima
SADRŽAJ OBJE
ŽUPANIJE DA POSTOTAK NE POSTOTAK
PLAN I
PROGRAM41 82 9 18
BROJAČ
POSJETA8 16 42 84
KUĆNI RED 10 20 40 80 RASPORED
INFORMACIJA28 56 22 44
ŠPORTSKI
USPJESI23 46 27 54
FOTO ALBUMI 43 86 7 14 TESTOVI
ONLINE
(MATERIJALI
ZA UČENJE)
17 34 33 66
ŽIVOTOPIS
UČITELJA2 4 48 96
SAVJETI ZA
RODITELJE18 36 32 64
FORUM 12 24 38 76
O ŠKOLI
(POVIJEST)50 100 0 0
Iz tablice 2 vidljivo je da sve škole na svojim
stranicama imaju podatke o školi odnosno njezinoj povijesti
(100) a najveći dio škola foto albume (86) te plan i
program (82) Više od polovice škola (56) imaju raspored
informacija a nešto manje od polovice (46) športske
uspjehe svojih učenika Najmanji broj škola na svojim
stranicama objavljuju životopise učitelja (4) i brojač
posjeta (16) Materijale za učenje i savjete za roditelje
ima tek nešto više od trećine stranica (34 36)
Grafikon 1 - sadržaji prema županijama
Iz grafikona 1 vidljivo je da se rezultati među županijama
ne razlikuju mnogo Najviše razlika je u sadržaju športskih
uspjeha (Istarska županija 72 Splitsko- dalmatinska 20)
a razlika od 20 pojavila se u kategorijama foto albuma i
materijala za učenje Sve ostale razlike su manje od 20
Hipoteza 2 testirana je hi ndash kvadrat testom Hipoteza se
smatra prihvaćenom u slučaju da je vjerojatnost pogreške
pri tvrdnji da postoji statistički značajna povezanost
analiziranog para varijabli manja od 5
Tablica 3 Relacije među županijama
PLAN
I
PROGR
AM
BRO
JAČ
POSJE
TA
KUĆNI
RED
RASPO
RED
INFOR
MACI
JA
ŠPORT
SKI
USPJE
SI
FOTO
ALBUM
ONLINE
TESTOVI
ŽIVOTOPIS
UČITELJA
SAVJETI
ZA
RODI
TELJE FORUM
10486462 00240148
80125 0081
1159
4
2657
81471 05208 07812 01096
df 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
p 0876
88491
0
0479
50012
0527
0892
0705
31663
0006
71374
0
044
5920
62
02251
8798
0157299
21
03457
4844
05638
979
Nije teško uočiti da se statistički značajna razlika
javlja samo u sadržaju športskih uspjeha a u ostalim
elementima ne postoji što potvrđuje postavljenu hipotezu
Može se dakle zaključiti da nema razlika u sadržajima među
dvjema županijama
Sadržaji web stranica mogu se podijeliti u dvije
kategorije sadržaji namijenjeni roditeljima i učenicima
(plan i program raspored informacija životopis učitelja
savjeti za roditelje forum testovi ili materijali za
učenje kućni red) i sadržaji namijenjeni promociji školskih
aktivnosti i uspjeha (športski uspjesi foto albumi o
školi brojač posjeta)
Tablica 4 - analiza sadržaja prema svrsi
SADRŽAJ OBJE
ŽUPANIJE NAMIJENJENI
RODITELJIMA
I UČENICIMADA
POSTOTAK NE POSTOTAK
TESTOVI
ONLINE
(MATERIJALI
ZA UČENJE)
17 34 33 66
PLAN I
PROGRAM41 82 9 18
SAVJETI ZA
RODITELJE18 36 32 64
KUĆNI RED 10 20 40 80 RASPORED
INFORMACIJA28 56 22 44
FORUM 12 24 38 76 ŽIVOTOPIS
UČITELJA2 4 48 96
PROMOCIJA
ŠKOLSKIH
AKTIVNOSTI
DA POSTOTAK NE POSTOTAK
I USPJEHA
ŠPORTSKI
USPJESI23 46 27 54
FOTO ALBUMI 43 86 7 14 BROJAČ
POSJETA8 16 42 84
O ŠKOLI
(POVIJEST)50 100 0 0
Od sadržaja koji su namijenjeni roditeljima i
učenicima a koji bi učenicima omogućili stjecanje novih
znanja i roditelje potaknuli na česte posjete škole u
visokom postotku (82) nude plan i program što je i
zakonska obveza škole (javna objava) a tek nešto više od
polovice škola (56) objavljuje raspored informacija za
roditelje Nešto više od trećine škola (34 36) na svojim
web stranicama ima materijale za učenje i savjete za
roditelje a tek 24 škola ima aktivan forum za razmjenu
mišljenja iako je i na tim forumima bio zanemariv broj
otvorenih tema od kojih niti jednu nije otvorio roditelj
Materijali za učenje najčešće su online testovi za što
postoji poveznica sa školske web stranice a savjeti za
roditelje tekstovi koje su sastavili stručni suradnici S
obzirom na manjak stručnih suradnika u našim školama moguće
je da je to razlog relativno malog postotka tih sadržaja U
nekim školama u rubrici savjeta za roditelje nalaze se
poveznice sa zanimljivim člancima na internetu
Kategorije koje služe za promociju školskih uspjeha i
aktivnosti imaju više sadržaja svaka škola ima uređenu
stranicu o povijesti škole 86 škola ažurira stranicu s
foto albumima a nešto manje od polovice škola (46) na
svoje stranice stavlja športske uspjehe svojih učenika U
navedenim foto albumima škole nude fotografije s izleta
izvanučioničke nastave priredbi i sl O opravdanosti
velikoga broja fotografija učenika moglo bi se raspravljati
s obzirom da niti jedan objavljeni sadržaj nije zaštićen
lozinkom već je dostupan svima pa se postavlja pitanje
imaju li škole suglasnost roditelja za to Tek 16 škola
vodi računa o posjećenosti svojih stranica a to bi mogao
biti značajan podatak o tome koliko ih učenici i roditelji
posjećuju
Iz navedenih podataka može se zaključiti da je školama
veoma važna promocija aktivnosti i uspjeha škole povijest
ustanove i raspored individualnih informacija a savjeti za
roditelje i materijali za učenike te razmjena mišljenja
nisu prioritetni sadržaji Škole smatraju da je roditeljima
potpuno nevažan stručni životopis učitelja najave
roditeljskih sastanaka ili jelovnici školskih kuhinja Iz
toga proizlazi da su web stranice škola u Hrvatskoj
elektroničke oglasne ploče a ne mogućnost komunikacije
5 Zaključak
Zadnjih desetak godina suradnja s roditeljima i kod nas
se mijenja na bolje ali u našim školama još uvijek
prevladavaju tradicionalni oblici suradnje s roditeljima
Iako u svijetu postoje roditeljski radio i Tv kanali
časopisi i internet stranice za razmjenu iskustava (Mendel
1998) kod nas takva praksa nije zaživjela no posljednjih
godina započela je suradnja putem web stranica e mail i sms
poruka Sumirajući prednosti i nedostatke a s obzirom na
današnji način života i ovaj način suradnje treba
intenzivirati u našim školama Suvremeni načini
komuniciranja mogu dodatno poboljšati komunikaciju između
roditelja i škole ali samo kao još jedan od načina uz sve
ostale navedene načine suradnje Iz toga proizlazi da iako
suvremeno doba pretpostavlja korištenje suvremenih
tehnologija nikakva tehnologija ne bi smjela zamijeniti
komunikaciju bdquolicem u licerdquo roditelja i učitelja a
odgovornost za dobru suradnju s roditeljima i dalje ostaje
na školi
Istraživanje pokazuje mogućnosti komuniciranja obitelji
i škole suvremenom tehnologijom Prikazani su elementi
školskih web stranica te način planiranja sadržaja web
stranice Ovo istraživanje smatramo važnim za informiranje
učitelja i rukovodstva škola o mogućnostima suvremenog
komuniciranja obitelji i škole Školska web stranica otvara
mogućnosti za uspostavljanje brze informacije no samim
postojanjem ne jamči učenicima stjecanje novih znanja i
kvalitetnije povezivanje obitelji i škole Može biti dobar
primjer vodstvu škole u stvaranju školskog kurikuluma kao
segmenta kojim će se omogućavati brza razmjena informacija s
roditeljima Nažalost obrazovni sustav u Hrvatskoj
tradicionalan je i trom neprimjeren vremenu i suvremenim
zanimanjima Ne zadovoljava individualne potrebe pojedinca
a tradicionalnim poučavanjem uz tehnologijski i
informacijski minimum potpuno je nemotivirajući kako za
učenika tako i za obitelj Rezultati ovoga istraživanja
pokazuju da školske web stranice u Hrvatskoj ne ostvaruju
sasvim svoju svrhu objavljivanje postignuća učenika
omogućavanje roditeljima uvid u svakodnevne aktivnosti
informiranje roditelja i šire zajednice o budućim
aktivnostima i jačanje suradnje između škole doma i
lokalne zajednice Iako svrha školskih web stranica ne bi
trebala biti elektronička verzija oglasne ploče i slika
škole koja rijetko mijenja svoj izgled trenutno stanje
hrvatskih web stranica u analiziranim županijama pokazuje
upravo to što potvrđuje početnu hipotezu
U narednim istraživanjima trebalo bi ispitati stavove
roditelja u Hrvatskoj o tome koje sadržaje oni smatraju
važnima te bi se tada dobili relevantni podatci koje bi
učitelji mogli upotrijebiti za kreiranje svojih web
stranica
Literatura
Berger E H (1991) Parent Involvement Yesterday and
Today The Elementary School Journal 91 (3) 209-219
Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb
Educa
Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships
Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76
httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20Articles
ParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
Epstein JL i Sheldon S B (2006) Moving Forward Ideas
for Research on School Family and Community Partnerships
httpwwwcsosjhuedup2000pdfLiterature20Review
2020Epstein20and20Sheldon2006pdf (15112010)
Graham- Clay S (2005) Communicating with Parents
Strategies for Teachers School Community Journal 16 (1)
117-129
Hartshorne R Friedman A Algozzine B i Kaur D
(2008) Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites Educational
Technology amp Society 11 (1) 291-303
Hitrec G(ur) (2006) Škola otvorena roditeljima Zagreb
Udruga roditelja Korak po korak
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
Deana Tavas graduate teacher
Vladimir Nazor Elementary School Rovinj
dtavasyahoocom
Sanja Bilač graduate teacher
Spinut Elementary School Split
sanja9stgmailcom
SCHOOL WEBSITES ndash
POSSIBILITY OF COOPERATION WITH PARENTS
SCHOOL WEBSITES ndash POSSIBILITY OF COOPERATION WITH PARENTS
Abstract In the last fifteen years in Croatia as well as around the world
much research has been done dealing with the importance of cooperation
between parents and school and the obtained results show its importance for all
the parties and that partnership relation between school and parents produces
numerous benefits Besides customary ways of communication like individual
talk and parent meetings written messages informal meetings educational
workshops the involvement of parents in the educational process in the role of
accessory etc the most modern way of communicating with parents is via school
websites teacherrsquos websites e-mails and SMS messages The goal of the
research was to examine if Croatian schoolsrsquo websites had the content which
would prompt the parents for frequent visits and enable pupils to acquire new
knowledge A long term goal was to persuade schools to a regular update of new
materials which would result in quality cooperation between home and school
and persuade pupils to do research from their home and therefore increase the
quality of learning The research has randomly selected 25 elementary school
websites from the county of Istra and 25 websites from the county Split ndash
Dalmatia Collected data show that Croatiarsquos elementary school websites are not
a model neither for increasing the cooperation with parents nor laying the
foundation towards a new culture of learning and that there is no statistically
significant variation in content between the two counties
Key words cooperation with parents Internet school websites website
content
1 Parents and school cooperation
The cooperation between parents and schools is
extremely important and offers manifold benefits for all the
participants in the education process A partnership between
parents and teachers establishes good relations since every
partner introduces their competences in the childrsquos
education The cooperation between parents and teachers
ie school should be the best possible to achieve
outstanding goals Berger (1991) considers that models of
parent involvement are approached more actively nowadays
then it was in the 1960s when the responsibilities of
parents and schools were considered distinct Cooperation
with parents is today considered on of the essential
determinants of an efficient school in terms of general
pedagogy and research has shown that 22 of teachers
consider the lack of parent involvement a serious problem
(Ryan and Cooper 2010) Such cooperation is only partially
directed at prevention ie solution of disciplinary
problems since its benefits are manifold and are
manifested in better grades increased regular attendance
more willingness to work at home and development of more
positive attitudes and behavior Parental involvement in
school life has a positive effect on pupilrsquos achievements
and their motivation and the partnership relation between
parents and schools makes the parents more informed of
school affairs gives them a more positive image in the eyes
of the teachers they contribute to a better functioning of
the school strengthen their self-confidence and assurance
in helping their child at home and they become
participants not mere observers of the education of their
child Teachers have also to gain from a partnership
relation with parents since the parents become allies in
solving problems they become more motivated and satisfied
with their job receive more confidence from parents and
have a better reputation in society
These and other benefits for all the participants in
the education process are the result of growing willingness
and need of parent involvement in the school life According
to Walsh (2002) one way of achieving a successful bond
between parents and school is a consistent and clear two-way
communication
Epstein (1995) lists three learning contexts for
pupils in the family in school and in the community and
lists 6 ways of parent involvement These are parenting
communication volunteering learning at home decision
making and collaborating with the community However all of
these ways of cooperation between parents and school presume
direct communication which at times regardless of the
parentsrsquo willingness is impossible Many parents work
during planned school activities or meetings and have not
the possibility to participate especially in schools which
work in a single shift Todayrsquos way of life and both parents
working prevents personal communication and a more active
involvement of parents with schools
2 Contemporary ways of cooperation between parents and
school
One of the key features of humans is the ability to
communicate The exceptional ability of storing data and
fast sharing of enormous amounts of information have
revolutionized business as well as the everyday life of
mankind The access to information is unlimited the sharing
of ideas and thoughts free the worldrsquos business and economy
are being transformed Significant are the changes in the
approach to education Fast communication is becoming a
trend in shaping the future and therefore revolutionary
models of learning are more and more inherent (eg using
interactive computer technology fast learning) Pupils
are assuming responsibility for their life in a world in
which ldquothose who end their education have no futurerdquo (Dryden
and Vos 2001 p 39) Stronger is the criticism of the
educational system for its inertness in the process of
change and positive initiatives empowered by scientific
research become the link for modernization and improvement
of the school in the 21st century
Technology has become a critical component of everyday
life and an increase in the development and use of school
websites over the last few years is evident (Hartshorne and
ass 2008) Research (Aronson 1995 Cameron and Lee 1997
Clemens-Brower 1997 Cleverson 1999 Ramirez 2001) show that
many teachers experiment with various technologies when
communicating with parents (telephones in classrooms voice
mail video technology radio announcements etc) to
improve cooperation School websites provide parents with
useful content such as educational tips homework e-mails
or the school cafeteria menu and expand the borders of
communication between home and school to a 24 hours a day 7
days a week contact That allows parents whose daily
timetable doesnrsquot permit regular visits to the school and
face-to-face interaction with their child or teacher to be
more informed of what is happening at school Internet
becomes an excellent means of connecting home and school
Swan (2008) believes that schools have a lot of
information and parents want to know more about academic
achievements extracurricular activities parentsrsquo meeting
schedule information such as bus transport or lunch and
that it is important that school websites include accurate
and useful information not an exciting design or newest
technological ldquoornamentsrdquo
Online research (Unal 2008) shows that parents and
teachers recognize the importance of school websites
although they do not agree completely on their content
While teachers suggest that links inside the school
classroom rules teaching curriculum and standards list of
obligatory accessories statistics of websites visitors and
guest book should be essential to a school website
significant divergence (plt05) was seen in parents
disagreeing on these elements On the other hand parents
declare they would like to see online practical tests
academic advisory information information about
administrative issues and school direction as well as
teachers CVs Eventually teachers and parents agree that
results of school sport competition and activities
educational philosophy lesson plans links outside the
institution online articles and newsletters class photo
albums and news teachersrsquo blogs menus examples of
didactic cards personal links and teachersrsquo family
information are not essential elements of schoolsrsquo websites
It can be concluded that regardless of many schools today
having their own website not all are important for the
communication of parents and teachers Past research shows
that the structure and content of school websites should be
carefully planned and developed
According to McKenzie J (1997) the best websites have
four purposes 1 introduce visitors to its mission its
character its offerings to children its stance on new
technologies 2 offer an opportunity for the publishing of
student works and parents education 3 act as a mediator to
a larger share of information and 4 provide rich data
locally collected on curriculum related topics (such as
local history) Some school websites contain all four of
these elements but the majority is concentrated upon
providing a quality service in two or three of these
elements
21 Cooperation between parents and school in Croatia
In the elementary education in Croatia prescribed are
(most often by School statute) the following ways of
cooperation with parents parent meeting individual talks
with teachers and school assistants and written messages to
parents According to Law on Primary and Secondary
Education (Ministry of Education Science and Technology
2008) prescribed is the formation a Parentsrsquo Council which
comprises one parent from every class and the president of
the Parentrsquos Council is appointed a member of the School
Committee Practice shows that these prescribed ways of
cooperation do not satisfy the teachers or the parents
Parent participation is merely formal without real
possibility of influencing important decisions
Centralization and standardization of the curriculum do not
allow schools enough space for adapting to the needs of the
local community parent meeting come down to mere
information sharing where parents are usually passive
recipients of information and parents asked to participate
in some kind of school activity are rare A research
conducted among parents of pupil of the 4th and 7th grade
from all Croatian regions and their teachers (Marušić 2007)
shows that two thirds of parents believes that they have too
little possibility of participating in decision making in
schools more than 90 of parents have never taken part in
activities related to cooperation between family and school
three quarters of parents state that there are no lectures
or workshops organized in schools and a third of parents
does not know if such workshops are organized A substantial
number of parents have shown interest in participating in
various school activities but the initiative is expected to
come from teachers
However the practice in Croatian schools in recent
years has shown undertaking additional strategies for
cooperation with parents Many workshops are being held
parents are involved as assistants on projects and in the
communication between parents and school improvement has
been made in following and assessing the pupilsrsquo progress as
well as in the feedback information on the pupilsrsquo progress
(increasingly common are the pupilsrsquo maps as an example of
systematic authentic and development assessment of pupilsrsquo
progress)
As far as electronic cooperation is concerned Croatia
is one step back The project ldquoNet u školirdquo ndash ldquoNet in the
schoolrdquo was initiated in 2003 and all schools in Croatia
have been equipped with ISDN terminals with the aim to
improve the process of learning by using Internet in
teaching and pupilsrsquo research from home and by laying the
foundation for a new culture of learning based on openness
to new knowledge new media and technology Today all
schools in Croatia have the possibility to set up a website
and the teachers to open e-mail accounts
In Croatia websites of teachers are a rare appearance
but the projects ldquoŠkolski infocentarrdquo and ldquoSMS informativkardquo
have been initiated through which informing parents on
success absence and other school activities via simple and
to the majority accessible way of communication (SMS e-
mail Internet and voicemail) has been enabled A small
number of schools have incorporated a web directory updated
monthly by class masters which parents with a special
password can check at any time Although not the most
important fact it should not be ignored that according to
the Central Bureau of Statistics in 2009 only 38 of
households in Croatia had access to the Internet which
complicates communication via websites and not all teachers
are computer literate Such cooperation has its advantages
and disadvantages
Table 1 ndash advantages and disadvantages of cooperation
via electronic media
ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGESInformation on child received daily
Fast information transmission
Not limited by time or place
Time saving for parents
Time saving for teachers when
sending general information
Parents come to school prepared
themes for conversation are
educational
Both parents and teachers must be
computer literate
All participants (parents
teachers) must have Internet access
Additional work for teachers
(regular updating of data)
Rarer encounters among parents and
teachers
Lack of face-to-face communication
Financial expense for parents when
sending SMS messages
Possible abuse (password)
3 Research methodology
31 Aim of research
The aim of the research was to examine whether the
content of Croatian elementary schools websites encourages
frequent parentsrsquo visits and allows pupils to acquire new
knowledge A long term goal is to encourage schools to post
new materials regularly which would result in high-quality
cooperation between home and school along with encouraging
students to research work from their homes and therefore
advancing the quality of learning
32 Problem
The problem of this work is to determine the current
purpose of Croatian elementary schools websites
33 Hypothesis
H-1 Websites of Croatian elementary schools with its
contents do not pose a model for a more intensive
cooperation with parents or lay the foundations for a new
culture of learning
H-2 There is no statistically significant difference in
content between the two counties in neither of the eleven
categories
34 Participants and procedure
School websites are public documents and welcome the
outer world into the school as well as a link between
pupils and teachers with outer sources of information and a
possibility of better cooperation with parents The function
of school websites is to make public the achievements of
pupils to allow parents insight into daily activities and
to inform parents and the larger community of future
activities as well as strengthening cooperation between
school home and the local community The function of the
schoolsrsquo websites should not be a mere electronic version of
a notice board or a picture of a school that seldom changes
its appearance
The research was conducted by content analysis method
on a random selection of 50 elementary school websites in
the counties of Istria and Split ndash Dalmatia (25 schools per
county) The Internet school directory of ldquoPortal za školerdquo
was used Since in Croatia a research has not been conducted
on parents and the content the parents believed to be
important and relevant the authors were led by a research
done by an online study in USA (Unal 2008) and the elements
selected by teachers and parents in that study The
following website content was analysed curriculum about
the school (school history) web counters house rules
(classroom rules) timetable and information for parents
results of school competition photo albums online tests
(study materials) teachersrsquo CV tips for parents and forum
The analysis was done at the beginning of December 2010 by
the end of the first term giving the schools enough time to
update and enrich the websites This research did not take
into consideration the design of websites since in the
majority of cases it has been done using Carnet hosting
services and offered similar links Regarding the fact that
most schools have the same browser a school is considered
to have a website if a private document or link has been
updated
4 Results and discussion
Table 2 ndash Overall analysed content in percentage
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIES
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCETAGECURRICULUM 41 82 9 18 WEBSITE
COUNTER8 16 42 84
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTSrsquo
INFORMATION28 56 22 44
RESULTS OF
SCHOOL
COMPETITION
23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 ONLINE
TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
TEACHERSrsquo 2 4 48 96
CV
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
FORUM 12 24 38 76 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL
(SCHOOL
HISTORY)
50 100 0 0
For table 2 it is evident that all schools have information
about the school on the website ie about its history
(100) the majority has school photo alums (86) and the
curriculum (82) More than half the schools (56) have the
timetable for parentsrsquo information and less then half (46)
have sport achievements of their pupils The fewest schools
publish teachersrsquo CVs (4) and website counters Study
materials and tips for parents are present on just above a
third the websites (34 36)
Chart 1 ndash content according to county
It is visible from Chart 1 that results do not vary much
between counties The most discrepancy is shown in sportsrsquo
achievements (Istria 72 Split ndash Dalmatia 20) and a 20
discrepancy is present in categories photo album and study
material Other discrepancies are smaller than 20 The 2nd
hypothesis was tested with the chi-square test The
hypothesis is considered valid in case that the probability
of error is less than 5 considering that there is a
statistically significant link between the analysed pair of
variables
Table 3 ndash Relations between counties
CURRI
CULUM
WEB
COUNT
ERS
HOUSE
RULES
INFOR
MATIO
N
TIMET
ABLE
SPORT
S
ACHIE
VEMEN
TS
PHOTO
ALBUM
ONLINE
TESTS
TEACHERS
CVs
TIPS
FOR
PARENTS FORUM
10486462 0024 0148 0125 0081 1159 2657 1471 05208 07812 01096
8 4 8
df 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
p 0876
88491
0
0479
50012
0527
0892
0705
31663
0006
71374
0
044
5920
62
02251
8798
0157299
21
03457
4844
05638
979
It is not difficult to notice that a significant
discrepancy is present only in sportsrsquo achievement whereas
in other elements it does not exist which confirms the
stated hypothesis It can be concluded that there are no
differences between the content in the two counties
The website content can be divided into two categories
content intended for parents and pupils (curriculum
timetable for parentsrsquo information teachersrsquo CVs tips for
parents forum online tests and study material house
rules) and content for promoting school activities and
achievements (sportsrsquo achievements photo albums about the
school web counters)
Table 4 ndash analysis according to purpose
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIESINTENDEED FOR
PARENTS AND
PUPILSYES
PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
ONLINE TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
CURRICULUM 41 82 9 18
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTS
INFORMATION
TIMETABLE
28 56 22 44
FORUM 12 24 38 76 TEACHERSrsquo CV 2 4 48 96 PROMOTION OF
SCHOOL
ACTIVITIES
AND
ACVIEVEMENTS
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
SPORTS
ACHIEVEMENTS23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 WEB COUNTERS 8 16 42 84 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL50 100 0 0
Among the content intended for parents and pupils
which would allow pupils to acquire new knowledge and
encourage parents to visit regularly schools offer in high
percentage (82) the curriculum which is a legal obligation
(public notice) and just over half the schools (56) offer
the timetable for parentsrsquo information About one third of
schools (34 36) publish on its websites study materials
and tips for parents and only 24 have an active forum for
exchanging opinions although these forums have an
insignificant number of open themes none of which were
opened by parents Study materials are most often online
tests with a link from the website and tips for parents are
texts compiled by schools assistants Considering the lack
of assistants in schools this may be the cause for a small
percentage of these materials Some schools under the
section tips for parents have links to interesting Internet
articles
Categories intended for the promotion of school
achievements and activities have more contents every school
has a page dedicated to school history 86 updates the
photo album section and less then half the schools (46)
publish sportsrsquo achievements of the pupils The photo albums
offer pictures from school trips out-of-classroom teaching
school events etc Justifying such a large number of
pictures is debatable since none of the published materials
are protected by password but available to everybody the
question arises if the schools have the parentsrsquo permission
Only 16 of schools pay attention to visits which could be
a significant information showing the number of parents and
pupils visiting the website
The mentioned data show that schools consider relevant
the promotion of school activities and success the history
of the school and the timetable for parentsrsquo information
but tips for parents and school materials along with
exchanging opinions are not a priority Schools consider the
teachersrsquo CVs parentsrsquo meeting announcements or the school
cafeteria menu of no relevance to parents These facts point
to the fact that school websites in Croatia are more online
notice-boards than a real possibility for communication
5 Conclusion
Over the last decade cooperation with parents in
Croatia has been improving however in our schools
traditional forms of cooperation with parents are still
prevailing Although in the world there are specialized
radio and TV channels magazines and Internet sites for
exchanging experiences (Mendel 1998) such practice has not
flung into being in Croatia However over the last couple
of years cooperation via websites e-mails and SMS messages
Summarising its advantages and disadvantages and
considering todayrsquos lifestyle this way of cooperation
should be intensified in our schools Contemporary ways of
communication can additionally improve the communication
between parents and school but just as one more way
alongside other ways Consequently although the modern age
presupposes the use of modern technologies no technology
should replace face-to-face communication between parents
and teachers and the responsibility for a good cooperation
still lies on the school
The research demonstrates the possibilities of
communication between family and school by using modern
technology Elements of school websites are shown as well
as ways of planning the content of a website We consider
this research important for informing teachers and school
management of the possibilities of modern communication
between families and school A school website allows for the
possibility of establishing fast communication however its
mere existence does not guarantee the pupils acquiring new
knowledge and a quality relation between the family and
school It can be a good example for the school management
in creating the school curriculum as a segment allowing for
a fast exchange of information with parents Unfortunately
the educational system in Croatia is traditional and inert
unsuitable for the times and contemporary professions It
does not satisfy the need of the individual and traditional
teaching by using a minimum of technology and information is
utterly un-motivational for the student as well as for the
family The results of this research show that school
websites in Croatia donrsquot fulfil their purpose presenting
pupilsrsquo achievements allowing the parents insight into
everyday activities informing the parents and the wider
community on future activities and strengthening the
cooperation between school home and the local community
Although the purpose of school websites should not be merely
an electronic version of the notice board and an image of
the school that rarely changes its appearance the current
condition of the Croatian school websites in the analysed
counties shows just that therefore confirming the initial
hypothesis
Future research should inquire into the stance of
parents in Croatia on which content they consider important
therefore receiving relevant data which could later be used
by teachers for creating their websites
References
Berger E H (1991) Parent Involvement Yesterday and
Today The Elementary School Journal 91 (3) 209-219
Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb
Educa
Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships
Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76
httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20Articles
ParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
Epstein JL i Sheldon S B (2006) Moving Forward Ideas
for Research on School Family and Community Partnerships
httpwwwcsosjhuedup2000pdfLiterature20Review
2020Epstein20and20Sheldon2006pdf (15112010)
Graham- Clay S (2005) Communicating with Parents
Strategies for Teachers School Community Journal 16 (1)
117-129
Hartshorne R Friedman A Algozzine B i Kaur D
(2008) Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites Educational
Technology amp Society 11 (1) 291-303
Hitrec G(ur) (2006) Škola otvorena roditeljima Zagreb
Udruga roditelja Korak po korak
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE -
- MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE - MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
-
stranica je objaviti postignuća učenika omogućiti
roditeljima uvid u svakodnevne aktivnosti informirati
roditelje i širu zajednicu o budućim aktivnostima i jačanje
suradnje između škole doma i lokalne zajednice Svrha
školskih web stranica ne bi trebala biti elektronička
verzija oglasne ploče i slika škole koja rijetko mijenja
svoj izgled
Istraživanje je provedeno metodom analize sadržaja
slučajnim odabirom na 50 web stranica osnovnih škola u
Istarskoj i Splitsko-dalmatinskoj županiji (25 škola po
županiji) Korišten je internetski popis škola Portal za
škole Budući da u Hrvatskoj nije provedeno istraživanje s
roditeljima u kojemu bi se ispitalo koje sadržaje oni
smatraju bitnima i relevantnima autorice su se vodile
istraživanjem provedenim online studijom u Americi (Unal
2008) i elementima koje su u toj studiji izabrali učitelji
i roditelji Analizirani su sljedeći sadržaji web stranica
plan i program o školi (povijest škole) brojač posjeta
kućni red (razredna pravila) raspored sati i informacija za
roditelje rezultati športskih natjecanja foto albumi
online testovi (materijali za učenje) životopisi učitelja
savjeti za roditelje i forum Analiza je obavljena početkom
mjeseca prosinca 2010 pred kraj prvoga polugodišta što je
školama dalo dovoljno vremena za ažuriranje i popunjavanje
stranica U ovom istraživanju nije analiziran dizajn web
stranica jer su u većini slučajeva stranice postavljene
koristeći Carnet hosting uslugu i nude slične poveznice S
obzirom da većina škola ima isti preglednik smatrano je da
škola ima sadržaj ako je unesen vlastiti dokument ili
poveznica
4 Rezultati i rasprava
Tablica 2 - ukupni analizirani sadržaji u postotcima
SADRŽAJ OBJE
ŽUPANIJE DA POSTOTAK NE POSTOTAK
PLAN I
PROGRAM41 82 9 18
BROJAČ
POSJETA8 16 42 84
KUĆNI RED 10 20 40 80 RASPORED
INFORMACIJA28 56 22 44
ŠPORTSKI
USPJESI23 46 27 54
FOTO ALBUMI 43 86 7 14 TESTOVI
ONLINE
(MATERIJALI
ZA UČENJE)
17 34 33 66
ŽIVOTOPIS
UČITELJA2 4 48 96
SAVJETI ZA
RODITELJE18 36 32 64
FORUM 12 24 38 76
O ŠKOLI
(POVIJEST)50 100 0 0
Iz tablice 2 vidljivo je da sve škole na svojim
stranicama imaju podatke o školi odnosno njezinoj povijesti
(100) a najveći dio škola foto albume (86) te plan i
program (82) Više od polovice škola (56) imaju raspored
informacija a nešto manje od polovice (46) športske
uspjehe svojih učenika Najmanji broj škola na svojim
stranicama objavljuju životopise učitelja (4) i brojač
posjeta (16) Materijale za učenje i savjete za roditelje
ima tek nešto više od trećine stranica (34 36)
Grafikon 1 - sadržaji prema županijama
Iz grafikona 1 vidljivo je da se rezultati među županijama
ne razlikuju mnogo Najviše razlika je u sadržaju športskih
uspjeha (Istarska županija 72 Splitsko- dalmatinska 20)
a razlika od 20 pojavila se u kategorijama foto albuma i
materijala za učenje Sve ostale razlike su manje od 20
Hipoteza 2 testirana je hi ndash kvadrat testom Hipoteza se
smatra prihvaćenom u slučaju da je vjerojatnost pogreške
pri tvrdnji da postoji statistički značajna povezanost
analiziranog para varijabli manja od 5
Tablica 3 Relacije među županijama
PLAN
I
PROGR
AM
BRO
JAČ
POSJE
TA
KUĆNI
RED
RASPO
RED
INFOR
MACI
JA
ŠPORT
SKI
USPJE
SI
FOTO
ALBUM
ONLINE
TESTOVI
ŽIVOTOPIS
UČITELJA
SAVJETI
ZA
RODI
TELJE FORUM
10486462 00240148
80125 0081
1159
4
2657
81471 05208 07812 01096
df 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
p 0876
88491
0
0479
50012
0527
0892
0705
31663
0006
71374
0
044
5920
62
02251
8798
0157299
21
03457
4844
05638
979
Nije teško uočiti da se statistički značajna razlika
javlja samo u sadržaju športskih uspjeha a u ostalim
elementima ne postoji što potvrđuje postavljenu hipotezu
Može se dakle zaključiti da nema razlika u sadržajima među
dvjema županijama
Sadržaji web stranica mogu se podijeliti u dvije
kategorije sadržaji namijenjeni roditeljima i učenicima
(plan i program raspored informacija životopis učitelja
savjeti za roditelje forum testovi ili materijali za
učenje kućni red) i sadržaji namijenjeni promociji školskih
aktivnosti i uspjeha (športski uspjesi foto albumi o
školi brojač posjeta)
Tablica 4 - analiza sadržaja prema svrsi
SADRŽAJ OBJE
ŽUPANIJE NAMIJENJENI
RODITELJIMA
I UČENICIMADA
POSTOTAK NE POSTOTAK
TESTOVI
ONLINE
(MATERIJALI
ZA UČENJE)
17 34 33 66
PLAN I
PROGRAM41 82 9 18
SAVJETI ZA
RODITELJE18 36 32 64
KUĆNI RED 10 20 40 80 RASPORED
INFORMACIJA28 56 22 44
FORUM 12 24 38 76 ŽIVOTOPIS
UČITELJA2 4 48 96
PROMOCIJA
ŠKOLSKIH
AKTIVNOSTI
DA POSTOTAK NE POSTOTAK
I USPJEHA
ŠPORTSKI
USPJESI23 46 27 54
FOTO ALBUMI 43 86 7 14 BROJAČ
POSJETA8 16 42 84
O ŠKOLI
(POVIJEST)50 100 0 0
Od sadržaja koji su namijenjeni roditeljima i
učenicima a koji bi učenicima omogućili stjecanje novih
znanja i roditelje potaknuli na česte posjete škole u
visokom postotku (82) nude plan i program što je i
zakonska obveza škole (javna objava) a tek nešto više od
polovice škola (56) objavljuje raspored informacija za
roditelje Nešto više od trećine škola (34 36) na svojim
web stranicama ima materijale za učenje i savjete za
roditelje a tek 24 škola ima aktivan forum za razmjenu
mišljenja iako je i na tim forumima bio zanemariv broj
otvorenih tema od kojih niti jednu nije otvorio roditelj
Materijali za učenje najčešće su online testovi za što
postoji poveznica sa školske web stranice a savjeti za
roditelje tekstovi koje su sastavili stručni suradnici S
obzirom na manjak stručnih suradnika u našim školama moguće
je da je to razlog relativno malog postotka tih sadržaja U
nekim školama u rubrici savjeta za roditelje nalaze se
poveznice sa zanimljivim člancima na internetu
Kategorije koje služe za promociju školskih uspjeha i
aktivnosti imaju više sadržaja svaka škola ima uređenu
stranicu o povijesti škole 86 škola ažurira stranicu s
foto albumima a nešto manje od polovice škola (46) na
svoje stranice stavlja športske uspjehe svojih učenika U
navedenim foto albumima škole nude fotografije s izleta
izvanučioničke nastave priredbi i sl O opravdanosti
velikoga broja fotografija učenika moglo bi se raspravljati
s obzirom da niti jedan objavljeni sadržaj nije zaštićen
lozinkom već je dostupan svima pa se postavlja pitanje
imaju li škole suglasnost roditelja za to Tek 16 škola
vodi računa o posjećenosti svojih stranica a to bi mogao
biti značajan podatak o tome koliko ih učenici i roditelji
posjećuju
Iz navedenih podataka može se zaključiti da je školama
veoma važna promocija aktivnosti i uspjeha škole povijest
ustanove i raspored individualnih informacija a savjeti za
roditelje i materijali za učenike te razmjena mišljenja
nisu prioritetni sadržaji Škole smatraju da je roditeljima
potpuno nevažan stručni životopis učitelja najave
roditeljskih sastanaka ili jelovnici školskih kuhinja Iz
toga proizlazi da su web stranice škola u Hrvatskoj
elektroničke oglasne ploče a ne mogućnost komunikacije
5 Zaključak
Zadnjih desetak godina suradnja s roditeljima i kod nas
se mijenja na bolje ali u našim školama još uvijek
prevladavaju tradicionalni oblici suradnje s roditeljima
Iako u svijetu postoje roditeljski radio i Tv kanali
časopisi i internet stranice za razmjenu iskustava (Mendel
1998) kod nas takva praksa nije zaživjela no posljednjih
godina započela je suradnja putem web stranica e mail i sms
poruka Sumirajući prednosti i nedostatke a s obzirom na
današnji način života i ovaj način suradnje treba
intenzivirati u našim školama Suvremeni načini
komuniciranja mogu dodatno poboljšati komunikaciju između
roditelja i škole ali samo kao još jedan od načina uz sve
ostale navedene načine suradnje Iz toga proizlazi da iako
suvremeno doba pretpostavlja korištenje suvremenih
tehnologija nikakva tehnologija ne bi smjela zamijeniti
komunikaciju bdquolicem u licerdquo roditelja i učitelja a
odgovornost za dobru suradnju s roditeljima i dalje ostaje
na školi
Istraživanje pokazuje mogućnosti komuniciranja obitelji
i škole suvremenom tehnologijom Prikazani su elementi
školskih web stranica te način planiranja sadržaja web
stranice Ovo istraživanje smatramo važnim za informiranje
učitelja i rukovodstva škola o mogućnostima suvremenog
komuniciranja obitelji i škole Školska web stranica otvara
mogućnosti za uspostavljanje brze informacije no samim
postojanjem ne jamči učenicima stjecanje novih znanja i
kvalitetnije povezivanje obitelji i škole Može biti dobar
primjer vodstvu škole u stvaranju školskog kurikuluma kao
segmenta kojim će se omogućavati brza razmjena informacija s
roditeljima Nažalost obrazovni sustav u Hrvatskoj
tradicionalan je i trom neprimjeren vremenu i suvremenim
zanimanjima Ne zadovoljava individualne potrebe pojedinca
a tradicionalnim poučavanjem uz tehnologijski i
informacijski minimum potpuno je nemotivirajući kako za
učenika tako i za obitelj Rezultati ovoga istraživanja
pokazuju da školske web stranice u Hrvatskoj ne ostvaruju
sasvim svoju svrhu objavljivanje postignuća učenika
omogućavanje roditeljima uvid u svakodnevne aktivnosti
informiranje roditelja i šire zajednice o budućim
aktivnostima i jačanje suradnje između škole doma i
lokalne zajednice Iako svrha školskih web stranica ne bi
trebala biti elektronička verzija oglasne ploče i slika
škole koja rijetko mijenja svoj izgled trenutno stanje
hrvatskih web stranica u analiziranim županijama pokazuje
upravo to što potvrđuje početnu hipotezu
U narednim istraživanjima trebalo bi ispitati stavove
roditelja u Hrvatskoj o tome koje sadržaje oni smatraju
važnima te bi se tada dobili relevantni podatci koje bi
učitelji mogli upotrijebiti za kreiranje svojih web
stranica
Literatura
Berger E H (1991) Parent Involvement Yesterday and
Today The Elementary School Journal 91 (3) 209-219
Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb
Educa
Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships
Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76
httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20Articles
ParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
Epstein JL i Sheldon S B (2006) Moving Forward Ideas
for Research on School Family and Community Partnerships
httpwwwcsosjhuedup2000pdfLiterature20Review
2020Epstein20and20Sheldon2006pdf (15112010)
Graham- Clay S (2005) Communicating with Parents
Strategies for Teachers School Community Journal 16 (1)
117-129
Hartshorne R Friedman A Algozzine B i Kaur D
(2008) Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites Educational
Technology amp Society 11 (1) 291-303
Hitrec G(ur) (2006) Škola otvorena roditeljima Zagreb
Udruga roditelja Korak po korak
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
Deana Tavas graduate teacher
Vladimir Nazor Elementary School Rovinj
dtavasyahoocom
Sanja Bilač graduate teacher
Spinut Elementary School Split
sanja9stgmailcom
SCHOOL WEBSITES ndash
POSSIBILITY OF COOPERATION WITH PARENTS
SCHOOL WEBSITES ndash POSSIBILITY OF COOPERATION WITH PARENTS
Abstract In the last fifteen years in Croatia as well as around the world
much research has been done dealing with the importance of cooperation
between parents and school and the obtained results show its importance for all
the parties and that partnership relation between school and parents produces
numerous benefits Besides customary ways of communication like individual
talk and parent meetings written messages informal meetings educational
workshops the involvement of parents in the educational process in the role of
accessory etc the most modern way of communicating with parents is via school
websites teacherrsquos websites e-mails and SMS messages The goal of the
research was to examine if Croatian schoolsrsquo websites had the content which
would prompt the parents for frequent visits and enable pupils to acquire new
knowledge A long term goal was to persuade schools to a regular update of new
materials which would result in quality cooperation between home and school
and persuade pupils to do research from their home and therefore increase the
quality of learning The research has randomly selected 25 elementary school
websites from the county of Istra and 25 websites from the county Split ndash
Dalmatia Collected data show that Croatiarsquos elementary school websites are not
a model neither for increasing the cooperation with parents nor laying the
foundation towards a new culture of learning and that there is no statistically
significant variation in content between the two counties
Key words cooperation with parents Internet school websites website
content
1 Parents and school cooperation
The cooperation between parents and schools is
extremely important and offers manifold benefits for all the
participants in the education process A partnership between
parents and teachers establishes good relations since every
partner introduces their competences in the childrsquos
education The cooperation between parents and teachers
ie school should be the best possible to achieve
outstanding goals Berger (1991) considers that models of
parent involvement are approached more actively nowadays
then it was in the 1960s when the responsibilities of
parents and schools were considered distinct Cooperation
with parents is today considered on of the essential
determinants of an efficient school in terms of general
pedagogy and research has shown that 22 of teachers
consider the lack of parent involvement a serious problem
(Ryan and Cooper 2010) Such cooperation is only partially
directed at prevention ie solution of disciplinary
problems since its benefits are manifold and are
manifested in better grades increased regular attendance
more willingness to work at home and development of more
positive attitudes and behavior Parental involvement in
school life has a positive effect on pupilrsquos achievements
and their motivation and the partnership relation between
parents and schools makes the parents more informed of
school affairs gives them a more positive image in the eyes
of the teachers they contribute to a better functioning of
the school strengthen their self-confidence and assurance
in helping their child at home and they become
participants not mere observers of the education of their
child Teachers have also to gain from a partnership
relation with parents since the parents become allies in
solving problems they become more motivated and satisfied
with their job receive more confidence from parents and
have a better reputation in society
These and other benefits for all the participants in
the education process are the result of growing willingness
and need of parent involvement in the school life According
to Walsh (2002) one way of achieving a successful bond
between parents and school is a consistent and clear two-way
communication
Epstein (1995) lists three learning contexts for
pupils in the family in school and in the community and
lists 6 ways of parent involvement These are parenting
communication volunteering learning at home decision
making and collaborating with the community However all of
these ways of cooperation between parents and school presume
direct communication which at times regardless of the
parentsrsquo willingness is impossible Many parents work
during planned school activities or meetings and have not
the possibility to participate especially in schools which
work in a single shift Todayrsquos way of life and both parents
working prevents personal communication and a more active
involvement of parents with schools
2 Contemporary ways of cooperation between parents and
school
One of the key features of humans is the ability to
communicate The exceptional ability of storing data and
fast sharing of enormous amounts of information have
revolutionized business as well as the everyday life of
mankind The access to information is unlimited the sharing
of ideas and thoughts free the worldrsquos business and economy
are being transformed Significant are the changes in the
approach to education Fast communication is becoming a
trend in shaping the future and therefore revolutionary
models of learning are more and more inherent (eg using
interactive computer technology fast learning) Pupils
are assuming responsibility for their life in a world in
which ldquothose who end their education have no futurerdquo (Dryden
and Vos 2001 p 39) Stronger is the criticism of the
educational system for its inertness in the process of
change and positive initiatives empowered by scientific
research become the link for modernization and improvement
of the school in the 21st century
Technology has become a critical component of everyday
life and an increase in the development and use of school
websites over the last few years is evident (Hartshorne and
ass 2008) Research (Aronson 1995 Cameron and Lee 1997
Clemens-Brower 1997 Cleverson 1999 Ramirez 2001) show that
many teachers experiment with various technologies when
communicating with parents (telephones in classrooms voice
mail video technology radio announcements etc) to
improve cooperation School websites provide parents with
useful content such as educational tips homework e-mails
or the school cafeteria menu and expand the borders of
communication between home and school to a 24 hours a day 7
days a week contact That allows parents whose daily
timetable doesnrsquot permit regular visits to the school and
face-to-face interaction with their child or teacher to be
more informed of what is happening at school Internet
becomes an excellent means of connecting home and school
Swan (2008) believes that schools have a lot of
information and parents want to know more about academic
achievements extracurricular activities parentsrsquo meeting
schedule information such as bus transport or lunch and
that it is important that school websites include accurate
and useful information not an exciting design or newest
technological ldquoornamentsrdquo
Online research (Unal 2008) shows that parents and
teachers recognize the importance of school websites
although they do not agree completely on their content
While teachers suggest that links inside the school
classroom rules teaching curriculum and standards list of
obligatory accessories statistics of websites visitors and
guest book should be essential to a school website
significant divergence (plt05) was seen in parents
disagreeing on these elements On the other hand parents
declare they would like to see online practical tests
academic advisory information information about
administrative issues and school direction as well as
teachers CVs Eventually teachers and parents agree that
results of school sport competition and activities
educational philosophy lesson plans links outside the
institution online articles and newsletters class photo
albums and news teachersrsquo blogs menus examples of
didactic cards personal links and teachersrsquo family
information are not essential elements of schoolsrsquo websites
It can be concluded that regardless of many schools today
having their own website not all are important for the
communication of parents and teachers Past research shows
that the structure and content of school websites should be
carefully planned and developed
According to McKenzie J (1997) the best websites have
four purposes 1 introduce visitors to its mission its
character its offerings to children its stance on new
technologies 2 offer an opportunity for the publishing of
student works and parents education 3 act as a mediator to
a larger share of information and 4 provide rich data
locally collected on curriculum related topics (such as
local history) Some school websites contain all four of
these elements but the majority is concentrated upon
providing a quality service in two or three of these
elements
21 Cooperation between parents and school in Croatia
In the elementary education in Croatia prescribed are
(most often by School statute) the following ways of
cooperation with parents parent meeting individual talks
with teachers and school assistants and written messages to
parents According to Law on Primary and Secondary
Education (Ministry of Education Science and Technology
2008) prescribed is the formation a Parentsrsquo Council which
comprises one parent from every class and the president of
the Parentrsquos Council is appointed a member of the School
Committee Practice shows that these prescribed ways of
cooperation do not satisfy the teachers or the parents
Parent participation is merely formal without real
possibility of influencing important decisions
Centralization and standardization of the curriculum do not
allow schools enough space for adapting to the needs of the
local community parent meeting come down to mere
information sharing where parents are usually passive
recipients of information and parents asked to participate
in some kind of school activity are rare A research
conducted among parents of pupil of the 4th and 7th grade
from all Croatian regions and their teachers (Marušić 2007)
shows that two thirds of parents believes that they have too
little possibility of participating in decision making in
schools more than 90 of parents have never taken part in
activities related to cooperation between family and school
three quarters of parents state that there are no lectures
or workshops organized in schools and a third of parents
does not know if such workshops are organized A substantial
number of parents have shown interest in participating in
various school activities but the initiative is expected to
come from teachers
However the practice in Croatian schools in recent
years has shown undertaking additional strategies for
cooperation with parents Many workshops are being held
parents are involved as assistants on projects and in the
communication between parents and school improvement has
been made in following and assessing the pupilsrsquo progress as
well as in the feedback information on the pupilsrsquo progress
(increasingly common are the pupilsrsquo maps as an example of
systematic authentic and development assessment of pupilsrsquo
progress)
As far as electronic cooperation is concerned Croatia
is one step back The project ldquoNet u školirdquo ndash ldquoNet in the
schoolrdquo was initiated in 2003 and all schools in Croatia
have been equipped with ISDN terminals with the aim to
improve the process of learning by using Internet in
teaching and pupilsrsquo research from home and by laying the
foundation for a new culture of learning based on openness
to new knowledge new media and technology Today all
schools in Croatia have the possibility to set up a website
and the teachers to open e-mail accounts
In Croatia websites of teachers are a rare appearance
but the projects ldquoŠkolski infocentarrdquo and ldquoSMS informativkardquo
have been initiated through which informing parents on
success absence and other school activities via simple and
to the majority accessible way of communication (SMS e-
mail Internet and voicemail) has been enabled A small
number of schools have incorporated a web directory updated
monthly by class masters which parents with a special
password can check at any time Although not the most
important fact it should not be ignored that according to
the Central Bureau of Statistics in 2009 only 38 of
households in Croatia had access to the Internet which
complicates communication via websites and not all teachers
are computer literate Such cooperation has its advantages
and disadvantages
Table 1 ndash advantages and disadvantages of cooperation
via electronic media
ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGESInformation on child received daily
Fast information transmission
Not limited by time or place
Time saving for parents
Time saving for teachers when
sending general information
Parents come to school prepared
themes for conversation are
educational
Both parents and teachers must be
computer literate
All participants (parents
teachers) must have Internet access
Additional work for teachers
(regular updating of data)
Rarer encounters among parents and
teachers
Lack of face-to-face communication
Financial expense for parents when
sending SMS messages
Possible abuse (password)
3 Research methodology
31 Aim of research
The aim of the research was to examine whether the
content of Croatian elementary schools websites encourages
frequent parentsrsquo visits and allows pupils to acquire new
knowledge A long term goal is to encourage schools to post
new materials regularly which would result in high-quality
cooperation between home and school along with encouraging
students to research work from their homes and therefore
advancing the quality of learning
32 Problem
The problem of this work is to determine the current
purpose of Croatian elementary schools websites
33 Hypothesis
H-1 Websites of Croatian elementary schools with its
contents do not pose a model for a more intensive
cooperation with parents or lay the foundations for a new
culture of learning
H-2 There is no statistically significant difference in
content between the two counties in neither of the eleven
categories
34 Participants and procedure
School websites are public documents and welcome the
outer world into the school as well as a link between
pupils and teachers with outer sources of information and a
possibility of better cooperation with parents The function
of school websites is to make public the achievements of
pupils to allow parents insight into daily activities and
to inform parents and the larger community of future
activities as well as strengthening cooperation between
school home and the local community The function of the
schoolsrsquo websites should not be a mere electronic version of
a notice board or a picture of a school that seldom changes
its appearance
The research was conducted by content analysis method
on a random selection of 50 elementary school websites in
the counties of Istria and Split ndash Dalmatia (25 schools per
county) The Internet school directory of ldquoPortal za školerdquo
was used Since in Croatia a research has not been conducted
on parents and the content the parents believed to be
important and relevant the authors were led by a research
done by an online study in USA (Unal 2008) and the elements
selected by teachers and parents in that study The
following website content was analysed curriculum about
the school (school history) web counters house rules
(classroom rules) timetable and information for parents
results of school competition photo albums online tests
(study materials) teachersrsquo CV tips for parents and forum
The analysis was done at the beginning of December 2010 by
the end of the first term giving the schools enough time to
update and enrich the websites This research did not take
into consideration the design of websites since in the
majority of cases it has been done using Carnet hosting
services and offered similar links Regarding the fact that
most schools have the same browser a school is considered
to have a website if a private document or link has been
updated
4 Results and discussion
Table 2 ndash Overall analysed content in percentage
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIES
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCETAGECURRICULUM 41 82 9 18 WEBSITE
COUNTER8 16 42 84
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTSrsquo
INFORMATION28 56 22 44
RESULTS OF
SCHOOL
COMPETITION
23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 ONLINE
TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
TEACHERSrsquo 2 4 48 96
CV
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
FORUM 12 24 38 76 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL
(SCHOOL
HISTORY)
50 100 0 0
For table 2 it is evident that all schools have information
about the school on the website ie about its history
(100) the majority has school photo alums (86) and the
curriculum (82) More than half the schools (56) have the
timetable for parentsrsquo information and less then half (46)
have sport achievements of their pupils The fewest schools
publish teachersrsquo CVs (4) and website counters Study
materials and tips for parents are present on just above a
third the websites (34 36)
Chart 1 ndash content according to county
It is visible from Chart 1 that results do not vary much
between counties The most discrepancy is shown in sportsrsquo
achievements (Istria 72 Split ndash Dalmatia 20) and a 20
discrepancy is present in categories photo album and study
material Other discrepancies are smaller than 20 The 2nd
hypothesis was tested with the chi-square test The
hypothesis is considered valid in case that the probability
of error is less than 5 considering that there is a
statistically significant link between the analysed pair of
variables
Table 3 ndash Relations between counties
CURRI
CULUM
WEB
COUNT
ERS
HOUSE
RULES
INFOR
MATIO
N
TIMET
ABLE
SPORT
S
ACHIE
VEMEN
TS
PHOTO
ALBUM
ONLINE
TESTS
TEACHERS
CVs
TIPS
FOR
PARENTS FORUM
10486462 0024 0148 0125 0081 1159 2657 1471 05208 07812 01096
8 4 8
df 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
p 0876
88491
0
0479
50012
0527
0892
0705
31663
0006
71374
0
044
5920
62
02251
8798
0157299
21
03457
4844
05638
979
It is not difficult to notice that a significant
discrepancy is present only in sportsrsquo achievement whereas
in other elements it does not exist which confirms the
stated hypothesis It can be concluded that there are no
differences between the content in the two counties
The website content can be divided into two categories
content intended for parents and pupils (curriculum
timetable for parentsrsquo information teachersrsquo CVs tips for
parents forum online tests and study material house
rules) and content for promoting school activities and
achievements (sportsrsquo achievements photo albums about the
school web counters)
Table 4 ndash analysis according to purpose
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIESINTENDEED FOR
PARENTS AND
PUPILSYES
PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
ONLINE TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
CURRICULUM 41 82 9 18
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTS
INFORMATION
TIMETABLE
28 56 22 44
FORUM 12 24 38 76 TEACHERSrsquo CV 2 4 48 96 PROMOTION OF
SCHOOL
ACTIVITIES
AND
ACVIEVEMENTS
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
SPORTS
ACHIEVEMENTS23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 WEB COUNTERS 8 16 42 84 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL50 100 0 0
Among the content intended for parents and pupils
which would allow pupils to acquire new knowledge and
encourage parents to visit regularly schools offer in high
percentage (82) the curriculum which is a legal obligation
(public notice) and just over half the schools (56) offer
the timetable for parentsrsquo information About one third of
schools (34 36) publish on its websites study materials
and tips for parents and only 24 have an active forum for
exchanging opinions although these forums have an
insignificant number of open themes none of which were
opened by parents Study materials are most often online
tests with a link from the website and tips for parents are
texts compiled by schools assistants Considering the lack
of assistants in schools this may be the cause for a small
percentage of these materials Some schools under the
section tips for parents have links to interesting Internet
articles
Categories intended for the promotion of school
achievements and activities have more contents every school
has a page dedicated to school history 86 updates the
photo album section and less then half the schools (46)
publish sportsrsquo achievements of the pupils The photo albums
offer pictures from school trips out-of-classroom teaching
school events etc Justifying such a large number of
pictures is debatable since none of the published materials
are protected by password but available to everybody the
question arises if the schools have the parentsrsquo permission
Only 16 of schools pay attention to visits which could be
a significant information showing the number of parents and
pupils visiting the website
The mentioned data show that schools consider relevant
the promotion of school activities and success the history
of the school and the timetable for parentsrsquo information
but tips for parents and school materials along with
exchanging opinions are not a priority Schools consider the
teachersrsquo CVs parentsrsquo meeting announcements or the school
cafeteria menu of no relevance to parents These facts point
to the fact that school websites in Croatia are more online
notice-boards than a real possibility for communication
5 Conclusion
Over the last decade cooperation with parents in
Croatia has been improving however in our schools
traditional forms of cooperation with parents are still
prevailing Although in the world there are specialized
radio and TV channels magazines and Internet sites for
exchanging experiences (Mendel 1998) such practice has not
flung into being in Croatia However over the last couple
of years cooperation via websites e-mails and SMS messages
Summarising its advantages and disadvantages and
considering todayrsquos lifestyle this way of cooperation
should be intensified in our schools Contemporary ways of
communication can additionally improve the communication
between parents and school but just as one more way
alongside other ways Consequently although the modern age
presupposes the use of modern technologies no technology
should replace face-to-face communication between parents
and teachers and the responsibility for a good cooperation
still lies on the school
The research demonstrates the possibilities of
communication between family and school by using modern
technology Elements of school websites are shown as well
as ways of planning the content of a website We consider
this research important for informing teachers and school
management of the possibilities of modern communication
between families and school A school website allows for the
possibility of establishing fast communication however its
mere existence does not guarantee the pupils acquiring new
knowledge and a quality relation between the family and
school It can be a good example for the school management
in creating the school curriculum as a segment allowing for
a fast exchange of information with parents Unfortunately
the educational system in Croatia is traditional and inert
unsuitable for the times and contemporary professions It
does not satisfy the need of the individual and traditional
teaching by using a minimum of technology and information is
utterly un-motivational for the student as well as for the
family The results of this research show that school
websites in Croatia donrsquot fulfil their purpose presenting
pupilsrsquo achievements allowing the parents insight into
everyday activities informing the parents and the wider
community on future activities and strengthening the
cooperation between school home and the local community
Although the purpose of school websites should not be merely
an electronic version of the notice board and an image of
the school that rarely changes its appearance the current
condition of the Croatian school websites in the analysed
counties shows just that therefore confirming the initial
hypothesis
Future research should inquire into the stance of
parents in Croatia on which content they consider important
therefore receiving relevant data which could later be used
by teachers for creating their websites
References
Berger E H (1991) Parent Involvement Yesterday and
Today The Elementary School Journal 91 (3) 209-219
Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb
Educa
Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships
Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76
httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20Articles
ParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
Epstein JL i Sheldon S B (2006) Moving Forward Ideas
for Research on School Family and Community Partnerships
httpwwwcsosjhuedup2000pdfLiterature20Review
2020Epstein20and20Sheldon2006pdf (15112010)
Graham- Clay S (2005) Communicating with Parents
Strategies for Teachers School Community Journal 16 (1)
117-129
Hartshorne R Friedman A Algozzine B i Kaur D
(2008) Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites Educational
Technology amp Society 11 (1) 291-303
Hitrec G(ur) (2006) Škola otvorena roditeljima Zagreb
Udruga roditelja Korak po korak
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE -
- MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE - MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
-
koristeći Carnet hosting uslugu i nude slične poveznice S
obzirom da većina škola ima isti preglednik smatrano je da
škola ima sadržaj ako je unesen vlastiti dokument ili
poveznica
4 Rezultati i rasprava
Tablica 2 - ukupni analizirani sadržaji u postotcima
SADRŽAJ OBJE
ŽUPANIJE DA POSTOTAK NE POSTOTAK
PLAN I
PROGRAM41 82 9 18
BROJAČ
POSJETA8 16 42 84
KUĆNI RED 10 20 40 80 RASPORED
INFORMACIJA28 56 22 44
ŠPORTSKI
USPJESI23 46 27 54
FOTO ALBUMI 43 86 7 14 TESTOVI
ONLINE
(MATERIJALI
ZA UČENJE)
17 34 33 66
ŽIVOTOPIS
UČITELJA2 4 48 96
SAVJETI ZA
RODITELJE18 36 32 64
FORUM 12 24 38 76
O ŠKOLI
(POVIJEST)50 100 0 0
Iz tablice 2 vidljivo je da sve škole na svojim
stranicama imaju podatke o školi odnosno njezinoj povijesti
(100) a najveći dio škola foto albume (86) te plan i
program (82) Više od polovice škola (56) imaju raspored
informacija a nešto manje od polovice (46) športske
uspjehe svojih učenika Najmanji broj škola na svojim
stranicama objavljuju životopise učitelja (4) i brojač
posjeta (16) Materijale za učenje i savjete za roditelje
ima tek nešto više od trećine stranica (34 36)
Grafikon 1 - sadržaji prema županijama
Iz grafikona 1 vidljivo je da se rezultati među županijama
ne razlikuju mnogo Najviše razlika je u sadržaju športskih
uspjeha (Istarska županija 72 Splitsko- dalmatinska 20)
a razlika od 20 pojavila se u kategorijama foto albuma i
materijala za učenje Sve ostale razlike su manje od 20
Hipoteza 2 testirana je hi ndash kvadrat testom Hipoteza se
smatra prihvaćenom u slučaju da je vjerojatnost pogreške
pri tvrdnji da postoji statistički značajna povezanost
analiziranog para varijabli manja od 5
Tablica 3 Relacije među županijama
PLAN
I
PROGR
AM
BRO
JAČ
POSJE
TA
KUĆNI
RED
RASPO
RED
INFOR
MACI
JA
ŠPORT
SKI
USPJE
SI
FOTO
ALBUM
ONLINE
TESTOVI
ŽIVOTOPIS
UČITELJA
SAVJETI
ZA
RODI
TELJE FORUM
10486462 00240148
80125 0081
1159
4
2657
81471 05208 07812 01096
df 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
p 0876
88491
0
0479
50012
0527
0892
0705
31663
0006
71374
0
044
5920
62
02251
8798
0157299
21
03457
4844
05638
979
Nije teško uočiti da se statistički značajna razlika
javlja samo u sadržaju športskih uspjeha a u ostalim
elementima ne postoji što potvrđuje postavljenu hipotezu
Može se dakle zaključiti da nema razlika u sadržajima među
dvjema županijama
Sadržaji web stranica mogu se podijeliti u dvije
kategorije sadržaji namijenjeni roditeljima i učenicima
(plan i program raspored informacija životopis učitelja
savjeti za roditelje forum testovi ili materijali za
učenje kućni red) i sadržaji namijenjeni promociji školskih
aktivnosti i uspjeha (športski uspjesi foto albumi o
školi brojač posjeta)
Tablica 4 - analiza sadržaja prema svrsi
SADRŽAJ OBJE
ŽUPANIJE NAMIJENJENI
RODITELJIMA
I UČENICIMADA
POSTOTAK NE POSTOTAK
TESTOVI
ONLINE
(MATERIJALI
ZA UČENJE)
17 34 33 66
PLAN I
PROGRAM41 82 9 18
SAVJETI ZA
RODITELJE18 36 32 64
KUĆNI RED 10 20 40 80 RASPORED
INFORMACIJA28 56 22 44
FORUM 12 24 38 76 ŽIVOTOPIS
UČITELJA2 4 48 96
PROMOCIJA
ŠKOLSKIH
AKTIVNOSTI
DA POSTOTAK NE POSTOTAK
I USPJEHA
ŠPORTSKI
USPJESI23 46 27 54
FOTO ALBUMI 43 86 7 14 BROJAČ
POSJETA8 16 42 84
O ŠKOLI
(POVIJEST)50 100 0 0
Od sadržaja koji su namijenjeni roditeljima i
učenicima a koji bi učenicima omogućili stjecanje novih
znanja i roditelje potaknuli na česte posjete škole u
visokom postotku (82) nude plan i program što je i
zakonska obveza škole (javna objava) a tek nešto više od
polovice škola (56) objavljuje raspored informacija za
roditelje Nešto više od trećine škola (34 36) na svojim
web stranicama ima materijale za učenje i savjete za
roditelje a tek 24 škola ima aktivan forum za razmjenu
mišljenja iako je i na tim forumima bio zanemariv broj
otvorenih tema od kojih niti jednu nije otvorio roditelj
Materijali za učenje najčešće su online testovi za što
postoji poveznica sa školske web stranice a savjeti za
roditelje tekstovi koje su sastavili stručni suradnici S
obzirom na manjak stručnih suradnika u našim školama moguće
je da je to razlog relativno malog postotka tih sadržaja U
nekim školama u rubrici savjeta za roditelje nalaze se
poveznice sa zanimljivim člancima na internetu
Kategorije koje služe za promociju školskih uspjeha i
aktivnosti imaju više sadržaja svaka škola ima uređenu
stranicu o povijesti škole 86 škola ažurira stranicu s
foto albumima a nešto manje od polovice škola (46) na
svoje stranice stavlja športske uspjehe svojih učenika U
navedenim foto albumima škole nude fotografije s izleta
izvanučioničke nastave priredbi i sl O opravdanosti
velikoga broja fotografija učenika moglo bi se raspravljati
s obzirom da niti jedan objavljeni sadržaj nije zaštićen
lozinkom već je dostupan svima pa se postavlja pitanje
imaju li škole suglasnost roditelja za to Tek 16 škola
vodi računa o posjećenosti svojih stranica a to bi mogao
biti značajan podatak o tome koliko ih učenici i roditelji
posjećuju
Iz navedenih podataka može se zaključiti da je školama
veoma važna promocija aktivnosti i uspjeha škole povijest
ustanove i raspored individualnih informacija a savjeti za
roditelje i materijali za učenike te razmjena mišljenja
nisu prioritetni sadržaji Škole smatraju da je roditeljima
potpuno nevažan stručni životopis učitelja najave
roditeljskih sastanaka ili jelovnici školskih kuhinja Iz
toga proizlazi da su web stranice škola u Hrvatskoj
elektroničke oglasne ploče a ne mogućnost komunikacije
5 Zaključak
Zadnjih desetak godina suradnja s roditeljima i kod nas
se mijenja na bolje ali u našim školama još uvijek
prevladavaju tradicionalni oblici suradnje s roditeljima
Iako u svijetu postoje roditeljski radio i Tv kanali
časopisi i internet stranice za razmjenu iskustava (Mendel
1998) kod nas takva praksa nije zaživjela no posljednjih
godina započela je suradnja putem web stranica e mail i sms
poruka Sumirajući prednosti i nedostatke a s obzirom na
današnji način života i ovaj način suradnje treba
intenzivirati u našim školama Suvremeni načini
komuniciranja mogu dodatno poboljšati komunikaciju između
roditelja i škole ali samo kao još jedan od načina uz sve
ostale navedene načine suradnje Iz toga proizlazi da iako
suvremeno doba pretpostavlja korištenje suvremenih
tehnologija nikakva tehnologija ne bi smjela zamijeniti
komunikaciju bdquolicem u licerdquo roditelja i učitelja a
odgovornost za dobru suradnju s roditeljima i dalje ostaje
na školi
Istraživanje pokazuje mogućnosti komuniciranja obitelji
i škole suvremenom tehnologijom Prikazani su elementi
školskih web stranica te način planiranja sadržaja web
stranice Ovo istraživanje smatramo važnim za informiranje
učitelja i rukovodstva škola o mogućnostima suvremenog
komuniciranja obitelji i škole Školska web stranica otvara
mogućnosti za uspostavljanje brze informacije no samim
postojanjem ne jamči učenicima stjecanje novih znanja i
kvalitetnije povezivanje obitelji i škole Može biti dobar
primjer vodstvu škole u stvaranju školskog kurikuluma kao
segmenta kojim će se omogućavati brza razmjena informacija s
roditeljima Nažalost obrazovni sustav u Hrvatskoj
tradicionalan je i trom neprimjeren vremenu i suvremenim
zanimanjima Ne zadovoljava individualne potrebe pojedinca
a tradicionalnim poučavanjem uz tehnologijski i
informacijski minimum potpuno je nemotivirajući kako za
učenika tako i za obitelj Rezultati ovoga istraživanja
pokazuju da školske web stranice u Hrvatskoj ne ostvaruju
sasvim svoju svrhu objavljivanje postignuća učenika
omogućavanje roditeljima uvid u svakodnevne aktivnosti
informiranje roditelja i šire zajednice o budućim
aktivnostima i jačanje suradnje između škole doma i
lokalne zajednice Iako svrha školskih web stranica ne bi
trebala biti elektronička verzija oglasne ploče i slika
škole koja rijetko mijenja svoj izgled trenutno stanje
hrvatskih web stranica u analiziranim županijama pokazuje
upravo to što potvrđuje početnu hipotezu
U narednim istraživanjima trebalo bi ispitati stavove
roditelja u Hrvatskoj o tome koje sadržaje oni smatraju
važnima te bi se tada dobili relevantni podatci koje bi
učitelji mogli upotrijebiti za kreiranje svojih web
stranica
Literatura
Berger E H (1991) Parent Involvement Yesterday and
Today The Elementary School Journal 91 (3) 209-219
Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb
Educa
Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships
Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76
httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20Articles
ParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
Epstein JL i Sheldon S B (2006) Moving Forward Ideas
for Research on School Family and Community Partnerships
httpwwwcsosjhuedup2000pdfLiterature20Review
2020Epstein20and20Sheldon2006pdf (15112010)
Graham- Clay S (2005) Communicating with Parents
Strategies for Teachers School Community Journal 16 (1)
117-129
Hartshorne R Friedman A Algozzine B i Kaur D
(2008) Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites Educational
Technology amp Society 11 (1) 291-303
Hitrec G(ur) (2006) Škola otvorena roditeljima Zagreb
Udruga roditelja Korak po korak
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
Deana Tavas graduate teacher
Vladimir Nazor Elementary School Rovinj
dtavasyahoocom
Sanja Bilač graduate teacher
Spinut Elementary School Split
sanja9stgmailcom
SCHOOL WEBSITES ndash
POSSIBILITY OF COOPERATION WITH PARENTS
SCHOOL WEBSITES ndash POSSIBILITY OF COOPERATION WITH PARENTS
Abstract In the last fifteen years in Croatia as well as around the world
much research has been done dealing with the importance of cooperation
between parents and school and the obtained results show its importance for all
the parties and that partnership relation between school and parents produces
numerous benefits Besides customary ways of communication like individual
talk and parent meetings written messages informal meetings educational
workshops the involvement of parents in the educational process in the role of
accessory etc the most modern way of communicating with parents is via school
websites teacherrsquos websites e-mails and SMS messages The goal of the
research was to examine if Croatian schoolsrsquo websites had the content which
would prompt the parents for frequent visits and enable pupils to acquire new
knowledge A long term goal was to persuade schools to a regular update of new
materials which would result in quality cooperation between home and school
and persuade pupils to do research from their home and therefore increase the
quality of learning The research has randomly selected 25 elementary school
websites from the county of Istra and 25 websites from the county Split ndash
Dalmatia Collected data show that Croatiarsquos elementary school websites are not
a model neither for increasing the cooperation with parents nor laying the
foundation towards a new culture of learning and that there is no statistically
significant variation in content between the two counties
Key words cooperation with parents Internet school websites website
content
1 Parents and school cooperation
The cooperation between parents and schools is
extremely important and offers manifold benefits for all the
participants in the education process A partnership between
parents and teachers establishes good relations since every
partner introduces their competences in the childrsquos
education The cooperation between parents and teachers
ie school should be the best possible to achieve
outstanding goals Berger (1991) considers that models of
parent involvement are approached more actively nowadays
then it was in the 1960s when the responsibilities of
parents and schools were considered distinct Cooperation
with parents is today considered on of the essential
determinants of an efficient school in terms of general
pedagogy and research has shown that 22 of teachers
consider the lack of parent involvement a serious problem
(Ryan and Cooper 2010) Such cooperation is only partially
directed at prevention ie solution of disciplinary
problems since its benefits are manifold and are
manifested in better grades increased regular attendance
more willingness to work at home and development of more
positive attitudes and behavior Parental involvement in
school life has a positive effect on pupilrsquos achievements
and their motivation and the partnership relation between
parents and schools makes the parents more informed of
school affairs gives them a more positive image in the eyes
of the teachers they contribute to a better functioning of
the school strengthen their self-confidence and assurance
in helping their child at home and they become
participants not mere observers of the education of their
child Teachers have also to gain from a partnership
relation with parents since the parents become allies in
solving problems they become more motivated and satisfied
with their job receive more confidence from parents and
have a better reputation in society
These and other benefits for all the participants in
the education process are the result of growing willingness
and need of parent involvement in the school life According
to Walsh (2002) one way of achieving a successful bond
between parents and school is a consistent and clear two-way
communication
Epstein (1995) lists three learning contexts for
pupils in the family in school and in the community and
lists 6 ways of parent involvement These are parenting
communication volunteering learning at home decision
making and collaborating with the community However all of
these ways of cooperation between parents and school presume
direct communication which at times regardless of the
parentsrsquo willingness is impossible Many parents work
during planned school activities or meetings and have not
the possibility to participate especially in schools which
work in a single shift Todayrsquos way of life and both parents
working prevents personal communication and a more active
involvement of parents with schools
2 Contemporary ways of cooperation between parents and
school
One of the key features of humans is the ability to
communicate The exceptional ability of storing data and
fast sharing of enormous amounts of information have
revolutionized business as well as the everyday life of
mankind The access to information is unlimited the sharing
of ideas and thoughts free the worldrsquos business and economy
are being transformed Significant are the changes in the
approach to education Fast communication is becoming a
trend in shaping the future and therefore revolutionary
models of learning are more and more inherent (eg using
interactive computer technology fast learning) Pupils
are assuming responsibility for their life in a world in
which ldquothose who end their education have no futurerdquo (Dryden
and Vos 2001 p 39) Stronger is the criticism of the
educational system for its inertness in the process of
change and positive initiatives empowered by scientific
research become the link for modernization and improvement
of the school in the 21st century
Technology has become a critical component of everyday
life and an increase in the development and use of school
websites over the last few years is evident (Hartshorne and
ass 2008) Research (Aronson 1995 Cameron and Lee 1997
Clemens-Brower 1997 Cleverson 1999 Ramirez 2001) show that
many teachers experiment with various technologies when
communicating with parents (telephones in classrooms voice
mail video technology radio announcements etc) to
improve cooperation School websites provide parents with
useful content such as educational tips homework e-mails
or the school cafeteria menu and expand the borders of
communication between home and school to a 24 hours a day 7
days a week contact That allows parents whose daily
timetable doesnrsquot permit regular visits to the school and
face-to-face interaction with their child or teacher to be
more informed of what is happening at school Internet
becomes an excellent means of connecting home and school
Swan (2008) believes that schools have a lot of
information and parents want to know more about academic
achievements extracurricular activities parentsrsquo meeting
schedule information such as bus transport or lunch and
that it is important that school websites include accurate
and useful information not an exciting design or newest
technological ldquoornamentsrdquo
Online research (Unal 2008) shows that parents and
teachers recognize the importance of school websites
although they do not agree completely on their content
While teachers suggest that links inside the school
classroom rules teaching curriculum and standards list of
obligatory accessories statistics of websites visitors and
guest book should be essential to a school website
significant divergence (plt05) was seen in parents
disagreeing on these elements On the other hand parents
declare they would like to see online practical tests
academic advisory information information about
administrative issues and school direction as well as
teachers CVs Eventually teachers and parents agree that
results of school sport competition and activities
educational philosophy lesson plans links outside the
institution online articles and newsletters class photo
albums and news teachersrsquo blogs menus examples of
didactic cards personal links and teachersrsquo family
information are not essential elements of schoolsrsquo websites
It can be concluded that regardless of many schools today
having their own website not all are important for the
communication of parents and teachers Past research shows
that the structure and content of school websites should be
carefully planned and developed
According to McKenzie J (1997) the best websites have
four purposes 1 introduce visitors to its mission its
character its offerings to children its stance on new
technologies 2 offer an opportunity for the publishing of
student works and parents education 3 act as a mediator to
a larger share of information and 4 provide rich data
locally collected on curriculum related topics (such as
local history) Some school websites contain all four of
these elements but the majority is concentrated upon
providing a quality service in two or three of these
elements
21 Cooperation between parents and school in Croatia
In the elementary education in Croatia prescribed are
(most often by School statute) the following ways of
cooperation with parents parent meeting individual talks
with teachers and school assistants and written messages to
parents According to Law on Primary and Secondary
Education (Ministry of Education Science and Technology
2008) prescribed is the formation a Parentsrsquo Council which
comprises one parent from every class and the president of
the Parentrsquos Council is appointed a member of the School
Committee Practice shows that these prescribed ways of
cooperation do not satisfy the teachers or the parents
Parent participation is merely formal without real
possibility of influencing important decisions
Centralization and standardization of the curriculum do not
allow schools enough space for adapting to the needs of the
local community parent meeting come down to mere
information sharing where parents are usually passive
recipients of information and parents asked to participate
in some kind of school activity are rare A research
conducted among parents of pupil of the 4th and 7th grade
from all Croatian regions and their teachers (Marušić 2007)
shows that two thirds of parents believes that they have too
little possibility of participating in decision making in
schools more than 90 of parents have never taken part in
activities related to cooperation between family and school
three quarters of parents state that there are no lectures
or workshops organized in schools and a third of parents
does not know if such workshops are organized A substantial
number of parents have shown interest in participating in
various school activities but the initiative is expected to
come from teachers
However the practice in Croatian schools in recent
years has shown undertaking additional strategies for
cooperation with parents Many workshops are being held
parents are involved as assistants on projects and in the
communication between parents and school improvement has
been made in following and assessing the pupilsrsquo progress as
well as in the feedback information on the pupilsrsquo progress
(increasingly common are the pupilsrsquo maps as an example of
systematic authentic and development assessment of pupilsrsquo
progress)
As far as electronic cooperation is concerned Croatia
is one step back The project ldquoNet u školirdquo ndash ldquoNet in the
schoolrdquo was initiated in 2003 and all schools in Croatia
have been equipped with ISDN terminals with the aim to
improve the process of learning by using Internet in
teaching and pupilsrsquo research from home and by laying the
foundation for a new culture of learning based on openness
to new knowledge new media and technology Today all
schools in Croatia have the possibility to set up a website
and the teachers to open e-mail accounts
In Croatia websites of teachers are a rare appearance
but the projects ldquoŠkolski infocentarrdquo and ldquoSMS informativkardquo
have been initiated through which informing parents on
success absence and other school activities via simple and
to the majority accessible way of communication (SMS e-
mail Internet and voicemail) has been enabled A small
number of schools have incorporated a web directory updated
monthly by class masters which parents with a special
password can check at any time Although not the most
important fact it should not be ignored that according to
the Central Bureau of Statistics in 2009 only 38 of
households in Croatia had access to the Internet which
complicates communication via websites and not all teachers
are computer literate Such cooperation has its advantages
and disadvantages
Table 1 ndash advantages and disadvantages of cooperation
via electronic media
ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGESInformation on child received daily
Fast information transmission
Not limited by time or place
Time saving for parents
Time saving for teachers when
sending general information
Parents come to school prepared
themes for conversation are
educational
Both parents and teachers must be
computer literate
All participants (parents
teachers) must have Internet access
Additional work for teachers
(regular updating of data)
Rarer encounters among parents and
teachers
Lack of face-to-face communication
Financial expense for parents when
sending SMS messages
Possible abuse (password)
3 Research methodology
31 Aim of research
The aim of the research was to examine whether the
content of Croatian elementary schools websites encourages
frequent parentsrsquo visits and allows pupils to acquire new
knowledge A long term goal is to encourage schools to post
new materials regularly which would result in high-quality
cooperation between home and school along with encouraging
students to research work from their homes and therefore
advancing the quality of learning
32 Problem
The problem of this work is to determine the current
purpose of Croatian elementary schools websites
33 Hypothesis
H-1 Websites of Croatian elementary schools with its
contents do not pose a model for a more intensive
cooperation with parents or lay the foundations for a new
culture of learning
H-2 There is no statistically significant difference in
content between the two counties in neither of the eleven
categories
34 Participants and procedure
School websites are public documents and welcome the
outer world into the school as well as a link between
pupils and teachers with outer sources of information and a
possibility of better cooperation with parents The function
of school websites is to make public the achievements of
pupils to allow parents insight into daily activities and
to inform parents and the larger community of future
activities as well as strengthening cooperation between
school home and the local community The function of the
schoolsrsquo websites should not be a mere electronic version of
a notice board or a picture of a school that seldom changes
its appearance
The research was conducted by content analysis method
on a random selection of 50 elementary school websites in
the counties of Istria and Split ndash Dalmatia (25 schools per
county) The Internet school directory of ldquoPortal za školerdquo
was used Since in Croatia a research has not been conducted
on parents and the content the parents believed to be
important and relevant the authors were led by a research
done by an online study in USA (Unal 2008) and the elements
selected by teachers and parents in that study The
following website content was analysed curriculum about
the school (school history) web counters house rules
(classroom rules) timetable and information for parents
results of school competition photo albums online tests
(study materials) teachersrsquo CV tips for parents and forum
The analysis was done at the beginning of December 2010 by
the end of the first term giving the schools enough time to
update and enrich the websites This research did not take
into consideration the design of websites since in the
majority of cases it has been done using Carnet hosting
services and offered similar links Regarding the fact that
most schools have the same browser a school is considered
to have a website if a private document or link has been
updated
4 Results and discussion
Table 2 ndash Overall analysed content in percentage
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIES
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCETAGECURRICULUM 41 82 9 18 WEBSITE
COUNTER8 16 42 84
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTSrsquo
INFORMATION28 56 22 44
RESULTS OF
SCHOOL
COMPETITION
23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 ONLINE
TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
TEACHERSrsquo 2 4 48 96
CV
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
FORUM 12 24 38 76 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL
(SCHOOL
HISTORY)
50 100 0 0
For table 2 it is evident that all schools have information
about the school on the website ie about its history
(100) the majority has school photo alums (86) and the
curriculum (82) More than half the schools (56) have the
timetable for parentsrsquo information and less then half (46)
have sport achievements of their pupils The fewest schools
publish teachersrsquo CVs (4) and website counters Study
materials and tips for parents are present on just above a
third the websites (34 36)
Chart 1 ndash content according to county
It is visible from Chart 1 that results do not vary much
between counties The most discrepancy is shown in sportsrsquo
achievements (Istria 72 Split ndash Dalmatia 20) and a 20
discrepancy is present in categories photo album and study
material Other discrepancies are smaller than 20 The 2nd
hypothesis was tested with the chi-square test The
hypothesis is considered valid in case that the probability
of error is less than 5 considering that there is a
statistically significant link between the analysed pair of
variables
Table 3 ndash Relations between counties
CURRI
CULUM
WEB
COUNT
ERS
HOUSE
RULES
INFOR
MATIO
N
TIMET
ABLE
SPORT
S
ACHIE
VEMEN
TS
PHOTO
ALBUM
ONLINE
TESTS
TEACHERS
CVs
TIPS
FOR
PARENTS FORUM
10486462 0024 0148 0125 0081 1159 2657 1471 05208 07812 01096
8 4 8
df 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
p 0876
88491
0
0479
50012
0527
0892
0705
31663
0006
71374
0
044
5920
62
02251
8798
0157299
21
03457
4844
05638
979
It is not difficult to notice that a significant
discrepancy is present only in sportsrsquo achievement whereas
in other elements it does not exist which confirms the
stated hypothesis It can be concluded that there are no
differences between the content in the two counties
The website content can be divided into two categories
content intended for parents and pupils (curriculum
timetable for parentsrsquo information teachersrsquo CVs tips for
parents forum online tests and study material house
rules) and content for promoting school activities and
achievements (sportsrsquo achievements photo albums about the
school web counters)
Table 4 ndash analysis according to purpose
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIESINTENDEED FOR
PARENTS AND
PUPILSYES
PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
ONLINE TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
CURRICULUM 41 82 9 18
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTS
INFORMATION
TIMETABLE
28 56 22 44
FORUM 12 24 38 76 TEACHERSrsquo CV 2 4 48 96 PROMOTION OF
SCHOOL
ACTIVITIES
AND
ACVIEVEMENTS
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
SPORTS
ACHIEVEMENTS23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 WEB COUNTERS 8 16 42 84 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL50 100 0 0
Among the content intended for parents and pupils
which would allow pupils to acquire new knowledge and
encourage parents to visit regularly schools offer in high
percentage (82) the curriculum which is a legal obligation
(public notice) and just over half the schools (56) offer
the timetable for parentsrsquo information About one third of
schools (34 36) publish on its websites study materials
and tips for parents and only 24 have an active forum for
exchanging opinions although these forums have an
insignificant number of open themes none of which were
opened by parents Study materials are most often online
tests with a link from the website and tips for parents are
texts compiled by schools assistants Considering the lack
of assistants in schools this may be the cause for a small
percentage of these materials Some schools under the
section tips for parents have links to interesting Internet
articles
Categories intended for the promotion of school
achievements and activities have more contents every school
has a page dedicated to school history 86 updates the
photo album section and less then half the schools (46)
publish sportsrsquo achievements of the pupils The photo albums
offer pictures from school trips out-of-classroom teaching
school events etc Justifying such a large number of
pictures is debatable since none of the published materials
are protected by password but available to everybody the
question arises if the schools have the parentsrsquo permission
Only 16 of schools pay attention to visits which could be
a significant information showing the number of parents and
pupils visiting the website
The mentioned data show that schools consider relevant
the promotion of school activities and success the history
of the school and the timetable for parentsrsquo information
but tips for parents and school materials along with
exchanging opinions are not a priority Schools consider the
teachersrsquo CVs parentsrsquo meeting announcements or the school
cafeteria menu of no relevance to parents These facts point
to the fact that school websites in Croatia are more online
notice-boards than a real possibility for communication
5 Conclusion
Over the last decade cooperation with parents in
Croatia has been improving however in our schools
traditional forms of cooperation with parents are still
prevailing Although in the world there are specialized
radio and TV channels magazines and Internet sites for
exchanging experiences (Mendel 1998) such practice has not
flung into being in Croatia However over the last couple
of years cooperation via websites e-mails and SMS messages
Summarising its advantages and disadvantages and
considering todayrsquos lifestyle this way of cooperation
should be intensified in our schools Contemporary ways of
communication can additionally improve the communication
between parents and school but just as one more way
alongside other ways Consequently although the modern age
presupposes the use of modern technologies no technology
should replace face-to-face communication between parents
and teachers and the responsibility for a good cooperation
still lies on the school
The research demonstrates the possibilities of
communication between family and school by using modern
technology Elements of school websites are shown as well
as ways of planning the content of a website We consider
this research important for informing teachers and school
management of the possibilities of modern communication
between families and school A school website allows for the
possibility of establishing fast communication however its
mere existence does not guarantee the pupils acquiring new
knowledge and a quality relation between the family and
school It can be a good example for the school management
in creating the school curriculum as a segment allowing for
a fast exchange of information with parents Unfortunately
the educational system in Croatia is traditional and inert
unsuitable for the times and contemporary professions It
does not satisfy the need of the individual and traditional
teaching by using a minimum of technology and information is
utterly un-motivational for the student as well as for the
family The results of this research show that school
websites in Croatia donrsquot fulfil their purpose presenting
pupilsrsquo achievements allowing the parents insight into
everyday activities informing the parents and the wider
community on future activities and strengthening the
cooperation between school home and the local community
Although the purpose of school websites should not be merely
an electronic version of the notice board and an image of
the school that rarely changes its appearance the current
condition of the Croatian school websites in the analysed
counties shows just that therefore confirming the initial
hypothesis
Future research should inquire into the stance of
parents in Croatia on which content they consider important
therefore receiving relevant data which could later be used
by teachers for creating their websites
References
Berger E H (1991) Parent Involvement Yesterday and
Today The Elementary School Journal 91 (3) 209-219
Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb
Educa
Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships
Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76
httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20Articles
ParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
Epstein JL i Sheldon S B (2006) Moving Forward Ideas
for Research on School Family and Community Partnerships
httpwwwcsosjhuedup2000pdfLiterature20Review
2020Epstein20and20Sheldon2006pdf (15112010)
Graham- Clay S (2005) Communicating with Parents
Strategies for Teachers School Community Journal 16 (1)
117-129
Hartshorne R Friedman A Algozzine B i Kaur D
(2008) Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites Educational
Technology amp Society 11 (1) 291-303
Hitrec G(ur) (2006) Škola otvorena roditeljima Zagreb
Udruga roditelja Korak po korak
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE -
- MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE - MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
-
O ŠKOLI
(POVIJEST)50 100 0 0
Iz tablice 2 vidljivo je da sve škole na svojim
stranicama imaju podatke o školi odnosno njezinoj povijesti
(100) a najveći dio škola foto albume (86) te plan i
program (82) Više od polovice škola (56) imaju raspored
informacija a nešto manje od polovice (46) športske
uspjehe svojih učenika Najmanji broj škola na svojim
stranicama objavljuju životopise učitelja (4) i brojač
posjeta (16) Materijale za učenje i savjete za roditelje
ima tek nešto više od trećine stranica (34 36)
Grafikon 1 - sadržaji prema županijama
Iz grafikona 1 vidljivo je da se rezultati među županijama
ne razlikuju mnogo Najviše razlika je u sadržaju športskih
uspjeha (Istarska županija 72 Splitsko- dalmatinska 20)
a razlika od 20 pojavila se u kategorijama foto albuma i
materijala za učenje Sve ostale razlike su manje od 20
Hipoteza 2 testirana je hi ndash kvadrat testom Hipoteza se
smatra prihvaćenom u slučaju da je vjerojatnost pogreške
pri tvrdnji da postoji statistički značajna povezanost
analiziranog para varijabli manja od 5
Tablica 3 Relacije među županijama
PLAN
I
PROGR
AM
BRO
JAČ
POSJE
TA
KUĆNI
RED
RASPO
RED
INFOR
MACI
JA
ŠPORT
SKI
USPJE
SI
FOTO
ALBUM
ONLINE
TESTOVI
ŽIVOTOPIS
UČITELJA
SAVJETI
ZA
RODI
TELJE FORUM
10486462 00240148
80125 0081
1159
4
2657
81471 05208 07812 01096
df 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
p 0876
88491
0
0479
50012
0527
0892
0705
31663
0006
71374
0
044
5920
62
02251
8798
0157299
21
03457
4844
05638
979
Nije teško uočiti da se statistički značajna razlika
javlja samo u sadržaju športskih uspjeha a u ostalim
elementima ne postoji što potvrđuje postavljenu hipotezu
Može se dakle zaključiti da nema razlika u sadržajima među
dvjema županijama
Sadržaji web stranica mogu se podijeliti u dvije
kategorije sadržaji namijenjeni roditeljima i učenicima
(plan i program raspored informacija životopis učitelja
savjeti za roditelje forum testovi ili materijali za
učenje kućni red) i sadržaji namijenjeni promociji školskih
aktivnosti i uspjeha (športski uspjesi foto albumi o
školi brojač posjeta)
Tablica 4 - analiza sadržaja prema svrsi
SADRŽAJ OBJE
ŽUPANIJE NAMIJENJENI
RODITELJIMA
I UČENICIMADA
POSTOTAK NE POSTOTAK
TESTOVI
ONLINE
(MATERIJALI
ZA UČENJE)
17 34 33 66
PLAN I
PROGRAM41 82 9 18
SAVJETI ZA
RODITELJE18 36 32 64
KUĆNI RED 10 20 40 80 RASPORED
INFORMACIJA28 56 22 44
FORUM 12 24 38 76 ŽIVOTOPIS
UČITELJA2 4 48 96
PROMOCIJA
ŠKOLSKIH
AKTIVNOSTI
DA POSTOTAK NE POSTOTAK
I USPJEHA
ŠPORTSKI
USPJESI23 46 27 54
FOTO ALBUMI 43 86 7 14 BROJAČ
POSJETA8 16 42 84
O ŠKOLI
(POVIJEST)50 100 0 0
Od sadržaja koji su namijenjeni roditeljima i
učenicima a koji bi učenicima omogućili stjecanje novih
znanja i roditelje potaknuli na česte posjete škole u
visokom postotku (82) nude plan i program što je i
zakonska obveza škole (javna objava) a tek nešto više od
polovice škola (56) objavljuje raspored informacija za
roditelje Nešto više od trećine škola (34 36) na svojim
web stranicama ima materijale za učenje i savjete za
roditelje a tek 24 škola ima aktivan forum za razmjenu
mišljenja iako je i na tim forumima bio zanemariv broj
otvorenih tema od kojih niti jednu nije otvorio roditelj
Materijali za učenje najčešće su online testovi za što
postoji poveznica sa školske web stranice a savjeti za
roditelje tekstovi koje su sastavili stručni suradnici S
obzirom na manjak stručnih suradnika u našim školama moguće
je da je to razlog relativno malog postotka tih sadržaja U
nekim školama u rubrici savjeta za roditelje nalaze se
poveznice sa zanimljivim člancima na internetu
Kategorije koje služe za promociju školskih uspjeha i
aktivnosti imaju više sadržaja svaka škola ima uređenu
stranicu o povijesti škole 86 škola ažurira stranicu s
foto albumima a nešto manje od polovice škola (46) na
svoje stranice stavlja športske uspjehe svojih učenika U
navedenim foto albumima škole nude fotografije s izleta
izvanučioničke nastave priredbi i sl O opravdanosti
velikoga broja fotografija učenika moglo bi se raspravljati
s obzirom da niti jedan objavljeni sadržaj nije zaštićen
lozinkom već je dostupan svima pa se postavlja pitanje
imaju li škole suglasnost roditelja za to Tek 16 škola
vodi računa o posjećenosti svojih stranica a to bi mogao
biti značajan podatak o tome koliko ih učenici i roditelji
posjećuju
Iz navedenih podataka može se zaključiti da je školama
veoma važna promocija aktivnosti i uspjeha škole povijest
ustanove i raspored individualnih informacija a savjeti za
roditelje i materijali za učenike te razmjena mišljenja
nisu prioritetni sadržaji Škole smatraju da je roditeljima
potpuno nevažan stručni životopis učitelja najave
roditeljskih sastanaka ili jelovnici školskih kuhinja Iz
toga proizlazi da su web stranice škola u Hrvatskoj
elektroničke oglasne ploče a ne mogućnost komunikacije
5 Zaključak
Zadnjih desetak godina suradnja s roditeljima i kod nas
se mijenja na bolje ali u našim školama još uvijek
prevladavaju tradicionalni oblici suradnje s roditeljima
Iako u svijetu postoje roditeljski radio i Tv kanali
časopisi i internet stranice za razmjenu iskustava (Mendel
1998) kod nas takva praksa nije zaživjela no posljednjih
godina započela je suradnja putem web stranica e mail i sms
poruka Sumirajući prednosti i nedostatke a s obzirom na
današnji način života i ovaj način suradnje treba
intenzivirati u našim školama Suvremeni načini
komuniciranja mogu dodatno poboljšati komunikaciju između
roditelja i škole ali samo kao još jedan od načina uz sve
ostale navedene načine suradnje Iz toga proizlazi da iako
suvremeno doba pretpostavlja korištenje suvremenih
tehnologija nikakva tehnologija ne bi smjela zamijeniti
komunikaciju bdquolicem u licerdquo roditelja i učitelja a
odgovornost za dobru suradnju s roditeljima i dalje ostaje
na školi
Istraživanje pokazuje mogućnosti komuniciranja obitelji
i škole suvremenom tehnologijom Prikazani su elementi
školskih web stranica te način planiranja sadržaja web
stranice Ovo istraživanje smatramo važnim za informiranje
učitelja i rukovodstva škola o mogućnostima suvremenog
komuniciranja obitelji i škole Školska web stranica otvara
mogućnosti za uspostavljanje brze informacije no samim
postojanjem ne jamči učenicima stjecanje novih znanja i
kvalitetnije povezivanje obitelji i škole Može biti dobar
primjer vodstvu škole u stvaranju školskog kurikuluma kao
segmenta kojim će se omogućavati brza razmjena informacija s
roditeljima Nažalost obrazovni sustav u Hrvatskoj
tradicionalan je i trom neprimjeren vremenu i suvremenim
zanimanjima Ne zadovoljava individualne potrebe pojedinca
a tradicionalnim poučavanjem uz tehnologijski i
informacijski minimum potpuno je nemotivirajući kako za
učenika tako i za obitelj Rezultati ovoga istraživanja
pokazuju da školske web stranice u Hrvatskoj ne ostvaruju
sasvim svoju svrhu objavljivanje postignuća učenika
omogućavanje roditeljima uvid u svakodnevne aktivnosti
informiranje roditelja i šire zajednice o budućim
aktivnostima i jačanje suradnje između škole doma i
lokalne zajednice Iako svrha školskih web stranica ne bi
trebala biti elektronička verzija oglasne ploče i slika
škole koja rijetko mijenja svoj izgled trenutno stanje
hrvatskih web stranica u analiziranim županijama pokazuje
upravo to što potvrđuje početnu hipotezu
U narednim istraživanjima trebalo bi ispitati stavove
roditelja u Hrvatskoj o tome koje sadržaje oni smatraju
važnima te bi se tada dobili relevantni podatci koje bi
učitelji mogli upotrijebiti za kreiranje svojih web
stranica
Literatura
Berger E H (1991) Parent Involvement Yesterday and
Today The Elementary School Journal 91 (3) 209-219
Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb
Educa
Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships
Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76
httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20Articles
ParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
Epstein JL i Sheldon S B (2006) Moving Forward Ideas
for Research on School Family and Community Partnerships
httpwwwcsosjhuedup2000pdfLiterature20Review
2020Epstein20and20Sheldon2006pdf (15112010)
Graham- Clay S (2005) Communicating with Parents
Strategies for Teachers School Community Journal 16 (1)
117-129
Hartshorne R Friedman A Algozzine B i Kaur D
(2008) Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites Educational
Technology amp Society 11 (1) 291-303
Hitrec G(ur) (2006) Škola otvorena roditeljima Zagreb
Udruga roditelja Korak po korak
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
Deana Tavas graduate teacher
Vladimir Nazor Elementary School Rovinj
dtavasyahoocom
Sanja Bilač graduate teacher
Spinut Elementary School Split
sanja9stgmailcom
SCHOOL WEBSITES ndash
POSSIBILITY OF COOPERATION WITH PARENTS
SCHOOL WEBSITES ndash POSSIBILITY OF COOPERATION WITH PARENTS
Abstract In the last fifteen years in Croatia as well as around the world
much research has been done dealing with the importance of cooperation
between parents and school and the obtained results show its importance for all
the parties and that partnership relation between school and parents produces
numerous benefits Besides customary ways of communication like individual
talk and parent meetings written messages informal meetings educational
workshops the involvement of parents in the educational process in the role of
accessory etc the most modern way of communicating with parents is via school
websites teacherrsquos websites e-mails and SMS messages The goal of the
research was to examine if Croatian schoolsrsquo websites had the content which
would prompt the parents for frequent visits and enable pupils to acquire new
knowledge A long term goal was to persuade schools to a regular update of new
materials which would result in quality cooperation between home and school
and persuade pupils to do research from their home and therefore increase the
quality of learning The research has randomly selected 25 elementary school
websites from the county of Istra and 25 websites from the county Split ndash
Dalmatia Collected data show that Croatiarsquos elementary school websites are not
a model neither for increasing the cooperation with parents nor laying the
foundation towards a new culture of learning and that there is no statistically
significant variation in content between the two counties
Key words cooperation with parents Internet school websites website
content
1 Parents and school cooperation
The cooperation between parents and schools is
extremely important and offers manifold benefits for all the
participants in the education process A partnership between
parents and teachers establishes good relations since every
partner introduces their competences in the childrsquos
education The cooperation between parents and teachers
ie school should be the best possible to achieve
outstanding goals Berger (1991) considers that models of
parent involvement are approached more actively nowadays
then it was in the 1960s when the responsibilities of
parents and schools were considered distinct Cooperation
with parents is today considered on of the essential
determinants of an efficient school in terms of general
pedagogy and research has shown that 22 of teachers
consider the lack of parent involvement a serious problem
(Ryan and Cooper 2010) Such cooperation is only partially
directed at prevention ie solution of disciplinary
problems since its benefits are manifold and are
manifested in better grades increased regular attendance
more willingness to work at home and development of more
positive attitudes and behavior Parental involvement in
school life has a positive effect on pupilrsquos achievements
and their motivation and the partnership relation between
parents and schools makes the parents more informed of
school affairs gives them a more positive image in the eyes
of the teachers they contribute to a better functioning of
the school strengthen their self-confidence and assurance
in helping their child at home and they become
participants not mere observers of the education of their
child Teachers have also to gain from a partnership
relation with parents since the parents become allies in
solving problems they become more motivated and satisfied
with their job receive more confidence from parents and
have a better reputation in society
These and other benefits for all the participants in
the education process are the result of growing willingness
and need of parent involvement in the school life According
to Walsh (2002) one way of achieving a successful bond
between parents and school is a consistent and clear two-way
communication
Epstein (1995) lists three learning contexts for
pupils in the family in school and in the community and
lists 6 ways of parent involvement These are parenting
communication volunteering learning at home decision
making and collaborating with the community However all of
these ways of cooperation between parents and school presume
direct communication which at times regardless of the
parentsrsquo willingness is impossible Many parents work
during planned school activities or meetings and have not
the possibility to participate especially in schools which
work in a single shift Todayrsquos way of life and both parents
working prevents personal communication and a more active
involvement of parents with schools
2 Contemporary ways of cooperation between parents and
school
One of the key features of humans is the ability to
communicate The exceptional ability of storing data and
fast sharing of enormous amounts of information have
revolutionized business as well as the everyday life of
mankind The access to information is unlimited the sharing
of ideas and thoughts free the worldrsquos business and economy
are being transformed Significant are the changes in the
approach to education Fast communication is becoming a
trend in shaping the future and therefore revolutionary
models of learning are more and more inherent (eg using
interactive computer technology fast learning) Pupils
are assuming responsibility for their life in a world in
which ldquothose who end their education have no futurerdquo (Dryden
and Vos 2001 p 39) Stronger is the criticism of the
educational system for its inertness in the process of
change and positive initiatives empowered by scientific
research become the link for modernization and improvement
of the school in the 21st century
Technology has become a critical component of everyday
life and an increase in the development and use of school
websites over the last few years is evident (Hartshorne and
ass 2008) Research (Aronson 1995 Cameron and Lee 1997
Clemens-Brower 1997 Cleverson 1999 Ramirez 2001) show that
many teachers experiment with various technologies when
communicating with parents (telephones in classrooms voice
mail video technology radio announcements etc) to
improve cooperation School websites provide parents with
useful content such as educational tips homework e-mails
or the school cafeteria menu and expand the borders of
communication between home and school to a 24 hours a day 7
days a week contact That allows parents whose daily
timetable doesnrsquot permit regular visits to the school and
face-to-face interaction with their child or teacher to be
more informed of what is happening at school Internet
becomes an excellent means of connecting home and school
Swan (2008) believes that schools have a lot of
information and parents want to know more about academic
achievements extracurricular activities parentsrsquo meeting
schedule information such as bus transport or lunch and
that it is important that school websites include accurate
and useful information not an exciting design or newest
technological ldquoornamentsrdquo
Online research (Unal 2008) shows that parents and
teachers recognize the importance of school websites
although they do not agree completely on their content
While teachers suggest that links inside the school
classroom rules teaching curriculum and standards list of
obligatory accessories statistics of websites visitors and
guest book should be essential to a school website
significant divergence (plt05) was seen in parents
disagreeing on these elements On the other hand parents
declare they would like to see online practical tests
academic advisory information information about
administrative issues and school direction as well as
teachers CVs Eventually teachers and parents agree that
results of school sport competition and activities
educational philosophy lesson plans links outside the
institution online articles and newsletters class photo
albums and news teachersrsquo blogs menus examples of
didactic cards personal links and teachersrsquo family
information are not essential elements of schoolsrsquo websites
It can be concluded that regardless of many schools today
having their own website not all are important for the
communication of parents and teachers Past research shows
that the structure and content of school websites should be
carefully planned and developed
According to McKenzie J (1997) the best websites have
four purposes 1 introduce visitors to its mission its
character its offerings to children its stance on new
technologies 2 offer an opportunity for the publishing of
student works and parents education 3 act as a mediator to
a larger share of information and 4 provide rich data
locally collected on curriculum related topics (such as
local history) Some school websites contain all four of
these elements but the majority is concentrated upon
providing a quality service in two or three of these
elements
21 Cooperation between parents and school in Croatia
In the elementary education in Croatia prescribed are
(most often by School statute) the following ways of
cooperation with parents parent meeting individual talks
with teachers and school assistants and written messages to
parents According to Law on Primary and Secondary
Education (Ministry of Education Science and Technology
2008) prescribed is the formation a Parentsrsquo Council which
comprises one parent from every class and the president of
the Parentrsquos Council is appointed a member of the School
Committee Practice shows that these prescribed ways of
cooperation do not satisfy the teachers or the parents
Parent participation is merely formal without real
possibility of influencing important decisions
Centralization and standardization of the curriculum do not
allow schools enough space for adapting to the needs of the
local community parent meeting come down to mere
information sharing where parents are usually passive
recipients of information and parents asked to participate
in some kind of school activity are rare A research
conducted among parents of pupil of the 4th and 7th grade
from all Croatian regions and their teachers (Marušić 2007)
shows that two thirds of parents believes that they have too
little possibility of participating in decision making in
schools more than 90 of parents have never taken part in
activities related to cooperation between family and school
three quarters of parents state that there are no lectures
or workshops organized in schools and a third of parents
does not know if such workshops are organized A substantial
number of parents have shown interest in participating in
various school activities but the initiative is expected to
come from teachers
However the practice in Croatian schools in recent
years has shown undertaking additional strategies for
cooperation with parents Many workshops are being held
parents are involved as assistants on projects and in the
communication between parents and school improvement has
been made in following and assessing the pupilsrsquo progress as
well as in the feedback information on the pupilsrsquo progress
(increasingly common are the pupilsrsquo maps as an example of
systematic authentic and development assessment of pupilsrsquo
progress)
As far as electronic cooperation is concerned Croatia
is one step back The project ldquoNet u školirdquo ndash ldquoNet in the
schoolrdquo was initiated in 2003 and all schools in Croatia
have been equipped with ISDN terminals with the aim to
improve the process of learning by using Internet in
teaching and pupilsrsquo research from home and by laying the
foundation for a new culture of learning based on openness
to new knowledge new media and technology Today all
schools in Croatia have the possibility to set up a website
and the teachers to open e-mail accounts
In Croatia websites of teachers are a rare appearance
but the projects ldquoŠkolski infocentarrdquo and ldquoSMS informativkardquo
have been initiated through which informing parents on
success absence and other school activities via simple and
to the majority accessible way of communication (SMS e-
mail Internet and voicemail) has been enabled A small
number of schools have incorporated a web directory updated
monthly by class masters which parents with a special
password can check at any time Although not the most
important fact it should not be ignored that according to
the Central Bureau of Statistics in 2009 only 38 of
households in Croatia had access to the Internet which
complicates communication via websites and not all teachers
are computer literate Such cooperation has its advantages
and disadvantages
Table 1 ndash advantages and disadvantages of cooperation
via electronic media
ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGESInformation on child received daily
Fast information transmission
Not limited by time or place
Time saving for parents
Time saving for teachers when
sending general information
Parents come to school prepared
themes for conversation are
educational
Both parents and teachers must be
computer literate
All participants (parents
teachers) must have Internet access
Additional work for teachers
(regular updating of data)
Rarer encounters among parents and
teachers
Lack of face-to-face communication
Financial expense for parents when
sending SMS messages
Possible abuse (password)
3 Research methodology
31 Aim of research
The aim of the research was to examine whether the
content of Croatian elementary schools websites encourages
frequent parentsrsquo visits and allows pupils to acquire new
knowledge A long term goal is to encourage schools to post
new materials regularly which would result in high-quality
cooperation between home and school along with encouraging
students to research work from their homes and therefore
advancing the quality of learning
32 Problem
The problem of this work is to determine the current
purpose of Croatian elementary schools websites
33 Hypothesis
H-1 Websites of Croatian elementary schools with its
contents do not pose a model for a more intensive
cooperation with parents or lay the foundations for a new
culture of learning
H-2 There is no statistically significant difference in
content between the two counties in neither of the eleven
categories
34 Participants and procedure
School websites are public documents and welcome the
outer world into the school as well as a link between
pupils and teachers with outer sources of information and a
possibility of better cooperation with parents The function
of school websites is to make public the achievements of
pupils to allow parents insight into daily activities and
to inform parents and the larger community of future
activities as well as strengthening cooperation between
school home and the local community The function of the
schoolsrsquo websites should not be a mere electronic version of
a notice board or a picture of a school that seldom changes
its appearance
The research was conducted by content analysis method
on a random selection of 50 elementary school websites in
the counties of Istria and Split ndash Dalmatia (25 schools per
county) The Internet school directory of ldquoPortal za školerdquo
was used Since in Croatia a research has not been conducted
on parents and the content the parents believed to be
important and relevant the authors were led by a research
done by an online study in USA (Unal 2008) and the elements
selected by teachers and parents in that study The
following website content was analysed curriculum about
the school (school history) web counters house rules
(classroom rules) timetable and information for parents
results of school competition photo albums online tests
(study materials) teachersrsquo CV tips for parents and forum
The analysis was done at the beginning of December 2010 by
the end of the first term giving the schools enough time to
update and enrich the websites This research did not take
into consideration the design of websites since in the
majority of cases it has been done using Carnet hosting
services and offered similar links Regarding the fact that
most schools have the same browser a school is considered
to have a website if a private document or link has been
updated
4 Results and discussion
Table 2 ndash Overall analysed content in percentage
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIES
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCETAGECURRICULUM 41 82 9 18 WEBSITE
COUNTER8 16 42 84
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTSrsquo
INFORMATION28 56 22 44
RESULTS OF
SCHOOL
COMPETITION
23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 ONLINE
TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
TEACHERSrsquo 2 4 48 96
CV
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
FORUM 12 24 38 76 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL
(SCHOOL
HISTORY)
50 100 0 0
For table 2 it is evident that all schools have information
about the school on the website ie about its history
(100) the majority has school photo alums (86) and the
curriculum (82) More than half the schools (56) have the
timetable for parentsrsquo information and less then half (46)
have sport achievements of their pupils The fewest schools
publish teachersrsquo CVs (4) and website counters Study
materials and tips for parents are present on just above a
third the websites (34 36)
Chart 1 ndash content according to county
It is visible from Chart 1 that results do not vary much
between counties The most discrepancy is shown in sportsrsquo
achievements (Istria 72 Split ndash Dalmatia 20) and a 20
discrepancy is present in categories photo album and study
material Other discrepancies are smaller than 20 The 2nd
hypothesis was tested with the chi-square test The
hypothesis is considered valid in case that the probability
of error is less than 5 considering that there is a
statistically significant link between the analysed pair of
variables
Table 3 ndash Relations between counties
CURRI
CULUM
WEB
COUNT
ERS
HOUSE
RULES
INFOR
MATIO
N
TIMET
ABLE
SPORT
S
ACHIE
VEMEN
TS
PHOTO
ALBUM
ONLINE
TESTS
TEACHERS
CVs
TIPS
FOR
PARENTS FORUM
10486462 0024 0148 0125 0081 1159 2657 1471 05208 07812 01096
8 4 8
df 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
p 0876
88491
0
0479
50012
0527
0892
0705
31663
0006
71374
0
044
5920
62
02251
8798
0157299
21
03457
4844
05638
979
It is not difficult to notice that a significant
discrepancy is present only in sportsrsquo achievement whereas
in other elements it does not exist which confirms the
stated hypothesis It can be concluded that there are no
differences between the content in the two counties
The website content can be divided into two categories
content intended for parents and pupils (curriculum
timetable for parentsrsquo information teachersrsquo CVs tips for
parents forum online tests and study material house
rules) and content for promoting school activities and
achievements (sportsrsquo achievements photo albums about the
school web counters)
Table 4 ndash analysis according to purpose
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIESINTENDEED FOR
PARENTS AND
PUPILSYES
PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
ONLINE TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
CURRICULUM 41 82 9 18
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTS
INFORMATION
TIMETABLE
28 56 22 44
FORUM 12 24 38 76 TEACHERSrsquo CV 2 4 48 96 PROMOTION OF
SCHOOL
ACTIVITIES
AND
ACVIEVEMENTS
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
SPORTS
ACHIEVEMENTS23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 WEB COUNTERS 8 16 42 84 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL50 100 0 0
Among the content intended for parents and pupils
which would allow pupils to acquire new knowledge and
encourage parents to visit regularly schools offer in high
percentage (82) the curriculum which is a legal obligation
(public notice) and just over half the schools (56) offer
the timetable for parentsrsquo information About one third of
schools (34 36) publish on its websites study materials
and tips for parents and only 24 have an active forum for
exchanging opinions although these forums have an
insignificant number of open themes none of which were
opened by parents Study materials are most often online
tests with a link from the website and tips for parents are
texts compiled by schools assistants Considering the lack
of assistants in schools this may be the cause for a small
percentage of these materials Some schools under the
section tips for parents have links to interesting Internet
articles
Categories intended for the promotion of school
achievements and activities have more contents every school
has a page dedicated to school history 86 updates the
photo album section and less then half the schools (46)
publish sportsrsquo achievements of the pupils The photo albums
offer pictures from school trips out-of-classroom teaching
school events etc Justifying such a large number of
pictures is debatable since none of the published materials
are protected by password but available to everybody the
question arises if the schools have the parentsrsquo permission
Only 16 of schools pay attention to visits which could be
a significant information showing the number of parents and
pupils visiting the website
The mentioned data show that schools consider relevant
the promotion of school activities and success the history
of the school and the timetable for parentsrsquo information
but tips for parents and school materials along with
exchanging opinions are not a priority Schools consider the
teachersrsquo CVs parentsrsquo meeting announcements or the school
cafeteria menu of no relevance to parents These facts point
to the fact that school websites in Croatia are more online
notice-boards than a real possibility for communication
5 Conclusion
Over the last decade cooperation with parents in
Croatia has been improving however in our schools
traditional forms of cooperation with parents are still
prevailing Although in the world there are specialized
radio and TV channels magazines and Internet sites for
exchanging experiences (Mendel 1998) such practice has not
flung into being in Croatia However over the last couple
of years cooperation via websites e-mails and SMS messages
Summarising its advantages and disadvantages and
considering todayrsquos lifestyle this way of cooperation
should be intensified in our schools Contemporary ways of
communication can additionally improve the communication
between parents and school but just as one more way
alongside other ways Consequently although the modern age
presupposes the use of modern technologies no technology
should replace face-to-face communication between parents
and teachers and the responsibility for a good cooperation
still lies on the school
The research demonstrates the possibilities of
communication between family and school by using modern
technology Elements of school websites are shown as well
as ways of planning the content of a website We consider
this research important for informing teachers and school
management of the possibilities of modern communication
between families and school A school website allows for the
possibility of establishing fast communication however its
mere existence does not guarantee the pupils acquiring new
knowledge and a quality relation between the family and
school It can be a good example for the school management
in creating the school curriculum as a segment allowing for
a fast exchange of information with parents Unfortunately
the educational system in Croatia is traditional and inert
unsuitable for the times and contemporary professions It
does not satisfy the need of the individual and traditional
teaching by using a minimum of technology and information is
utterly un-motivational for the student as well as for the
family The results of this research show that school
websites in Croatia donrsquot fulfil their purpose presenting
pupilsrsquo achievements allowing the parents insight into
everyday activities informing the parents and the wider
community on future activities and strengthening the
cooperation between school home and the local community
Although the purpose of school websites should not be merely
an electronic version of the notice board and an image of
the school that rarely changes its appearance the current
condition of the Croatian school websites in the analysed
counties shows just that therefore confirming the initial
hypothesis
Future research should inquire into the stance of
parents in Croatia on which content they consider important
therefore receiving relevant data which could later be used
by teachers for creating their websites
References
Berger E H (1991) Parent Involvement Yesterday and
Today The Elementary School Journal 91 (3) 209-219
Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb
Educa
Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships
Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76
httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20Articles
ParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
Epstein JL i Sheldon S B (2006) Moving Forward Ideas
for Research on School Family and Community Partnerships
httpwwwcsosjhuedup2000pdfLiterature20Review
2020Epstein20and20Sheldon2006pdf (15112010)
Graham- Clay S (2005) Communicating with Parents
Strategies for Teachers School Community Journal 16 (1)
117-129
Hartshorne R Friedman A Algozzine B i Kaur D
(2008) Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites Educational
Technology amp Society 11 (1) 291-303
Hitrec G(ur) (2006) Škola otvorena roditeljima Zagreb
Udruga roditelja Korak po korak
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE -
- MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE - MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
-
Iz grafikona 1 vidljivo je da se rezultati među županijama
ne razlikuju mnogo Najviše razlika je u sadržaju športskih
uspjeha (Istarska županija 72 Splitsko- dalmatinska 20)
a razlika od 20 pojavila se u kategorijama foto albuma i
materijala za učenje Sve ostale razlike su manje od 20
Hipoteza 2 testirana je hi ndash kvadrat testom Hipoteza se
smatra prihvaćenom u slučaju da je vjerojatnost pogreške
pri tvrdnji da postoji statistički značajna povezanost
analiziranog para varijabli manja od 5
Tablica 3 Relacije među županijama
PLAN
I
PROGR
AM
BRO
JAČ
POSJE
TA
KUĆNI
RED
RASPO
RED
INFOR
MACI
JA
ŠPORT
SKI
USPJE
SI
FOTO
ALBUM
ONLINE
TESTOVI
ŽIVOTOPIS
UČITELJA
SAVJETI
ZA
RODI
TELJE FORUM
10486462 00240148
80125 0081
1159
4
2657
81471 05208 07812 01096
df 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
p 0876
88491
0
0479
50012
0527
0892
0705
31663
0006
71374
0
044
5920
62
02251
8798
0157299
21
03457
4844
05638
979
Nije teško uočiti da se statistički značajna razlika
javlja samo u sadržaju športskih uspjeha a u ostalim
elementima ne postoji što potvrđuje postavljenu hipotezu
Može se dakle zaključiti da nema razlika u sadržajima među
dvjema županijama
Sadržaji web stranica mogu se podijeliti u dvije
kategorije sadržaji namijenjeni roditeljima i učenicima
(plan i program raspored informacija životopis učitelja
savjeti za roditelje forum testovi ili materijali za
učenje kućni red) i sadržaji namijenjeni promociji školskih
aktivnosti i uspjeha (športski uspjesi foto albumi o
školi brojač posjeta)
Tablica 4 - analiza sadržaja prema svrsi
SADRŽAJ OBJE
ŽUPANIJE NAMIJENJENI
RODITELJIMA
I UČENICIMADA
POSTOTAK NE POSTOTAK
TESTOVI
ONLINE
(MATERIJALI
ZA UČENJE)
17 34 33 66
PLAN I
PROGRAM41 82 9 18
SAVJETI ZA
RODITELJE18 36 32 64
KUĆNI RED 10 20 40 80 RASPORED
INFORMACIJA28 56 22 44
FORUM 12 24 38 76 ŽIVOTOPIS
UČITELJA2 4 48 96
PROMOCIJA
ŠKOLSKIH
AKTIVNOSTI
DA POSTOTAK NE POSTOTAK
I USPJEHA
ŠPORTSKI
USPJESI23 46 27 54
FOTO ALBUMI 43 86 7 14 BROJAČ
POSJETA8 16 42 84
O ŠKOLI
(POVIJEST)50 100 0 0
Od sadržaja koji su namijenjeni roditeljima i
učenicima a koji bi učenicima omogućili stjecanje novih
znanja i roditelje potaknuli na česte posjete škole u
visokom postotku (82) nude plan i program što je i
zakonska obveza škole (javna objava) a tek nešto više od
polovice škola (56) objavljuje raspored informacija za
roditelje Nešto više od trećine škola (34 36) na svojim
web stranicama ima materijale za učenje i savjete za
roditelje a tek 24 škola ima aktivan forum za razmjenu
mišljenja iako je i na tim forumima bio zanemariv broj
otvorenih tema od kojih niti jednu nije otvorio roditelj
Materijali za učenje najčešće su online testovi za što
postoji poveznica sa školske web stranice a savjeti za
roditelje tekstovi koje su sastavili stručni suradnici S
obzirom na manjak stručnih suradnika u našim školama moguće
je da je to razlog relativno malog postotka tih sadržaja U
nekim školama u rubrici savjeta za roditelje nalaze se
poveznice sa zanimljivim člancima na internetu
Kategorije koje služe za promociju školskih uspjeha i
aktivnosti imaju više sadržaja svaka škola ima uređenu
stranicu o povijesti škole 86 škola ažurira stranicu s
foto albumima a nešto manje od polovice škola (46) na
svoje stranice stavlja športske uspjehe svojih učenika U
navedenim foto albumima škole nude fotografije s izleta
izvanučioničke nastave priredbi i sl O opravdanosti
velikoga broja fotografija učenika moglo bi se raspravljati
s obzirom da niti jedan objavljeni sadržaj nije zaštićen
lozinkom već je dostupan svima pa se postavlja pitanje
imaju li škole suglasnost roditelja za to Tek 16 škola
vodi računa o posjećenosti svojih stranica a to bi mogao
biti značajan podatak o tome koliko ih učenici i roditelji
posjećuju
Iz navedenih podataka može se zaključiti da je školama
veoma važna promocija aktivnosti i uspjeha škole povijest
ustanove i raspored individualnih informacija a savjeti za
roditelje i materijali za učenike te razmjena mišljenja
nisu prioritetni sadržaji Škole smatraju da je roditeljima
potpuno nevažan stručni životopis učitelja najave
roditeljskih sastanaka ili jelovnici školskih kuhinja Iz
toga proizlazi da su web stranice škola u Hrvatskoj
elektroničke oglasne ploče a ne mogućnost komunikacije
5 Zaključak
Zadnjih desetak godina suradnja s roditeljima i kod nas
se mijenja na bolje ali u našim školama još uvijek
prevladavaju tradicionalni oblici suradnje s roditeljima
Iako u svijetu postoje roditeljski radio i Tv kanali
časopisi i internet stranice za razmjenu iskustava (Mendel
1998) kod nas takva praksa nije zaživjela no posljednjih
godina započela je suradnja putem web stranica e mail i sms
poruka Sumirajući prednosti i nedostatke a s obzirom na
današnji način života i ovaj način suradnje treba
intenzivirati u našim školama Suvremeni načini
komuniciranja mogu dodatno poboljšati komunikaciju između
roditelja i škole ali samo kao još jedan od načina uz sve
ostale navedene načine suradnje Iz toga proizlazi da iako
suvremeno doba pretpostavlja korištenje suvremenih
tehnologija nikakva tehnologija ne bi smjela zamijeniti
komunikaciju bdquolicem u licerdquo roditelja i učitelja a
odgovornost za dobru suradnju s roditeljima i dalje ostaje
na školi
Istraživanje pokazuje mogućnosti komuniciranja obitelji
i škole suvremenom tehnologijom Prikazani su elementi
školskih web stranica te način planiranja sadržaja web
stranice Ovo istraživanje smatramo važnim za informiranje
učitelja i rukovodstva škola o mogućnostima suvremenog
komuniciranja obitelji i škole Školska web stranica otvara
mogućnosti za uspostavljanje brze informacije no samim
postojanjem ne jamči učenicima stjecanje novih znanja i
kvalitetnije povezivanje obitelji i škole Može biti dobar
primjer vodstvu škole u stvaranju školskog kurikuluma kao
segmenta kojim će se omogućavati brza razmjena informacija s
roditeljima Nažalost obrazovni sustav u Hrvatskoj
tradicionalan je i trom neprimjeren vremenu i suvremenim
zanimanjima Ne zadovoljava individualne potrebe pojedinca
a tradicionalnim poučavanjem uz tehnologijski i
informacijski minimum potpuno je nemotivirajući kako za
učenika tako i za obitelj Rezultati ovoga istraživanja
pokazuju da školske web stranice u Hrvatskoj ne ostvaruju
sasvim svoju svrhu objavljivanje postignuća učenika
omogućavanje roditeljima uvid u svakodnevne aktivnosti
informiranje roditelja i šire zajednice o budućim
aktivnostima i jačanje suradnje između škole doma i
lokalne zajednice Iako svrha školskih web stranica ne bi
trebala biti elektronička verzija oglasne ploče i slika
škole koja rijetko mijenja svoj izgled trenutno stanje
hrvatskih web stranica u analiziranim županijama pokazuje
upravo to što potvrđuje početnu hipotezu
U narednim istraživanjima trebalo bi ispitati stavove
roditelja u Hrvatskoj o tome koje sadržaje oni smatraju
važnima te bi se tada dobili relevantni podatci koje bi
učitelji mogli upotrijebiti za kreiranje svojih web
stranica
Literatura
Berger E H (1991) Parent Involvement Yesterday and
Today The Elementary School Journal 91 (3) 209-219
Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb
Educa
Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships
Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76
httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20Articles
ParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
Epstein JL i Sheldon S B (2006) Moving Forward Ideas
for Research on School Family and Community Partnerships
httpwwwcsosjhuedup2000pdfLiterature20Review
2020Epstein20and20Sheldon2006pdf (15112010)
Graham- Clay S (2005) Communicating with Parents
Strategies for Teachers School Community Journal 16 (1)
117-129
Hartshorne R Friedman A Algozzine B i Kaur D
(2008) Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites Educational
Technology amp Society 11 (1) 291-303
Hitrec G(ur) (2006) Škola otvorena roditeljima Zagreb
Udruga roditelja Korak po korak
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
Deana Tavas graduate teacher
Vladimir Nazor Elementary School Rovinj
dtavasyahoocom
Sanja Bilač graduate teacher
Spinut Elementary School Split
sanja9stgmailcom
SCHOOL WEBSITES ndash
POSSIBILITY OF COOPERATION WITH PARENTS
SCHOOL WEBSITES ndash POSSIBILITY OF COOPERATION WITH PARENTS
Abstract In the last fifteen years in Croatia as well as around the world
much research has been done dealing with the importance of cooperation
between parents and school and the obtained results show its importance for all
the parties and that partnership relation between school and parents produces
numerous benefits Besides customary ways of communication like individual
talk and parent meetings written messages informal meetings educational
workshops the involvement of parents in the educational process in the role of
accessory etc the most modern way of communicating with parents is via school
websites teacherrsquos websites e-mails and SMS messages The goal of the
research was to examine if Croatian schoolsrsquo websites had the content which
would prompt the parents for frequent visits and enable pupils to acquire new
knowledge A long term goal was to persuade schools to a regular update of new
materials which would result in quality cooperation between home and school
and persuade pupils to do research from their home and therefore increase the
quality of learning The research has randomly selected 25 elementary school
websites from the county of Istra and 25 websites from the county Split ndash
Dalmatia Collected data show that Croatiarsquos elementary school websites are not
a model neither for increasing the cooperation with parents nor laying the
foundation towards a new culture of learning and that there is no statistically
significant variation in content between the two counties
Key words cooperation with parents Internet school websites website
content
1 Parents and school cooperation
The cooperation between parents and schools is
extremely important and offers manifold benefits for all the
participants in the education process A partnership between
parents and teachers establishes good relations since every
partner introduces their competences in the childrsquos
education The cooperation between parents and teachers
ie school should be the best possible to achieve
outstanding goals Berger (1991) considers that models of
parent involvement are approached more actively nowadays
then it was in the 1960s when the responsibilities of
parents and schools were considered distinct Cooperation
with parents is today considered on of the essential
determinants of an efficient school in terms of general
pedagogy and research has shown that 22 of teachers
consider the lack of parent involvement a serious problem
(Ryan and Cooper 2010) Such cooperation is only partially
directed at prevention ie solution of disciplinary
problems since its benefits are manifold and are
manifested in better grades increased regular attendance
more willingness to work at home and development of more
positive attitudes and behavior Parental involvement in
school life has a positive effect on pupilrsquos achievements
and their motivation and the partnership relation between
parents and schools makes the parents more informed of
school affairs gives them a more positive image in the eyes
of the teachers they contribute to a better functioning of
the school strengthen their self-confidence and assurance
in helping their child at home and they become
participants not mere observers of the education of their
child Teachers have also to gain from a partnership
relation with parents since the parents become allies in
solving problems they become more motivated and satisfied
with their job receive more confidence from parents and
have a better reputation in society
These and other benefits for all the participants in
the education process are the result of growing willingness
and need of parent involvement in the school life According
to Walsh (2002) one way of achieving a successful bond
between parents and school is a consistent and clear two-way
communication
Epstein (1995) lists three learning contexts for
pupils in the family in school and in the community and
lists 6 ways of parent involvement These are parenting
communication volunteering learning at home decision
making and collaborating with the community However all of
these ways of cooperation between parents and school presume
direct communication which at times regardless of the
parentsrsquo willingness is impossible Many parents work
during planned school activities or meetings and have not
the possibility to participate especially in schools which
work in a single shift Todayrsquos way of life and both parents
working prevents personal communication and a more active
involvement of parents with schools
2 Contemporary ways of cooperation between parents and
school
One of the key features of humans is the ability to
communicate The exceptional ability of storing data and
fast sharing of enormous amounts of information have
revolutionized business as well as the everyday life of
mankind The access to information is unlimited the sharing
of ideas and thoughts free the worldrsquos business and economy
are being transformed Significant are the changes in the
approach to education Fast communication is becoming a
trend in shaping the future and therefore revolutionary
models of learning are more and more inherent (eg using
interactive computer technology fast learning) Pupils
are assuming responsibility for their life in a world in
which ldquothose who end their education have no futurerdquo (Dryden
and Vos 2001 p 39) Stronger is the criticism of the
educational system for its inertness in the process of
change and positive initiatives empowered by scientific
research become the link for modernization and improvement
of the school in the 21st century
Technology has become a critical component of everyday
life and an increase in the development and use of school
websites over the last few years is evident (Hartshorne and
ass 2008) Research (Aronson 1995 Cameron and Lee 1997
Clemens-Brower 1997 Cleverson 1999 Ramirez 2001) show that
many teachers experiment with various technologies when
communicating with parents (telephones in classrooms voice
mail video technology radio announcements etc) to
improve cooperation School websites provide parents with
useful content such as educational tips homework e-mails
or the school cafeteria menu and expand the borders of
communication between home and school to a 24 hours a day 7
days a week contact That allows parents whose daily
timetable doesnrsquot permit regular visits to the school and
face-to-face interaction with their child or teacher to be
more informed of what is happening at school Internet
becomes an excellent means of connecting home and school
Swan (2008) believes that schools have a lot of
information and parents want to know more about academic
achievements extracurricular activities parentsrsquo meeting
schedule information such as bus transport or lunch and
that it is important that school websites include accurate
and useful information not an exciting design or newest
technological ldquoornamentsrdquo
Online research (Unal 2008) shows that parents and
teachers recognize the importance of school websites
although they do not agree completely on their content
While teachers suggest that links inside the school
classroom rules teaching curriculum and standards list of
obligatory accessories statistics of websites visitors and
guest book should be essential to a school website
significant divergence (plt05) was seen in parents
disagreeing on these elements On the other hand parents
declare they would like to see online practical tests
academic advisory information information about
administrative issues and school direction as well as
teachers CVs Eventually teachers and parents agree that
results of school sport competition and activities
educational philosophy lesson plans links outside the
institution online articles and newsletters class photo
albums and news teachersrsquo blogs menus examples of
didactic cards personal links and teachersrsquo family
information are not essential elements of schoolsrsquo websites
It can be concluded that regardless of many schools today
having their own website not all are important for the
communication of parents and teachers Past research shows
that the structure and content of school websites should be
carefully planned and developed
According to McKenzie J (1997) the best websites have
four purposes 1 introduce visitors to its mission its
character its offerings to children its stance on new
technologies 2 offer an opportunity for the publishing of
student works and parents education 3 act as a mediator to
a larger share of information and 4 provide rich data
locally collected on curriculum related topics (such as
local history) Some school websites contain all four of
these elements but the majority is concentrated upon
providing a quality service in two or three of these
elements
21 Cooperation between parents and school in Croatia
In the elementary education in Croatia prescribed are
(most often by School statute) the following ways of
cooperation with parents parent meeting individual talks
with teachers and school assistants and written messages to
parents According to Law on Primary and Secondary
Education (Ministry of Education Science and Technology
2008) prescribed is the formation a Parentsrsquo Council which
comprises one parent from every class and the president of
the Parentrsquos Council is appointed a member of the School
Committee Practice shows that these prescribed ways of
cooperation do not satisfy the teachers or the parents
Parent participation is merely formal without real
possibility of influencing important decisions
Centralization and standardization of the curriculum do not
allow schools enough space for adapting to the needs of the
local community parent meeting come down to mere
information sharing where parents are usually passive
recipients of information and parents asked to participate
in some kind of school activity are rare A research
conducted among parents of pupil of the 4th and 7th grade
from all Croatian regions and their teachers (Marušić 2007)
shows that two thirds of parents believes that they have too
little possibility of participating in decision making in
schools more than 90 of parents have never taken part in
activities related to cooperation between family and school
three quarters of parents state that there are no lectures
or workshops organized in schools and a third of parents
does not know if such workshops are organized A substantial
number of parents have shown interest in participating in
various school activities but the initiative is expected to
come from teachers
However the practice in Croatian schools in recent
years has shown undertaking additional strategies for
cooperation with parents Many workshops are being held
parents are involved as assistants on projects and in the
communication between parents and school improvement has
been made in following and assessing the pupilsrsquo progress as
well as in the feedback information on the pupilsrsquo progress
(increasingly common are the pupilsrsquo maps as an example of
systematic authentic and development assessment of pupilsrsquo
progress)
As far as electronic cooperation is concerned Croatia
is one step back The project ldquoNet u školirdquo ndash ldquoNet in the
schoolrdquo was initiated in 2003 and all schools in Croatia
have been equipped with ISDN terminals with the aim to
improve the process of learning by using Internet in
teaching and pupilsrsquo research from home and by laying the
foundation for a new culture of learning based on openness
to new knowledge new media and technology Today all
schools in Croatia have the possibility to set up a website
and the teachers to open e-mail accounts
In Croatia websites of teachers are a rare appearance
but the projects ldquoŠkolski infocentarrdquo and ldquoSMS informativkardquo
have been initiated through which informing parents on
success absence and other school activities via simple and
to the majority accessible way of communication (SMS e-
mail Internet and voicemail) has been enabled A small
number of schools have incorporated a web directory updated
monthly by class masters which parents with a special
password can check at any time Although not the most
important fact it should not be ignored that according to
the Central Bureau of Statistics in 2009 only 38 of
households in Croatia had access to the Internet which
complicates communication via websites and not all teachers
are computer literate Such cooperation has its advantages
and disadvantages
Table 1 ndash advantages and disadvantages of cooperation
via electronic media
ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGESInformation on child received daily
Fast information transmission
Not limited by time or place
Time saving for parents
Time saving for teachers when
sending general information
Parents come to school prepared
themes for conversation are
educational
Both parents and teachers must be
computer literate
All participants (parents
teachers) must have Internet access
Additional work for teachers
(regular updating of data)
Rarer encounters among parents and
teachers
Lack of face-to-face communication
Financial expense for parents when
sending SMS messages
Possible abuse (password)
3 Research methodology
31 Aim of research
The aim of the research was to examine whether the
content of Croatian elementary schools websites encourages
frequent parentsrsquo visits and allows pupils to acquire new
knowledge A long term goal is to encourage schools to post
new materials regularly which would result in high-quality
cooperation between home and school along with encouraging
students to research work from their homes and therefore
advancing the quality of learning
32 Problem
The problem of this work is to determine the current
purpose of Croatian elementary schools websites
33 Hypothesis
H-1 Websites of Croatian elementary schools with its
contents do not pose a model for a more intensive
cooperation with parents or lay the foundations for a new
culture of learning
H-2 There is no statistically significant difference in
content between the two counties in neither of the eleven
categories
34 Participants and procedure
School websites are public documents and welcome the
outer world into the school as well as a link between
pupils and teachers with outer sources of information and a
possibility of better cooperation with parents The function
of school websites is to make public the achievements of
pupils to allow parents insight into daily activities and
to inform parents and the larger community of future
activities as well as strengthening cooperation between
school home and the local community The function of the
schoolsrsquo websites should not be a mere electronic version of
a notice board or a picture of a school that seldom changes
its appearance
The research was conducted by content analysis method
on a random selection of 50 elementary school websites in
the counties of Istria and Split ndash Dalmatia (25 schools per
county) The Internet school directory of ldquoPortal za školerdquo
was used Since in Croatia a research has not been conducted
on parents and the content the parents believed to be
important and relevant the authors were led by a research
done by an online study in USA (Unal 2008) and the elements
selected by teachers and parents in that study The
following website content was analysed curriculum about
the school (school history) web counters house rules
(classroom rules) timetable and information for parents
results of school competition photo albums online tests
(study materials) teachersrsquo CV tips for parents and forum
The analysis was done at the beginning of December 2010 by
the end of the first term giving the schools enough time to
update and enrich the websites This research did not take
into consideration the design of websites since in the
majority of cases it has been done using Carnet hosting
services and offered similar links Regarding the fact that
most schools have the same browser a school is considered
to have a website if a private document or link has been
updated
4 Results and discussion
Table 2 ndash Overall analysed content in percentage
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIES
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCETAGECURRICULUM 41 82 9 18 WEBSITE
COUNTER8 16 42 84
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTSrsquo
INFORMATION28 56 22 44
RESULTS OF
SCHOOL
COMPETITION
23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 ONLINE
TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
TEACHERSrsquo 2 4 48 96
CV
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
FORUM 12 24 38 76 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL
(SCHOOL
HISTORY)
50 100 0 0
For table 2 it is evident that all schools have information
about the school on the website ie about its history
(100) the majority has school photo alums (86) and the
curriculum (82) More than half the schools (56) have the
timetable for parentsrsquo information and less then half (46)
have sport achievements of their pupils The fewest schools
publish teachersrsquo CVs (4) and website counters Study
materials and tips for parents are present on just above a
third the websites (34 36)
Chart 1 ndash content according to county
It is visible from Chart 1 that results do not vary much
between counties The most discrepancy is shown in sportsrsquo
achievements (Istria 72 Split ndash Dalmatia 20) and a 20
discrepancy is present in categories photo album and study
material Other discrepancies are smaller than 20 The 2nd
hypothesis was tested with the chi-square test The
hypothesis is considered valid in case that the probability
of error is less than 5 considering that there is a
statistically significant link between the analysed pair of
variables
Table 3 ndash Relations between counties
CURRI
CULUM
WEB
COUNT
ERS
HOUSE
RULES
INFOR
MATIO
N
TIMET
ABLE
SPORT
S
ACHIE
VEMEN
TS
PHOTO
ALBUM
ONLINE
TESTS
TEACHERS
CVs
TIPS
FOR
PARENTS FORUM
10486462 0024 0148 0125 0081 1159 2657 1471 05208 07812 01096
8 4 8
df 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
p 0876
88491
0
0479
50012
0527
0892
0705
31663
0006
71374
0
044
5920
62
02251
8798
0157299
21
03457
4844
05638
979
It is not difficult to notice that a significant
discrepancy is present only in sportsrsquo achievement whereas
in other elements it does not exist which confirms the
stated hypothesis It can be concluded that there are no
differences between the content in the two counties
The website content can be divided into two categories
content intended for parents and pupils (curriculum
timetable for parentsrsquo information teachersrsquo CVs tips for
parents forum online tests and study material house
rules) and content for promoting school activities and
achievements (sportsrsquo achievements photo albums about the
school web counters)
Table 4 ndash analysis according to purpose
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIESINTENDEED FOR
PARENTS AND
PUPILSYES
PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
ONLINE TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
CURRICULUM 41 82 9 18
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTS
INFORMATION
TIMETABLE
28 56 22 44
FORUM 12 24 38 76 TEACHERSrsquo CV 2 4 48 96 PROMOTION OF
SCHOOL
ACTIVITIES
AND
ACVIEVEMENTS
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
SPORTS
ACHIEVEMENTS23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 WEB COUNTERS 8 16 42 84 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL50 100 0 0
Among the content intended for parents and pupils
which would allow pupils to acquire new knowledge and
encourage parents to visit regularly schools offer in high
percentage (82) the curriculum which is a legal obligation
(public notice) and just over half the schools (56) offer
the timetable for parentsrsquo information About one third of
schools (34 36) publish on its websites study materials
and tips for parents and only 24 have an active forum for
exchanging opinions although these forums have an
insignificant number of open themes none of which were
opened by parents Study materials are most often online
tests with a link from the website and tips for parents are
texts compiled by schools assistants Considering the lack
of assistants in schools this may be the cause for a small
percentage of these materials Some schools under the
section tips for parents have links to interesting Internet
articles
Categories intended for the promotion of school
achievements and activities have more contents every school
has a page dedicated to school history 86 updates the
photo album section and less then half the schools (46)
publish sportsrsquo achievements of the pupils The photo albums
offer pictures from school trips out-of-classroom teaching
school events etc Justifying such a large number of
pictures is debatable since none of the published materials
are protected by password but available to everybody the
question arises if the schools have the parentsrsquo permission
Only 16 of schools pay attention to visits which could be
a significant information showing the number of parents and
pupils visiting the website
The mentioned data show that schools consider relevant
the promotion of school activities and success the history
of the school and the timetable for parentsrsquo information
but tips for parents and school materials along with
exchanging opinions are not a priority Schools consider the
teachersrsquo CVs parentsrsquo meeting announcements or the school
cafeteria menu of no relevance to parents These facts point
to the fact that school websites in Croatia are more online
notice-boards than a real possibility for communication
5 Conclusion
Over the last decade cooperation with parents in
Croatia has been improving however in our schools
traditional forms of cooperation with parents are still
prevailing Although in the world there are specialized
radio and TV channels magazines and Internet sites for
exchanging experiences (Mendel 1998) such practice has not
flung into being in Croatia However over the last couple
of years cooperation via websites e-mails and SMS messages
Summarising its advantages and disadvantages and
considering todayrsquos lifestyle this way of cooperation
should be intensified in our schools Contemporary ways of
communication can additionally improve the communication
between parents and school but just as one more way
alongside other ways Consequently although the modern age
presupposes the use of modern technologies no technology
should replace face-to-face communication between parents
and teachers and the responsibility for a good cooperation
still lies on the school
The research demonstrates the possibilities of
communication between family and school by using modern
technology Elements of school websites are shown as well
as ways of planning the content of a website We consider
this research important for informing teachers and school
management of the possibilities of modern communication
between families and school A school website allows for the
possibility of establishing fast communication however its
mere existence does not guarantee the pupils acquiring new
knowledge and a quality relation between the family and
school It can be a good example for the school management
in creating the school curriculum as a segment allowing for
a fast exchange of information with parents Unfortunately
the educational system in Croatia is traditional and inert
unsuitable for the times and contemporary professions It
does not satisfy the need of the individual and traditional
teaching by using a minimum of technology and information is
utterly un-motivational for the student as well as for the
family The results of this research show that school
websites in Croatia donrsquot fulfil their purpose presenting
pupilsrsquo achievements allowing the parents insight into
everyday activities informing the parents and the wider
community on future activities and strengthening the
cooperation between school home and the local community
Although the purpose of school websites should not be merely
an electronic version of the notice board and an image of
the school that rarely changes its appearance the current
condition of the Croatian school websites in the analysed
counties shows just that therefore confirming the initial
hypothesis
Future research should inquire into the stance of
parents in Croatia on which content they consider important
therefore receiving relevant data which could later be used
by teachers for creating their websites
References
Berger E H (1991) Parent Involvement Yesterday and
Today The Elementary School Journal 91 (3) 209-219
Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb
Educa
Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships
Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76
httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20Articles
ParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
Epstein JL i Sheldon S B (2006) Moving Forward Ideas
for Research on School Family and Community Partnerships
httpwwwcsosjhuedup2000pdfLiterature20Review
2020Epstein20and20Sheldon2006pdf (15112010)
Graham- Clay S (2005) Communicating with Parents
Strategies for Teachers School Community Journal 16 (1)
117-129
Hartshorne R Friedman A Algozzine B i Kaur D
(2008) Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites Educational
Technology amp Society 11 (1) 291-303
Hitrec G(ur) (2006) Škola otvorena roditeljima Zagreb
Udruga roditelja Korak po korak
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE -
- MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE - MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
-
Sadržaji web stranica mogu se podijeliti u dvije
kategorije sadržaji namijenjeni roditeljima i učenicima
(plan i program raspored informacija životopis učitelja
savjeti za roditelje forum testovi ili materijali za
učenje kućni red) i sadržaji namijenjeni promociji školskih
aktivnosti i uspjeha (športski uspjesi foto albumi o
školi brojač posjeta)
Tablica 4 - analiza sadržaja prema svrsi
SADRŽAJ OBJE
ŽUPANIJE NAMIJENJENI
RODITELJIMA
I UČENICIMADA
POSTOTAK NE POSTOTAK
TESTOVI
ONLINE
(MATERIJALI
ZA UČENJE)
17 34 33 66
PLAN I
PROGRAM41 82 9 18
SAVJETI ZA
RODITELJE18 36 32 64
KUĆNI RED 10 20 40 80 RASPORED
INFORMACIJA28 56 22 44
FORUM 12 24 38 76 ŽIVOTOPIS
UČITELJA2 4 48 96
PROMOCIJA
ŠKOLSKIH
AKTIVNOSTI
DA POSTOTAK NE POSTOTAK
I USPJEHA
ŠPORTSKI
USPJESI23 46 27 54
FOTO ALBUMI 43 86 7 14 BROJAČ
POSJETA8 16 42 84
O ŠKOLI
(POVIJEST)50 100 0 0
Od sadržaja koji su namijenjeni roditeljima i
učenicima a koji bi učenicima omogućili stjecanje novih
znanja i roditelje potaknuli na česte posjete škole u
visokom postotku (82) nude plan i program što je i
zakonska obveza škole (javna objava) a tek nešto više od
polovice škola (56) objavljuje raspored informacija za
roditelje Nešto više od trećine škola (34 36) na svojim
web stranicama ima materijale za učenje i savjete za
roditelje a tek 24 škola ima aktivan forum za razmjenu
mišljenja iako je i na tim forumima bio zanemariv broj
otvorenih tema od kojih niti jednu nije otvorio roditelj
Materijali za učenje najčešće su online testovi za što
postoji poveznica sa školske web stranice a savjeti za
roditelje tekstovi koje su sastavili stručni suradnici S
obzirom na manjak stručnih suradnika u našim školama moguće
je da je to razlog relativno malog postotka tih sadržaja U
nekim školama u rubrici savjeta za roditelje nalaze se
poveznice sa zanimljivim člancima na internetu
Kategorije koje služe za promociju školskih uspjeha i
aktivnosti imaju više sadržaja svaka škola ima uređenu
stranicu o povijesti škole 86 škola ažurira stranicu s
foto albumima a nešto manje od polovice škola (46) na
svoje stranice stavlja športske uspjehe svojih učenika U
navedenim foto albumima škole nude fotografije s izleta
izvanučioničke nastave priredbi i sl O opravdanosti
velikoga broja fotografija učenika moglo bi se raspravljati
s obzirom da niti jedan objavljeni sadržaj nije zaštićen
lozinkom već je dostupan svima pa se postavlja pitanje
imaju li škole suglasnost roditelja za to Tek 16 škola
vodi računa o posjećenosti svojih stranica a to bi mogao
biti značajan podatak o tome koliko ih učenici i roditelji
posjećuju
Iz navedenih podataka može se zaključiti da je školama
veoma važna promocija aktivnosti i uspjeha škole povijest
ustanove i raspored individualnih informacija a savjeti za
roditelje i materijali za učenike te razmjena mišljenja
nisu prioritetni sadržaji Škole smatraju da je roditeljima
potpuno nevažan stručni životopis učitelja najave
roditeljskih sastanaka ili jelovnici školskih kuhinja Iz
toga proizlazi da su web stranice škola u Hrvatskoj
elektroničke oglasne ploče a ne mogućnost komunikacije
5 Zaključak
Zadnjih desetak godina suradnja s roditeljima i kod nas
se mijenja na bolje ali u našim školama još uvijek
prevladavaju tradicionalni oblici suradnje s roditeljima
Iako u svijetu postoje roditeljski radio i Tv kanali
časopisi i internet stranice za razmjenu iskustava (Mendel
1998) kod nas takva praksa nije zaživjela no posljednjih
godina započela je suradnja putem web stranica e mail i sms
poruka Sumirajući prednosti i nedostatke a s obzirom na
današnji način života i ovaj način suradnje treba
intenzivirati u našim školama Suvremeni načini
komuniciranja mogu dodatno poboljšati komunikaciju između
roditelja i škole ali samo kao još jedan od načina uz sve
ostale navedene načine suradnje Iz toga proizlazi da iako
suvremeno doba pretpostavlja korištenje suvremenih
tehnologija nikakva tehnologija ne bi smjela zamijeniti
komunikaciju bdquolicem u licerdquo roditelja i učitelja a
odgovornost za dobru suradnju s roditeljima i dalje ostaje
na školi
Istraživanje pokazuje mogućnosti komuniciranja obitelji
i škole suvremenom tehnologijom Prikazani su elementi
školskih web stranica te način planiranja sadržaja web
stranice Ovo istraživanje smatramo važnim za informiranje
učitelja i rukovodstva škola o mogućnostima suvremenog
komuniciranja obitelji i škole Školska web stranica otvara
mogućnosti za uspostavljanje brze informacije no samim
postojanjem ne jamči učenicima stjecanje novih znanja i
kvalitetnije povezivanje obitelji i škole Može biti dobar
primjer vodstvu škole u stvaranju školskog kurikuluma kao
segmenta kojim će se omogućavati brza razmjena informacija s
roditeljima Nažalost obrazovni sustav u Hrvatskoj
tradicionalan je i trom neprimjeren vremenu i suvremenim
zanimanjima Ne zadovoljava individualne potrebe pojedinca
a tradicionalnim poučavanjem uz tehnologijski i
informacijski minimum potpuno je nemotivirajući kako za
učenika tako i za obitelj Rezultati ovoga istraživanja
pokazuju da školske web stranice u Hrvatskoj ne ostvaruju
sasvim svoju svrhu objavljivanje postignuća učenika
omogućavanje roditeljima uvid u svakodnevne aktivnosti
informiranje roditelja i šire zajednice o budućim
aktivnostima i jačanje suradnje između škole doma i
lokalne zajednice Iako svrha školskih web stranica ne bi
trebala biti elektronička verzija oglasne ploče i slika
škole koja rijetko mijenja svoj izgled trenutno stanje
hrvatskih web stranica u analiziranim županijama pokazuje
upravo to što potvrđuje početnu hipotezu
U narednim istraživanjima trebalo bi ispitati stavove
roditelja u Hrvatskoj o tome koje sadržaje oni smatraju
važnima te bi se tada dobili relevantni podatci koje bi
učitelji mogli upotrijebiti za kreiranje svojih web
stranica
Literatura
Berger E H (1991) Parent Involvement Yesterday and
Today The Elementary School Journal 91 (3) 209-219
Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb
Educa
Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships
Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76
httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20Articles
ParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
Epstein JL i Sheldon S B (2006) Moving Forward Ideas
for Research on School Family and Community Partnerships
httpwwwcsosjhuedup2000pdfLiterature20Review
2020Epstein20and20Sheldon2006pdf (15112010)
Graham- Clay S (2005) Communicating with Parents
Strategies for Teachers School Community Journal 16 (1)
117-129
Hartshorne R Friedman A Algozzine B i Kaur D
(2008) Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites Educational
Technology amp Society 11 (1) 291-303
Hitrec G(ur) (2006) Škola otvorena roditeljima Zagreb
Udruga roditelja Korak po korak
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
Deana Tavas graduate teacher
Vladimir Nazor Elementary School Rovinj
dtavasyahoocom
Sanja Bilač graduate teacher
Spinut Elementary School Split
sanja9stgmailcom
SCHOOL WEBSITES ndash
POSSIBILITY OF COOPERATION WITH PARENTS
SCHOOL WEBSITES ndash POSSIBILITY OF COOPERATION WITH PARENTS
Abstract In the last fifteen years in Croatia as well as around the world
much research has been done dealing with the importance of cooperation
between parents and school and the obtained results show its importance for all
the parties and that partnership relation between school and parents produces
numerous benefits Besides customary ways of communication like individual
talk and parent meetings written messages informal meetings educational
workshops the involvement of parents in the educational process in the role of
accessory etc the most modern way of communicating with parents is via school
websites teacherrsquos websites e-mails and SMS messages The goal of the
research was to examine if Croatian schoolsrsquo websites had the content which
would prompt the parents for frequent visits and enable pupils to acquire new
knowledge A long term goal was to persuade schools to a regular update of new
materials which would result in quality cooperation between home and school
and persuade pupils to do research from their home and therefore increase the
quality of learning The research has randomly selected 25 elementary school
websites from the county of Istra and 25 websites from the county Split ndash
Dalmatia Collected data show that Croatiarsquos elementary school websites are not
a model neither for increasing the cooperation with parents nor laying the
foundation towards a new culture of learning and that there is no statistically
significant variation in content between the two counties
Key words cooperation with parents Internet school websites website
content
1 Parents and school cooperation
The cooperation between parents and schools is
extremely important and offers manifold benefits for all the
participants in the education process A partnership between
parents and teachers establishes good relations since every
partner introduces their competences in the childrsquos
education The cooperation between parents and teachers
ie school should be the best possible to achieve
outstanding goals Berger (1991) considers that models of
parent involvement are approached more actively nowadays
then it was in the 1960s when the responsibilities of
parents and schools were considered distinct Cooperation
with parents is today considered on of the essential
determinants of an efficient school in terms of general
pedagogy and research has shown that 22 of teachers
consider the lack of parent involvement a serious problem
(Ryan and Cooper 2010) Such cooperation is only partially
directed at prevention ie solution of disciplinary
problems since its benefits are manifold and are
manifested in better grades increased regular attendance
more willingness to work at home and development of more
positive attitudes and behavior Parental involvement in
school life has a positive effect on pupilrsquos achievements
and their motivation and the partnership relation between
parents and schools makes the parents more informed of
school affairs gives them a more positive image in the eyes
of the teachers they contribute to a better functioning of
the school strengthen their self-confidence and assurance
in helping their child at home and they become
participants not mere observers of the education of their
child Teachers have also to gain from a partnership
relation with parents since the parents become allies in
solving problems they become more motivated and satisfied
with their job receive more confidence from parents and
have a better reputation in society
These and other benefits for all the participants in
the education process are the result of growing willingness
and need of parent involvement in the school life According
to Walsh (2002) one way of achieving a successful bond
between parents and school is a consistent and clear two-way
communication
Epstein (1995) lists three learning contexts for
pupils in the family in school and in the community and
lists 6 ways of parent involvement These are parenting
communication volunteering learning at home decision
making and collaborating with the community However all of
these ways of cooperation between parents and school presume
direct communication which at times regardless of the
parentsrsquo willingness is impossible Many parents work
during planned school activities or meetings and have not
the possibility to participate especially in schools which
work in a single shift Todayrsquos way of life and both parents
working prevents personal communication and a more active
involvement of parents with schools
2 Contemporary ways of cooperation between parents and
school
One of the key features of humans is the ability to
communicate The exceptional ability of storing data and
fast sharing of enormous amounts of information have
revolutionized business as well as the everyday life of
mankind The access to information is unlimited the sharing
of ideas and thoughts free the worldrsquos business and economy
are being transformed Significant are the changes in the
approach to education Fast communication is becoming a
trend in shaping the future and therefore revolutionary
models of learning are more and more inherent (eg using
interactive computer technology fast learning) Pupils
are assuming responsibility for their life in a world in
which ldquothose who end their education have no futurerdquo (Dryden
and Vos 2001 p 39) Stronger is the criticism of the
educational system for its inertness in the process of
change and positive initiatives empowered by scientific
research become the link for modernization and improvement
of the school in the 21st century
Technology has become a critical component of everyday
life and an increase in the development and use of school
websites over the last few years is evident (Hartshorne and
ass 2008) Research (Aronson 1995 Cameron and Lee 1997
Clemens-Brower 1997 Cleverson 1999 Ramirez 2001) show that
many teachers experiment with various technologies when
communicating with parents (telephones in classrooms voice
mail video technology radio announcements etc) to
improve cooperation School websites provide parents with
useful content such as educational tips homework e-mails
or the school cafeteria menu and expand the borders of
communication between home and school to a 24 hours a day 7
days a week contact That allows parents whose daily
timetable doesnrsquot permit regular visits to the school and
face-to-face interaction with their child or teacher to be
more informed of what is happening at school Internet
becomes an excellent means of connecting home and school
Swan (2008) believes that schools have a lot of
information and parents want to know more about academic
achievements extracurricular activities parentsrsquo meeting
schedule information such as bus transport or lunch and
that it is important that school websites include accurate
and useful information not an exciting design or newest
technological ldquoornamentsrdquo
Online research (Unal 2008) shows that parents and
teachers recognize the importance of school websites
although they do not agree completely on their content
While teachers suggest that links inside the school
classroom rules teaching curriculum and standards list of
obligatory accessories statistics of websites visitors and
guest book should be essential to a school website
significant divergence (plt05) was seen in parents
disagreeing on these elements On the other hand parents
declare they would like to see online practical tests
academic advisory information information about
administrative issues and school direction as well as
teachers CVs Eventually teachers and parents agree that
results of school sport competition and activities
educational philosophy lesson plans links outside the
institution online articles and newsletters class photo
albums and news teachersrsquo blogs menus examples of
didactic cards personal links and teachersrsquo family
information are not essential elements of schoolsrsquo websites
It can be concluded that regardless of many schools today
having their own website not all are important for the
communication of parents and teachers Past research shows
that the structure and content of school websites should be
carefully planned and developed
According to McKenzie J (1997) the best websites have
four purposes 1 introduce visitors to its mission its
character its offerings to children its stance on new
technologies 2 offer an opportunity for the publishing of
student works and parents education 3 act as a mediator to
a larger share of information and 4 provide rich data
locally collected on curriculum related topics (such as
local history) Some school websites contain all four of
these elements but the majority is concentrated upon
providing a quality service in two or three of these
elements
21 Cooperation between parents and school in Croatia
In the elementary education in Croatia prescribed are
(most often by School statute) the following ways of
cooperation with parents parent meeting individual talks
with teachers and school assistants and written messages to
parents According to Law on Primary and Secondary
Education (Ministry of Education Science and Technology
2008) prescribed is the formation a Parentsrsquo Council which
comprises one parent from every class and the president of
the Parentrsquos Council is appointed a member of the School
Committee Practice shows that these prescribed ways of
cooperation do not satisfy the teachers or the parents
Parent participation is merely formal without real
possibility of influencing important decisions
Centralization and standardization of the curriculum do not
allow schools enough space for adapting to the needs of the
local community parent meeting come down to mere
information sharing where parents are usually passive
recipients of information and parents asked to participate
in some kind of school activity are rare A research
conducted among parents of pupil of the 4th and 7th grade
from all Croatian regions and their teachers (Marušić 2007)
shows that two thirds of parents believes that they have too
little possibility of participating in decision making in
schools more than 90 of parents have never taken part in
activities related to cooperation between family and school
three quarters of parents state that there are no lectures
or workshops organized in schools and a third of parents
does not know if such workshops are organized A substantial
number of parents have shown interest in participating in
various school activities but the initiative is expected to
come from teachers
However the practice in Croatian schools in recent
years has shown undertaking additional strategies for
cooperation with parents Many workshops are being held
parents are involved as assistants on projects and in the
communication between parents and school improvement has
been made in following and assessing the pupilsrsquo progress as
well as in the feedback information on the pupilsrsquo progress
(increasingly common are the pupilsrsquo maps as an example of
systematic authentic and development assessment of pupilsrsquo
progress)
As far as electronic cooperation is concerned Croatia
is one step back The project ldquoNet u školirdquo ndash ldquoNet in the
schoolrdquo was initiated in 2003 and all schools in Croatia
have been equipped with ISDN terminals with the aim to
improve the process of learning by using Internet in
teaching and pupilsrsquo research from home and by laying the
foundation for a new culture of learning based on openness
to new knowledge new media and technology Today all
schools in Croatia have the possibility to set up a website
and the teachers to open e-mail accounts
In Croatia websites of teachers are a rare appearance
but the projects ldquoŠkolski infocentarrdquo and ldquoSMS informativkardquo
have been initiated through which informing parents on
success absence and other school activities via simple and
to the majority accessible way of communication (SMS e-
mail Internet and voicemail) has been enabled A small
number of schools have incorporated a web directory updated
monthly by class masters which parents with a special
password can check at any time Although not the most
important fact it should not be ignored that according to
the Central Bureau of Statistics in 2009 only 38 of
households in Croatia had access to the Internet which
complicates communication via websites and not all teachers
are computer literate Such cooperation has its advantages
and disadvantages
Table 1 ndash advantages and disadvantages of cooperation
via electronic media
ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGESInformation on child received daily
Fast information transmission
Not limited by time or place
Time saving for parents
Time saving for teachers when
sending general information
Parents come to school prepared
themes for conversation are
educational
Both parents and teachers must be
computer literate
All participants (parents
teachers) must have Internet access
Additional work for teachers
(regular updating of data)
Rarer encounters among parents and
teachers
Lack of face-to-face communication
Financial expense for parents when
sending SMS messages
Possible abuse (password)
3 Research methodology
31 Aim of research
The aim of the research was to examine whether the
content of Croatian elementary schools websites encourages
frequent parentsrsquo visits and allows pupils to acquire new
knowledge A long term goal is to encourage schools to post
new materials regularly which would result in high-quality
cooperation between home and school along with encouraging
students to research work from their homes and therefore
advancing the quality of learning
32 Problem
The problem of this work is to determine the current
purpose of Croatian elementary schools websites
33 Hypothesis
H-1 Websites of Croatian elementary schools with its
contents do not pose a model for a more intensive
cooperation with parents or lay the foundations for a new
culture of learning
H-2 There is no statistically significant difference in
content between the two counties in neither of the eleven
categories
34 Participants and procedure
School websites are public documents and welcome the
outer world into the school as well as a link between
pupils and teachers with outer sources of information and a
possibility of better cooperation with parents The function
of school websites is to make public the achievements of
pupils to allow parents insight into daily activities and
to inform parents and the larger community of future
activities as well as strengthening cooperation between
school home and the local community The function of the
schoolsrsquo websites should not be a mere electronic version of
a notice board or a picture of a school that seldom changes
its appearance
The research was conducted by content analysis method
on a random selection of 50 elementary school websites in
the counties of Istria and Split ndash Dalmatia (25 schools per
county) The Internet school directory of ldquoPortal za školerdquo
was used Since in Croatia a research has not been conducted
on parents and the content the parents believed to be
important and relevant the authors were led by a research
done by an online study in USA (Unal 2008) and the elements
selected by teachers and parents in that study The
following website content was analysed curriculum about
the school (school history) web counters house rules
(classroom rules) timetable and information for parents
results of school competition photo albums online tests
(study materials) teachersrsquo CV tips for parents and forum
The analysis was done at the beginning of December 2010 by
the end of the first term giving the schools enough time to
update and enrich the websites This research did not take
into consideration the design of websites since in the
majority of cases it has been done using Carnet hosting
services and offered similar links Regarding the fact that
most schools have the same browser a school is considered
to have a website if a private document or link has been
updated
4 Results and discussion
Table 2 ndash Overall analysed content in percentage
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIES
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCETAGECURRICULUM 41 82 9 18 WEBSITE
COUNTER8 16 42 84
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTSrsquo
INFORMATION28 56 22 44
RESULTS OF
SCHOOL
COMPETITION
23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 ONLINE
TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
TEACHERSrsquo 2 4 48 96
CV
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
FORUM 12 24 38 76 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL
(SCHOOL
HISTORY)
50 100 0 0
For table 2 it is evident that all schools have information
about the school on the website ie about its history
(100) the majority has school photo alums (86) and the
curriculum (82) More than half the schools (56) have the
timetable for parentsrsquo information and less then half (46)
have sport achievements of their pupils The fewest schools
publish teachersrsquo CVs (4) and website counters Study
materials and tips for parents are present on just above a
third the websites (34 36)
Chart 1 ndash content according to county
It is visible from Chart 1 that results do not vary much
between counties The most discrepancy is shown in sportsrsquo
achievements (Istria 72 Split ndash Dalmatia 20) and a 20
discrepancy is present in categories photo album and study
material Other discrepancies are smaller than 20 The 2nd
hypothesis was tested with the chi-square test The
hypothesis is considered valid in case that the probability
of error is less than 5 considering that there is a
statistically significant link between the analysed pair of
variables
Table 3 ndash Relations between counties
CURRI
CULUM
WEB
COUNT
ERS
HOUSE
RULES
INFOR
MATIO
N
TIMET
ABLE
SPORT
S
ACHIE
VEMEN
TS
PHOTO
ALBUM
ONLINE
TESTS
TEACHERS
CVs
TIPS
FOR
PARENTS FORUM
10486462 0024 0148 0125 0081 1159 2657 1471 05208 07812 01096
8 4 8
df 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
p 0876
88491
0
0479
50012
0527
0892
0705
31663
0006
71374
0
044
5920
62
02251
8798
0157299
21
03457
4844
05638
979
It is not difficult to notice that a significant
discrepancy is present only in sportsrsquo achievement whereas
in other elements it does not exist which confirms the
stated hypothesis It can be concluded that there are no
differences between the content in the two counties
The website content can be divided into two categories
content intended for parents and pupils (curriculum
timetable for parentsrsquo information teachersrsquo CVs tips for
parents forum online tests and study material house
rules) and content for promoting school activities and
achievements (sportsrsquo achievements photo albums about the
school web counters)
Table 4 ndash analysis according to purpose
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIESINTENDEED FOR
PARENTS AND
PUPILSYES
PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
ONLINE TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
CURRICULUM 41 82 9 18
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTS
INFORMATION
TIMETABLE
28 56 22 44
FORUM 12 24 38 76 TEACHERSrsquo CV 2 4 48 96 PROMOTION OF
SCHOOL
ACTIVITIES
AND
ACVIEVEMENTS
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
SPORTS
ACHIEVEMENTS23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 WEB COUNTERS 8 16 42 84 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL50 100 0 0
Among the content intended for parents and pupils
which would allow pupils to acquire new knowledge and
encourage parents to visit regularly schools offer in high
percentage (82) the curriculum which is a legal obligation
(public notice) and just over half the schools (56) offer
the timetable for parentsrsquo information About one third of
schools (34 36) publish on its websites study materials
and tips for parents and only 24 have an active forum for
exchanging opinions although these forums have an
insignificant number of open themes none of which were
opened by parents Study materials are most often online
tests with a link from the website and tips for parents are
texts compiled by schools assistants Considering the lack
of assistants in schools this may be the cause for a small
percentage of these materials Some schools under the
section tips for parents have links to interesting Internet
articles
Categories intended for the promotion of school
achievements and activities have more contents every school
has a page dedicated to school history 86 updates the
photo album section and less then half the schools (46)
publish sportsrsquo achievements of the pupils The photo albums
offer pictures from school trips out-of-classroom teaching
school events etc Justifying such a large number of
pictures is debatable since none of the published materials
are protected by password but available to everybody the
question arises if the schools have the parentsrsquo permission
Only 16 of schools pay attention to visits which could be
a significant information showing the number of parents and
pupils visiting the website
The mentioned data show that schools consider relevant
the promotion of school activities and success the history
of the school and the timetable for parentsrsquo information
but tips for parents and school materials along with
exchanging opinions are not a priority Schools consider the
teachersrsquo CVs parentsrsquo meeting announcements or the school
cafeteria menu of no relevance to parents These facts point
to the fact that school websites in Croatia are more online
notice-boards than a real possibility for communication
5 Conclusion
Over the last decade cooperation with parents in
Croatia has been improving however in our schools
traditional forms of cooperation with parents are still
prevailing Although in the world there are specialized
radio and TV channels magazines and Internet sites for
exchanging experiences (Mendel 1998) such practice has not
flung into being in Croatia However over the last couple
of years cooperation via websites e-mails and SMS messages
Summarising its advantages and disadvantages and
considering todayrsquos lifestyle this way of cooperation
should be intensified in our schools Contemporary ways of
communication can additionally improve the communication
between parents and school but just as one more way
alongside other ways Consequently although the modern age
presupposes the use of modern technologies no technology
should replace face-to-face communication between parents
and teachers and the responsibility for a good cooperation
still lies on the school
The research demonstrates the possibilities of
communication between family and school by using modern
technology Elements of school websites are shown as well
as ways of planning the content of a website We consider
this research important for informing teachers and school
management of the possibilities of modern communication
between families and school A school website allows for the
possibility of establishing fast communication however its
mere existence does not guarantee the pupils acquiring new
knowledge and a quality relation between the family and
school It can be a good example for the school management
in creating the school curriculum as a segment allowing for
a fast exchange of information with parents Unfortunately
the educational system in Croatia is traditional and inert
unsuitable for the times and contemporary professions It
does not satisfy the need of the individual and traditional
teaching by using a minimum of technology and information is
utterly un-motivational for the student as well as for the
family The results of this research show that school
websites in Croatia donrsquot fulfil their purpose presenting
pupilsrsquo achievements allowing the parents insight into
everyday activities informing the parents and the wider
community on future activities and strengthening the
cooperation between school home and the local community
Although the purpose of school websites should not be merely
an electronic version of the notice board and an image of
the school that rarely changes its appearance the current
condition of the Croatian school websites in the analysed
counties shows just that therefore confirming the initial
hypothesis
Future research should inquire into the stance of
parents in Croatia on which content they consider important
therefore receiving relevant data which could later be used
by teachers for creating their websites
References
Berger E H (1991) Parent Involvement Yesterday and
Today The Elementary School Journal 91 (3) 209-219
Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb
Educa
Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships
Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76
httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20Articles
ParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
Epstein JL i Sheldon S B (2006) Moving Forward Ideas
for Research on School Family and Community Partnerships
httpwwwcsosjhuedup2000pdfLiterature20Review
2020Epstein20and20Sheldon2006pdf (15112010)
Graham- Clay S (2005) Communicating with Parents
Strategies for Teachers School Community Journal 16 (1)
117-129
Hartshorne R Friedman A Algozzine B i Kaur D
(2008) Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites Educational
Technology amp Society 11 (1) 291-303
Hitrec G(ur) (2006) Škola otvorena roditeljima Zagreb
Udruga roditelja Korak po korak
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE -
- MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE - MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
-
I USPJEHA
ŠPORTSKI
USPJESI23 46 27 54
FOTO ALBUMI 43 86 7 14 BROJAČ
POSJETA8 16 42 84
O ŠKOLI
(POVIJEST)50 100 0 0
Od sadržaja koji su namijenjeni roditeljima i
učenicima a koji bi učenicima omogućili stjecanje novih
znanja i roditelje potaknuli na česte posjete škole u
visokom postotku (82) nude plan i program što je i
zakonska obveza škole (javna objava) a tek nešto više od
polovice škola (56) objavljuje raspored informacija za
roditelje Nešto više od trećine škola (34 36) na svojim
web stranicama ima materijale za učenje i savjete za
roditelje a tek 24 škola ima aktivan forum za razmjenu
mišljenja iako je i na tim forumima bio zanemariv broj
otvorenih tema od kojih niti jednu nije otvorio roditelj
Materijali za učenje najčešće su online testovi za što
postoji poveznica sa školske web stranice a savjeti za
roditelje tekstovi koje su sastavili stručni suradnici S
obzirom na manjak stručnih suradnika u našim školama moguće
je da je to razlog relativno malog postotka tih sadržaja U
nekim školama u rubrici savjeta za roditelje nalaze se
poveznice sa zanimljivim člancima na internetu
Kategorije koje služe za promociju školskih uspjeha i
aktivnosti imaju više sadržaja svaka škola ima uređenu
stranicu o povijesti škole 86 škola ažurira stranicu s
foto albumima a nešto manje od polovice škola (46) na
svoje stranice stavlja športske uspjehe svojih učenika U
navedenim foto albumima škole nude fotografije s izleta
izvanučioničke nastave priredbi i sl O opravdanosti
velikoga broja fotografija učenika moglo bi se raspravljati
s obzirom da niti jedan objavljeni sadržaj nije zaštićen
lozinkom već je dostupan svima pa se postavlja pitanje
imaju li škole suglasnost roditelja za to Tek 16 škola
vodi računa o posjećenosti svojih stranica a to bi mogao
biti značajan podatak o tome koliko ih učenici i roditelji
posjećuju
Iz navedenih podataka može se zaključiti da je školama
veoma važna promocija aktivnosti i uspjeha škole povijest
ustanove i raspored individualnih informacija a savjeti za
roditelje i materijali za učenike te razmjena mišljenja
nisu prioritetni sadržaji Škole smatraju da je roditeljima
potpuno nevažan stručni životopis učitelja najave
roditeljskih sastanaka ili jelovnici školskih kuhinja Iz
toga proizlazi da su web stranice škola u Hrvatskoj
elektroničke oglasne ploče a ne mogućnost komunikacije
5 Zaključak
Zadnjih desetak godina suradnja s roditeljima i kod nas
se mijenja na bolje ali u našim školama još uvijek
prevladavaju tradicionalni oblici suradnje s roditeljima
Iako u svijetu postoje roditeljski radio i Tv kanali
časopisi i internet stranice za razmjenu iskustava (Mendel
1998) kod nas takva praksa nije zaživjela no posljednjih
godina započela je suradnja putem web stranica e mail i sms
poruka Sumirajući prednosti i nedostatke a s obzirom na
današnji način života i ovaj način suradnje treba
intenzivirati u našim školama Suvremeni načini
komuniciranja mogu dodatno poboljšati komunikaciju između
roditelja i škole ali samo kao još jedan od načina uz sve
ostale navedene načine suradnje Iz toga proizlazi da iako
suvremeno doba pretpostavlja korištenje suvremenih
tehnologija nikakva tehnologija ne bi smjela zamijeniti
komunikaciju bdquolicem u licerdquo roditelja i učitelja a
odgovornost za dobru suradnju s roditeljima i dalje ostaje
na školi
Istraživanje pokazuje mogućnosti komuniciranja obitelji
i škole suvremenom tehnologijom Prikazani su elementi
školskih web stranica te način planiranja sadržaja web
stranice Ovo istraživanje smatramo važnim za informiranje
učitelja i rukovodstva škola o mogućnostima suvremenog
komuniciranja obitelji i škole Školska web stranica otvara
mogućnosti za uspostavljanje brze informacije no samim
postojanjem ne jamči učenicima stjecanje novih znanja i
kvalitetnije povezivanje obitelji i škole Može biti dobar
primjer vodstvu škole u stvaranju školskog kurikuluma kao
segmenta kojim će se omogućavati brza razmjena informacija s
roditeljima Nažalost obrazovni sustav u Hrvatskoj
tradicionalan je i trom neprimjeren vremenu i suvremenim
zanimanjima Ne zadovoljava individualne potrebe pojedinca
a tradicionalnim poučavanjem uz tehnologijski i
informacijski minimum potpuno je nemotivirajući kako za
učenika tako i za obitelj Rezultati ovoga istraživanja
pokazuju da školske web stranice u Hrvatskoj ne ostvaruju
sasvim svoju svrhu objavljivanje postignuća učenika
omogućavanje roditeljima uvid u svakodnevne aktivnosti
informiranje roditelja i šire zajednice o budućim
aktivnostima i jačanje suradnje između škole doma i
lokalne zajednice Iako svrha školskih web stranica ne bi
trebala biti elektronička verzija oglasne ploče i slika
škole koja rijetko mijenja svoj izgled trenutno stanje
hrvatskih web stranica u analiziranim županijama pokazuje
upravo to što potvrđuje početnu hipotezu
U narednim istraživanjima trebalo bi ispitati stavove
roditelja u Hrvatskoj o tome koje sadržaje oni smatraju
važnima te bi se tada dobili relevantni podatci koje bi
učitelji mogli upotrijebiti za kreiranje svojih web
stranica
Literatura
Berger E H (1991) Parent Involvement Yesterday and
Today The Elementary School Journal 91 (3) 209-219
Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb
Educa
Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships
Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76
httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20Articles
ParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
Epstein JL i Sheldon S B (2006) Moving Forward Ideas
for Research on School Family and Community Partnerships
httpwwwcsosjhuedup2000pdfLiterature20Review
2020Epstein20and20Sheldon2006pdf (15112010)
Graham- Clay S (2005) Communicating with Parents
Strategies for Teachers School Community Journal 16 (1)
117-129
Hartshorne R Friedman A Algozzine B i Kaur D
(2008) Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites Educational
Technology amp Society 11 (1) 291-303
Hitrec G(ur) (2006) Škola otvorena roditeljima Zagreb
Udruga roditelja Korak po korak
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
Deana Tavas graduate teacher
Vladimir Nazor Elementary School Rovinj
dtavasyahoocom
Sanja Bilač graduate teacher
Spinut Elementary School Split
sanja9stgmailcom
SCHOOL WEBSITES ndash
POSSIBILITY OF COOPERATION WITH PARENTS
SCHOOL WEBSITES ndash POSSIBILITY OF COOPERATION WITH PARENTS
Abstract In the last fifteen years in Croatia as well as around the world
much research has been done dealing with the importance of cooperation
between parents and school and the obtained results show its importance for all
the parties and that partnership relation between school and parents produces
numerous benefits Besides customary ways of communication like individual
talk and parent meetings written messages informal meetings educational
workshops the involvement of parents in the educational process in the role of
accessory etc the most modern way of communicating with parents is via school
websites teacherrsquos websites e-mails and SMS messages The goal of the
research was to examine if Croatian schoolsrsquo websites had the content which
would prompt the parents for frequent visits and enable pupils to acquire new
knowledge A long term goal was to persuade schools to a regular update of new
materials which would result in quality cooperation between home and school
and persuade pupils to do research from their home and therefore increase the
quality of learning The research has randomly selected 25 elementary school
websites from the county of Istra and 25 websites from the county Split ndash
Dalmatia Collected data show that Croatiarsquos elementary school websites are not
a model neither for increasing the cooperation with parents nor laying the
foundation towards a new culture of learning and that there is no statistically
significant variation in content between the two counties
Key words cooperation with parents Internet school websites website
content
1 Parents and school cooperation
The cooperation between parents and schools is
extremely important and offers manifold benefits for all the
participants in the education process A partnership between
parents and teachers establishes good relations since every
partner introduces their competences in the childrsquos
education The cooperation between parents and teachers
ie school should be the best possible to achieve
outstanding goals Berger (1991) considers that models of
parent involvement are approached more actively nowadays
then it was in the 1960s when the responsibilities of
parents and schools were considered distinct Cooperation
with parents is today considered on of the essential
determinants of an efficient school in terms of general
pedagogy and research has shown that 22 of teachers
consider the lack of parent involvement a serious problem
(Ryan and Cooper 2010) Such cooperation is only partially
directed at prevention ie solution of disciplinary
problems since its benefits are manifold and are
manifested in better grades increased regular attendance
more willingness to work at home and development of more
positive attitudes and behavior Parental involvement in
school life has a positive effect on pupilrsquos achievements
and their motivation and the partnership relation between
parents and schools makes the parents more informed of
school affairs gives them a more positive image in the eyes
of the teachers they contribute to a better functioning of
the school strengthen their self-confidence and assurance
in helping their child at home and they become
participants not mere observers of the education of their
child Teachers have also to gain from a partnership
relation with parents since the parents become allies in
solving problems they become more motivated and satisfied
with their job receive more confidence from parents and
have a better reputation in society
These and other benefits for all the participants in
the education process are the result of growing willingness
and need of parent involvement in the school life According
to Walsh (2002) one way of achieving a successful bond
between parents and school is a consistent and clear two-way
communication
Epstein (1995) lists three learning contexts for
pupils in the family in school and in the community and
lists 6 ways of parent involvement These are parenting
communication volunteering learning at home decision
making and collaborating with the community However all of
these ways of cooperation between parents and school presume
direct communication which at times regardless of the
parentsrsquo willingness is impossible Many parents work
during planned school activities or meetings and have not
the possibility to participate especially in schools which
work in a single shift Todayrsquos way of life and both parents
working prevents personal communication and a more active
involvement of parents with schools
2 Contemporary ways of cooperation between parents and
school
One of the key features of humans is the ability to
communicate The exceptional ability of storing data and
fast sharing of enormous amounts of information have
revolutionized business as well as the everyday life of
mankind The access to information is unlimited the sharing
of ideas and thoughts free the worldrsquos business and economy
are being transformed Significant are the changes in the
approach to education Fast communication is becoming a
trend in shaping the future and therefore revolutionary
models of learning are more and more inherent (eg using
interactive computer technology fast learning) Pupils
are assuming responsibility for their life in a world in
which ldquothose who end their education have no futurerdquo (Dryden
and Vos 2001 p 39) Stronger is the criticism of the
educational system for its inertness in the process of
change and positive initiatives empowered by scientific
research become the link for modernization and improvement
of the school in the 21st century
Technology has become a critical component of everyday
life and an increase in the development and use of school
websites over the last few years is evident (Hartshorne and
ass 2008) Research (Aronson 1995 Cameron and Lee 1997
Clemens-Brower 1997 Cleverson 1999 Ramirez 2001) show that
many teachers experiment with various technologies when
communicating with parents (telephones in classrooms voice
mail video technology radio announcements etc) to
improve cooperation School websites provide parents with
useful content such as educational tips homework e-mails
or the school cafeteria menu and expand the borders of
communication between home and school to a 24 hours a day 7
days a week contact That allows parents whose daily
timetable doesnrsquot permit regular visits to the school and
face-to-face interaction with their child or teacher to be
more informed of what is happening at school Internet
becomes an excellent means of connecting home and school
Swan (2008) believes that schools have a lot of
information and parents want to know more about academic
achievements extracurricular activities parentsrsquo meeting
schedule information such as bus transport or lunch and
that it is important that school websites include accurate
and useful information not an exciting design or newest
technological ldquoornamentsrdquo
Online research (Unal 2008) shows that parents and
teachers recognize the importance of school websites
although they do not agree completely on their content
While teachers suggest that links inside the school
classroom rules teaching curriculum and standards list of
obligatory accessories statistics of websites visitors and
guest book should be essential to a school website
significant divergence (plt05) was seen in parents
disagreeing on these elements On the other hand parents
declare they would like to see online practical tests
academic advisory information information about
administrative issues and school direction as well as
teachers CVs Eventually teachers and parents agree that
results of school sport competition and activities
educational philosophy lesson plans links outside the
institution online articles and newsletters class photo
albums and news teachersrsquo blogs menus examples of
didactic cards personal links and teachersrsquo family
information are not essential elements of schoolsrsquo websites
It can be concluded that regardless of many schools today
having their own website not all are important for the
communication of parents and teachers Past research shows
that the structure and content of school websites should be
carefully planned and developed
According to McKenzie J (1997) the best websites have
four purposes 1 introduce visitors to its mission its
character its offerings to children its stance on new
technologies 2 offer an opportunity for the publishing of
student works and parents education 3 act as a mediator to
a larger share of information and 4 provide rich data
locally collected on curriculum related topics (such as
local history) Some school websites contain all four of
these elements but the majority is concentrated upon
providing a quality service in two or three of these
elements
21 Cooperation between parents and school in Croatia
In the elementary education in Croatia prescribed are
(most often by School statute) the following ways of
cooperation with parents parent meeting individual talks
with teachers and school assistants and written messages to
parents According to Law on Primary and Secondary
Education (Ministry of Education Science and Technology
2008) prescribed is the formation a Parentsrsquo Council which
comprises one parent from every class and the president of
the Parentrsquos Council is appointed a member of the School
Committee Practice shows that these prescribed ways of
cooperation do not satisfy the teachers or the parents
Parent participation is merely formal without real
possibility of influencing important decisions
Centralization and standardization of the curriculum do not
allow schools enough space for adapting to the needs of the
local community parent meeting come down to mere
information sharing where parents are usually passive
recipients of information and parents asked to participate
in some kind of school activity are rare A research
conducted among parents of pupil of the 4th and 7th grade
from all Croatian regions and their teachers (Marušić 2007)
shows that two thirds of parents believes that they have too
little possibility of participating in decision making in
schools more than 90 of parents have never taken part in
activities related to cooperation between family and school
three quarters of parents state that there are no lectures
or workshops organized in schools and a third of parents
does not know if such workshops are organized A substantial
number of parents have shown interest in participating in
various school activities but the initiative is expected to
come from teachers
However the practice in Croatian schools in recent
years has shown undertaking additional strategies for
cooperation with parents Many workshops are being held
parents are involved as assistants on projects and in the
communication between parents and school improvement has
been made in following and assessing the pupilsrsquo progress as
well as in the feedback information on the pupilsrsquo progress
(increasingly common are the pupilsrsquo maps as an example of
systematic authentic and development assessment of pupilsrsquo
progress)
As far as electronic cooperation is concerned Croatia
is one step back The project ldquoNet u školirdquo ndash ldquoNet in the
schoolrdquo was initiated in 2003 and all schools in Croatia
have been equipped with ISDN terminals with the aim to
improve the process of learning by using Internet in
teaching and pupilsrsquo research from home and by laying the
foundation for a new culture of learning based on openness
to new knowledge new media and technology Today all
schools in Croatia have the possibility to set up a website
and the teachers to open e-mail accounts
In Croatia websites of teachers are a rare appearance
but the projects ldquoŠkolski infocentarrdquo and ldquoSMS informativkardquo
have been initiated through which informing parents on
success absence and other school activities via simple and
to the majority accessible way of communication (SMS e-
mail Internet and voicemail) has been enabled A small
number of schools have incorporated a web directory updated
monthly by class masters which parents with a special
password can check at any time Although not the most
important fact it should not be ignored that according to
the Central Bureau of Statistics in 2009 only 38 of
households in Croatia had access to the Internet which
complicates communication via websites and not all teachers
are computer literate Such cooperation has its advantages
and disadvantages
Table 1 ndash advantages and disadvantages of cooperation
via electronic media
ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGESInformation on child received daily
Fast information transmission
Not limited by time or place
Time saving for parents
Time saving for teachers when
sending general information
Parents come to school prepared
themes for conversation are
educational
Both parents and teachers must be
computer literate
All participants (parents
teachers) must have Internet access
Additional work for teachers
(regular updating of data)
Rarer encounters among parents and
teachers
Lack of face-to-face communication
Financial expense for parents when
sending SMS messages
Possible abuse (password)
3 Research methodology
31 Aim of research
The aim of the research was to examine whether the
content of Croatian elementary schools websites encourages
frequent parentsrsquo visits and allows pupils to acquire new
knowledge A long term goal is to encourage schools to post
new materials regularly which would result in high-quality
cooperation between home and school along with encouraging
students to research work from their homes and therefore
advancing the quality of learning
32 Problem
The problem of this work is to determine the current
purpose of Croatian elementary schools websites
33 Hypothesis
H-1 Websites of Croatian elementary schools with its
contents do not pose a model for a more intensive
cooperation with parents or lay the foundations for a new
culture of learning
H-2 There is no statistically significant difference in
content between the two counties in neither of the eleven
categories
34 Participants and procedure
School websites are public documents and welcome the
outer world into the school as well as a link between
pupils and teachers with outer sources of information and a
possibility of better cooperation with parents The function
of school websites is to make public the achievements of
pupils to allow parents insight into daily activities and
to inform parents and the larger community of future
activities as well as strengthening cooperation between
school home and the local community The function of the
schoolsrsquo websites should not be a mere electronic version of
a notice board or a picture of a school that seldom changes
its appearance
The research was conducted by content analysis method
on a random selection of 50 elementary school websites in
the counties of Istria and Split ndash Dalmatia (25 schools per
county) The Internet school directory of ldquoPortal za školerdquo
was used Since in Croatia a research has not been conducted
on parents and the content the parents believed to be
important and relevant the authors were led by a research
done by an online study in USA (Unal 2008) and the elements
selected by teachers and parents in that study The
following website content was analysed curriculum about
the school (school history) web counters house rules
(classroom rules) timetable and information for parents
results of school competition photo albums online tests
(study materials) teachersrsquo CV tips for parents and forum
The analysis was done at the beginning of December 2010 by
the end of the first term giving the schools enough time to
update and enrich the websites This research did not take
into consideration the design of websites since in the
majority of cases it has been done using Carnet hosting
services and offered similar links Regarding the fact that
most schools have the same browser a school is considered
to have a website if a private document or link has been
updated
4 Results and discussion
Table 2 ndash Overall analysed content in percentage
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIES
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCETAGECURRICULUM 41 82 9 18 WEBSITE
COUNTER8 16 42 84
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTSrsquo
INFORMATION28 56 22 44
RESULTS OF
SCHOOL
COMPETITION
23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 ONLINE
TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
TEACHERSrsquo 2 4 48 96
CV
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
FORUM 12 24 38 76 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL
(SCHOOL
HISTORY)
50 100 0 0
For table 2 it is evident that all schools have information
about the school on the website ie about its history
(100) the majority has school photo alums (86) and the
curriculum (82) More than half the schools (56) have the
timetable for parentsrsquo information and less then half (46)
have sport achievements of their pupils The fewest schools
publish teachersrsquo CVs (4) and website counters Study
materials and tips for parents are present on just above a
third the websites (34 36)
Chart 1 ndash content according to county
It is visible from Chart 1 that results do not vary much
between counties The most discrepancy is shown in sportsrsquo
achievements (Istria 72 Split ndash Dalmatia 20) and a 20
discrepancy is present in categories photo album and study
material Other discrepancies are smaller than 20 The 2nd
hypothesis was tested with the chi-square test The
hypothesis is considered valid in case that the probability
of error is less than 5 considering that there is a
statistically significant link between the analysed pair of
variables
Table 3 ndash Relations between counties
CURRI
CULUM
WEB
COUNT
ERS
HOUSE
RULES
INFOR
MATIO
N
TIMET
ABLE
SPORT
S
ACHIE
VEMEN
TS
PHOTO
ALBUM
ONLINE
TESTS
TEACHERS
CVs
TIPS
FOR
PARENTS FORUM
10486462 0024 0148 0125 0081 1159 2657 1471 05208 07812 01096
8 4 8
df 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
p 0876
88491
0
0479
50012
0527
0892
0705
31663
0006
71374
0
044
5920
62
02251
8798
0157299
21
03457
4844
05638
979
It is not difficult to notice that a significant
discrepancy is present only in sportsrsquo achievement whereas
in other elements it does not exist which confirms the
stated hypothesis It can be concluded that there are no
differences between the content in the two counties
The website content can be divided into two categories
content intended for parents and pupils (curriculum
timetable for parentsrsquo information teachersrsquo CVs tips for
parents forum online tests and study material house
rules) and content for promoting school activities and
achievements (sportsrsquo achievements photo albums about the
school web counters)
Table 4 ndash analysis according to purpose
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIESINTENDEED FOR
PARENTS AND
PUPILSYES
PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
ONLINE TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
CURRICULUM 41 82 9 18
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTS
INFORMATION
TIMETABLE
28 56 22 44
FORUM 12 24 38 76 TEACHERSrsquo CV 2 4 48 96 PROMOTION OF
SCHOOL
ACTIVITIES
AND
ACVIEVEMENTS
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
SPORTS
ACHIEVEMENTS23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 WEB COUNTERS 8 16 42 84 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL50 100 0 0
Among the content intended for parents and pupils
which would allow pupils to acquire new knowledge and
encourage parents to visit regularly schools offer in high
percentage (82) the curriculum which is a legal obligation
(public notice) and just over half the schools (56) offer
the timetable for parentsrsquo information About one third of
schools (34 36) publish on its websites study materials
and tips for parents and only 24 have an active forum for
exchanging opinions although these forums have an
insignificant number of open themes none of which were
opened by parents Study materials are most often online
tests with a link from the website and tips for parents are
texts compiled by schools assistants Considering the lack
of assistants in schools this may be the cause for a small
percentage of these materials Some schools under the
section tips for parents have links to interesting Internet
articles
Categories intended for the promotion of school
achievements and activities have more contents every school
has a page dedicated to school history 86 updates the
photo album section and less then half the schools (46)
publish sportsrsquo achievements of the pupils The photo albums
offer pictures from school trips out-of-classroom teaching
school events etc Justifying such a large number of
pictures is debatable since none of the published materials
are protected by password but available to everybody the
question arises if the schools have the parentsrsquo permission
Only 16 of schools pay attention to visits which could be
a significant information showing the number of parents and
pupils visiting the website
The mentioned data show that schools consider relevant
the promotion of school activities and success the history
of the school and the timetable for parentsrsquo information
but tips for parents and school materials along with
exchanging opinions are not a priority Schools consider the
teachersrsquo CVs parentsrsquo meeting announcements or the school
cafeteria menu of no relevance to parents These facts point
to the fact that school websites in Croatia are more online
notice-boards than a real possibility for communication
5 Conclusion
Over the last decade cooperation with parents in
Croatia has been improving however in our schools
traditional forms of cooperation with parents are still
prevailing Although in the world there are specialized
radio and TV channels magazines and Internet sites for
exchanging experiences (Mendel 1998) such practice has not
flung into being in Croatia However over the last couple
of years cooperation via websites e-mails and SMS messages
Summarising its advantages and disadvantages and
considering todayrsquos lifestyle this way of cooperation
should be intensified in our schools Contemporary ways of
communication can additionally improve the communication
between parents and school but just as one more way
alongside other ways Consequently although the modern age
presupposes the use of modern technologies no technology
should replace face-to-face communication between parents
and teachers and the responsibility for a good cooperation
still lies on the school
The research demonstrates the possibilities of
communication between family and school by using modern
technology Elements of school websites are shown as well
as ways of planning the content of a website We consider
this research important for informing teachers and school
management of the possibilities of modern communication
between families and school A school website allows for the
possibility of establishing fast communication however its
mere existence does not guarantee the pupils acquiring new
knowledge and a quality relation between the family and
school It can be a good example for the school management
in creating the school curriculum as a segment allowing for
a fast exchange of information with parents Unfortunately
the educational system in Croatia is traditional and inert
unsuitable for the times and contemporary professions It
does not satisfy the need of the individual and traditional
teaching by using a minimum of technology and information is
utterly un-motivational for the student as well as for the
family The results of this research show that school
websites in Croatia donrsquot fulfil their purpose presenting
pupilsrsquo achievements allowing the parents insight into
everyday activities informing the parents and the wider
community on future activities and strengthening the
cooperation between school home and the local community
Although the purpose of school websites should not be merely
an electronic version of the notice board and an image of
the school that rarely changes its appearance the current
condition of the Croatian school websites in the analysed
counties shows just that therefore confirming the initial
hypothesis
Future research should inquire into the stance of
parents in Croatia on which content they consider important
therefore receiving relevant data which could later be used
by teachers for creating their websites
References
Berger E H (1991) Parent Involvement Yesterday and
Today The Elementary School Journal 91 (3) 209-219
Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb
Educa
Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships
Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76
httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20Articles
ParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
Epstein JL i Sheldon S B (2006) Moving Forward Ideas
for Research on School Family and Community Partnerships
httpwwwcsosjhuedup2000pdfLiterature20Review
2020Epstein20and20Sheldon2006pdf (15112010)
Graham- Clay S (2005) Communicating with Parents
Strategies for Teachers School Community Journal 16 (1)
117-129
Hartshorne R Friedman A Algozzine B i Kaur D
(2008) Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites Educational
Technology amp Society 11 (1) 291-303
Hitrec G(ur) (2006) Škola otvorena roditeljima Zagreb
Udruga roditelja Korak po korak
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE -
- MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE - MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
-
Kategorije koje služe za promociju školskih uspjeha i
aktivnosti imaju više sadržaja svaka škola ima uređenu
stranicu o povijesti škole 86 škola ažurira stranicu s
foto albumima a nešto manje od polovice škola (46) na
svoje stranice stavlja športske uspjehe svojih učenika U
navedenim foto albumima škole nude fotografije s izleta
izvanučioničke nastave priredbi i sl O opravdanosti
velikoga broja fotografija učenika moglo bi se raspravljati
s obzirom da niti jedan objavljeni sadržaj nije zaštićen
lozinkom već je dostupan svima pa se postavlja pitanje
imaju li škole suglasnost roditelja za to Tek 16 škola
vodi računa o posjećenosti svojih stranica a to bi mogao
biti značajan podatak o tome koliko ih učenici i roditelji
posjećuju
Iz navedenih podataka može se zaključiti da je školama
veoma važna promocija aktivnosti i uspjeha škole povijest
ustanove i raspored individualnih informacija a savjeti za
roditelje i materijali za učenike te razmjena mišljenja
nisu prioritetni sadržaji Škole smatraju da je roditeljima
potpuno nevažan stručni životopis učitelja najave
roditeljskih sastanaka ili jelovnici školskih kuhinja Iz
toga proizlazi da su web stranice škola u Hrvatskoj
elektroničke oglasne ploče a ne mogućnost komunikacije
5 Zaključak
Zadnjih desetak godina suradnja s roditeljima i kod nas
se mijenja na bolje ali u našim školama još uvijek
prevladavaju tradicionalni oblici suradnje s roditeljima
Iako u svijetu postoje roditeljski radio i Tv kanali
časopisi i internet stranice za razmjenu iskustava (Mendel
1998) kod nas takva praksa nije zaživjela no posljednjih
godina započela je suradnja putem web stranica e mail i sms
poruka Sumirajući prednosti i nedostatke a s obzirom na
današnji način života i ovaj način suradnje treba
intenzivirati u našim školama Suvremeni načini
komuniciranja mogu dodatno poboljšati komunikaciju između
roditelja i škole ali samo kao još jedan od načina uz sve
ostale navedene načine suradnje Iz toga proizlazi da iako
suvremeno doba pretpostavlja korištenje suvremenih
tehnologija nikakva tehnologija ne bi smjela zamijeniti
komunikaciju bdquolicem u licerdquo roditelja i učitelja a
odgovornost za dobru suradnju s roditeljima i dalje ostaje
na školi
Istraživanje pokazuje mogućnosti komuniciranja obitelji
i škole suvremenom tehnologijom Prikazani su elementi
školskih web stranica te način planiranja sadržaja web
stranice Ovo istraživanje smatramo važnim za informiranje
učitelja i rukovodstva škola o mogućnostima suvremenog
komuniciranja obitelji i škole Školska web stranica otvara
mogućnosti za uspostavljanje brze informacije no samim
postojanjem ne jamči učenicima stjecanje novih znanja i
kvalitetnije povezivanje obitelji i škole Može biti dobar
primjer vodstvu škole u stvaranju školskog kurikuluma kao
segmenta kojim će se omogućavati brza razmjena informacija s
roditeljima Nažalost obrazovni sustav u Hrvatskoj
tradicionalan je i trom neprimjeren vremenu i suvremenim
zanimanjima Ne zadovoljava individualne potrebe pojedinca
a tradicionalnim poučavanjem uz tehnologijski i
informacijski minimum potpuno je nemotivirajući kako za
učenika tako i za obitelj Rezultati ovoga istraživanja
pokazuju da školske web stranice u Hrvatskoj ne ostvaruju
sasvim svoju svrhu objavljivanje postignuća učenika
omogućavanje roditeljima uvid u svakodnevne aktivnosti
informiranje roditelja i šire zajednice o budućim
aktivnostima i jačanje suradnje između škole doma i
lokalne zajednice Iako svrha školskih web stranica ne bi
trebala biti elektronička verzija oglasne ploče i slika
škole koja rijetko mijenja svoj izgled trenutno stanje
hrvatskih web stranica u analiziranim županijama pokazuje
upravo to što potvrđuje početnu hipotezu
U narednim istraživanjima trebalo bi ispitati stavove
roditelja u Hrvatskoj o tome koje sadržaje oni smatraju
važnima te bi se tada dobili relevantni podatci koje bi
učitelji mogli upotrijebiti za kreiranje svojih web
stranica
Literatura
Berger E H (1991) Parent Involvement Yesterday and
Today The Elementary School Journal 91 (3) 209-219
Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb
Educa
Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships
Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76
httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20Articles
ParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
Epstein JL i Sheldon S B (2006) Moving Forward Ideas
for Research on School Family and Community Partnerships
httpwwwcsosjhuedup2000pdfLiterature20Review
2020Epstein20and20Sheldon2006pdf (15112010)
Graham- Clay S (2005) Communicating with Parents
Strategies for Teachers School Community Journal 16 (1)
117-129
Hartshorne R Friedman A Algozzine B i Kaur D
(2008) Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites Educational
Technology amp Society 11 (1) 291-303
Hitrec G(ur) (2006) Škola otvorena roditeljima Zagreb
Udruga roditelja Korak po korak
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
Deana Tavas graduate teacher
Vladimir Nazor Elementary School Rovinj
dtavasyahoocom
Sanja Bilač graduate teacher
Spinut Elementary School Split
sanja9stgmailcom
SCHOOL WEBSITES ndash
POSSIBILITY OF COOPERATION WITH PARENTS
SCHOOL WEBSITES ndash POSSIBILITY OF COOPERATION WITH PARENTS
Abstract In the last fifteen years in Croatia as well as around the world
much research has been done dealing with the importance of cooperation
between parents and school and the obtained results show its importance for all
the parties and that partnership relation between school and parents produces
numerous benefits Besides customary ways of communication like individual
talk and parent meetings written messages informal meetings educational
workshops the involvement of parents in the educational process in the role of
accessory etc the most modern way of communicating with parents is via school
websites teacherrsquos websites e-mails and SMS messages The goal of the
research was to examine if Croatian schoolsrsquo websites had the content which
would prompt the parents for frequent visits and enable pupils to acquire new
knowledge A long term goal was to persuade schools to a regular update of new
materials which would result in quality cooperation between home and school
and persuade pupils to do research from their home and therefore increase the
quality of learning The research has randomly selected 25 elementary school
websites from the county of Istra and 25 websites from the county Split ndash
Dalmatia Collected data show that Croatiarsquos elementary school websites are not
a model neither for increasing the cooperation with parents nor laying the
foundation towards a new culture of learning and that there is no statistically
significant variation in content between the two counties
Key words cooperation with parents Internet school websites website
content
1 Parents and school cooperation
The cooperation between parents and schools is
extremely important and offers manifold benefits for all the
participants in the education process A partnership between
parents and teachers establishes good relations since every
partner introduces their competences in the childrsquos
education The cooperation between parents and teachers
ie school should be the best possible to achieve
outstanding goals Berger (1991) considers that models of
parent involvement are approached more actively nowadays
then it was in the 1960s when the responsibilities of
parents and schools were considered distinct Cooperation
with parents is today considered on of the essential
determinants of an efficient school in terms of general
pedagogy and research has shown that 22 of teachers
consider the lack of parent involvement a serious problem
(Ryan and Cooper 2010) Such cooperation is only partially
directed at prevention ie solution of disciplinary
problems since its benefits are manifold and are
manifested in better grades increased regular attendance
more willingness to work at home and development of more
positive attitudes and behavior Parental involvement in
school life has a positive effect on pupilrsquos achievements
and their motivation and the partnership relation between
parents and schools makes the parents more informed of
school affairs gives them a more positive image in the eyes
of the teachers they contribute to a better functioning of
the school strengthen their self-confidence and assurance
in helping their child at home and they become
participants not mere observers of the education of their
child Teachers have also to gain from a partnership
relation with parents since the parents become allies in
solving problems they become more motivated and satisfied
with their job receive more confidence from parents and
have a better reputation in society
These and other benefits for all the participants in
the education process are the result of growing willingness
and need of parent involvement in the school life According
to Walsh (2002) one way of achieving a successful bond
between parents and school is a consistent and clear two-way
communication
Epstein (1995) lists three learning contexts for
pupils in the family in school and in the community and
lists 6 ways of parent involvement These are parenting
communication volunteering learning at home decision
making and collaborating with the community However all of
these ways of cooperation between parents and school presume
direct communication which at times regardless of the
parentsrsquo willingness is impossible Many parents work
during planned school activities or meetings and have not
the possibility to participate especially in schools which
work in a single shift Todayrsquos way of life and both parents
working prevents personal communication and a more active
involvement of parents with schools
2 Contemporary ways of cooperation between parents and
school
One of the key features of humans is the ability to
communicate The exceptional ability of storing data and
fast sharing of enormous amounts of information have
revolutionized business as well as the everyday life of
mankind The access to information is unlimited the sharing
of ideas and thoughts free the worldrsquos business and economy
are being transformed Significant are the changes in the
approach to education Fast communication is becoming a
trend in shaping the future and therefore revolutionary
models of learning are more and more inherent (eg using
interactive computer technology fast learning) Pupils
are assuming responsibility for their life in a world in
which ldquothose who end their education have no futurerdquo (Dryden
and Vos 2001 p 39) Stronger is the criticism of the
educational system for its inertness in the process of
change and positive initiatives empowered by scientific
research become the link for modernization and improvement
of the school in the 21st century
Technology has become a critical component of everyday
life and an increase in the development and use of school
websites over the last few years is evident (Hartshorne and
ass 2008) Research (Aronson 1995 Cameron and Lee 1997
Clemens-Brower 1997 Cleverson 1999 Ramirez 2001) show that
many teachers experiment with various technologies when
communicating with parents (telephones in classrooms voice
mail video technology radio announcements etc) to
improve cooperation School websites provide parents with
useful content such as educational tips homework e-mails
or the school cafeteria menu and expand the borders of
communication between home and school to a 24 hours a day 7
days a week contact That allows parents whose daily
timetable doesnrsquot permit regular visits to the school and
face-to-face interaction with their child or teacher to be
more informed of what is happening at school Internet
becomes an excellent means of connecting home and school
Swan (2008) believes that schools have a lot of
information and parents want to know more about academic
achievements extracurricular activities parentsrsquo meeting
schedule information such as bus transport or lunch and
that it is important that school websites include accurate
and useful information not an exciting design or newest
technological ldquoornamentsrdquo
Online research (Unal 2008) shows that parents and
teachers recognize the importance of school websites
although they do not agree completely on their content
While teachers suggest that links inside the school
classroom rules teaching curriculum and standards list of
obligatory accessories statistics of websites visitors and
guest book should be essential to a school website
significant divergence (plt05) was seen in parents
disagreeing on these elements On the other hand parents
declare they would like to see online practical tests
academic advisory information information about
administrative issues and school direction as well as
teachers CVs Eventually teachers and parents agree that
results of school sport competition and activities
educational philosophy lesson plans links outside the
institution online articles and newsletters class photo
albums and news teachersrsquo blogs menus examples of
didactic cards personal links and teachersrsquo family
information are not essential elements of schoolsrsquo websites
It can be concluded that regardless of many schools today
having their own website not all are important for the
communication of parents and teachers Past research shows
that the structure and content of school websites should be
carefully planned and developed
According to McKenzie J (1997) the best websites have
four purposes 1 introduce visitors to its mission its
character its offerings to children its stance on new
technologies 2 offer an opportunity for the publishing of
student works and parents education 3 act as a mediator to
a larger share of information and 4 provide rich data
locally collected on curriculum related topics (such as
local history) Some school websites contain all four of
these elements but the majority is concentrated upon
providing a quality service in two or three of these
elements
21 Cooperation between parents and school in Croatia
In the elementary education in Croatia prescribed are
(most often by School statute) the following ways of
cooperation with parents parent meeting individual talks
with teachers and school assistants and written messages to
parents According to Law on Primary and Secondary
Education (Ministry of Education Science and Technology
2008) prescribed is the formation a Parentsrsquo Council which
comprises one parent from every class and the president of
the Parentrsquos Council is appointed a member of the School
Committee Practice shows that these prescribed ways of
cooperation do not satisfy the teachers or the parents
Parent participation is merely formal without real
possibility of influencing important decisions
Centralization and standardization of the curriculum do not
allow schools enough space for adapting to the needs of the
local community parent meeting come down to mere
information sharing where parents are usually passive
recipients of information and parents asked to participate
in some kind of school activity are rare A research
conducted among parents of pupil of the 4th and 7th grade
from all Croatian regions and their teachers (Marušić 2007)
shows that two thirds of parents believes that they have too
little possibility of participating in decision making in
schools more than 90 of parents have never taken part in
activities related to cooperation between family and school
three quarters of parents state that there are no lectures
or workshops organized in schools and a third of parents
does not know if such workshops are organized A substantial
number of parents have shown interest in participating in
various school activities but the initiative is expected to
come from teachers
However the practice in Croatian schools in recent
years has shown undertaking additional strategies for
cooperation with parents Many workshops are being held
parents are involved as assistants on projects and in the
communication between parents and school improvement has
been made in following and assessing the pupilsrsquo progress as
well as in the feedback information on the pupilsrsquo progress
(increasingly common are the pupilsrsquo maps as an example of
systematic authentic and development assessment of pupilsrsquo
progress)
As far as electronic cooperation is concerned Croatia
is one step back The project ldquoNet u školirdquo ndash ldquoNet in the
schoolrdquo was initiated in 2003 and all schools in Croatia
have been equipped with ISDN terminals with the aim to
improve the process of learning by using Internet in
teaching and pupilsrsquo research from home and by laying the
foundation for a new culture of learning based on openness
to new knowledge new media and technology Today all
schools in Croatia have the possibility to set up a website
and the teachers to open e-mail accounts
In Croatia websites of teachers are a rare appearance
but the projects ldquoŠkolski infocentarrdquo and ldquoSMS informativkardquo
have been initiated through which informing parents on
success absence and other school activities via simple and
to the majority accessible way of communication (SMS e-
mail Internet and voicemail) has been enabled A small
number of schools have incorporated a web directory updated
monthly by class masters which parents with a special
password can check at any time Although not the most
important fact it should not be ignored that according to
the Central Bureau of Statistics in 2009 only 38 of
households in Croatia had access to the Internet which
complicates communication via websites and not all teachers
are computer literate Such cooperation has its advantages
and disadvantages
Table 1 ndash advantages and disadvantages of cooperation
via electronic media
ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGESInformation on child received daily
Fast information transmission
Not limited by time or place
Time saving for parents
Time saving for teachers when
sending general information
Parents come to school prepared
themes for conversation are
educational
Both parents and teachers must be
computer literate
All participants (parents
teachers) must have Internet access
Additional work for teachers
(regular updating of data)
Rarer encounters among parents and
teachers
Lack of face-to-face communication
Financial expense for parents when
sending SMS messages
Possible abuse (password)
3 Research methodology
31 Aim of research
The aim of the research was to examine whether the
content of Croatian elementary schools websites encourages
frequent parentsrsquo visits and allows pupils to acquire new
knowledge A long term goal is to encourage schools to post
new materials regularly which would result in high-quality
cooperation between home and school along with encouraging
students to research work from their homes and therefore
advancing the quality of learning
32 Problem
The problem of this work is to determine the current
purpose of Croatian elementary schools websites
33 Hypothesis
H-1 Websites of Croatian elementary schools with its
contents do not pose a model for a more intensive
cooperation with parents or lay the foundations for a new
culture of learning
H-2 There is no statistically significant difference in
content between the two counties in neither of the eleven
categories
34 Participants and procedure
School websites are public documents and welcome the
outer world into the school as well as a link between
pupils and teachers with outer sources of information and a
possibility of better cooperation with parents The function
of school websites is to make public the achievements of
pupils to allow parents insight into daily activities and
to inform parents and the larger community of future
activities as well as strengthening cooperation between
school home and the local community The function of the
schoolsrsquo websites should not be a mere electronic version of
a notice board or a picture of a school that seldom changes
its appearance
The research was conducted by content analysis method
on a random selection of 50 elementary school websites in
the counties of Istria and Split ndash Dalmatia (25 schools per
county) The Internet school directory of ldquoPortal za školerdquo
was used Since in Croatia a research has not been conducted
on parents and the content the parents believed to be
important and relevant the authors were led by a research
done by an online study in USA (Unal 2008) and the elements
selected by teachers and parents in that study The
following website content was analysed curriculum about
the school (school history) web counters house rules
(classroom rules) timetable and information for parents
results of school competition photo albums online tests
(study materials) teachersrsquo CV tips for parents and forum
The analysis was done at the beginning of December 2010 by
the end of the first term giving the schools enough time to
update and enrich the websites This research did not take
into consideration the design of websites since in the
majority of cases it has been done using Carnet hosting
services and offered similar links Regarding the fact that
most schools have the same browser a school is considered
to have a website if a private document or link has been
updated
4 Results and discussion
Table 2 ndash Overall analysed content in percentage
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIES
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCETAGECURRICULUM 41 82 9 18 WEBSITE
COUNTER8 16 42 84
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTSrsquo
INFORMATION28 56 22 44
RESULTS OF
SCHOOL
COMPETITION
23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 ONLINE
TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
TEACHERSrsquo 2 4 48 96
CV
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
FORUM 12 24 38 76 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL
(SCHOOL
HISTORY)
50 100 0 0
For table 2 it is evident that all schools have information
about the school on the website ie about its history
(100) the majority has school photo alums (86) and the
curriculum (82) More than half the schools (56) have the
timetable for parentsrsquo information and less then half (46)
have sport achievements of their pupils The fewest schools
publish teachersrsquo CVs (4) and website counters Study
materials and tips for parents are present on just above a
third the websites (34 36)
Chart 1 ndash content according to county
It is visible from Chart 1 that results do not vary much
between counties The most discrepancy is shown in sportsrsquo
achievements (Istria 72 Split ndash Dalmatia 20) and a 20
discrepancy is present in categories photo album and study
material Other discrepancies are smaller than 20 The 2nd
hypothesis was tested with the chi-square test The
hypothesis is considered valid in case that the probability
of error is less than 5 considering that there is a
statistically significant link between the analysed pair of
variables
Table 3 ndash Relations between counties
CURRI
CULUM
WEB
COUNT
ERS
HOUSE
RULES
INFOR
MATIO
N
TIMET
ABLE
SPORT
S
ACHIE
VEMEN
TS
PHOTO
ALBUM
ONLINE
TESTS
TEACHERS
CVs
TIPS
FOR
PARENTS FORUM
10486462 0024 0148 0125 0081 1159 2657 1471 05208 07812 01096
8 4 8
df 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
p 0876
88491
0
0479
50012
0527
0892
0705
31663
0006
71374
0
044
5920
62
02251
8798
0157299
21
03457
4844
05638
979
It is not difficult to notice that a significant
discrepancy is present only in sportsrsquo achievement whereas
in other elements it does not exist which confirms the
stated hypothesis It can be concluded that there are no
differences between the content in the two counties
The website content can be divided into two categories
content intended for parents and pupils (curriculum
timetable for parentsrsquo information teachersrsquo CVs tips for
parents forum online tests and study material house
rules) and content for promoting school activities and
achievements (sportsrsquo achievements photo albums about the
school web counters)
Table 4 ndash analysis according to purpose
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIESINTENDEED FOR
PARENTS AND
PUPILSYES
PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
ONLINE TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
CURRICULUM 41 82 9 18
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTS
INFORMATION
TIMETABLE
28 56 22 44
FORUM 12 24 38 76 TEACHERSrsquo CV 2 4 48 96 PROMOTION OF
SCHOOL
ACTIVITIES
AND
ACVIEVEMENTS
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
SPORTS
ACHIEVEMENTS23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 WEB COUNTERS 8 16 42 84 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL50 100 0 0
Among the content intended for parents and pupils
which would allow pupils to acquire new knowledge and
encourage parents to visit regularly schools offer in high
percentage (82) the curriculum which is a legal obligation
(public notice) and just over half the schools (56) offer
the timetable for parentsrsquo information About one third of
schools (34 36) publish on its websites study materials
and tips for parents and only 24 have an active forum for
exchanging opinions although these forums have an
insignificant number of open themes none of which were
opened by parents Study materials are most often online
tests with a link from the website and tips for parents are
texts compiled by schools assistants Considering the lack
of assistants in schools this may be the cause for a small
percentage of these materials Some schools under the
section tips for parents have links to interesting Internet
articles
Categories intended for the promotion of school
achievements and activities have more contents every school
has a page dedicated to school history 86 updates the
photo album section and less then half the schools (46)
publish sportsrsquo achievements of the pupils The photo albums
offer pictures from school trips out-of-classroom teaching
school events etc Justifying such a large number of
pictures is debatable since none of the published materials
are protected by password but available to everybody the
question arises if the schools have the parentsrsquo permission
Only 16 of schools pay attention to visits which could be
a significant information showing the number of parents and
pupils visiting the website
The mentioned data show that schools consider relevant
the promotion of school activities and success the history
of the school and the timetable for parentsrsquo information
but tips for parents and school materials along with
exchanging opinions are not a priority Schools consider the
teachersrsquo CVs parentsrsquo meeting announcements or the school
cafeteria menu of no relevance to parents These facts point
to the fact that school websites in Croatia are more online
notice-boards than a real possibility for communication
5 Conclusion
Over the last decade cooperation with parents in
Croatia has been improving however in our schools
traditional forms of cooperation with parents are still
prevailing Although in the world there are specialized
radio and TV channels magazines and Internet sites for
exchanging experiences (Mendel 1998) such practice has not
flung into being in Croatia However over the last couple
of years cooperation via websites e-mails and SMS messages
Summarising its advantages and disadvantages and
considering todayrsquos lifestyle this way of cooperation
should be intensified in our schools Contemporary ways of
communication can additionally improve the communication
between parents and school but just as one more way
alongside other ways Consequently although the modern age
presupposes the use of modern technologies no technology
should replace face-to-face communication between parents
and teachers and the responsibility for a good cooperation
still lies on the school
The research demonstrates the possibilities of
communication between family and school by using modern
technology Elements of school websites are shown as well
as ways of planning the content of a website We consider
this research important for informing teachers and school
management of the possibilities of modern communication
between families and school A school website allows for the
possibility of establishing fast communication however its
mere existence does not guarantee the pupils acquiring new
knowledge and a quality relation between the family and
school It can be a good example for the school management
in creating the school curriculum as a segment allowing for
a fast exchange of information with parents Unfortunately
the educational system in Croatia is traditional and inert
unsuitable for the times and contemporary professions It
does not satisfy the need of the individual and traditional
teaching by using a minimum of technology and information is
utterly un-motivational for the student as well as for the
family The results of this research show that school
websites in Croatia donrsquot fulfil their purpose presenting
pupilsrsquo achievements allowing the parents insight into
everyday activities informing the parents and the wider
community on future activities and strengthening the
cooperation between school home and the local community
Although the purpose of school websites should not be merely
an electronic version of the notice board and an image of
the school that rarely changes its appearance the current
condition of the Croatian school websites in the analysed
counties shows just that therefore confirming the initial
hypothesis
Future research should inquire into the stance of
parents in Croatia on which content they consider important
therefore receiving relevant data which could later be used
by teachers for creating their websites
References
Berger E H (1991) Parent Involvement Yesterday and
Today The Elementary School Journal 91 (3) 209-219
Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb
Educa
Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships
Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76
httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20Articles
ParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
Epstein JL i Sheldon S B (2006) Moving Forward Ideas
for Research on School Family and Community Partnerships
httpwwwcsosjhuedup2000pdfLiterature20Review
2020Epstein20and20Sheldon2006pdf (15112010)
Graham- Clay S (2005) Communicating with Parents
Strategies for Teachers School Community Journal 16 (1)
117-129
Hartshorne R Friedman A Algozzine B i Kaur D
(2008) Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites Educational
Technology amp Society 11 (1) 291-303
Hitrec G(ur) (2006) Škola otvorena roditeljima Zagreb
Udruga roditelja Korak po korak
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE -
- MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE - MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
-
Zadnjih desetak godina suradnja s roditeljima i kod nas
se mijenja na bolje ali u našim školama još uvijek
prevladavaju tradicionalni oblici suradnje s roditeljima
Iako u svijetu postoje roditeljski radio i Tv kanali
časopisi i internet stranice za razmjenu iskustava (Mendel
1998) kod nas takva praksa nije zaživjela no posljednjih
godina započela je suradnja putem web stranica e mail i sms
poruka Sumirajući prednosti i nedostatke a s obzirom na
današnji način života i ovaj način suradnje treba
intenzivirati u našim školama Suvremeni načini
komuniciranja mogu dodatno poboljšati komunikaciju između
roditelja i škole ali samo kao još jedan od načina uz sve
ostale navedene načine suradnje Iz toga proizlazi da iako
suvremeno doba pretpostavlja korištenje suvremenih
tehnologija nikakva tehnologija ne bi smjela zamijeniti
komunikaciju bdquolicem u licerdquo roditelja i učitelja a
odgovornost za dobru suradnju s roditeljima i dalje ostaje
na školi
Istraživanje pokazuje mogućnosti komuniciranja obitelji
i škole suvremenom tehnologijom Prikazani su elementi
školskih web stranica te način planiranja sadržaja web
stranice Ovo istraživanje smatramo važnim za informiranje
učitelja i rukovodstva škola o mogućnostima suvremenog
komuniciranja obitelji i škole Školska web stranica otvara
mogućnosti za uspostavljanje brze informacije no samim
postojanjem ne jamči učenicima stjecanje novih znanja i
kvalitetnije povezivanje obitelji i škole Može biti dobar
primjer vodstvu škole u stvaranju školskog kurikuluma kao
segmenta kojim će se omogućavati brza razmjena informacija s
roditeljima Nažalost obrazovni sustav u Hrvatskoj
tradicionalan je i trom neprimjeren vremenu i suvremenim
zanimanjima Ne zadovoljava individualne potrebe pojedinca
a tradicionalnim poučavanjem uz tehnologijski i
informacijski minimum potpuno je nemotivirajući kako za
učenika tako i za obitelj Rezultati ovoga istraživanja
pokazuju da školske web stranice u Hrvatskoj ne ostvaruju
sasvim svoju svrhu objavljivanje postignuća učenika
omogućavanje roditeljima uvid u svakodnevne aktivnosti
informiranje roditelja i šire zajednice o budućim
aktivnostima i jačanje suradnje između škole doma i
lokalne zajednice Iako svrha školskih web stranica ne bi
trebala biti elektronička verzija oglasne ploče i slika
škole koja rijetko mijenja svoj izgled trenutno stanje
hrvatskih web stranica u analiziranim županijama pokazuje
upravo to što potvrđuje početnu hipotezu
U narednim istraživanjima trebalo bi ispitati stavove
roditelja u Hrvatskoj o tome koje sadržaje oni smatraju
važnima te bi se tada dobili relevantni podatci koje bi
učitelji mogli upotrijebiti za kreiranje svojih web
stranica
Literatura
Berger E H (1991) Parent Involvement Yesterday and
Today The Elementary School Journal 91 (3) 209-219
Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb
Educa
Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships
Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76
httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20Articles
ParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
Epstein JL i Sheldon S B (2006) Moving Forward Ideas
for Research on School Family and Community Partnerships
httpwwwcsosjhuedup2000pdfLiterature20Review
2020Epstein20and20Sheldon2006pdf (15112010)
Graham- Clay S (2005) Communicating with Parents
Strategies for Teachers School Community Journal 16 (1)
117-129
Hartshorne R Friedman A Algozzine B i Kaur D
(2008) Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites Educational
Technology amp Society 11 (1) 291-303
Hitrec G(ur) (2006) Škola otvorena roditeljima Zagreb
Udruga roditelja Korak po korak
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
Deana Tavas graduate teacher
Vladimir Nazor Elementary School Rovinj
dtavasyahoocom
Sanja Bilač graduate teacher
Spinut Elementary School Split
sanja9stgmailcom
SCHOOL WEBSITES ndash
POSSIBILITY OF COOPERATION WITH PARENTS
SCHOOL WEBSITES ndash POSSIBILITY OF COOPERATION WITH PARENTS
Abstract In the last fifteen years in Croatia as well as around the world
much research has been done dealing with the importance of cooperation
between parents and school and the obtained results show its importance for all
the parties and that partnership relation between school and parents produces
numerous benefits Besides customary ways of communication like individual
talk and parent meetings written messages informal meetings educational
workshops the involvement of parents in the educational process in the role of
accessory etc the most modern way of communicating with parents is via school
websites teacherrsquos websites e-mails and SMS messages The goal of the
research was to examine if Croatian schoolsrsquo websites had the content which
would prompt the parents for frequent visits and enable pupils to acquire new
knowledge A long term goal was to persuade schools to a regular update of new
materials which would result in quality cooperation between home and school
and persuade pupils to do research from their home and therefore increase the
quality of learning The research has randomly selected 25 elementary school
websites from the county of Istra and 25 websites from the county Split ndash
Dalmatia Collected data show that Croatiarsquos elementary school websites are not
a model neither for increasing the cooperation with parents nor laying the
foundation towards a new culture of learning and that there is no statistically
significant variation in content between the two counties
Key words cooperation with parents Internet school websites website
content
1 Parents and school cooperation
The cooperation between parents and schools is
extremely important and offers manifold benefits for all the
participants in the education process A partnership between
parents and teachers establishes good relations since every
partner introduces their competences in the childrsquos
education The cooperation between parents and teachers
ie school should be the best possible to achieve
outstanding goals Berger (1991) considers that models of
parent involvement are approached more actively nowadays
then it was in the 1960s when the responsibilities of
parents and schools were considered distinct Cooperation
with parents is today considered on of the essential
determinants of an efficient school in terms of general
pedagogy and research has shown that 22 of teachers
consider the lack of parent involvement a serious problem
(Ryan and Cooper 2010) Such cooperation is only partially
directed at prevention ie solution of disciplinary
problems since its benefits are manifold and are
manifested in better grades increased regular attendance
more willingness to work at home and development of more
positive attitudes and behavior Parental involvement in
school life has a positive effect on pupilrsquos achievements
and their motivation and the partnership relation between
parents and schools makes the parents more informed of
school affairs gives them a more positive image in the eyes
of the teachers they contribute to a better functioning of
the school strengthen their self-confidence and assurance
in helping their child at home and they become
participants not mere observers of the education of their
child Teachers have also to gain from a partnership
relation with parents since the parents become allies in
solving problems they become more motivated and satisfied
with their job receive more confidence from parents and
have a better reputation in society
These and other benefits for all the participants in
the education process are the result of growing willingness
and need of parent involvement in the school life According
to Walsh (2002) one way of achieving a successful bond
between parents and school is a consistent and clear two-way
communication
Epstein (1995) lists three learning contexts for
pupils in the family in school and in the community and
lists 6 ways of parent involvement These are parenting
communication volunteering learning at home decision
making and collaborating with the community However all of
these ways of cooperation between parents and school presume
direct communication which at times regardless of the
parentsrsquo willingness is impossible Many parents work
during planned school activities or meetings and have not
the possibility to participate especially in schools which
work in a single shift Todayrsquos way of life and both parents
working prevents personal communication and a more active
involvement of parents with schools
2 Contemporary ways of cooperation between parents and
school
One of the key features of humans is the ability to
communicate The exceptional ability of storing data and
fast sharing of enormous amounts of information have
revolutionized business as well as the everyday life of
mankind The access to information is unlimited the sharing
of ideas and thoughts free the worldrsquos business and economy
are being transformed Significant are the changes in the
approach to education Fast communication is becoming a
trend in shaping the future and therefore revolutionary
models of learning are more and more inherent (eg using
interactive computer technology fast learning) Pupils
are assuming responsibility for their life in a world in
which ldquothose who end their education have no futurerdquo (Dryden
and Vos 2001 p 39) Stronger is the criticism of the
educational system for its inertness in the process of
change and positive initiatives empowered by scientific
research become the link for modernization and improvement
of the school in the 21st century
Technology has become a critical component of everyday
life and an increase in the development and use of school
websites over the last few years is evident (Hartshorne and
ass 2008) Research (Aronson 1995 Cameron and Lee 1997
Clemens-Brower 1997 Cleverson 1999 Ramirez 2001) show that
many teachers experiment with various technologies when
communicating with parents (telephones in classrooms voice
mail video technology radio announcements etc) to
improve cooperation School websites provide parents with
useful content such as educational tips homework e-mails
or the school cafeteria menu and expand the borders of
communication between home and school to a 24 hours a day 7
days a week contact That allows parents whose daily
timetable doesnrsquot permit regular visits to the school and
face-to-face interaction with their child or teacher to be
more informed of what is happening at school Internet
becomes an excellent means of connecting home and school
Swan (2008) believes that schools have a lot of
information and parents want to know more about academic
achievements extracurricular activities parentsrsquo meeting
schedule information such as bus transport or lunch and
that it is important that school websites include accurate
and useful information not an exciting design or newest
technological ldquoornamentsrdquo
Online research (Unal 2008) shows that parents and
teachers recognize the importance of school websites
although they do not agree completely on their content
While teachers suggest that links inside the school
classroom rules teaching curriculum and standards list of
obligatory accessories statistics of websites visitors and
guest book should be essential to a school website
significant divergence (plt05) was seen in parents
disagreeing on these elements On the other hand parents
declare they would like to see online practical tests
academic advisory information information about
administrative issues and school direction as well as
teachers CVs Eventually teachers and parents agree that
results of school sport competition and activities
educational philosophy lesson plans links outside the
institution online articles and newsletters class photo
albums and news teachersrsquo blogs menus examples of
didactic cards personal links and teachersrsquo family
information are not essential elements of schoolsrsquo websites
It can be concluded that regardless of many schools today
having their own website not all are important for the
communication of parents and teachers Past research shows
that the structure and content of school websites should be
carefully planned and developed
According to McKenzie J (1997) the best websites have
four purposes 1 introduce visitors to its mission its
character its offerings to children its stance on new
technologies 2 offer an opportunity for the publishing of
student works and parents education 3 act as a mediator to
a larger share of information and 4 provide rich data
locally collected on curriculum related topics (such as
local history) Some school websites contain all four of
these elements but the majority is concentrated upon
providing a quality service in two or three of these
elements
21 Cooperation between parents and school in Croatia
In the elementary education in Croatia prescribed are
(most often by School statute) the following ways of
cooperation with parents parent meeting individual talks
with teachers and school assistants and written messages to
parents According to Law on Primary and Secondary
Education (Ministry of Education Science and Technology
2008) prescribed is the formation a Parentsrsquo Council which
comprises one parent from every class and the president of
the Parentrsquos Council is appointed a member of the School
Committee Practice shows that these prescribed ways of
cooperation do not satisfy the teachers or the parents
Parent participation is merely formal without real
possibility of influencing important decisions
Centralization and standardization of the curriculum do not
allow schools enough space for adapting to the needs of the
local community parent meeting come down to mere
information sharing where parents are usually passive
recipients of information and parents asked to participate
in some kind of school activity are rare A research
conducted among parents of pupil of the 4th and 7th grade
from all Croatian regions and their teachers (Marušić 2007)
shows that two thirds of parents believes that they have too
little possibility of participating in decision making in
schools more than 90 of parents have never taken part in
activities related to cooperation between family and school
three quarters of parents state that there are no lectures
or workshops organized in schools and a third of parents
does not know if such workshops are organized A substantial
number of parents have shown interest in participating in
various school activities but the initiative is expected to
come from teachers
However the practice in Croatian schools in recent
years has shown undertaking additional strategies for
cooperation with parents Many workshops are being held
parents are involved as assistants on projects and in the
communication between parents and school improvement has
been made in following and assessing the pupilsrsquo progress as
well as in the feedback information on the pupilsrsquo progress
(increasingly common are the pupilsrsquo maps as an example of
systematic authentic and development assessment of pupilsrsquo
progress)
As far as electronic cooperation is concerned Croatia
is one step back The project ldquoNet u školirdquo ndash ldquoNet in the
schoolrdquo was initiated in 2003 and all schools in Croatia
have been equipped with ISDN terminals with the aim to
improve the process of learning by using Internet in
teaching and pupilsrsquo research from home and by laying the
foundation for a new culture of learning based on openness
to new knowledge new media and technology Today all
schools in Croatia have the possibility to set up a website
and the teachers to open e-mail accounts
In Croatia websites of teachers are a rare appearance
but the projects ldquoŠkolski infocentarrdquo and ldquoSMS informativkardquo
have been initiated through which informing parents on
success absence and other school activities via simple and
to the majority accessible way of communication (SMS e-
mail Internet and voicemail) has been enabled A small
number of schools have incorporated a web directory updated
monthly by class masters which parents with a special
password can check at any time Although not the most
important fact it should not be ignored that according to
the Central Bureau of Statistics in 2009 only 38 of
households in Croatia had access to the Internet which
complicates communication via websites and not all teachers
are computer literate Such cooperation has its advantages
and disadvantages
Table 1 ndash advantages and disadvantages of cooperation
via electronic media
ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGESInformation on child received daily
Fast information transmission
Not limited by time or place
Time saving for parents
Time saving for teachers when
sending general information
Parents come to school prepared
themes for conversation are
educational
Both parents and teachers must be
computer literate
All participants (parents
teachers) must have Internet access
Additional work for teachers
(regular updating of data)
Rarer encounters among parents and
teachers
Lack of face-to-face communication
Financial expense for parents when
sending SMS messages
Possible abuse (password)
3 Research methodology
31 Aim of research
The aim of the research was to examine whether the
content of Croatian elementary schools websites encourages
frequent parentsrsquo visits and allows pupils to acquire new
knowledge A long term goal is to encourage schools to post
new materials regularly which would result in high-quality
cooperation between home and school along with encouraging
students to research work from their homes and therefore
advancing the quality of learning
32 Problem
The problem of this work is to determine the current
purpose of Croatian elementary schools websites
33 Hypothesis
H-1 Websites of Croatian elementary schools with its
contents do not pose a model for a more intensive
cooperation with parents or lay the foundations for a new
culture of learning
H-2 There is no statistically significant difference in
content between the two counties in neither of the eleven
categories
34 Participants and procedure
School websites are public documents and welcome the
outer world into the school as well as a link between
pupils and teachers with outer sources of information and a
possibility of better cooperation with parents The function
of school websites is to make public the achievements of
pupils to allow parents insight into daily activities and
to inform parents and the larger community of future
activities as well as strengthening cooperation between
school home and the local community The function of the
schoolsrsquo websites should not be a mere electronic version of
a notice board or a picture of a school that seldom changes
its appearance
The research was conducted by content analysis method
on a random selection of 50 elementary school websites in
the counties of Istria and Split ndash Dalmatia (25 schools per
county) The Internet school directory of ldquoPortal za školerdquo
was used Since in Croatia a research has not been conducted
on parents and the content the parents believed to be
important and relevant the authors were led by a research
done by an online study in USA (Unal 2008) and the elements
selected by teachers and parents in that study The
following website content was analysed curriculum about
the school (school history) web counters house rules
(classroom rules) timetable and information for parents
results of school competition photo albums online tests
(study materials) teachersrsquo CV tips for parents and forum
The analysis was done at the beginning of December 2010 by
the end of the first term giving the schools enough time to
update and enrich the websites This research did not take
into consideration the design of websites since in the
majority of cases it has been done using Carnet hosting
services and offered similar links Regarding the fact that
most schools have the same browser a school is considered
to have a website if a private document or link has been
updated
4 Results and discussion
Table 2 ndash Overall analysed content in percentage
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIES
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCETAGECURRICULUM 41 82 9 18 WEBSITE
COUNTER8 16 42 84
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTSrsquo
INFORMATION28 56 22 44
RESULTS OF
SCHOOL
COMPETITION
23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 ONLINE
TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
TEACHERSrsquo 2 4 48 96
CV
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
FORUM 12 24 38 76 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL
(SCHOOL
HISTORY)
50 100 0 0
For table 2 it is evident that all schools have information
about the school on the website ie about its history
(100) the majority has school photo alums (86) and the
curriculum (82) More than half the schools (56) have the
timetable for parentsrsquo information and less then half (46)
have sport achievements of their pupils The fewest schools
publish teachersrsquo CVs (4) and website counters Study
materials and tips for parents are present on just above a
third the websites (34 36)
Chart 1 ndash content according to county
It is visible from Chart 1 that results do not vary much
between counties The most discrepancy is shown in sportsrsquo
achievements (Istria 72 Split ndash Dalmatia 20) and a 20
discrepancy is present in categories photo album and study
material Other discrepancies are smaller than 20 The 2nd
hypothesis was tested with the chi-square test The
hypothesis is considered valid in case that the probability
of error is less than 5 considering that there is a
statistically significant link between the analysed pair of
variables
Table 3 ndash Relations between counties
CURRI
CULUM
WEB
COUNT
ERS
HOUSE
RULES
INFOR
MATIO
N
TIMET
ABLE
SPORT
S
ACHIE
VEMEN
TS
PHOTO
ALBUM
ONLINE
TESTS
TEACHERS
CVs
TIPS
FOR
PARENTS FORUM
10486462 0024 0148 0125 0081 1159 2657 1471 05208 07812 01096
8 4 8
df 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
p 0876
88491
0
0479
50012
0527
0892
0705
31663
0006
71374
0
044
5920
62
02251
8798
0157299
21
03457
4844
05638
979
It is not difficult to notice that a significant
discrepancy is present only in sportsrsquo achievement whereas
in other elements it does not exist which confirms the
stated hypothesis It can be concluded that there are no
differences between the content in the two counties
The website content can be divided into two categories
content intended for parents and pupils (curriculum
timetable for parentsrsquo information teachersrsquo CVs tips for
parents forum online tests and study material house
rules) and content for promoting school activities and
achievements (sportsrsquo achievements photo albums about the
school web counters)
Table 4 ndash analysis according to purpose
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIESINTENDEED FOR
PARENTS AND
PUPILSYES
PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
ONLINE TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
CURRICULUM 41 82 9 18
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTS
INFORMATION
TIMETABLE
28 56 22 44
FORUM 12 24 38 76 TEACHERSrsquo CV 2 4 48 96 PROMOTION OF
SCHOOL
ACTIVITIES
AND
ACVIEVEMENTS
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
SPORTS
ACHIEVEMENTS23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 WEB COUNTERS 8 16 42 84 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL50 100 0 0
Among the content intended for parents and pupils
which would allow pupils to acquire new knowledge and
encourage parents to visit regularly schools offer in high
percentage (82) the curriculum which is a legal obligation
(public notice) and just over half the schools (56) offer
the timetable for parentsrsquo information About one third of
schools (34 36) publish on its websites study materials
and tips for parents and only 24 have an active forum for
exchanging opinions although these forums have an
insignificant number of open themes none of which were
opened by parents Study materials are most often online
tests with a link from the website and tips for parents are
texts compiled by schools assistants Considering the lack
of assistants in schools this may be the cause for a small
percentage of these materials Some schools under the
section tips for parents have links to interesting Internet
articles
Categories intended for the promotion of school
achievements and activities have more contents every school
has a page dedicated to school history 86 updates the
photo album section and less then half the schools (46)
publish sportsrsquo achievements of the pupils The photo albums
offer pictures from school trips out-of-classroom teaching
school events etc Justifying such a large number of
pictures is debatable since none of the published materials
are protected by password but available to everybody the
question arises if the schools have the parentsrsquo permission
Only 16 of schools pay attention to visits which could be
a significant information showing the number of parents and
pupils visiting the website
The mentioned data show that schools consider relevant
the promotion of school activities and success the history
of the school and the timetable for parentsrsquo information
but tips for parents and school materials along with
exchanging opinions are not a priority Schools consider the
teachersrsquo CVs parentsrsquo meeting announcements or the school
cafeteria menu of no relevance to parents These facts point
to the fact that school websites in Croatia are more online
notice-boards than a real possibility for communication
5 Conclusion
Over the last decade cooperation with parents in
Croatia has been improving however in our schools
traditional forms of cooperation with parents are still
prevailing Although in the world there are specialized
radio and TV channels magazines and Internet sites for
exchanging experiences (Mendel 1998) such practice has not
flung into being in Croatia However over the last couple
of years cooperation via websites e-mails and SMS messages
Summarising its advantages and disadvantages and
considering todayrsquos lifestyle this way of cooperation
should be intensified in our schools Contemporary ways of
communication can additionally improve the communication
between parents and school but just as one more way
alongside other ways Consequently although the modern age
presupposes the use of modern technologies no technology
should replace face-to-face communication between parents
and teachers and the responsibility for a good cooperation
still lies on the school
The research demonstrates the possibilities of
communication between family and school by using modern
technology Elements of school websites are shown as well
as ways of planning the content of a website We consider
this research important for informing teachers and school
management of the possibilities of modern communication
between families and school A school website allows for the
possibility of establishing fast communication however its
mere existence does not guarantee the pupils acquiring new
knowledge and a quality relation between the family and
school It can be a good example for the school management
in creating the school curriculum as a segment allowing for
a fast exchange of information with parents Unfortunately
the educational system in Croatia is traditional and inert
unsuitable for the times and contemporary professions It
does not satisfy the need of the individual and traditional
teaching by using a minimum of technology and information is
utterly un-motivational for the student as well as for the
family The results of this research show that school
websites in Croatia donrsquot fulfil their purpose presenting
pupilsrsquo achievements allowing the parents insight into
everyday activities informing the parents and the wider
community on future activities and strengthening the
cooperation between school home and the local community
Although the purpose of school websites should not be merely
an electronic version of the notice board and an image of
the school that rarely changes its appearance the current
condition of the Croatian school websites in the analysed
counties shows just that therefore confirming the initial
hypothesis
Future research should inquire into the stance of
parents in Croatia on which content they consider important
therefore receiving relevant data which could later be used
by teachers for creating their websites
References
Berger E H (1991) Parent Involvement Yesterday and
Today The Elementary School Journal 91 (3) 209-219
Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb
Educa
Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships
Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76
httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20Articles
ParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
Epstein JL i Sheldon S B (2006) Moving Forward Ideas
for Research on School Family and Community Partnerships
httpwwwcsosjhuedup2000pdfLiterature20Review
2020Epstein20and20Sheldon2006pdf (15112010)
Graham- Clay S (2005) Communicating with Parents
Strategies for Teachers School Community Journal 16 (1)
117-129
Hartshorne R Friedman A Algozzine B i Kaur D
(2008) Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites Educational
Technology amp Society 11 (1) 291-303
Hitrec G(ur) (2006) Škola otvorena roditeljima Zagreb
Udruga roditelja Korak po korak
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE -
- MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE - MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
-
kvalitetnije povezivanje obitelji i škole Može biti dobar
primjer vodstvu škole u stvaranju školskog kurikuluma kao
segmenta kojim će se omogućavati brza razmjena informacija s
roditeljima Nažalost obrazovni sustav u Hrvatskoj
tradicionalan je i trom neprimjeren vremenu i suvremenim
zanimanjima Ne zadovoljava individualne potrebe pojedinca
a tradicionalnim poučavanjem uz tehnologijski i
informacijski minimum potpuno je nemotivirajući kako za
učenika tako i za obitelj Rezultati ovoga istraživanja
pokazuju da školske web stranice u Hrvatskoj ne ostvaruju
sasvim svoju svrhu objavljivanje postignuća učenika
omogućavanje roditeljima uvid u svakodnevne aktivnosti
informiranje roditelja i šire zajednice o budućim
aktivnostima i jačanje suradnje između škole doma i
lokalne zajednice Iako svrha školskih web stranica ne bi
trebala biti elektronička verzija oglasne ploče i slika
škole koja rijetko mijenja svoj izgled trenutno stanje
hrvatskih web stranica u analiziranim županijama pokazuje
upravo to što potvrđuje početnu hipotezu
U narednim istraživanjima trebalo bi ispitati stavove
roditelja u Hrvatskoj o tome koje sadržaje oni smatraju
važnima te bi se tada dobili relevantni podatci koje bi
učitelji mogli upotrijebiti za kreiranje svojih web
stranica
Literatura
Berger E H (1991) Parent Involvement Yesterday and
Today The Elementary School Journal 91 (3) 209-219
Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb
Educa
Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships
Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76
httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20Articles
ParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
Epstein JL i Sheldon S B (2006) Moving Forward Ideas
for Research on School Family and Community Partnerships
httpwwwcsosjhuedup2000pdfLiterature20Review
2020Epstein20and20Sheldon2006pdf (15112010)
Graham- Clay S (2005) Communicating with Parents
Strategies for Teachers School Community Journal 16 (1)
117-129
Hartshorne R Friedman A Algozzine B i Kaur D
(2008) Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites Educational
Technology amp Society 11 (1) 291-303
Hitrec G(ur) (2006) Škola otvorena roditeljima Zagreb
Udruga roditelja Korak po korak
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
Deana Tavas graduate teacher
Vladimir Nazor Elementary School Rovinj
dtavasyahoocom
Sanja Bilač graduate teacher
Spinut Elementary School Split
sanja9stgmailcom
SCHOOL WEBSITES ndash
POSSIBILITY OF COOPERATION WITH PARENTS
SCHOOL WEBSITES ndash POSSIBILITY OF COOPERATION WITH PARENTS
Abstract In the last fifteen years in Croatia as well as around the world
much research has been done dealing with the importance of cooperation
between parents and school and the obtained results show its importance for all
the parties and that partnership relation between school and parents produces
numerous benefits Besides customary ways of communication like individual
talk and parent meetings written messages informal meetings educational
workshops the involvement of parents in the educational process in the role of
accessory etc the most modern way of communicating with parents is via school
websites teacherrsquos websites e-mails and SMS messages The goal of the
research was to examine if Croatian schoolsrsquo websites had the content which
would prompt the parents for frequent visits and enable pupils to acquire new
knowledge A long term goal was to persuade schools to a regular update of new
materials which would result in quality cooperation between home and school
and persuade pupils to do research from their home and therefore increase the
quality of learning The research has randomly selected 25 elementary school
websites from the county of Istra and 25 websites from the county Split ndash
Dalmatia Collected data show that Croatiarsquos elementary school websites are not
a model neither for increasing the cooperation with parents nor laying the
foundation towards a new culture of learning and that there is no statistically
significant variation in content between the two counties
Key words cooperation with parents Internet school websites website
content
1 Parents and school cooperation
The cooperation between parents and schools is
extremely important and offers manifold benefits for all the
participants in the education process A partnership between
parents and teachers establishes good relations since every
partner introduces their competences in the childrsquos
education The cooperation between parents and teachers
ie school should be the best possible to achieve
outstanding goals Berger (1991) considers that models of
parent involvement are approached more actively nowadays
then it was in the 1960s when the responsibilities of
parents and schools were considered distinct Cooperation
with parents is today considered on of the essential
determinants of an efficient school in terms of general
pedagogy and research has shown that 22 of teachers
consider the lack of parent involvement a serious problem
(Ryan and Cooper 2010) Such cooperation is only partially
directed at prevention ie solution of disciplinary
problems since its benefits are manifold and are
manifested in better grades increased regular attendance
more willingness to work at home and development of more
positive attitudes and behavior Parental involvement in
school life has a positive effect on pupilrsquos achievements
and their motivation and the partnership relation between
parents and schools makes the parents more informed of
school affairs gives them a more positive image in the eyes
of the teachers they contribute to a better functioning of
the school strengthen their self-confidence and assurance
in helping their child at home and they become
participants not mere observers of the education of their
child Teachers have also to gain from a partnership
relation with parents since the parents become allies in
solving problems they become more motivated and satisfied
with their job receive more confidence from parents and
have a better reputation in society
These and other benefits for all the participants in
the education process are the result of growing willingness
and need of parent involvement in the school life According
to Walsh (2002) one way of achieving a successful bond
between parents and school is a consistent and clear two-way
communication
Epstein (1995) lists three learning contexts for
pupils in the family in school and in the community and
lists 6 ways of parent involvement These are parenting
communication volunteering learning at home decision
making and collaborating with the community However all of
these ways of cooperation between parents and school presume
direct communication which at times regardless of the
parentsrsquo willingness is impossible Many parents work
during planned school activities or meetings and have not
the possibility to participate especially in schools which
work in a single shift Todayrsquos way of life and both parents
working prevents personal communication and a more active
involvement of parents with schools
2 Contemporary ways of cooperation between parents and
school
One of the key features of humans is the ability to
communicate The exceptional ability of storing data and
fast sharing of enormous amounts of information have
revolutionized business as well as the everyday life of
mankind The access to information is unlimited the sharing
of ideas and thoughts free the worldrsquos business and economy
are being transformed Significant are the changes in the
approach to education Fast communication is becoming a
trend in shaping the future and therefore revolutionary
models of learning are more and more inherent (eg using
interactive computer technology fast learning) Pupils
are assuming responsibility for their life in a world in
which ldquothose who end their education have no futurerdquo (Dryden
and Vos 2001 p 39) Stronger is the criticism of the
educational system for its inertness in the process of
change and positive initiatives empowered by scientific
research become the link for modernization and improvement
of the school in the 21st century
Technology has become a critical component of everyday
life and an increase in the development and use of school
websites over the last few years is evident (Hartshorne and
ass 2008) Research (Aronson 1995 Cameron and Lee 1997
Clemens-Brower 1997 Cleverson 1999 Ramirez 2001) show that
many teachers experiment with various technologies when
communicating with parents (telephones in classrooms voice
mail video technology radio announcements etc) to
improve cooperation School websites provide parents with
useful content such as educational tips homework e-mails
or the school cafeteria menu and expand the borders of
communication between home and school to a 24 hours a day 7
days a week contact That allows parents whose daily
timetable doesnrsquot permit regular visits to the school and
face-to-face interaction with their child or teacher to be
more informed of what is happening at school Internet
becomes an excellent means of connecting home and school
Swan (2008) believes that schools have a lot of
information and parents want to know more about academic
achievements extracurricular activities parentsrsquo meeting
schedule information such as bus transport or lunch and
that it is important that school websites include accurate
and useful information not an exciting design or newest
technological ldquoornamentsrdquo
Online research (Unal 2008) shows that parents and
teachers recognize the importance of school websites
although they do not agree completely on their content
While teachers suggest that links inside the school
classroom rules teaching curriculum and standards list of
obligatory accessories statistics of websites visitors and
guest book should be essential to a school website
significant divergence (plt05) was seen in parents
disagreeing on these elements On the other hand parents
declare they would like to see online practical tests
academic advisory information information about
administrative issues and school direction as well as
teachers CVs Eventually teachers and parents agree that
results of school sport competition and activities
educational philosophy lesson plans links outside the
institution online articles and newsletters class photo
albums and news teachersrsquo blogs menus examples of
didactic cards personal links and teachersrsquo family
information are not essential elements of schoolsrsquo websites
It can be concluded that regardless of many schools today
having their own website not all are important for the
communication of parents and teachers Past research shows
that the structure and content of school websites should be
carefully planned and developed
According to McKenzie J (1997) the best websites have
four purposes 1 introduce visitors to its mission its
character its offerings to children its stance on new
technologies 2 offer an opportunity for the publishing of
student works and parents education 3 act as a mediator to
a larger share of information and 4 provide rich data
locally collected on curriculum related topics (such as
local history) Some school websites contain all four of
these elements but the majority is concentrated upon
providing a quality service in two or three of these
elements
21 Cooperation between parents and school in Croatia
In the elementary education in Croatia prescribed are
(most often by School statute) the following ways of
cooperation with parents parent meeting individual talks
with teachers and school assistants and written messages to
parents According to Law on Primary and Secondary
Education (Ministry of Education Science and Technology
2008) prescribed is the formation a Parentsrsquo Council which
comprises one parent from every class and the president of
the Parentrsquos Council is appointed a member of the School
Committee Practice shows that these prescribed ways of
cooperation do not satisfy the teachers or the parents
Parent participation is merely formal without real
possibility of influencing important decisions
Centralization and standardization of the curriculum do not
allow schools enough space for adapting to the needs of the
local community parent meeting come down to mere
information sharing where parents are usually passive
recipients of information and parents asked to participate
in some kind of school activity are rare A research
conducted among parents of pupil of the 4th and 7th grade
from all Croatian regions and their teachers (Marušić 2007)
shows that two thirds of parents believes that they have too
little possibility of participating in decision making in
schools more than 90 of parents have never taken part in
activities related to cooperation between family and school
three quarters of parents state that there are no lectures
or workshops organized in schools and a third of parents
does not know if such workshops are organized A substantial
number of parents have shown interest in participating in
various school activities but the initiative is expected to
come from teachers
However the practice in Croatian schools in recent
years has shown undertaking additional strategies for
cooperation with parents Many workshops are being held
parents are involved as assistants on projects and in the
communication between parents and school improvement has
been made in following and assessing the pupilsrsquo progress as
well as in the feedback information on the pupilsrsquo progress
(increasingly common are the pupilsrsquo maps as an example of
systematic authentic and development assessment of pupilsrsquo
progress)
As far as electronic cooperation is concerned Croatia
is one step back The project ldquoNet u školirdquo ndash ldquoNet in the
schoolrdquo was initiated in 2003 and all schools in Croatia
have been equipped with ISDN terminals with the aim to
improve the process of learning by using Internet in
teaching and pupilsrsquo research from home and by laying the
foundation for a new culture of learning based on openness
to new knowledge new media and technology Today all
schools in Croatia have the possibility to set up a website
and the teachers to open e-mail accounts
In Croatia websites of teachers are a rare appearance
but the projects ldquoŠkolski infocentarrdquo and ldquoSMS informativkardquo
have been initiated through which informing parents on
success absence and other school activities via simple and
to the majority accessible way of communication (SMS e-
mail Internet and voicemail) has been enabled A small
number of schools have incorporated a web directory updated
monthly by class masters which parents with a special
password can check at any time Although not the most
important fact it should not be ignored that according to
the Central Bureau of Statistics in 2009 only 38 of
households in Croatia had access to the Internet which
complicates communication via websites and not all teachers
are computer literate Such cooperation has its advantages
and disadvantages
Table 1 ndash advantages and disadvantages of cooperation
via electronic media
ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGESInformation on child received daily
Fast information transmission
Not limited by time or place
Time saving for parents
Time saving for teachers when
sending general information
Parents come to school prepared
themes for conversation are
educational
Both parents and teachers must be
computer literate
All participants (parents
teachers) must have Internet access
Additional work for teachers
(regular updating of data)
Rarer encounters among parents and
teachers
Lack of face-to-face communication
Financial expense for parents when
sending SMS messages
Possible abuse (password)
3 Research methodology
31 Aim of research
The aim of the research was to examine whether the
content of Croatian elementary schools websites encourages
frequent parentsrsquo visits and allows pupils to acquire new
knowledge A long term goal is to encourage schools to post
new materials regularly which would result in high-quality
cooperation between home and school along with encouraging
students to research work from their homes and therefore
advancing the quality of learning
32 Problem
The problem of this work is to determine the current
purpose of Croatian elementary schools websites
33 Hypothesis
H-1 Websites of Croatian elementary schools with its
contents do not pose a model for a more intensive
cooperation with parents or lay the foundations for a new
culture of learning
H-2 There is no statistically significant difference in
content between the two counties in neither of the eleven
categories
34 Participants and procedure
School websites are public documents and welcome the
outer world into the school as well as a link between
pupils and teachers with outer sources of information and a
possibility of better cooperation with parents The function
of school websites is to make public the achievements of
pupils to allow parents insight into daily activities and
to inform parents and the larger community of future
activities as well as strengthening cooperation between
school home and the local community The function of the
schoolsrsquo websites should not be a mere electronic version of
a notice board or a picture of a school that seldom changes
its appearance
The research was conducted by content analysis method
on a random selection of 50 elementary school websites in
the counties of Istria and Split ndash Dalmatia (25 schools per
county) The Internet school directory of ldquoPortal za školerdquo
was used Since in Croatia a research has not been conducted
on parents and the content the parents believed to be
important and relevant the authors were led by a research
done by an online study in USA (Unal 2008) and the elements
selected by teachers and parents in that study The
following website content was analysed curriculum about
the school (school history) web counters house rules
(classroom rules) timetable and information for parents
results of school competition photo albums online tests
(study materials) teachersrsquo CV tips for parents and forum
The analysis was done at the beginning of December 2010 by
the end of the first term giving the schools enough time to
update and enrich the websites This research did not take
into consideration the design of websites since in the
majority of cases it has been done using Carnet hosting
services and offered similar links Regarding the fact that
most schools have the same browser a school is considered
to have a website if a private document or link has been
updated
4 Results and discussion
Table 2 ndash Overall analysed content in percentage
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIES
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCETAGECURRICULUM 41 82 9 18 WEBSITE
COUNTER8 16 42 84
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTSrsquo
INFORMATION28 56 22 44
RESULTS OF
SCHOOL
COMPETITION
23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 ONLINE
TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
TEACHERSrsquo 2 4 48 96
CV
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
FORUM 12 24 38 76 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL
(SCHOOL
HISTORY)
50 100 0 0
For table 2 it is evident that all schools have information
about the school on the website ie about its history
(100) the majority has school photo alums (86) and the
curriculum (82) More than half the schools (56) have the
timetable for parentsrsquo information and less then half (46)
have sport achievements of their pupils The fewest schools
publish teachersrsquo CVs (4) and website counters Study
materials and tips for parents are present on just above a
third the websites (34 36)
Chart 1 ndash content according to county
It is visible from Chart 1 that results do not vary much
between counties The most discrepancy is shown in sportsrsquo
achievements (Istria 72 Split ndash Dalmatia 20) and a 20
discrepancy is present in categories photo album and study
material Other discrepancies are smaller than 20 The 2nd
hypothesis was tested with the chi-square test The
hypothesis is considered valid in case that the probability
of error is less than 5 considering that there is a
statistically significant link between the analysed pair of
variables
Table 3 ndash Relations between counties
CURRI
CULUM
WEB
COUNT
ERS
HOUSE
RULES
INFOR
MATIO
N
TIMET
ABLE
SPORT
S
ACHIE
VEMEN
TS
PHOTO
ALBUM
ONLINE
TESTS
TEACHERS
CVs
TIPS
FOR
PARENTS FORUM
10486462 0024 0148 0125 0081 1159 2657 1471 05208 07812 01096
8 4 8
df 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
p 0876
88491
0
0479
50012
0527
0892
0705
31663
0006
71374
0
044
5920
62
02251
8798
0157299
21
03457
4844
05638
979
It is not difficult to notice that a significant
discrepancy is present only in sportsrsquo achievement whereas
in other elements it does not exist which confirms the
stated hypothesis It can be concluded that there are no
differences between the content in the two counties
The website content can be divided into two categories
content intended for parents and pupils (curriculum
timetable for parentsrsquo information teachersrsquo CVs tips for
parents forum online tests and study material house
rules) and content for promoting school activities and
achievements (sportsrsquo achievements photo albums about the
school web counters)
Table 4 ndash analysis according to purpose
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIESINTENDEED FOR
PARENTS AND
PUPILSYES
PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
ONLINE TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
CURRICULUM 41 82 9 18
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTS
INFORMATION
TIMETABLE
28 56 22 44
FORUM 12 24 38 76 TEACHERSrsquo CV 2 4 48 96 PROMOTION OF
SCHOOL
ACTIVITIES
AND
ACVIEVEMENTS
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
SPORTS
ACHIEVEMENTS23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 WEB COUNTERS 8 16 42 84 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL50 100 0 0
Among the content intended for parents and pupils
which would allow pupils to acquire new knowledge and
encourage parents to visit regularly schools offer in high
percentage (82) the curriculum which is a legal obligation
(public notice) and just over half the schools (56) offer
the timetable for parentsrsquo information About one third of
schools (34 36) publish on its websites study materials
and tips for parents and only 24 have an active forum for
exchanging opinions although these forums have an
insignificant number of open themes none of which were
opened by parents Study materials are most often online
tests with a link from the website and tips for parents are
texts compiled by schools assistants Considering the lack
of assistants in schools this may be the cause for a small
percentage of these materials Some schools under the
section tips for parents have links to interesting Internet
articles
Categories intended for the promotion of school
achievements and activities have more contents every school
has a page dedicated to school history 86 updates the
photo album section and less then half the schools (46)
publish sportsrsquo achievements of the pupils The photo albums
offer pictures from school trips out-of-classroom teaching
school events etc Justifying such a large number of
pictures is debatable since none of the published materials
are protected by password but available to everybody the
question arises if the schools have the parentsrsquo permission
Only 16 of schools pay attention to visits which could be
a significant information showing the number of parents and
pupils visiting the website
The mentioned data show that schools consider relevant
the promotion of school activities and success the history
of the school and the timetable for parentsrsquo information
but tips for parents and school materials along with
exchanging opinions are not a priority Schools consider the
teachersrsquo CVs parentsrsquo meeting announcements or the school
cafeteria menu of no relevance to parents These facts point
to the fact that school websites in Croatia are more online
notice-boards than a real possibility for communication
5 Conclusion
Over the last decade cooperation with parents in
Croatia has been improving however in our schools
traditional forms of cooperation with parents are still
prevailing Although in the world there are specialized
radio and TV channels magazines and Internet sites for
exchanging experiences (Mendel 1998) such practice has not
flung into being in Croatia However over the last couple
of years cooperation via websites e-mails and SMS messages
Summarising its advantages and disadvantages and
considering todayrsquos lifestyle this way of cooperation
should be intensified in our schools Contemporary ways of
communication can additionally improve the communication
between parents and school but just as one more way
alongside other ways Consequently although the modern age
presupposes the use of modern technologies no technology
should replace face-to-face communication between parents
and teachers and the responsibility for a good cooperation
still lies on the school
The research demonstrates the possibilities of
communication between family and school by using modern
technology Elements of school websites are shown as well
as ways of planning the content of a website We consider
this research important for informing teachers and school
management of the possibilities of modern communication
between families and school A school website allows for the
possibility of establishing fast communication however its
mere existence does not guarantee the pupils acquiring new
knowledge and a quality relation between the family and
school It can be a good example for the school management
in creating the school curriculum as a segment allowing for
a fast exchange of information with parents Unfortunately
the educational system in Croatia is traditional and inert
unsuitable for the times and contemporary professions It
does not satisfy the need of the individual and traditional
teaching by using a minimum of technology and information is
utterly un-motivational for the student as well as for the
family The results of this research show that school
websites in Croatia donrsquot fulfil their purpose presenting
pupilsrsquo achievements allowing the parents insight into
everyday activities informing the parents and the wider
community on future activities and strengthening the
cooperation between school home and the local community
Although the purpose of school websites should not be merely
an electronic version of the notice board and an image of
the school that rarely changes its appearance the current
condition of the Croatian school websites in the analysed
counties shows just that therefore confirming the initial
hypothesis
Future research should inquire into the stance of
parents in Croatia on which content they consider important
therefore receiving relevant data which could later be used
by teachers for creating their websites
References
Berger E H (1991) Parent Involvement Yesterday and
Today The Elementary School Journal 91 (3) 209-219
Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb
Educa
Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships
Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76
httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20Articles
ParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
Epstein JL i Sheldon S B (2006) Moving Forward Ideas
for Research on School Family and Community Partnerships
httpwwwcsosjhuedup2000pdfLiterature20Review
2020Epstein20and20Sheldon2006pdf (15112010)
Graham- Clay S (2005) Communicating with Parents
Strategies for Teachers School Community Journal 16 (1)
117-129
Hartshorne R Friedman A Algozzine B i Kaur D
(2008) Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites Educational
Technology amp Society 11 (1) 291-303
Hitrec G(ur) (2006) Škola otvorena roditeljima Zagreb
Udruga roditelja Korak po korak
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE -
- MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE - MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
-
Literatura
Berger E H (1991) Parent Involvement Yesterday and
Today The Elementary School Journal 91 (3) 209-219
Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb
Educa
Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships
Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76
httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20Articles
ParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
Epstein JL i Sheldon S B (2006) Moving Forward Ideas
for Research on School Family and Community Partnerships
httpwwwcsosjhuedup2000pdfLiterature20Review
2020Epstein20and20Sheldon2006pdf (15112010)
Graham- Clay S (2005) Communicating with Parents
Strategies for Teachers School Community Journal 16 (1)
117-129
Hartshorne R Friedman A Algozzine B i Kaur D
(2008) Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites Educational
Technology amp Society 11 (1) 291-303
Hitrec G(ur) (2006) Škola otvorena roditeljima Zagreb
Udruga roditelja Korak po korak
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
Deana Tavas graduate teacher
Vladimir Nazor Elementary School Rovinj
dtavasyahoocom
Sanja Bilač graduate teacher
Spinut Elementary School Split
sanja9stgmailcom
SCHOOL WEBSITES ndash
POSSIBILITY OF COOPERATION WITH PARENTS
SCHOOL WEBSITES ndash POSSIBILITY OF COOPERATION WITH PARENTS
Abstract In the last fifteen years in Croatia as well as around the world
much research has been done dealing with the importance of cooperation
between parents and school and the obtained results show its importance for all
the parties and that partnership relation between school and parents produces
numerous benefits Besides customary ways of communication like individual
talk and parent meetings written messages informal meetings educational
workshops the involvement of parents in the educational process in the role of
accessory etc the most modern way of communicating with parents is via school
websites teacherrsquos websites e-mails and SMS messages The goal of the
research was to examine if Croatian schoolsrsquo websites had the content which
would prompt the parents for frequent visits and enable pupils to acquire new
knowledge A long term goal was to persuade schools to a regular update of new
materials which would result in quality cooperation between home and school
and persuade pupils to do research from their home and therefore increase the
quality of learning The research has randomly selected 25 elementary school
websites from the county of Istra and 25 websites from the county Split ndash
Dalmatia Collected data show that Croatiarsquos elementary school websites are not
a model neither for increasing the cooperation with parents nor laying the
foundation towards a new culture of learning and that there is no statistically
significant variation in content between the two counties
Key words cooperation with parents Internet school websites website
content
1 Parents and school cooperation
The cooperation between parents and schools is
extremely important and offers manifold benefits for all the
participants in the education process A partnership between
parents and teachers establishes good relations since every
partner introduces their competences in the childrsquos
education The cooperation between parents and teachers
ie school should be the best possible to achieve
outstanding goals Berger (1991) considers that models of
parent involvement are approached more actively nowadays
then it was in the 1960s when the responsibilities of
parents and schools were considered distinct Cooperation
with parents is today considered on of the essential
determinants of an efficient school in terms of general
pedagogy and research has shown that 22 of teachers
consider the lack of parent involvement a serious problem
(Ryan and Cooper 2010) Such cooperation is only partially
directed at prevention ie solution of disciplinary
problems since its benefits are manifold and are
manifested in better grades increased regular attendance
more willingness to work at home and development of more
positive attitudes and behavior Parental involvement in
school life has a positive effect on pupilrsquos achievements
and their motivation and the partnership relation between
parents and schools makes the parents more informed of
school affairs gives them a more positive image in the eyes
of the teachers they contribute to a better functioning of
the school strengthen their self-confidence and assurance
in helping their child at home and they become
participants not mere observers of the education of their
child Teachers have also to gain from a partnership
relation with parents since the parents become allies in
solving problems they become more motivated and satisfied
with their job receive more confidence from parents and
have a better reputation in society
These and other benefits for all the participants in
the education process are the result of growing willingness
and need of parent involvement in the school life According
to Walsh (2002) one way of achieving a successful bond
between parents and school is a consistent and clear two-way
communication
Epstein (1995) lists three learning contexts for
pupils in the family in school and in the community and
lists 6 ways of parent involvement These are parenting
communication volunteering learning at home decision
making and collaborating with the community However all of
these ways of cooperation between parents and school presume
direct communication which at times regardless of the
parentsrsquo willingness is impossible Many parents work
during planned school activities or meetings and have not
the possibility to participate especially in schools which
work in a single shift Todayrsquos way of life and both parents
working prevents personal communication and a more active
involvement of parents with schools
2 Contemporary ways of cooperation between parents and
school
One of the key features of humans is the ability to
communicate The exceptional ability of storing data and
fast sharing of enormous amounts of information have
revolutionized business as well as the everyday life of
mankind The access to information is unlimited the sharing
of ideas and thoughts free the worldrsquos business and economy
are being transformed Significant are the changes in the
approach to education Fast communication is becoming a
trend in shaping the future and therefore revolutionary
models of learning are more and more inherent (eg using
interactive computer technology fast learning) Pupils
are assuming responsibility for their life in a world in
which ldquothose who end their education have no futurerdquo (Dryden
and Vos 2001 p 39) Stronger is the criticism of the
educational system for its inertness in the process of
change and positive initiatives empowered by scientific
research become the link for modernization and improvement
of the school in the 21st century
Technology has become a critical component of everyday
life and an increase in the development and use of school
websites over the last few years is evident (Hartshorne and
ass 2008) Research (Aronson 1995 Cameron and Lee 1997
Clemens-Brower 1997 Cleverson 1999 Ramirez 2001) show that
many teachers experiment with various technologies when
communicating with parents (telephones in classrooms voice
mail video technology radio announcements etc) to
improve cooperation School websites provide parents with
useful content such as educational tips homework e-mails
or the school cafeteria menu and expand the borders of
communication between home and school to a 24 hours a day 7
days a week contact That allows parents whose daily
timetable doesnrsquot permit regular visits to the school and
face-to-face interaction with their child or teacher to be
more informed of what is happening at school Internet
becomes an excellent means of connecting home and school
Swan (2008) believes that schools have a lot of
information and parents want to know more about academic
achievements extracurricular activities parentsrsquo meeting
schedule information such as bus transport or lunch and
that it is important that school websites include accurate
and useful information not an exciting design or newest
technological ldquoornamentsrdquo
Online research (Unal 2008) shows that parents and
teachers recognize the importance of school websites
although they do not agree completely on their content
While teachers suggest that links inside the school
classroom rules teaching curriculum and standards list of
obligatory accessories statistics of websites visitors and
guest book should be essential to a school website
significant divergence (plt05) was seen in parents
disagreeing on these elements On the other hand parents
declare they would like to see online practical tests
academic advisory information information about
administrative issues and school direction as well as
teachers CVs Eventually teachers and parents agree that
results of school sport competition and activities
educational philosophy lesson plans links outside the
institution online articles and newsletters class photo
albums and news teachersrsquo blogs menus examples of
didactic cards personal links and teachersrsquo family
information are not essential elements of schoolsrsquo websites
It can be concluded that regardless of many schools today
having their own website not all are important for the
communication of parents and teachers Past research shows
that the structure and content of school websites should be
carefully planned and developed
According to McKenzie J (1997) the best websites have
four purposes 1 introduce visitors to its mission its
character its offerings to children its stance on new
technologies 2 offer an opportunity for the publishing of
student works and parents education 3 act as a mediator to
a larger share of information and 4 provide rich data
locally collected on curriculum related topics (such as
local history) Some school websites contain all four of
these elements but the majority is concentrated upon
providing a quality service in two or three of these
elements
21 Cooperation between parents and school in Croatia
In the elementary education in Croatia prescribed are
(most often by School statute) the following ways of
cooperation with parents parent meeting individual talks
with teachers and school assistants and written messages to
parents According to Law on Primary and Secondary
Education (Ministry of Education Science and Technology
2008) prescribed is the formation a Parentsrsquo Council which
comprises one parent from every class and the president of
the Parentrsquos Council is appointed a member of the School
Committee Practice shows that these prescribed ways of
cooperation do not satisfy the teachers or the parents
Parent participation is merely formal without real
possibility of influencing important decisions
Centralization and standardization of the curriculum do not
allow schools enough space for adapting to the needs of the
local community parent meeting come down to mere
information sharing where parents are usually passive
recipients of information and parents asked to participate
in some kind of school activity are rare A research
conducted among parents of pupil of the 4th and 7th grade
from all Croatian regions and their teachers (Marušić 2007)
shows that two thirds of parents believes that they have too
little possibility of participating in decision making in
schools more than 90 of parents have never taken part in
activities related to cooperation between family and school
three quarters of parents state that there are no lectures
or workshops organized in schools and a third of parents
does not know if such workshops are organized A substantial
number of parents have shown interest in participating in
various school activities but the initiative is expected to
come from teachers
However the practice in Croatian schools in recent
years has shown undertaking additional strategies for
cooperation with parents Many workshops are being held
parents are involved as assistants on projects and in the
communication between parents and school improvement has
been made in following and assessing the pupilsrsquo progress as
well as in the feedback information on the pupilsrsquo progress
(increasingly common are the pupilsrsquo maps as an example of
systematic authentic and development assessment of pupilsrsquo
progress)
As far as electronic cooperation is concerned Croatia
is one step back The project ldquoNet u školirdquo ndash ldquoNet in the
schoolrdquo was initiated in 2003 and all schools in Croatia
have been equipped with ISDN terminals with the aim to
improve the process of learning by using Internet in
teaching and pupilsrsquo research from home and by laying the
foundation for a new culture of learning based on openness
to new knowledge new media and technology Today all
schools in Croatia have the possibility to set up a website
and the teachers to open e-mail accounts
In Croatia websites of teachers are a rare appearance
but the projects ldquoŠkolski infocentarrdquo and ldquoSMS informativkardquo
have been initiated through which informing parents on
success absence and other school activities via simple and
to the majority accessible way of communication (SMS e-
mail Internet and voicemail) has been enabled A small
number of schools have incorporated a web directory updated
monthly by class masters which parents with a special
password can check at any time Although not the most
important fact it should not be ignored that according to
the Central Bureau of Statistics in 2009 only 38 of
households in Croatia had access to the Internet which
complicates communication via websites and not all teachers
are computer literate Such cooperation has its advantages
and disadvantages
Table 1 ndash advantages and disadvantages of cooperation
via electronic media
ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGESInformation on child received daily
Fast information transmission
Not limited by time or place
Time saving for parents
Time saving for teachers when
sending general information
Parents come to school prepared
themes for conversation are
educational
Both parents and teachers must be
computer literate
All participants (parents
teachers) must have Internet access
Additional work for teachers
(regular updating of data)
Rarer encounters among parents and
teachers
Lack of face-to-face communication
Financial expense for parents when
sending SMS messages
Possible abuse (password)
3 Research methodology
31 Aim of research
The aim of the research was to examine whether the
content of Croatian elementary schools websites encourages
frequent parentsrsquo visits and allows pupils to acquire new
knowledge A long term goal is to encourage schools to post
new materials regularly which would result in high-quality
cooperation between home and school along with encouraging
students to research work from their homes and therefore
advancing the quality of learning
32 Problem
The problem of this work is to determine the current
purpose of Croatian elementary schools websites
33 Hypothesis
H-1 Websites of Croatian elementary schools with its
contents do not pose a model for a more intensive
cooperation with parents or lay the foundations for a new
culture of learning
H-2 There is no statistically significant difference in
content between the two counties in neither of the eleven
categories
34 Participants and procedure
School websites are public documents and welcome the
outer world into the school as well as a link between
pupils and teachers with outer sources of information and a
possibility of better cooperation with parents The function
of school websites is to make public the achievements of
pupils to allow parents insight into daily activities and
to inform parents and the larger community of future
activities as well as strengthening cooperation between
school home and the local community The function of the
schoolsrsquo websites should not be a mere electronic version of
a notice board or a picture of a school that seldom changes
its appearance
The research was conducted by content analysis method
on a random selection of 50 elementary school websites in
the counties of Istria and Split ndash Dalmatia (25 schools per
county) The Internet school directory of ldquoPortal za školerdquo
was used Since in Croatia a research has not been conducted
on parents and the content the parents believed to be
important and relevant the authors were led by a research
done by an online study in USA (Unal 2008) and the elements
selected by teachers and parents in that study The
following website content was analysed curriculum about
the school (school history) web counters house rules
(classroom rules) timetable and information for parents
results of school competition photo albums online tests
(study materials) teachersrsquo CV tips for parents and forum
The analysis was done at the beginning of December 2010 by
the end of the first term giving the schools enough time to
update and enrich the websites This research did not take
into consideration the design of websites since in the
majority of cases it has been done using Carnet hosting
services and offered similar links Regarding the fact that
most schools have the same browser a school is considered
to have a website if a private document or link has been
updated
4 Results and discussion
Table 2 ndash Overall analysed content in percentage
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIES
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCETAGECURRICULUM 41 82 9 18 WEBSITE
COUNTER8 16 42 84
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTSrsquo
INFORMATION28 56 22 44
RESULTS OF
SCHOOL
COMPETITION
23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 ONLINE
TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
TEACHERSrsquo 2 4 48 96
CV
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
FORUM 12 24 38 76 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL
(SCHOOL
HISTORY)
50 100 0 0
For table 2 it is evident that all schools have information
about the school on the website ie about its history
(100) the majority has school photo alums (86) and the
curriculum (82) More than half the schools (56) have the
timetable for parentsrsquo information and less then half (46)
have sport achievements of their pupils The fewest schools
publish teachersrsquo CVs (4) and website counters Study
materials and tips for parents are present on just above a
third the websites (34 36)
Chart 1 ndash content according to county
It is visible from Chart 1 that results do not vary much
between counties The most discrepancy is shown in sportsrsquo
achievements (Istria 72 Split ndash Dalmatia 20) and a 20
discrepancy is present in categories photo album and study
material Other discrepancies are smaller than 20 The 2nd
hypothesis was tested with the chi-square test The
hypothesis is considered valid in case that the probability
of error is less than 5 considering that there is a
statistically significant link between the analysed pair of
variables
Table 3 ndash Relations between counties
CURRI
CULUM
WEB
COUNT
ERS
HOUSE
RULES
INFOR
MATIO
N
TIMET
ABLE
SPORT
S
ACHIE
VEMEN
TS
PHOTO
ALBUM
ONLINE
TESTS
TEACHERS
CVs
TIPS
FOR
PARENTS FORUM
10486462 0024 0148 0125 0081 1159 2657 1471 05208 07812 01096
8 4 8
df 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
p 0876
88491
0
0479
50012
0527
0892
0705
31663
0006
71374
0
044
5920
62
02251
8798
0157299
21
03457
4844
05638
979
It is not difficult to notice that a significant
discrepancy is present only in sportsrsquo achievement whereas
in other elements it does not exist which confirms the
stated hypothesis It can be concluded that there are no
differences between the content in the two counties
The website content can be divided into two categories
content intended for parents and pupils (curriculum
timetable for parentsrsquo information teachersrsquo CVs tips for
parents forum online tests and study material house
rules) and content for promoting school activities and
achievements (sportsrsquo achievements photo albums about the
school web counters)
Table 4 ndash analysis according to purpose
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIESINTENDEED FOR
PARENTS AND
PUPILSYES
PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
ONLINE TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
CURRICULUM 41 82 9 18
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTS
INFORMATION
TIMETABLE
28 56 22 44
FORUM 12 24 38 76 TEACHERSrsquo CV 2 4 48 96 PROMOTION OF
SCHOOL
ACTIVITIES
AND
ACVIEVEMENTS
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
SPORTS
ACHIEVEMENTS23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 WEB COUNTERS 8 16 42 84 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL50 100 0 0
Among the content intended for parents and pupils
which would allow pupils to acquire new knowledge and
encourage parents to visit regularly schools offer in high
percentage (82) the curriculum which is a legal obligation
(public notice) and just over half the schools (56) offer
the timetable for parentsrsquo information About one third of
schools (34 36) publish on its websites study materials
and tips for parents and only 24 have an active forum for
exchanging opinions although these forums have an
insignificant number of open themes none of which were
opened by parents Study materials are most often online
tests with a link from the website and tips for parents are
texts compiled by schools assistants Considering the lack
of assistants in schools this may be the cause for a small
percentage of these materials Some schools under the
section tips for parents have links to interesting Internet
articles
Categories intended for the promotion of school
achievements and activities have more contents every school
has a page dedicated to school history 86 updates the
photo album section and less then half the schools (46)
publish sportsrsquo achievements of the pupils The photo albums
offer pictures from school trips out-of-classroom teaching
school events etc Justifying such a large number of
pictures is debatable since none of the published materials
are protected by password but available to everybody the
question arises if the schools have the parentsrsquo permission
Only 16 of schools pay attention to visits which could be
a significant information showing the number of parents and
pupils visiting the website
The mentioned data show that schools consider relevant
the promotion of school activities and success the history
of the school and the timetable for parentsrsquo information
but tips for parents and school materials along with
exchanging opinions are not a priority Schools consider the
teachersrsquo CVs parentsrsquo meeting announcements or the school
cafeteria menu of no relevance to parents These facts point
to the fact that school websites in Croatia are more online
notice-boards than a real possibility for communication
5 Conclusion
Over the last decade cooperation with parents in
Croatia has been improving however in our schools
traditional forms of cooperation with parents are still
prevailing Although in the world there are specialized
radio and TV channels magazines and Internet sites for
exchanging experiences (Mendel 1998) such practice has not
flung into being in Croatia However over the last couple
of years cooperation via websites e-mails and SMS messages
Summarising its advantages and disadvantages and
considering todayrsquos lifestyle this way of cooperation
should be intensified in our schools Contemporary ways of
communication can additionally improve the communication
between parents and school but just as one more way
alongside other ways Consequently although the modern age
presupposes the use of modern technologies no technology
should replace face-to-face communication between parents
and teachers and the responsibility for a good cooperation
still lies on the school
The research demonstrates the possibilities of
communication between family and school by using modern
technology Elements of school websites are shown as well
as ways of planning the content of a website We consider
this research important for informing teachers and school
management of the possibilities of modern communication
between families and school A school website allows for the
possibility of establishing fast communication however its
mere existence does not guarantee the pupils acquiring new
knowledge and a quality relation between the family and
school It can be a good example for the school management
in creating the school curriculum as a segment allowing for
a fast exchange of information with parents Unfortunately
the educational system in Croatia is traditional and inert
unsuitable for the times and contemporary professions It
does not satisfy the need of the individual and traditional
teaching by using a minimum of technology and information is
utterly un-motivational for the student as well as for the
family The results of this research show that school
websites in Croatia donrsquot fulfil their purpose presenting
pupilsrsquo achievements allowing the parents insight into
everyday activities informing the parents and the wider
community on future activities and strengthening the
cooperation between school home and the local community
Although the purpose of school websites should not be merely
an electronic version of the notice board and an image of
the school that rarely changes its appearance the current
condition of the Croatian school websites in the analysed
counties shows just that therefore confirming the initial
hypothesis
Future research should inquire into the stance of
parents in Croatia on which content they consider important
therefore receiving relevant data which could later be used
by teachers for creating their websites
References
Berger E H (1991) Parent Involvement Yesterday and
Today The Elementary School Journal 91 (3) 209-219
Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb
Educa
Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships
Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76
httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20Articles
ParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
Epstein JL i Sheldon S B (2006) Moving Forward Ideas
for Research on School Family and Community Partnerships
httpwwwcsosjhuedup2000pdfLiterature20Review
2020Epstein20and20Sheldon2006pdf (15112010)
Graham- Clay S (2005) Communicating with Parents
Strategies for Teachers School Community Journal 16 (1)
117-129
Hartshorne R Friedman A Algozzine B i Kaur D
(2008) Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites Educational
Technology amp Society 11 (1) 291-303
Hitrec G(ur) (2006) Škola otvorena roditeljima Zagreb
Udruga roditelja Korak po korak
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE -
- MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE - MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
-
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
Deana Tavas graduate teacher
Vladimir Nazor Elementary School Rovinj
dtavasyahoocom
Sanja Bilač graduate teacher
Spinut Elementary School Split
sanja9stgmailcom
SCHOOL WEBSITES ndash
POSSIBILITY OF COOPERATION WITH PARENTS
SCHOOL WEBSITES ndash POSSIBILITY OF COOPERATION WITH PARENTS
Abstract In the last fifteen years in Croatia as well as around the world
much research has been done dealing with the importance of cooperation
between parents and school and the obtained results show its importance for all
the parties and that partnership relation between school and parents produces
numerous benefits Besides customary ways of communication like individual
talk and parent meetings written messages informal meetings educational
workshops the involvement of parents in the educational process in the role of
accessory etc the most modern way of communicating with parents is via school
websites teacherrsquos websites e-mails and SMS messages The goal of the
research was to examine if Croatian schoolsrsquo websites had the content which
would prompt the parents for frequent visits and enable pupils to acquire new
knowledge A long term goal was to persuade schools to a regular update of new
materials which would result in quality cooperation between home and school
and persuade pupils to do research from their home and therefore increase the
quality of learning The research has randomly selected 25 elementary school
websites from the county of Istra and 25 websites from the county Split ndash
Dalmatia Collected data show that Croatiarsquos elementary school websites are not
a model neither for increasing the cooperation with parents nor laying the
foundation towards a new culture of learning and that there is no statistically
significant variation in content between the two counties
Key words cooperation with parents Internet school websites website
content
1 Parents and school cooperation
The cooperation between parents and schools is
extremely important and offers manifold benefits for all the
participants in the education process A partnership between
parents and teachers establishes good relations since every
partner introduces their competences in the childrsquos
education The cooperation between parents and teachers
ie school should be the best possible to achieve
outstanding goals Berger (1991) considers that models of
parent involvement are approached more actively nowadays
then it was in the 1960s when the responsibilities of
parents and schools were considered distinct Cooperation
with parents is today considered on of the essential
determinants of an efficient school in terms of general
pedagogy and research has shown that 22 of teachers
consider the lack of parent involvement a serious problem
(Ryan and Cooper 2010) Such cooperation is only partially
directed at prevention ie solution of disciplinary
problems since its benefits are manifold and are
manifested in better grades increased regular attendance
more willingness to work at home and development of more
positive attitudes and behavior Parental involvement in
school life has a positive effect on pupilrsquos achievements
and their motivation and the partnership relation between
parents and schools makes the parents more informed of
school affairs gives them a more positive image in the eyes
of the teachers they contribute to a better functioning of
the school strengthen their self-confidence and assurance
in helping their child at home and they become
participants not mere observers of the education of their
child Teachers have also to gain from a partnership
relation with parents since the parents become allies in
solving problems they become more motivated and satisfied
with their job receive more confidence from parents and
have a better reputation in society
These and other benefits for all the participants in
the education process are the result of growing willingness
and need of parent involvement in the school life According
to Walsh (2002) one way of achieving a successful bond
between parents and school is a consistent and clear two-way
communication
Epstein (1995) lists three learning contexts for
pupils in the family in school and in the community and
lists 6 ways of parent involvement These are parenting
communication volunteering learning at home decision
making and collaborating with the community However all of
these ways of cooperation between parents and school presume
direct communication which at times regardless of the
parentsrsquo willingness is impossible Many parents work
during planned school activities or meetings and have not
the possibility to participate especially in schools which
work in a single shift Todayrsquos way of life and both parents
working prevents personal communication and a more active
involvement of parents with schools
2 Contemporary ways of cooperation between parents and
school
One of the key features of humans is the ability to
communicate The exceptional ability of storing data and
fast sharing of enormous amounts of information have
revolutionized business as well as the everyday life of
mankind The access to information is unlimited the sharing
of ideas and thoughts free the worldrsquos business and economy
are being transformed Significant are the changes in the
approach to education Fast communication is becoming a
trend in shaping the future and therefore revolutionary
models of learning are more and more inherent (eg using
interactive computer technology fast learning) Pupils
are assuming responsibility for their life in a world in
which ldquothose who end their education have no futurerdquo (Dryden
and Vos 2001 p 39) Stronger is the criticism of the
educational system for its inertness in the process of
change and positive initiatives empowered by scientific
research become the link for modernization and improvement
of the school in the 21st century
Technology has become a critical component of everyday
life and an increase in the development and use of school
websites over the last few years is evident (Hartshorne and
ass 2008) Research (Aronson 1995 Cameron and Lee 1997
Clemens-Brower 1997 Cleverson 1999 Ramirez 2001) show that
many teachers experiment with various technologies when
communicating with parents (telephones in classrooms voice
mail video technology radio announcements etc) to
improve cooperation School websites provide parents with
useful content such as educational tips homework e-mails
or the school cafeteria menu and expand the borders of
communication between home and school to a 24 hours a day 7
days a week contact That allows parents whose daily
timetable doesnrsquot permit regular visits to the school and
face-to-face interaction with their child or teacher to be
more informed of what is happening at school Internet
becomes an excellent means of connecting home and school
Swan (2008) believes that schools have a lot of
information and parents want to know more about academic
achievements extracurricular activities parentsrsquo meeting
schedule information such as bus transport or lunch and
that it is important that school websites include accurate
and useful information not an exciting design or newest
technological ldquoornamentsrdquo
Online research (Unal 2008) shows that parents and
teachers recognize the importance of school websites
although they do not agree completely on their content
While teachers suggest that links inside the school
classroom rules teaching curriculum and standards list of
obligatory accessories statistics of websites visitors and
guest book should be essential to a school website
significant divergence (plt05) was seen in parents
disagreeing on these elements On the other hand parents
declare they would like to see online practical tests
academic advisory information information about
administrative issues and school direction as well as
teachers CVs Eventually teachers and parents agree that
results of school sport competition and activities
educational philosophy lesson plans links outside the
institution online articles and newsletters class photo
albums and news teachersrsquo blogs menus examples of
didactic cards personal links and teachersrsquo family
information are not essential elements of schoolsrsquo websites
It can be concluded that regardless of many schools today
having their own website not all are important for the
communication of parents and teachers Past research shows
that the structure and content of school websites should be
carefully planned and developed
According to McKenzie J (1997) the best websites have
four purposes 1 introduce visitors to its mission its
character its offerings to children its stance on new
technologies 2 offer an opportunity for the publishing of
student works and parents education 3 act as a mediator to
a larger share of information and 4 provide rich data
locally collected on curriculum related topics (such as
local history) Some school websites contain all four of
these elements but the majority is concentrated upon
providing a quality service in two or three of these
elements
21 Cooperation between parents and school in Croatia
In the elementary education in Croatia prescribed are
(most often by School statute) the following ways of
cooperation with parents parent meeting individual talks
with teachers and school assistants and written messages to
parents According to Law on Primary and Secondary
Education (Ministry of Education Science and Technology
2008) prescribed is the formation a Parentsrsquo Council which
comprises one parent from every class and the president of
the Parentrsquos Council is appointed a member of the School
Committee Practice shows that these prescribed ways of
cooperation do not satisfy the teachers or the parents
Parent participation is merely formal without real
possibility of influencing important decisions
Centralization and standardization of the curriculum do not
allow schools enough space for adapting to the needs of the
local community parent meeting come down to mere
information sharing where parents are usually passive
recipients of information and parents asked to participate
in some kind of school activity are rare A research
conducted among parents of pupil of the 4th and 7th grade
from all Croatian regions and their teachers (Marušić 2007)
shows that two thirds of parents believes that they have too
little possibility of participating in decision making in
schools more than 90 of parents have never taken part in
activities related to cooperation between family and school
three quarters of parents state that there are no lectures
or workshops organized in schools and a third of parents
does not know if such workshops are organized A substantial
number of parents have shown interest in participating in
various school activities but the initiative is expected to
come from teachers
However the practice in Croatian schools in recent
years has shown undertaking additional strategies for
cooperation with parents Many workshops are being held
parents are involved as assistants on projects and in the
communication between parents and school improvement has
been made in following and assessing the pupilsrsquo progress as
well as in the feedback information on the pupilsrsquo progress
(increasingly common are the pupilsrsquo maps as an example of
systematic authentic and development assessment of pupilsrsquo
progress)
As far as electronic cooperation is concerned Croatia
is one step back The project ldquoNet u školirdquo ndash ldquoNet in the
schoolrdquo was initiated in 2003 and all schools in Croatia
have been equipped with ISDN terminals with the aim to
improve the process of learning by using Internet in
teaching and pupilsrsquo research from home and by laying the
foundation for a new culture of learning based on openness
to new knowledge new media and technology Today all
schools in Croatia have the possibility to set up a website
and the teachers to open e-mail accounts
In Croatia websites of teachers are a rare appearance
but the projects ldquoŠkolski infocentarrdquo and ldquoSMS informativkardquo
have been initiated through which informing parents on
success absence and other school activities via simple and
to the majority accessible way of communication (SMS e-
mail Internet and voicemail) has been enabled A small
number of schools have incorporated a web directory updated
monthly by class masters which parents with a special
password can check at any time Although not the most
important fact it should not be ignored that according to
the Central Bureau of Statistics in 2009 only 38 of
households in Croatia had access to the Internet which
complicates communication via websites and not all teachers
are computer literate Such cooperation has its advantages
and disadvantages
Table 1 ndash advantages and disadvantages of cooperation
via electronic media
ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGESInformation on child received daily
Fast information transmission
Not limited by time or place
Time saving for parents
Time saving for teachers when
sending general information
Parents come to school prepared
themes for conversation are
educational
Both parents and teachers must be
computer literate
All participants (parents
teachers) must have Internet access
Additional work for teachers
(regular updating of data)
Rarer encounters among parents and
teachers
Lack of face-to-face communication
Financial expense for parents when
sending SMS messages
Possible abuse (password)
3 Research methodology
31 Aim of research
The aim of the research was to examine whether the
content of Croatian elementary schools websites encourages
frequent parentsrsquo visits and allows pupils to acquire new
knowledge A long term goal is to encourage schools to post
new materials regularly which would result in high-quality
cooperation between home and school along with encouraging
students to research work from their homes and therefore
advancing the quality of learning
32 Problem
The problem of this work is to determine the current
purpose of Croatian elementary schools websites
33 Hypothesis
H-1 Websites of Croatian elementary schools with its
contents do not pose a model for a more intensive
cooperation with parents or lay the foundations for a new
culture of learning
H-2 There is no statistically significant difference in
content between the two counties in neither of the eleven
categories
34 Participants and procedure
School websites are public documents and welcome the
outer world into the school as well as a link between
pupils and teachers with outer sources of information and a
possibility of better cooperation with parents The function
of school websites is to make public the achievements of
pupils to allow parents insight into daily activities and
to inform parents and the larger community of future
activities as well as strengthening cooperation between
school home and the local community The function of the
schoolsrsquo websites should not be a mere electronic version of
a notice board or a picture of a school that seldom changes
its appearance
The research was conducted by content analysis method
on a random selection of 50 elementary school websites in
the counties of Istria and Split ndash Dalmatia (25 schools per
county) The Internet school directory of ldquoPortal za školerdquo
was used Since in Croatia a research has not been conducted
on parents and the content the parents believed to be
important and relevant the authors were led by a research
done by an online study in USA (Unal 2008) and the elements
selected by teachers and parents in that study The
following website content was analysed curriculum about
the school (school history) web counters house rules
(classroom rules) timetable and information for parents
results of school competition photo albums online tests
(study materials) teachersrsquo CV tips for parents and forum
The analysis was done at the beginning of December 2010 by
the end of the first term giving the schools enough time to
update and enrich the websites This research did not take
into consideration the design of websites since in the
majority of cases it has been done using Carnet hosting
services and offered similar links Regarding the fact that
most schools have the same browser a school is considered
to have a website if a private document or link has been
updated
4 Results and discussion
Table 2 ndash Overall analysed content in percentage
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIES
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCETAGECURRICULUM 41 82 9 18 WEBSITE
COUNTER8 16 42 84
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTSrsquo
INFORMATION28 56 22 44
RESULTS OF
SCHOOL
COMPETITION
23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 ONLINE
TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
TEACHERSrsquo 2 4 48 96
CV
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
FORUM 12 24 38 76 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL
(SCHOOL
HISTORY)
50 100 0 0
For table 2 it is evident that all schools have information
about the school on the website ie about its history
(100) the majority has school photo alums (86) and the
curriculum (82) More than half the schools (56) have the
timetable for parentsrsquo information and less then half (46)
have sport achievements of their pupils The fewest schools
publish teachersrsquo CVs (4) and website counters Study
materials and tips for parents are present on just above a
third the websites (34 36)
Chart 1 ndash content according to county
It is visible from Chart 1 that results do not vary much
between counties The most discrepancy is shown in sportsrsquo
achievements (Istria 72 Split ndash Dalmatia 20) and a 20
discrepancy is present in categories photo album and study
material Other discrepancies are smaller than 20 The 2nd
hypothesis was tested with the chi-square test The
hypothesis is considered valid in case that the probability
of error is less than 5 considering that there is a
statistically significant link between the analysed pair of
variables
Table 3 ndash Relations between counties
CURRI
CULUM
WEB
COUNT
ERS
HOUSE
RULES
INFOR
MATIO
N
TIMET
ABLE
SPORT
S
ACHIE
VEMEN
TS
PHOTO
ALBUM
ONLINE
TESTS
TEACHERS
CVs
TIPS
FOR
PARENTS FORUM
10486462 0024 0148 0125 0081 1159 2657 1471 05208 07812 01096
8 4 8
df 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
p 0876
88491
0
0479
50012
0527
0892
0705
31663
0006
71374
0
044
5920
62
02251
8798
0157299
21
03457
4844
05638
979
It is not difficult to notice that a significant
discrepancy is present only in sportsrsquo achievement whereas
in other elements it does not exist which confirms the
stated hypothesis It can be concluded that there are no
differences between the content in the two counties
The website content can be divided into two categories
content intended for parents and pupils (curriculum
timetable for parentsrsquo information teachersrsquo CVs tips for
parents forum online tests and study material house
rules) and content for promoting school activities and
achievements (sportsrsquo achievements photo albums about the
school web counters)
Table 4 ndash analysis according to purpose
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIESINTENDEED FOR
PARENTS AND
PUPILSYES
PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
ONLINE TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
CURRICULUM 41 82 9 18
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTS
INFORMATION
TIMETABLE
28 56 22 44
FORUM 12 24 38 76 TEACHERSrsquo CV 2 4 48 96 PROMOTION OF
SCHOOL
ACTIVITIES
AND
ACVIEVEMENTS
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
SPORTS
ACHIEVEMENTS23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 WEB COUNTERS 8 16 42 84 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL50 100 0 0
Among the content intended for parents and pupils
which would allow pupils to acquire new knowledge and
encourage parents to visit regularly schools offer in high
percentage (82) the curriculum which is a legal obligation
(public notice) and just over half the schools (56) offer
the timetable for parentsrsquo information About one third of
schools (34 36) publish on its websites study materials
and tips for parents and only 24 have an active forum for
exchanging opinions although these forums have an
insignificant number of open themes none of which were
opened by parents Study materials are most often online
tests with a link from the website and tips for parents are
texts compiled by schools assistants Considering the lack
of assistants in schools this may be the cause for a small
percentage of these materials Some schools under the
section tips for parents have links to interesting Internet
articles
Categories intended for the promotion of school
achievements and activities have more contents every school
has a page dedicated to school history 86 updates the
photo album section and less then half the schools (46)
publish sportsrsquo achievements of the pupils The photo albums
offer pictures from school trips out-of-classroom teaching
school events etc Justifying such a large number of
pictures is debatable since none of the published materials
are protected by password but available to everybody the
question arises if the schools have the parentsrsquo permission
Only 16 of schools pay attention to visits which could be
a significant information showing the number of parents and
pupils visiting the website
The mentioned data show that schools consider relevant
the promotion of school activities and success the history
of the school and the timetable for parentsrsquo information
but tips for parents and school materials along with
exchanging opinions are not a priority Schools consider the
teachersrsquo CVs parentsrsquo meeting announcements or the school
cafeteria menu of no relevance to parents These facts point
to the fact that school websites in Croatia are more online
notice-boards than a real possibility for communication
5 Conclusion
Over the last decade cooperation with parents in
Croatia has been improving however in our schools
traditional forms of cooperation with parents are still
prevailing Although in the world there are specialized
radio and TV channels magazines and Internet sites for
exchanging experiences (Mendel 1998) such practice has not
flung into being in Croatia However over the last couple
of years cooperation via websites e-mails and SMS messages
Summarising its advantages and disadvantages and
considering todayrsquos lifestyle this way of cooperation
should be intensified in our schools Contemporary ways of
communication can additionally improve the communication
between parents and school but just as one more way
alongside other ways Consequently although the modern age
presupposes the use of modern technologies no technology
should replace face-to-face communication between parents
and teachers and the responsibility for a good cooperation
still lies on the school
The research demonstrates the possibilities of
communication between family and school by using modern
technology Elements of school websites are shown as well
as ways of planning the content of a website We consider
this research important for informing teachers and school
management of the possibilities of modern communication
between families and school A school website allows for the
possibility of establishing fast communication however its
mere existence does not guarantee the pupils acquiring new
knowledge and a quality relation between the family and
school It can be a good example for the school management
in creating the school curriculum as a segment allowing for
a fast exchange of information with parents Unfortunately
the educational system in Croatia is traditional and inert
unsuitable for the times and contemporary professions It
does not satisfy the need of the individual and traditional
teaching by using a minimum of technology and information is
utterly un-motivational for the student as well as for the
family The results of this research show that school
websites in Croatia donrsquot fulfil their purpose presenting
pupilsrsquo achievements allowing the parents insight into
everyday activities informing the parents and the wider
community on future activities and strengthening the
cooperation between school home and the local community
Although the purpose of school websites should not be merely
an electronic version of the notice board and an image of
the school that rarely changes its appearance the current
condition of the Croatian school websites in the analysed
counties shows just that therefore confirming the initial
hypothesis
Future research should inquire into the stance of
parents in Croatia on which content they consider important
therefore receiving relevant data which could later be used
by teachers for creating their websites
References
Berger E H (1991) Parent Involvement Yesterday and
Today The Elementary School Journal 91 (3) 209-219
Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb
Educa
Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships
Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76
httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20Articles
ParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
Epstein JL i Sheldon S B (2006) Moving Forward Ideas
for Research on School Family and Community Partnerships
httpwwwcsosjhuedup2000pdfLiterature20Review
2020Epstein20and20Sheldon2006pdf (15112010)
Graham- Clay S (2005) Communicating with Parents
Strategies for Teachers School Community Journal 16 (1)
117-129
Hartshorne R Friedman A Algozzine B i Kaur D
(2008) Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites Educational
Technology amp Society 11 (1) 291-303
Hitrec G(ur) (2006) Škola otvorena roditeljima Zagreb
Udruga roditelja Korak po korak
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE -
- MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE - MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
-
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
Deana Tavas graduate teacher
Vladimir Nazor Elementary School Rovinj
dtavasyahoocom
Sanja Bilač graduate teacher
Spinut Elementary School Split
sanja9stgmailcom
SCHOOL WEBSITES ndash
POSSIBILITY OF COOPERATION WITH PARENTS
SCHOOL WEBSITES ndash POSSIBILITY OF COOPERATION WITH PARENTS
Abstract In the last fifteen years in Croatia as well as around the world
much research has been done dealing with the importance of cooperation
between parents and school and the obtained results show its importance for all
the parties and that partnership relation between school and parents produces
numerous benefits Besides customary ways of communication like individual
talk and parent meetings written messages informal meetings educational
workshops the involvement of parents in the educational process in the role of
accessory etc the most modern way of communicating with parents is via school
websites teacherrsquos websites e-mails and SMS messages The goal of the
research was to examine if Croatian schoolsrsquo websites had the content which
would prompt the parents for frequent visits and enable pupils to acquire new
knowledge A long term goal was to persuade schools to a regular update of new
materials which would result in quality cooperation between home and school
and persuade pupils to do research from their home and therefore increase the
quality of learning The research has randomly selected 25 elementary school
websites from the county of Istra and 25 websites from the county Split ndash
Dalmatia Collected data show that Croatiarsquos elementary school websites are not
a model neither for increasing the cooperation with parents nor laying the
foundation towards a new culture of learning and that there is no statistically
significant variation in content between the two counties
Key words cooperation with parents Internet school websites website
content
1 Parents and school cooperation
The cooperation between parents and schools is
extremely important and offers manifold benefits for all the
participants in the education process A partnership between
parents and teachers establishes good relations since every
partner introduces their competences in the childrsquos
education The cooperation between parents and teachers
ie school should be the best possible to achieve
outstanding goals Berger (1991) considers that models of
parent involvement are approached more actively nowadays
then it was in the 1960s when the responsibilities of
parents and schools were considered distinct Cooperation
with parents is today considered on of the essential
determinants of an efficient school in terms of general
pedagogy and research has shown that 22 of teachers
consider the lack of parent involvement a serious problem
(Ryan and Cooper 2010) Such cooperation is only partially
directed at prevention ie solution of disciplinary
problems since its benefits are manifold and are
manifested in better grades increased regular attendance
more willingness to work at home and development of more
positive attitudes and behavior Parental involvement in
school life has a positive effect on pupilrsquos achievements
and their motivation and the partnership relation between
parents and schools makes the parents more informed of
school affairs gives them a more positive image in the eyes
of the teachers they contribute to a better functioning of
the school strengthen their self-confidence and assurance
in helping their child at home and they become
participants not mere observers of the education of their
child Teachers have also to gain from a partnership
relation with parents since the parents become allies in
solving problems they become more motivated and satisfied
with their job receive more confidence from parents and
have a better reputation in society
These and other benefits for all the participants in
the education process are the result of growing willingness
and need of parent involvement in the school life According
to Walsh (2002) one way of achieving a successful bond
between parents and school is a consistent and clear two-way
communication
Epstein (1995) lists three learning contexts for
pupils in the family in school and in the community and
lists 6 ways of parent involvement These are parenting
communication volunteering learning at home decision
making and collaborating with the community However all of
these ways of cooperation between parents and school presume
direct communication which at times regardless of the
parentsrsquo willingness is impossible Many parents work
during planned school activities or meetings and have not
the possibility to participate especially in schools which
work in a single shift Todayrsquos way of life and both parents
working prevents personal communication and a more active
involvement of parents with schools
2 Contemporary ways of cooperation between parents and
school
One of the key features of humans is the ability to
communicate The exceptional ability of storing data and
fast sharing of enormous amounts of information have
revolutionized business as well as the everyday life of
mankind The access to information is unlimited the sharing
of ideas and thoughts free the worldrsquos business and economy
are being transformed Significant are the changes in the
approach to education Fast communication is becoming a
trend in shaping the future and therefore revolutionary
models of learning are more and more inherent (eg using
interactive computer technology fast learning) Pupils
are assuming responsibility for their life in a world in
which ldquothose who end their education have no futurerdquo (Dryden
and Vos 2001 p 39) Stronger is the criticism of the
educational system for its inertness in the process of
change and positive initiatives empowered by scientific
research become the link for modernization and improvement
of the school in the 21st century
Technology has become a critical component of everyday
life and an increase in the development and use of school
websites over the last few years is evident (Hartshorne and
ass 2008) Research (Aronson 1995 Cameron and Lee 1997
Clemens-Brower 1997 Cleverson 1999 Ramirez 2001) show that
many teachers experiment with various technologies when
communicating with parents (telephones in classrooms voice
mail video technology radio announcements etc) to
improve cooperation School websites provide parents with
useful content such as educational tips homework e-mails
or the school cafeteria menu and expand the borders of
communication between home and school to a 24 hours a day 7
days a week contact That allows parents whose daily
timetable doesnrsquot permit regular visits to the school and
face-to-face interaction with their child or teacher to be
more informed of what is happening at school Internet
becomes an excellent means of connecting home and school
Swan (2008) believes that schools have a lot of
information and parents want to know more about academic
achievements extracurricular activities parentsrsquo meeting
schedule information such as bus transport or lunch and
that it is important that school websites include accurate
and useful information not an exciting design or newest
technological ldquoornamentsrdquo
Online research (Unal 2008) shows that parents and
teachers recognize the importance of school websites
although they do not agree completely on their content
While teachers suggest that links inside the school
classroom rules teaching curriculum and standards list of
obligatory accessories statistics of websites visitors and
guest book should be essential to a school website
significant divergence (plt05) was seen in parents
disagreeing on these elements On the other hand parents
declare they would like to see online practical tests
academic advisory information information about
administrative issues and school direction as well as
teachers CVs Eventually teachers and parents agree that
results of school sport competition and activities
educational philosophy lesson plans links outside the
institution online articles and newsletters class photo
albums and news teachersrsquo blogs menus examples of
didactic cards personal links and teachersrsquo family
information are not essential elements of schoolsrsquo websites
It can be concluded that regardless of many schools today
having their own website not all are important for the
communication of parents and teachers Past research shows
that the structure and content of school websites should be
carefully planned and developed
According to McKenzie J (1997) the best websites have
four purposes 1 introduce visitors to its mission its
character its offerings to children its stance on new
technologies 2 offer an opportunity for the publishing of
student works and parents education 3 act as a mediator to
a larger share of information and 4 provide rich data
locally collected on curriculum related topics (such as
local history) Some school websites contain all four of
these elements but the majority is concentrated upon
providing a quality service in two or three of these
elements
21 Cooperation between parents and school in Croatia
In the elementary education in Croatia prescribed are
(most often by School statute) the following ways of
cooperation with parents parent meeting individual talks
with teachers and school assistants and written messages to
parents According to Law on Primary and Secondary
Education (Ministry of Education Science and Technology
2008) prescribed is the formation a Parentsrsquo Council which
comprises one parent from every class and the president of
the Parentrsquos Council is appointed a member of the School
Committee Practice shows that these prescribed ways of
cooperation do not satisfy the teachers or the parents
Parent participation is merely formal without real
possibility of influencing important decisions
Centralization and standardization of the curriculum do not
allow schools enough space for adapting to the needs of the
local community parent meeting come down to mere
information sharing where parents are usually passive
recipients of information and parents asked to participate
in some kind of school activity are rare A research
conducted among parents of pupil of the 4th and 7th grade
from all Croatian regions and their teachers (Marušić 2007)
shows that two thirds of parents believes that they have too
little possibility of participating in decision making in
schools more than 90 of parents have never taken part in
activities related to cooperation between family and school
three quarters of parents state that there are no lectures
or workshops organized in schools and a third of parents
does not know if such workshops are organized A substantial
number of parents have shown interest in participating in
various school activities but the initiative is expected to
come from teachers
However the practice in Croatian schools in recent
years has shown undertaking additional strategies for
cooperation with parents Many workshops are being held
parents are involved as assistants on projects and in the
communication between parents and school improvement has
been made in following and assessing the pupilsrsquo progress as
well as in the feedback information on the pupilsrsquo progress
(increasingly common are the pupilsrsquo maps as an example of
systematic authentic and development assessment of pupilsrsquo
progress)
As far as electronic cooperation is concerned Croatia
is one step back The project ldquoNet u školirdquo ndash ldquoNet in the
schoolrdquo was initiated in 2003 and all schools in Croatia
have been equipped with ISDN terminals with the aim to
improve the process of learning by using Internet in
teaching and pupilsrsquo research from home and by laying the
foundation for a new culture of learning based on openness
to new knowledge new media and technology Today all
schools in Croatia have the possibility to set up a website
and the teachers to open e-mail accounts
In Croatia websites of teachers are a rare appearance
but the projects ldquoŠkolski infocentarrdquo and ldquoSMS informativkardquo
have been initiated through which informing parents on
success absence and other school activities via simple and
to the majority accessible way of communication (SMS e-
mail Internet and voicemail) has been enabled A small
number of schools have incorporated a web directory updated
monthly by class masters which parents with a special
password can check at any time Although not the most
important fact it should not be ignored that according to
the Central Bureau of Statistics in 2009 only 38 of
households in Croatia had access to the Internet which
complicates communication via websites and not all teachers
are computer literate Such cooperation has its advantages
and disadvantages
Table 1 ndash advantages and disadvantages of cooperation
via electronic media
ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGESInformation on child received daily
Fast information transmission
Not limited by time or place
Time saving for parents
Time saving for teachers when
sending general information
Parents come to school prepared
themes for conversation are
educational
Both parents and teachers must be
computer literate
All participants (parents
teachers) must have Internet access
Additional work for teachers
(regular updating of data)
Rarer encounters among parents and
teachers
Lack of face-to-face communication
Financial expense for parents when
sending SMS messages
Possible abuse (password)
3 Research methodology
31 Aim of research
The aim of the research was to examine whether the
content of Croatian elementary schools websites encourages
frequent parentsrsquo visits and allows pupils to acquire new
knowledge A long term goal is to encourage schools to post
new materials regularly which would result in high-quality
cooperation between home and school along with encouraging
students to research work from their homes and therefore
advancing the quality of learning
32 Problem
The problem of this work is to determine the current
purpose of Croatian elementary schools websites
33 Hypothesis
H-1 Websites of Croatian elementary schools with its
contents do not pose a model for a more intensive
cooperation with parents or lay the foundations for a new
culture of learning
H-2 There is no statistically significant difference in
content between the two counties in neither of the eleven
categories
34 Participants and procedure
School websites are public documents and welcome the
outer world into the school as well as a link between
pupils and teachers with outer sources of information and a
possibility of better cooperation with parents The function
of school websites is to make public the achievements of
pupils to allow parents insight into daily activities and
to inform parents and the larger community of future
activities as well as strengthening cooperation between
school home and the local community The function of the
schoolsrsquo websites should not be a mere electronic version of
a notice board or a picture of a school that seldom changes
its appearance
The research was conducted by content analysis method
on a random selection of 50 elementary school websites in
the counties of Istria and Split ndash Dalmatia (25 schools per
county) The Internet school directory of ldquoPortal za školerdquo
was used Since in Croatia a research has not been conducted
on parents and the content the parents believed to be
important and relevant the authors were led by a research
done by an online study in USA (Unal 2008) and the elements
selected by teachers and parents in that study The
following website content was analysed curriculum about
the school (school history) web counters house rules
(classroom rules) timetable and information for parents
results of school competition photo albums online tests
(study materials) teachersrsquo CV tips for parents and forum
The analysis was done at the beginning of December 2010 by
the end of the first term giving the schools enough time to
update and enrich the websites This research did not take
into consideration the design of websites since in the
majority of cases it has been done using Carnet hosting
services and offered similar links Regarding the fact that
most schools have the same browser a school is considered
to have a website if a private document or link has been
updated
4 Results and discussion
Table 2 ndash Overall analysed content in percentage
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIES
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCETAGECURRICULUM 41 82 9 18 WEBSITE
COUNTER8 16 42 84
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTSrsquo
INFORMATION28 56 22 44
RESULTS OF
SCHOOL
COMPETITION
23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 ONLINE
TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
TEACHERSrsquo 2 4 48 96
CV
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
FORUM 12 24 38 76 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL
(SCHOOL
HISTORY)
50 100 0 0
For table 2 it is evident that all schools have information
about the school on the website ie about its history
(100) the majority has school photo alums (86) and the
curriculum (82) More than half the schools (56) have the
timetable for parentsrsquo information and less then half (46)
have sport achievements of their pupils The fewest schools
publish teachersrsquo CVs (4) and website counters Study
materials and tips for parents are present on just above a
third the websites (34 36)
Chart 1 ndash content according to county
It is visible from Chart 1 that results do not vary much
between counties The most discrepancy is shown in sportsrsquo
achievements (Istria 72 Split ndash Dalmatia 20) and a 20
discrepancy is present in categories photo album and study
material Other discrepancies are smaller than 20 The 2nd
hypothesis was tested with the chi-square test The
hypothesis is considered valid in case that the probability
of error is less than 5 considering that there is a
statistically significant link between the analysed pair of
variables
Table 3 ndash Relations between counties
CURRI
CULUM
WEB
COUNT
ERS
HOUSE
RULES
INFOR
MATIO
N
TIMET
ABLE
SPORT
S
ACHIE
VEMEN
TS
PHOTO
ALBUM
ONLINE
TESTS
TEACHERS
CVs
TIPS
FOR
PARENTS FORUM
10486462 0024 0148 0125 0081 1159 2657 1471 05208 07812 01096
8 4 8
df 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
p 0876
88491
0
0479
50012
0527
0892
0705
31663
0006
71374
0
044
5920
62
02251
8798
0157299
21
03457
4844
05638
979
It is not difficult to notice that a significant
discrepancy is present only in sportsrsquo achievement whereas
in other elements it does not exist which confirms the
stated hypothesis It can be concluded that there are no
differences between the content in the two counties
The website content can be divided into two categories
content intended for parents and pupils (curriculum
timetable for parentsrsquo information teachersrsquo CVs tips for
parents forum online tests and study material house
rules) and content for promoting school activities and
achievements (sportsrsquo achievements photo albums about the
school web counters)
Table 4 ndash analysis according to purpose
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIESINTENDEED FOR
PARENTS AND
PUPILSYES
PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
ONLINE TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
CURRICULUM 41 82 9 18
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTS
INFORMATION
TIMETABLE
28 56 22 44
FORUM 12 24 38 76 TEACHERSrsquo CV 2 4 48 96 PROMOTION OF
SCHOOL
ACTIVITIES
AND
ACVIEVEMENTS
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
SPORTS
ACHIEVEMENTS23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 WEB COUNTERS 8 16 42 84 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL50 100 0 0
Among the content intended for parents and pupils
which would allow pupils to acquire new knowledge and
encourage parents to visit regularly schools offer in high
percentage (82) the curriculum which is a legal obligation
(public notice) and just over half the schools (56) offer
the timetable for parentsrsquo information About one third of
schools (34 36) publish on its websites study materials
and tips for parents and only 24 have an active forum for
exchanging opinions although these forums have an
insignificant number of open themes none of which were
opened by parents Study materials are most often online
tests with a link from the website and tips for parents are
texts compiled by schools assistants Considering the lack
of assistants in schools this may be the cause for a small
percentage of these materials Some schools under the
section tips for parents have links to interesting Internet
articles
Categories intended for the promotion of school
achievements and activities have more contents every school
has a page dedicated to school history 86 updates the
photo album section and less then half the schools (46)
publish sportsrsquo achievements of the pupils The photo albums
offer pictures from school trips out-of-classroom teaching
school events etc Justifying such a large number of
pictures is debatable since none of the published materials
are protected by password but available to everybody the
question arises if the schools have the parentsrsquo permission
Only 16 of schools pay attention to visits which could be
a significant information showing the number of parents and
pupils visiting the website
The mentioned data show that schools consider relevant
the promotion of school activities and success the history
of the school and the timetable for parentsrsquo information
but tips for parents and school materials along with
exchanging opinions are not a priority Schools consider the
teachersrsquo CVs parentsrsquo meeting announcements or the school
cafeteria menu of no relevance to parents These facts point
to the fact that school websites in Croatia are more online
notice-boards than a real possibility for communication
5 Conclusion
Over the last decade cooperation with parents in
Croatia has been improving however in our schools
traditional forms of cooperation with parents are still
prevailing Although in the world there are specialized
radio and TV channels magazines and Internet sites for
exchanging experiences (Mendel 1998) such practice has not
flung into being in Croatia However over the last couple
of years cooperation via websites e-mails and SMS messages
Summarising its advantages and disadvantages and
considering todayrsquos lifestyle this way of cooperation
should be intensified in our schools Contemporary ways of
communication can additionally improve the communication
between parents and school but just as one more way
alongside other ways Consequently although the modern age
presupposes the use of modern technologies no technology
should replace face-to-face communication between parents
and teachers and the responsibility for a good cooperation
still lies on the school
The research demonstrates the possibilities of
communication between family and school by using modern
technology Elements of school websites are shown as well
as ways of planning the content of a website We consider
this research important for informing teachers and school
management of the possibilities of modern communication
between families and school A school website allows for the
possibility of establishing fast communication however its
mere existence does not guarantee the pupils acquiring new
knowledge and a quality relation between the family and
school It can be a good example for the school management
in creating the school curriculum as a segment allowing for
a fast exchange of information with parents Unfortunately
the educational system in Croatia is traditional and inert
unsuitable for the times and contemporary professions It
does not satisfy the need of the individual and traditional
teaching by using a minimum of technology and information is
utterly un-motivational for the student as well as for the
family The results of this research show that school
websites in Croatia donrsquot fulfil their purpose presenting
pupilsrsquo achievements allowing the parents insight into
everyday activities informing the parents and the wider
community on future activities and strengthening the
cooperation between school home and the local community
Although the purpose of school websites should not be merely
an electronic version of the notice board and an image of
the school that rarely changes its appearance the current
condition of the Croatian school websites in the analysed
counties shows just that therefore confirming the initial
hypothesis
Future research should inquire into the stance of
parents in Croatia on which content they consider important
therefore receiving relevant data which could later be used
by teachers for creating their websites
References
Berger E H (1991) Parent Involvement Yesterday and
Today The Elementary School Journal 91 (3) 209-219
Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb
Educa
Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships
Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76
httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20Articles
ParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
Epstein JL i Sheldon S B (2006) Moving Forward Ideas
for Research on School Family and Community Partnerships
httpwwwcsosjhuedup2000pdfLiterature20Review
2020Epstein20and20Sheldon2006pdf (15112010)
Graham- Clay S (2005) Communicating with Parents
Strategies for Teachers School Community Journal 16 (1)
117-129
Hartshorne R Friedman A Algozzine B i Kaur D
(2008) Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites Educational
Technology amp Society 11 (1) 291-303
Hitrec G(ur) (2006) Škola otvorena roditeljima Zagreb
Udruga roditelja Korak po korak
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE -
- MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE - MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
-
Vladimir Nazor Elementary School Rovinj
dtavasyahoocom
Sanja Bilač graduate teacher
Spinut Elementary School Split
sanja9stgmailcom
SCHOOL WEBSITES ndash
POSSIBILITY OF COOPERATION WITH PARENTS
SCHOOL WEBSITES ndash POSSIBILITY OF COOPERATION WITH PARENTS
Abstract In the last fifteen years in Croatia as well as around the world
much research has been done dealing with the importance of cooperation
between parents and school and the obtained results show its importance for all
the parties and that partnership relation between school and parents produces
numerous benefits Besides customary ways of communication like individual
talk and parent meetings written messages informal meetings educational
workshops the involvement of parents in the educational process in the role of
accessory etc the most modern way of communicating with parents is via school
websites teacherrsquos websites e-mails and SMS messages The goal of the
research was to examine if Croatian schoolsrsquo websites had the content which
would prompt the parents for frequent visits and enable pupils to acquire new
knowledge A long term goal was to persuade schools to a regular update of new
materials which would result in quality cooperation between home and school
and persuade pupils to do research from their home and therefore increase the
quality of learning The research has randomly selected 25 elementary school
websites from the county of Istra and 25 websites from the county Split ndash
Dalmatia Collected data show that Croatiarsquos elementary school websites are not
a model neither for increasing the cooperation with parents nor laying the
foundation towards a new culture of learning and that there is no statistically
significant variation in content between the two counties
Key words cooperation with parents Internet school websites website
content
1 Parents and school cooperation
The cooperation between parents and schools is
extremely important and offers manifold benefits for all the
participants in the education process A partnership between
parents and teachers establishes good relations since every
partner introduces their competences in the childrsquos
education The cooperation between parents and teachers
ie school should be the best possible to achieve
outstanding goals Berger (1991) considers that models of
parent involvement are approached more actively nowadays
then it was in the 1960s when the responsibilities of
parents and schools were considered distinct Cooperation
with parents is today considered on of the essential
determinants of an efficient school in terms of general
pedagogy and research has shown that 22 of teachers
consider the lack of parent involvement a serious problem
(Ryan and Cooper 2010) Such cooperation is only partially
directed at prevention ie solution of disciplinary
problems since its benefits are manifold and are
manifested in better grades increased regular attendance
more willingness to work at home and development of more
positive attitudes and behavior Parental involvement in
school life has a positive effect on pupilrsquos achievements
and their motivation and the partnership relation between
parents and schools makes the parents more informed of
school affairs gives them a more positive image in the eyes
of the teachers they contribute to a better functioning of
the school strengthen their self-confidence and assurance
in helping their child at home and they become
participants not mere observers of the education of their
child Teachers have also to gain from a partnership
relation with parents since the parents become allies in
solving problems they become more motivated and satisfied
with their job receive more confidence from parents and
have a better reputation in society
These and other benefits for all the participants in
the education process are the result of growing willingness
and need of parent involvement in the school life According
to Walsh (2002) one way of achieving a successful bond
between parents and school is a consistent and clear two-way
communication
Epstein (1995) lists three learning contexts for
pupils in the family in school and in the community and
lists 6 ways of parent involvement These are parenting
communication volunteering learning at home decision
making and collaborating with the community However all of
these ways of cooperation between parents and school presume
direct communication which at times regardless of the
parentsrsquo willingness is impossible Many parents work
during planned school activities or meetings and have not
the possibility to participate especially in schools which
work in a single shift Todayrsquos way of life and both parents
working prevents personal communication and a more active
involvement of parents with schools
2 Contemporary ways of cooperation between parents and
school
One of the key features of humans is the ability to
communicate The exceptional ability of storing data and
fast sharing of enormous amounts of information have
revolutionized business as well as the everyday life of
mankind The access to information is unlimited the sharing
of ideas and thoughts free the worldrsquos business and economy
are being transformed Significant are the changes in the
approach to education Fast communication is becoming a
trend in shaping the future and therefore revolutionary
models of learning are more and more inherent (eg using
interactive computer technology fast learning) Pupils
are assuming responsibility for their life in a world in
which ldquothose who end their education have no futurerdquo (Dryden
and Vos 2001 p 39) Stronger is the criticism of the
educational system for its inertness in the process of
change and positive initiatives empowered by scientific
research become the link for modernization and improvement
of the school in the 21st century
Technology has become a critical component of everyday
life and an increase in the development and use of school
websites over the last few years is evident (Hartshorne and
ass 2008) Research (Aronson 1995 Cameron and Lee 1997
Clemens-Brower 1997 Cleverson 1999 Ramirez 2001) show that
many teachers experiment with various technologies when
communicating with parents (telephones in classrooms voice
mail video technology radio announcements etc) to
improve cooperation School websites provide parents with
useful content such as educational tips homework e-mails
or the school cafeteria menu and expand the borders of
communication between home and school to a 24 hours a day 7
days a week contact That allows parents whose daily
timetable doesnrsquot permit regular visits to the school and
face-to-face interaction with their child or teacher to be
more informed of what is happening at school Internet
becomes an excellent means of connecting home and school
Swan (2008) believes that schools have a lot of
information and parents want to know more about academic
achievements extracurricular activities parentsrsquo meeting
schedule information such as bus transport or lunch and
that it is important that school websites include accurate
and useful information not an exciting design or newest
technological ldquoornamentsrdquo
Online research (Unal 2008) shows that parents and
teachers recognize the importance of school websites
although they do not agree completely on their content
While teachers suggest that links inside the school
classroom rules teaching curriculum and standards list of
obligatory accessories statistics of websites visitors and
guest book should be essential to a school website
significant divergence (plt05) was seen in parents
disagreeing on these elements On the other hand parents
declare they would like to see online practical tests
academic advisory information information about
administrative issues and school direction as well as
teachers CVs Eventually teachers and parents agree that
results of school sport competition and activities
educational philosophy lesson plans links outside the
institution online articles and newsletters class photo
albums and news teachersrsquo blogs menus examples of
didactic cards personal links and teachersrsquo family
information are not essential elements of schoolsrsquo websites
It can be concluded that regardless of many schools today
having their own website not all are important for the
communication of parents and teachers Past research shows
that the structure and content of school websites should be
carefully planned and developed
According to McKenzie J (1997) the best websites have
four purposes 1 introduce visitors to its mission its
character its offerings to children its stance on new
technologies 2 offer an opportunity for the publishing of
student works and parents education 3 act as a mediator to
a larger share of information and 4 provide rich data
locally collected on curriculum related topics (such as
local history) Some school websites contain all four of
these elements but the majority is concentrated upon
providing a quality service in two or three of these
elements
21 Cooperation between parents and school in Croatia
In the elementary education in Croatia prescribed are
(most often by School statute) the following ways of
cooperation with parents parent meeting individual talks
with teachers and school assistants and written messages to
parents According to Law on Primary and Secondary
Education (Ministry of Education Science and Technology
2008) prescribed is the formation a Parentsrsquo Council which
comprises one parent from every class and the president of
the Parentrsquos Council is appointed a member of the School
Committee Practice shows that these prescribed ways of
cooperation do not satisfy the teachers or the parents
Parent participation is merely formal without real
possibility of influencing important decisions
Centralization and standardization of the curriculum do not
allow schools enough space for adapting to the needs of the
local community parent meeting come down to mere
information sharing where parents are usually passive
recipients of information and parents asked to participate
in some kind of school activity are rare A research
conducted among parents of pupil of the 4th and 7th grade
from all Croatian regions and their teachers (Marušić 2007)
shows that two thirds of parents believes that they have too
little possibility of participating in decision making in
schools more than 90 of parents have never taken part in
activities related to cooperation between family and school
three quarters of parents state that there are no lectures
or workshops organized in schools and a third of parents
does not know if such workshops are organized A substantial
number of parents have shown interest in participating in
various school activities but the initiative is expected to
come from teachers
However the practice in Croatian schools in recent
years has shown undertaking additional strategies for
cooperation with parents Many workshops are being held
parents are involved as assistants on projects and in the
communication between parents and school improvement has
been made in following and assessing the pupilsrsquo progress as
well as in the feedback information on the pupilsrsquo progress
(increasingly common are the pupilsrsquo maps as an example of
systematic authentic and development assessment of pupilsrsquo
progress)
As far as electronic cooperation is concerned Croatia
is one step back The project ldquoNet u školirdquo ndash ldquoNet in the
schoolrdquo was initiated in 2003 and all schools in Croatia
have been equipped with ISDN terminals with the aim to
improve the process of learning by using Internet in
teaching and pupilsrsquo research from home and by laying the
foundation for a new culture of learning based on openness
to new knowledge new media and technology Today all
schools in Croatia have the possibility to set up a website
and the teachers to open e-mail accounts
In Croatia websites of teachers are a rare appearance
but the projects ldquoŠkolski infocentarrdquo and ldquoSMS informativkardquo
have been initiated through which informing parents on
success absence and other school activities via simple and
to the majority accessible way of communication (SMS e-
mail Internet and voicemail) has been enabled A small
number of schools have incorporated a web directory updated
monthly by class masters which parents with a special
password can check at any time Although not the most
important fact it should not be ignored that according to
the Central Bureau of Statistics in 2009 only 38 of
households in Croatia had access to the Internet which
complicates communication via websites and not all teachers
are computer literate Such cooperation has its advantages
and disadvantages
Table 1 ndash advantages and disadvantages of cooperation
via electronic media
ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGESInformation on child received daily
Fast information transmission
Not limited by time or place
Time saving for parents
Time saving for teachers when
sending general information
Parents come to school prepared
themes for conversation are
educational
Both parents and teachers must be
computer literate
All participants (parents
teachers) must have Internet access
Additional work for teachers
(regular updating of data)
Rarer encounters among parents and
teachers
Lack of face-to-face communication
Financial expense for parents when
sending SMS messages
Possible abuse (password)
3 Research methodology
31 Aim of research
The aim of the research was to examine whether the
content of Croatian elementary schools websites encourages
frequent parentsrsquo visits and allows pupils to acquire new
knowledge A long term goal is to encourage schools to post
new materials regularly which would result in high-quality
cooperation between home and school along with encouraging
students to research work from their homes and therefore
advancing the quality of learning
32 Problem
The problem of this work is to determine the current
purpose of Croatian elementary schools websites
33 Hypothesis
H-1 Websites of Croatian elementary schools with its
contents do not pose a model for a more intensive
cooperation with parents or lay the foundations for a new
culture of learning
H-2 There is no statistically significant difference in
content between the two counties in neither of the eleven
categories
34 Participants and procedure
School websites are public documents and welcome the
outer world into the school as well as a link between
pupils and teachers with outer sources of information and a
possibility of better cooperation with parents The function
of school websites is to make public the achievements of
pupils to allow parents insight into daily activities and
to inform parents and the larger community of future
activities as well as strengthening cooperation between
school home and the local community The function of the
schoolsrsquo websites should not be a mere electronic version of
a notice board or a picture of a school that seldom changes
its appearance
The research was conducted by content analysis method
on a random selection of 50 elementary school websites in
the counties of Istria and Split ndash Dalmatia (25 schools per
county) The Internet school directory of ldquoPortal za školerdquo
was used Since in Croatia a research has not been conducted
on parents and the content the parents believed to be
important and relevant the authors were led by a research
done by an online study in USA (Unal 2008) and the elements
selected by teachers and parents in that study The
following website content was analysed curriculum about
the school (school history) web counters house rules
(classroom rules) timetable and information for parents
results of school competition photo albums online tests
(study materials) teachersrsquo CV tips for parents and forum
The analysis was done at the beginning of December 2010 by
the end of the first term giving the schools enough time to
update and enrich the websites This research did not take
into consideration the design of websites since in the
majority of cases it has been done using Carnet hosting
services and offered similar links Regarding the fact that
most schools have the same browser a school is considered
to have a website if a private document or link has been
updated
4 Results and discussion
Table 2 ndash Overall analysed content in percentage
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIES
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCETAGECURRICULUM 41 82 9 18 WEBSITE
COUNTER8 16 42 84
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTSrsquo
INFORMATION28 56 22 44
RESULTS OF
SCHOOL
COMPETITION
23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 ONLINE
TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
TEACHERSrsquo 2 4 48 96
CV
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
FORUM 12 24 38 76 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL
(SCHOOL
HISTORY)
50 100 0 0
For table 2 it is evident that all schools have information
about the school on the website ie about its history
(100) the majority has school photo alums (86) and the
curriculum (82) More than half the schools (56) have the
timetable for parentsrsquo information and less then half (46)
have sport achievements of their pupils The fewest schools
publish teachersrsquo CVs (4) and website counters Study
materials and tips for parents are present on just above a
third the websites (34 36)
Chart 1 ndash content according to county
It is visible from Chart 1 that results do not vary much
between counties The most discrepancy is shown in sportsrsquo
achievements (Istria 72 Split ndash Dalmatia 20) and a 20
discrepancy is present in categories photo album and study
material Other discrepancies are smaller than 20 The 2nd
hypothesis was tested with the chi-square test The
hypothesis is considered valid in case that the probability
of error is less than 5 considering that there is a
statistically significant link between the analysed pair of
variables
Table 3 ndash Relations between counties
CURRI
CULUM
WEB
COUNT
ERS
HOUSE
RULES
INFOR
MATIO
N
TIMET
ABLE
SPORT
S
ACHIE
VEMEN
TS
PHOTO
ALBUM
ONLINE
TESTS
TEACHERS
CVs
TIPS
FOR
PARENTS FORUM
10486462 0024 0148 0125 0081 1159 2657 1471 05208 07812 01096
8 4 8
df 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
p 0876
88491
0
0479
50012
0527
0892
0705
31663
0006
71374
0
044
5920
62
02251
8798
0157299
21
03457
4844
05638
979
It is not difficult to notice that a significant
discrepancy is present only in sportsrsquo achievement whereas
in other elements it does not exist which confirms the
stated hypothesis It can be concluded that there are no
differences between the content in the two counties
The website content can be divided into two categories
content intended for parents and pupils (curriculum
timetable for parentsrsquo information teachersrsquo CVs tips for
parents forum online tests and study material house
rules) and content for promoting school activities and
achievements (sportsrsquo achievements photo albums about the
school web counters)
Table 4 ndash analysis according to purpose
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIESINTENDEED FOR
PARENTS AND
PUPILSYES
PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
ONLINE TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
CURRICULUM 41 82 9 18
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTS
INFORMATION
TIMETABLE
28 56 22 44
FORUM 12 24 38 76 TEACHERSrsquo CV 2 4 48 96 PROMOTION OF
SCHOOL
ACTIVITIES
AND
ACVIEVEMENTS
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
SPORTS
ACHIEVEMENTS23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 WEB COUNTERS 8 16 42 84 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL50 100 0 0
Among the content intended for parents and pupils
which would allow pupils to acquire new knowledge and
encourage parents to visit regularly schools offer in high
percentage (82) the curriculum which is a legal obligation
(public notice) and just over half the schools (56) offer
the timetable for parentsrsquo information About one third of
schools (34 36) publish on its websites study materials
and tips for parents and only 24 have an active forum for
exchanging opinions although these forums have an
insignificant number of open themes none of which were
opened by parents Study materials are most often online
tests with a link from the website and tips for parents are
texts compiled by schools assistants Considering the lack
of assistants in schools this may be the cause for a small
percentage of these materials Some schools under the
section tips for parents have links to interesting Internet
articles
Categories intended for the promotion of school
achievements and activities have more contents every school
has a page dedicated to school history 86 updates the
photo album section and less then half the schools (46)
publish sportsrsquo achievements of the pupils The photo albums
offer pictures from school trips out-of-classroom teaching
school events etc Justifying such a large number of
pictures is debatable since none of the published materials
are protected by password but available to everybody the
question arises if the schools have the parentsrsquo permission
Only 16 of schools pay attention to visits which could be
a significant information showing the number of parents and
pupils visiting the website
The mentioned data show that schools consider relevant
the promotion of school activities and success the history
of the school and the timetable for parentsrsquo information
but tips for parents and school materials along with
exchanging opinions are not a priority Schools consider the
teachersrsquo CVs parentsrsquo meeting announcements or the school
cafeteria menu of no relevance to parents These facts point
to the fact that school websites in Croatia are more online
notice-boards than a real possibility for communication
5 Conclusion
Over the last decade cooperation with parents in
Croatia has been improving however in our schools
traditional forms of cooperation with parents are still
prevailing Although in the world there are specialized
radio and TV channels magazines and Internet sites for
exchanging experiences (Mendel 1998) such practice has not
flung into being in Croatia However over the last couple
of years cooperation via websites e-mails and SMS messages
Summarising its advantages and disadvantages and
considering todayrsquos lifestyle this way of cooperation
should be intensified in our schools Contemporary ways of
communication can additionally improve the communication
between parents and school but just as one more way
alongside other ways Consequently although the modern age
presupposes the use of modern technologies no technology
should replace face-to-face communication between parents
and teachers and the responsibility for a good cooperation
still lies on the school
The research demonstrates the possibilities of
communication between family and school by using modern
technology Elements of school websites are shown as well
as ways of planning the content of a website We consider
this research important for informing teachers and school
management of the possibilities of modern communication
between families and school A school website allows for the
possibility of establishing fast communication however its
mere existence does not guarantee the pupils acquiring new
knowledge and a quality relation between the family and
school It can be a good example for the school management
in creating the school curriculum as a segment allowing for
a fast exchange of information with parents Unfortunately
the educational system in Croatia is traditional and inert
unsuitable for the times and contemporary professions It
does not satisfy the need of the individual and traditional
teaching by using a minimum of technology and information is
utterly un-motivational for the student as well as for the
family The results of this research show that school
websites in Croatia donrsquot fulfil their purpose presenting
pupilsrsquo achievements allowing the parents insight into
everyday activities informing the parents and the wider
community on future activities and strengthening the
cooperation between school home and the local community
Although the purpose of school websites should not be merely
an electronic version of the notice board and an image of
the school that rarely changes its appearance the current
condition of the Croatian school websites in the analysed
counties shows just that therefore confirming the initial
hypothesis
Future research should inquire into the stance of
parents in Croatia on which content they consider important
therefore receiving relevant data which could later be used
by teachers for creating their websites
References
Berger E H (1991) Parent Involvement Yesterday and
Today The Elementary School Journal 91 (3) 209-219
Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb
Educa
Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships
Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76
httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20Articles
ParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
Epstein JL i Sheldon S B (2006) Moving Forward Ideas
for Research on School Family and Community Partnerships
httpwwwcsosjhuedup2000pdfLiterature20Review
2020Epstein20and20Sheldon2006pdf (15112010)
Graham- Clay S (2005) Communicating with Parents
Strategies for Teachers School Community Journal 16 (1)
117-129
Hartshorne R Friedman A Algozzine B i Kaur D
(2008) Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites Educational
Technology amp Society 11 (1) 291-303
Hitrec G(ur) (2006) Škola otvorena roditeljima Zagreb
Udruga roditelja Korak po korak
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE -
- MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE - MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
-
SCHOOL WEBSITES ndash POSSIBILITY OF COOPERATION WITH PARENTS
Abstract In the last fifteen years in Croatia as well as around the world
much research has been done dealing with the importance of cooperation
between parents and school and the obtained results show its importance for all
the parties and that partnership relation between school and parents produces
numerous benefits Besides customary ways of communication like individual
talk and parent meetings written messages informal meetings educational
workshops the involvement of parents in the educational process in the role of
accessory etc the most modern way of communicating with parents is via school
websites teacherrsquos websites e-mails and SMS messages The goal of the
research was to examine if Croatian schoolsrsquo websites had the content which
would prompt the parents for frequent visits and enable pupils to acquire new
knowledge A long term goal was to persuade schools to a regular update of new
materials which would result in quality cooperation between home and school
and persuade pupils to do research from their home and therefore increase the
quality of learning The research has randomly selected 25 elementary school
websites from the county of Istra and 25 websites from the county Split ndash
Dalmatia Collected data show that Croatiarsquos elementary school websites are not
a model neither for increasing the cooperation with parents nor laying the
foundation towards a new culture of learning and that there is no statistically
significant variation in content between the two counties
Key words cooperation with parents Internet school websites website
content
1 Parents and school cooperation
The cooperation between parents and schools is
extremely important and offers manifold benefits for all the
participants in the education process A partnership between
parents and teachers establishes good relations since every
partner introduces their competences in the childrsquos
education The cooperation between parents and teachers
ie school should be the best possible to achieve
outstanding goals Berger (1991) considers that models of
parent involvement are approached more actively nowadays
then it was in the 1960s when the responsibilities of
parents and schools were considered distinct Cooperation
with parents is today considered on of the essential
determinants of an efficient school in terms of general
pedagogy and research has shown that 22 of teachers
consider the lack of parent involvement a serious problem
(Ryan and Cooper 2010) Such cooperation is only partially
directed at prevention ie solution of disciplinary
problems since its benefits are manifold and are
manifested in better grades increased regular attendance
more willingness to work at home and development of more
positive attitudes and behavior Parental involvement in
school life has a positive effect on pupilrsquos achievements
and their motivation and the partnership relation between
parents and schools makes the parents more informed of
school affairs gives them a more positive image in the eyes
of the teachers they contribute to a better functioning of
the school strengthen their self-confidence and assurance
in helping their child at home and they become
participants not mere observers of the education of their
child Teachers have also to gain from a partnership
relation with parents since the parents become allies in
solving problems they become more motivated and satisfied
with their job receive more confidence from parents and
have a better reputation in society
These and other benefits for all the participants in
the education process are the result of growing willingness
and need of parent involvement in the school life According
to Walsh (2002) one way of achieving a successful bond
between parents and school is a consistent and clear two-way
communication
Epstein (1995) lists three learning contexts for
pupils in the family in school and in the community and
lists 6 ways of parent involvement These are parenting
communication volunteering learning at home decision
making and collaborating with the community However all of
these ways of cooperation between parents and school presume
direct communication which at times regardless of the
parentsrsquo willingness is impossible Many parents work
during planned school activities or meetings and have not
the possibility to participate especially in schools which
work in a single shift Todayrsquos way of life and both parents
working prevents personal communication and a more active
involvement of parents with schools
2 Contemporary ways of cooperation between parents and
school
One of the key features of humans is the ability to
communicate The exceptional ability of storing data and
fast sharing of enormous amounts of information have
revolutionized business as well as the everyday life of
mankind The access to information is unlimited the sharing
of ideas and thoughts free the worldrsquos business and economy
are being transformed Significant are the changes in the
approach to education Fast communication is becoming a
trend in shaping the future and therefore revolutionary
models of learning are more and more inherent (eg using
interactive computer technology fast learning) Pupils
are assuming responsibility for their life in a world in
which ldquothose who end their education have no futurerdquo (Dryden
and Vos 2001 p 39) Stronger is the criticism of the
educational system for its inertness in the process of
change and positive initiatives empowered by scientific
research become the link for modernization and improvement
of the school in the 21st century
Technology has become a critical component of everyday
life and an increase in the development and use of school
websites over the last few years is evident (Hartshorne and
ass 2008) Research (Aronson 1995 Cameron and Lee 1997
Clemens-Brower 1997 Cleverson 1999 Ramirez 2001) show that
many teachers experiment with various technologies when
communicating with parents (telephones in classrooms voice
mail video technology radio announcements etc) to
improve cooperation School websites provide parents with
useful content such as educational tips homework e-mails
or the school cafeteria menu and expand the borders of
communication between home and school to a 24 hours a day 7
days a week contact That allows parents whose daily
timetable doesnrsquot permit regular visits to the school and
face-to-face interaction with their child or teacher to be
more informed of what is happening at school Internet
becomes an excellent means of connecting home and school
Swan (2008) believes that schools have a lot of
information and parents want to know more about academic
achievements extracurricular activities parentsrsquo meeting
schedule information such as bus transport or lunch and
that it is important that school websites include accurate
and useful information not an exciting design or newest
technological ldquoornamentsrdquo
Online research (Unal 2008) shows that parents and
teachers recognize the importance of school websites
although they do not agree completely on their content
While teachers suggest that links inside the school
classroom rules teaching curriculum and standards list of
obligatory accessories statistics of websites visitors and
guest book should be essential to a school website
significant divergence (plt05) was seen in parents
disagreeing on these elements On the other hand parents
declare they would like to see online practical tests
academic advisory information information about
administrative issues and school direction as well as
teachers CVs Eventually teachers and parents agree that
results of school sport competition and activities
educational philosophy lesson plans links outside the
institution online articles and newsletters class photo
albums and news teachersrsquo blogs menus examples of
didactic cards personal links and teachersrsquo family
information are not essential elements of schoolsrsquo websites
It can be concluded that regardless of many schools today
having their own website not all are important for the
communication of parents and teachers Past research shows
that the structure and content of school websites should be
carefully planned and developed
According to McKenzie J (1997) the best websites have
four purposes 1 introduce visitors to its mission its
character its offerings to children its stance on new
technologies 2 offer an opportunity for the publishing of
student works and parents education 3 act as a mediator to
a larger share of information and 4 provide rich data
locally collected on curriculum related topics (such as
local history) Some school websites contain all four of
these elements but the majority is concentrated upon
providing a quality service in two or three of these
elements
21 Cooperation between parents and school in Croatia
In the elementary education in Croatia prescribed are
(most often by School statute) the following ways of
cooperation with parents parent meeting individual talks
with teachers and school assistants and written messages to
parents According to Law on Primary and Secondary
Education (Ministry of Education Science and Technology
2008) prescribed is the formation a Parentsrsquo Council which
comprises one parent from every class and the president of
the Parentrsquos Council is appointed a member of the School
Committee Practice shows that these prescribed ways of
cooperation do not satisfy the teachers or the parents
Parent participation is merely formal without real
possibility of influencing important decisions
Centralization and standardization of the curriculum do not
allow schools enough space for adapting to the needs of the
local community parent meeting come down to mere
information sharing where parents are usually passive
recipients of information and parents asked to participate
in some kind of school activity are rare A research
conducted among parents of pupil of the 4th and 7th grade
from all Croatian regions and their teachers (Marušić 2007)
shows that two thirds of parents believes that they have too
little possibility of participating in decision making in
schools more than 90 of parents have never taken part in
activities related to cooperation between family and school
three quarters of parents state that there are no lectures
or workshops organized in schools and a third of parents
does not know if such workshops are organized A substantial
number of parents have shown interest in participating in
various school activities but the initiative is expected to
come from teachers
However the practice in Croatian schools in recent
years has shown undertaking additional strategies for
cooperation with parents Many workshops are being held
parents are involved as assistants on projects and in the
communication between parents and school improvement has
been made in following and assessing the pupilsrsquo progress as
well as in the feedback information on the pupilsrsquo progress
(increasingly common are the pupilsrsquo maps as an example of
systematic authentic and development assessment of pupilsrsquo
progress)
As far as electronic cooperation is concerned Croatia
is one step back The project ldquoNet u školirdquo ndash ldquoNet in the
schoolrdquo was initiated in 2003 and all schools in Croatia
have been equipped with ISDN terminals with the aim to
improve the process of learning by using Internet in
teaching and pupilsrsquo research from home and by laying the
foundation for a new culture of learning based on openness
to new knowledge new media and technology Today all
schools in Croatia have the possibility to set up a website
and the teachers to open e-mail accounts
In Croatia websites of teachers are a rare appearance
but the projects ldquoŠkolski infocentarrdquo and ldquoSMS informativkardquo
have been initiated through which informing parents on
success absence and other school activities via simple and
to the majority accessible way of communication (SMS e-
mail Internet and voicemail) has been enabled A small
number of schools have incorporated a web directory updated
monthly by class masters which parents with a special
password can check at any time Although not the most
important fact it should not be ignored that according to
the Central Bureau of Statistics in 2009 only 38 of
households in Croatia had access to the Internet which
complicates communication via websites and not all teachers
are computer literate Such cooperation has its advantages
and disadvantages
Table 1 ndash advantages and disadvantages of cooperation
via electronic media
ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGESInformation on child received daily
Fast information transmission
Not limited by time or place
Time saving for parents
Time saving for teachers when
sending general information
Parents come to school prepared
themes for conversation are
educational
Both parents and teachers must be
computer literate
All participants (parents
teachers) must have Internet access
Additional work for teachers
(regular updating of data)
Rarer encounters among parents and
teachers
Lack of face-to-face communication
Financial expense for parents when
sending SMS messages
Possible abuse (password)
3 Research methodology
31 Aim of research
The aim of the research was to examine whether the
content of Croatian elementary schools websites encourages
frequent parentsrsquo visits and allows pupils to acquire new
knowledge A long term goal is to encourage schools to post
new materials regularly which would result in high-quality
cooperation between home and school along with encouraging
students to research work from their homes and therefore
advancing the quality of learning
32 Problem
The problem of this work is to determine the current
purpose of Croatian elementary schools websites
33 Hypothesis
H-1 Websites of Croatian elementary schools with its
contents do not pose a model for a more intensive
cooperation with parents or lay the foundations for a new
culture of learning
H-2 There is no statistically significant difference in
content between the two counties in neither of the eleven
categories
34 Participants and procedure
School websites are public documents and welcome the
outer world into the school as well as a link between
pupils and teachers with outer sources of information and a
possibility of better cooperation with parents The function
of school websites is to make public the achievements of
pupils to allow parents insight into daily activities and
to inform parents and the larger community of future
activities as well as strengthening cooperation between
school home and the local community The function of the
schoolsrsquo websites should not be a mere electronic version of
a notice board or a picture of a school that seldom changes
its appearance
The research was conducted by content analysis method
on a random selection of 50 elementary school websites in
the counties of Istria and Split ndash Dalmatia (25 schools per
county) The Internet school directory of ldquoPortal za školerdquo
was used Since in Croatia a research has not been conducted
on parents and the content the parents believed to be
important and relevant the authors were led by a research
done by an online study in USA (Unal 2008) and the elements
selected by teachers and parents in that study The
following website content was analysed curriculum about
the school (school history) web counters house rules
(classroom rules) timetable and information for parents
results of school competition photo albums online tests
(study materials) teachersrsquo CV tips for parents and forum
The analysis was done at the beginning of December 2010 by
the end of the first term giving the schools enough time to
update and enrich the websites This research did not take
into consideration the design of websites since in the
majority of cases it has been done using Carnet hosting
services and offered similar links Regarding the fact that
most schools have the same browser a school is considered
to have a website if a private document or link has been
updated
4 Results and discussion
Table 2 ndash Overall analysed content in percentage
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIES
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCETAGECURRICULUM 41 82 9 18 WEBSITE
COUNTER8 16 42 84
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTSrsquo
INFORMATION28 56 22 44
RESULTS OF
SCHOOL
COMPETITION
23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 ONLINE
TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
TEACHERSrsquo 2 4 48 96
CV
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
FORUM 12 24 38 76 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL
(SCHOOL
HISTORY)
50 100 0 0
For table 2 it is evident that all schools have information
about the school on the website ie about its history
(100) the majority has school photo alums (86) and the
curriculum (82) More than half the schools (56) have the
timetable for parentsrsquo information and less then half (46)
have sport achievements of their pupils The fewest schools
publish teachersrsquo CVs (4) and website counters Study
materials and tips for parents are present on just above a
third the websites (34 36)
Chart 1 ndash content according to county
It is visible from Chart 1 that results do not vary much
between counties The most discrepancy is shown in sportsrsquo
achievements (Istria 72 Split ndash Dalmatia 20) and a 20
discrepancy is present in categories photo album and study
material Other discrepancies are smaller than 20 The 2nd
hypothesis was tested with the chi-square test The
hypothesis is considered valid in case that the probability
of error is less than 5 considering that there is a
statistically significant link between the analysed pair of
variables
Table 3 ndash Relations between counties
CURRI
CULUM
WEB
COUNT
ERS
HOUSE
RULES
INFOR
MATIO
N
TIMET
ABLE
SPORT
S
ACHIE
VEMEN
TS
PHOTO
ALBUM
ONLINE
TESTS
TEACHERS
CVs
TIPS
FOR
PARENTS FORUM
10486462 0024 0148 0125 0081 1159 2657 1471 05208 07812 01096
8 4 8
df 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
p 0876
88491
0
0479
50012
0527
0892
0705
31663
0006
71374
0
044
5920
62
02251
8798
0157299
21
03457
4844
05638
979
It is not difficult to notice that a significant
discrepancy is present only in sportsrsquo achievement whereas
in other elements it does not exist which confirms the
stated hypothesis It can be concluded that there are no
differences between the content in the two counties
The website content can be divided into two categories
content intended for parents and pupils (curriculum
timetable for parentsrsquo information teachersrsquo CVs tips for
parents forum online tests and study material house
rules) and content for promoting school activities and
achievements (sportsrsquo achievements photo albums about the
school web counters)
Table 4 ndash analysis according to purpose
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIESINTENDEED FOR
PARENTS AND
PUPILSYES
PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
ONLINE TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
CURRICULUM 41 82 9 18
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTS
INFORMATION
TIMETABLE
28 56 22 44
FORUM 12 24 38 76 TEACHERSrsquo CV 2 4 48 96 PROMOTION OF
SCHOOL
ACTIVITIES
AND
ACVIEVEMENTS
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
SPORTS
ACHIEVEMENTS23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 WEB COUNTERS 8 16 42 84 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL50 100 0 0
Among the content intended for parents and pupils
which would allow pupils to acquire new knowledge and
encourage parents to visit regularly schools offer in high
percentage (82) the curriculum which is a legal obligation
(public notice) and just over half the schools (56) offer
the timetable for parentsrsquo information About one third of
schools (34 36) publish on its websites study materials
and tips for parents and only 24 have an active forum for
exchanging opinions although these forums have an
insignificant number of open themes none of which were
opened by parents Study materials are most often online
tests with a link from the website and tips for parents are
texts compiled by schools assistants Considering the lack
of assistants in schools this may be the cause for a small
percentage of these materials Some schools under the
section tips for parents have links to interesting Internet
articles
Categories intended for the promotion of school
achievements and activities have more contents every school
has a page dedicated to school history 86 updates the
photo album section and less then half the schools (46)
publish sportsrsquo achievements of the pupils The photo albums
offer pictures from school trips out-of-classroom teaching
school events etc Justifying such a large number of
pictures is debatable since none of the published materials
are protected by password but available to everybody the
question arises if the schools have the parentsrsquo permission
Only 16 of schools pay attention to visits which could be
a significant information showing the number of parents and
pupils visiting the website
The mentioned data show that schools consider relevant
the promotion of school activities and success the history
of the school and the timetable for parentsrsquo information
but tips for parents and school materials along with
exchanging opinions are not a priority Schools consider the
teachersrsquo CVs parentsrsquo meeting announcements or the school
cafeteria menu of no relevance to parents These facts point
to the fact that school websites in Croatia are more online
notice-boards than a real possibility for communication
5 Conclusion
Over the last decade cooperation with parents in
Croatia has been improving however in our schools
traditional forms of cooperation with parents are still
prevailing Although in the world there are specialized
radio and TV channels magazines and Internet sites for
exchanging experiences (Mendel 1998) such practice has not
flung into being in Croatia However over the last couple
of years cooperation via websites e-mails and SMS messages
Summarising its advantages and disadvantages and
considering todayrsquos lifestyle this way of cooperation
should be intensified in our schools Contemporary ways of
communication can additionally improve the communication
between parents and school but just as one more way
alongside other ways Consequently although the modern age
presupposes the use of modern technologies no technology
should replace face-to-face communication between parents
and teachers and the responsibility for a good cooperation
still lies on the school
The research demonstrates the possibilities of
communication between family and school by using modern
technology Elements of school websites are shown as well
as ways of planning the content of a website We consider
this research important for informing teachers and school
management of the possibilities of modern communication
between families and school A school website allows for the
possibility of establishing fast communication however its
mere existence does not guarantee the pupils acquiring new
knowledge and a quality relation between the family and
school It can be a good example for the school management
in creating the school curriculum as a segment allowing for
a fast exchange of information with parents Unfortunately
the educational system in Croatia is traditional and inert
unsuitable for the times and contemporary professions It
does not satisfy the need of the individual and traditional
teaching by using a minimum of technology and information is
utterly un-motivational for the student as well as for the
family The results of this research show that school
websites in Croatia donrsquot fulfil their purpose presenting
pupilsrsquo achievements allowing the parents insight into
everyday activities informing the parents and the wider
community on future activities and strengthening the
cooperation between school home and the local community
Although the purpose of school websites should not be merely
an electronic version of the notice board and an image of
the school that rarely changes its appearance the current
condition of the Croatian school websites in the analysed
counties shows just that therefore confirming the initial
hypothesis
Future research should inquire into the stance of
parents in Croatia on which content they consider important
therefore receiving relevant data which could later be used
by teachers for creating their websites
References
Berger E H (1991) Parent Involvement Yesterday and
Today The Elementary School Journal 91 (3) 209-219
Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb
Educa
Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships
Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76
httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20Articles
ParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
Epstein JL i Sheldon S B (2006) Moving Forward Ideas
for Research on School Family and Community Partnerships
httpwwwcsosjhuedup2000pdfLiterature20Review
2020Epstein20and20Sheldon2006pdf (15112010)
Graham- Clay S (2005) Communicating with Parents
Strategies for Teachers School Community Journal 16 (1)
117-129
Hartshorne R Friedman A Algozzine B i Kaur D
(2008) Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites Educational
Technology amp Society 11 (1) 291-303
Hitrec G(ur) (2006) Škola otvorena roditeljima Zagreb
Udruga roditelja Korak po korak
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE -
- MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE - MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
-
Key words cooperation with parents Internet school websites website
content
1 Parents and school cooperation
The cooperation between parents and schools is
extremely important and offers manifold benefits for all the
participants in the education process A partnership between
parents and teachers establishes good relations since every
partner introduces their competences in the childrsquos
education The cooperation between parents and teachers
ie school should be the best possible to achieve
outstanding goals Berger (1991) considers that models of
parent involvement are approached more actively nowadays
then it was in the 1960s when the responsibilities of
parents and schools were considered distinct Cooperation
with parents is today considered on of the essential
determinants of an efficient school in terms of general
pedagogy and research has shown that 22 of teachers
consider the lack of parent involvement a serious problem
(Ryan and Cooper 2010) Such cooperation is only partially
directed at prevention ie solution of disciplinary
problems since its benefits are manifold and are
manifested in better grades increased regular attendance
more willingness to work at home and development of more
positive attitudes and behavior Parental involvement in
school life has a positive effect on pupilrsquos achievements
and their motivation and the partnership relation between
parents and schools makes the parents more informed of
school affairs gives them a more positive image in the eyes
of the teachers they contribute to a better functioning of
the school strengthen their self-confidence and assurance
in helping their child at home and they become
participants not mere observers of the education of their
child Teachers have also to gain from a partnership
relation with parents since the parents become allies in
solving problems they become more motivated and satisfied
with their job receive more confidence from parents and
have a better reputation in society
These and other benefits for all the participants in
the education process are the result of growing willingness
and need of parent involvement in the school life According
to Walsh (2002) one way of achieving a successful bond
between parents and school is a consistent and clear two-way
communication
Epstein (1995) lists three learning contexts for
pupils in the family in school and in the community and
lists 6 ways of parent involvement These are parenting
communication volunteering learning at home decision
making and collaborating with the community However all of
these ways of cooperation between parents and school presume
direct communication which at times regardless of the
parentsrsquo willingness is impossible Many parents work
during planned school activities or meetings and have not
the possibility to participate especially in schools which
work in a single shift Todayrsquos way of life and both parents
working prevents personal communication and a more active
involvement of parents with schools
2 Contemporary ways of cooperation between parents and
school
One of the key features of humans is the ability to
communicate The exceptional ability of storing data and
fast sharing of enormous amounts of information have
revolutionized business as well as the everyday life of
mankind The access to information is unlimited the sharing
of ideas and thoughts free the worldrsquos business and economy
are being transformed Significant are the changes in the
approach to education Fast communication is becoming a
trend in shaping the future and therefore revolutionary
models of learning are more and more inherent (eg using
interactive computer technology fast learning) Pupils
are assuming responsibility for their life in a world in
which ldquothose who end their education have no futurerdquo (Dryden
and Vos 2001 p 39) Stronger is the criticism of the
educational system for its inertness in the process of
change and positive initiatives empowered by scientific
research become the link for modernization and improvement
of the school in the 21st century
Technology has become a critical component of everyday
life and an increase in the development and use of school
websites over the last few years is evident (Hartshorne and
ass 2008) Research (Aronson 1995 Cameron and Lee 1997
Clemens-Brower 1997 Cleverson 1999 Ramirez 2001) show that
many teachers experiment with various technologies when
communicating with parents (telephones in classrooms voice
mail video technology radio announcements etc) to
improve cooperation School websites provide parents with
useful content such as educational tips homework e-mails
or the school cafeteria menu and expand the borders of
communication between home and school to a 24 hours a day 7
days a week contact That allows parents whose daily
timetable doesnrsquot permit regular visits to the school and
face-to-face interaction with their child or teacher to be
more informed of what is happening at school Internet
becomes an excellent means of connecting home and school
Swan (2008) believes that schools have a lot of
information and parents want to know more about academic
achievements extracurricular activities parentsrsquo meeting
schedule information such as bus transport or lunch and
that it is important that school websites include accurate
and useful information not an exciting design or newest
technological ldquoornamentsrdquo
Online research (Unal 2008) shows that parents and
teachers recognize the importance of school websites
although they do not agree completely on their content
While teachers suggest that links inside the school
classroom rules teaching curriculum and standards list of
obligatory accessories statistics of websites visitors and
guest book should be essential to a school website
significant divergence (plt05) was seen in parents
disagreeing on these elements On the other hand parents
declare they would like to see online practical tests
academic advisory information information about
administrative issues and school direction as well as
teachers CVs Eventually teachers and parents agree that
results of school sport competition and activities
educational philosophy lesson plans links outside the
institution online articles and newsletters class photo
albums and news teachersrsquo blogs menus examples of
didactic cards personal links and teachersrsquo family
information are not essential elements of schoolsrsquo websites
It can be concluded that regardless of many schools today
having their own website not all are important for the
communication of parents and teachers Past research shows
that the structure and content of school websites should be
carefully planned and developed
According to McKenzie J (1997) the best websites have
four purposes 1 introduce visitors to its mission its
character its offerings to children its stance on new
technologies 2 offer an opportunity for the publishing of
student works and parents education 3 act as a mediator to
a larger share of information and 4 provide rich data
locally collected on curriculum related topics (such as
local history) Some school websites contain all four of
these elements but the majority is concentrated upon
providing a quality service in two or three of these
elements
21 Cooperation between parents and school in Croatia
In the elementary education in Croatia prescribed are
(most often by School statute) the following ways of
cooperation with parents parent meeting individual talks
with teachers and school assistants and written messages to
parents According to Law on Primary and Secondary
Education (Ministry of Education Science and Technology
2008) prescribed is the formation a Parentsrsquo Council which
comprises one parent from every class and the president of
the Parentrsquos Council is appointed a member of the School
Committee Practice shows that these prescribed ways of
cooperation do not satisfy the teachers or the parents
Parent participation is merely formal without real
possibility of influencing important decisions
Centralization and standardization of the curriculum do not
allow schools enough space for adapting to the needs of the
local community parent meeting come down to mere
information sharing where parents are usually passive
recipients of information and parents asked to participate
in some kind of school activity are rare A research
conducted among parents of pupil of the 4th and 7th grade
from all Croatian regions and their teachers (Marušić 2007)
shows that two thirds of parents believes that they have too
little possibility of participating in decision making in
schools more than 90 of parents have never taken part in
activities related to cooperation between family and school
three quarters of parents state that there are no lectures
or workshops organized in schools and a third of parents
does not know if such workshops are organized A substantial
number of parents have shown interest in participating in
various school activities but the initiative is expected to
come from teachers
However the practice in Croatian schools in recent
years has shown undertaking additional strategies for
cooperation with parents Many workshops are being held
parents are involved as assistants on projects and in the
communication between parents and school improvement has
been made in following and assessing the pupilsrsquo progress as
well as in the feedback information on the pupilsrsquo progress
(increasingly common are the pupilsrsquo maps as an example of
systematic authentic and development assessment of pupilsrsquo
progress)
As far as electronic cooperation is concerned Croatia
is one step back The project ldquoNet u školirdquo ndash ldquoNet in the
schoolrdquo was initiated in 2003 and all schools in Croatia
have been equipped with ISDN terminals with the aim to
improve the process of learning by using Internet in
teaching and pupilsrsquo research from home and by laying the
foundation for a new culture of learning based on openness
to new knowledge new media and technology Today all
schools in Croatia have the possibility to set up a website
and the teachers to open e-mail accounts
In Croatia websites of teachers are a rare appearance
but the projects ldquoŠkolski infocentarrdquo and ldquoSMS informativkardquo
have been initiated through which informing parents on
success absence and other school activities via simple and
to the majority accessible way of communication (SMS e-
mail Internet and voicemail) has been enabled A small
number of schools have incorporated a web directory updated
monthly by class masters which parents with a special
password can check at any time Although not the most
important fact it should not be ignored that according to
the Central Bureau of Statistics in 2009 only 38 of
households in Croatia had access to the Internet which
complicates communication via websites and not all teachers
are computer literate Such cooperation has its advantages
and disadvantages
Table 1 ndash advantages and disadvantages of cooperation
via electronic media
ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGESInformation on child received daily
Fast information transmission
Not limited by time or place
Time saving for parents
Time saving for teachers when
sending general information
Parents come to school prepared
themes for conversation are
educational
Both parents and teachers must be
computer literate
All participants (parents
teachers) must have Internet access
Additional work for teachers
(regular updating of data)
Rarer encounters among parents and
teachers
Lack of face-to-face communication
Financial expense for parents when
sending SMS messages
Possible abuse (password)
3 Research methodology
31 Aim of research
The aim of the research was to examine whether the
content of Croatian elementary schools websites encourages
frequent parentsrsquo visits and allows pupils to acquire new
knowledge A long term goal is to encourage schools to post
new materials regularly which would result in high-quality
cooperation between home and school along with encouraging
students to research work from their homes and therefore
advancing the quality of learning
32 Problem
The problem of this work is to determine the current
purpose of Croatian elementary schools websites
33 Hypothesis
H-1 Websites of Croatian elementary schools with its
contents do not pose a model for a more intensive
cooperation with parents or lay the foundations for a new
culture of learning
H-2 There is no statistically significant difference in
content between the two counties in neither of the eleven
categories
34 Participants and procedure
School websites are public documents and welcome the
outer world into the school as well as a link between
pupils and teachers with outer sources of information and a
possibility of better cooperation with parents The function
of school websites is to make public the achievements of
pupils to allow parents insight into daily activities and
to inform parents and the larger community of future
activities as well as strengthening cooperation between
school home and the local community The function of the
schoolsrsquo websites should not be a mere electronic version of
a notice board or a picture of a school that seldom changes
its appearance
The research was conducted by content analysis method
on a random selection of 50 elementary school websites in
the counties of Istria and Split ndash Dalmatia (25 schools per
county) The Internet school directory of ldquoPortal za školerdquo
was used Since in Croatia a research has not been conducted
on parents and the content the parents believed to be
important and relevant the authors were led by a research
done by an online study in USA (Unal 2008) and the elements
selected by teachers and parents in that study The
following website content was analysed curriculum about
the school (school history) web counters house rules
(classroom rules) timetable and information for parents
results of school competition photo albums online tests
(study materials) teachersrsquo CV tips for parents and forum
The analysis was done at the beginning of December 2010 by
the end of the first term giving the schools enough time to
update and enrich the websites This research did not take
into consideration the design of websites since in the
majority of cases it has been done using Carnet hosting
services and offered similar links Regarding the fact that
most schools have the same browser a school is considered
to have a website if a private document or link has been
updated
4 Results and discussion
Table 2 ndash Overall analysed content in percentage
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIES
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCETAGECURRICULUM 41 82 9 18 WEBSITE
COUNTER8 16 42 84
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTSrsquo
INFORMATION28 56 22 44
RESULTS OF
SCHOOL
COMPETITION
23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 ONLINE
TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
TEACHERSrsquo 2 4 48 96
CV
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
FORUM 12 24 38 76 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL
(SCHOOL
HISTORY)
50 100 0 0
For table 2 it is evident that all schools have information
about the school on the website ie about its history
(100) the majority has school photo alums (86) and the
curriculum (82) More than half the schools (56) have the
timetable for parentsrsquo information and less then half (46)
have sport achievements of their pupils The fewest schools
publish teachersrsquo CVs (4) and website counters Study
materials and tips for parents are present on just above a
third the websites (34 36)
Chart 1 ndash content according to county
It is visible from Chart 1 that results do not vary much
between counties The most discrepancy is shown in sportsrsquo
achievements (Istria 72 Split ndash Dalmatia 20) and a 20
discrepancy is present in categories photo album and study
material Other discrepancies are smaller than 20 The 2nd
hypothesis was tested with the chi-square test The
hypothesis is considered valid in case that the probability
of error is less than 5 considering that there is a
statistically significant link between the analysed pair of
variables
Table 3 ndash Relations between counties
CURRI
CULUM
WEB
COUNT
ERS
HOUSE
RULES
INFOR
MATIO
N
TIMET
ABLE
SPORT
S
ACHIE
VEMEN
TS
PHOTO
ALBUM
ONLINE
TESTS
TEACHERS
CVs
TIPS
FOR
PARENTS FORUM
10486462 0024 0148 0125 0081 1159 2657 1471 05208 07812 01096
8 4 8
df 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
p 0876
88491
0
0479
50012
0527
0892
0705
31663
0006
71374
0
044
5920
62
02251
8798
0157299
21
03457
4844
05638
979
It is not difficult to notice that a significant
discrepancy is present only in sportsrsquo achievement whereas
in other elements it does not exist which confirms the
stated hypothesis It can be concluded that there are no
differences between the content in the two counties
The website content can be divided into two categories
content intended for parents and pupils (curriculum
timetable for parentsrsquo information teachersrsquo CVs tips for
parents forum online tests and study material house
rules) and content for promoting school activities and
achievements (sportsrsquo achievements photo albums about the
school web counters)
Table 4 ndash analysis according to purpose
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIESINTENDEED FOR
PARENTS AND
PUPILSYES
PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
ONLINE TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
CURRICULUM 41 82 9 18
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTS
INFORMATION
TIMETABLE
28 56 22 44
FORUM 12 24 38 76 TEACHERSrsquo CV 2 4 48 96 PROMOTION OF
SCHOOL
ACTIVITIES
AND
ACVIEVEMENTS
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
SPORTS
ACHIEVEMENTS23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 WEB COUNTERS 8 16 42 84 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL50 100 0 0
Among the content intended for parents and pupils
which would allow pupils to acquire new knowledge and
encourage parents to visit regularly schools offer in high
percentage (82) the curriculum which is a legal obligation
(public notice) and just over half the schools (56) offer
the timetable for parentsrsquo information About one third of
schools (34 36) publish on its websites study materials
and tips for parents and only 24 have an active forum for
exchanging opinions although these forums have an
insignificant number of open themes none of which were
opened by parents Study materials are most often online
tests with a link from the website and tips for parents are
texts compiled by schools assistants Considering the lack
of assistants in schools this may be the cause for a small
percentage of these materials Some schools under the
section tips for parents have links to interesting Internet
articles
Categories intended for the promotion of school
achievements and activities have more contents every school
has a page dedicated to school history 86 updates the
photo album section and less then half the schools (46)
publish sportsrsquo achievements of the pupils The photo albums
offer pictures from school trips out-of-classroom teaching
school events etc Justifying such a large number of
pictures is debatable since none of the published materials
are protected by password but available to everybody the
question arises if the schools have the parentsrsquo permission
Only 16 of schools pay attention to visits which could be
a significant information showing the number of parents and
pupils visiting the website
The mentioned data show that schools consider relevant
the promotion of school activities and success the history
of the school and the timetable for parentsrsquo information
but tips for parents and school materials along with
exchanging opinions are not a priority Schools consider the
teachersrsquo CVs parentsrsquo meeting announcements or the school
cafeteria menu of no relevance to parents These facts point
to the fact that school websites in Croatia are more online
notice-boards than a real possibility for communication
5 Conclusion
Over the last decade cooperation with parents in
Croatia has been improving however in our schools
traditional forms of cooperation with parents are still
prevailing Although in the world there are specialized
radio and TV channels magazines and Internet sites for
exchanging experiences (Mendel 1998) such practice has not
flung into being in Croatia However over the last couple
of years cooperation via websites e-mails and SMS messages
Summarising its advantages and disadvantages and
considering todayrsquos lifestyle this way of cooperation
should be intensified in our schools Contemporary ways of
communication can additionally improve the communication
between parents and school but just as one more way
alongside other ways Consequently although the modern age
presupposes the use of modern technologies no technology
should replace face-to-face communication between parents
and teachers and the responsibility for a good cooperation
still lies on the school
The research demonstrates the possibilities of
communication between family and school by using modern
technology Elements of school websites are shown as well
as ways of planning the content of a website We consider
this research important for informing teachers and school
management of the possibilities of modern communication
between families and school A school website allows for the
possibility of establishing fast communication however its
mere existence does not guarantee the pupils acquiring new
knowledge and a quality relation between the family and
school It can be a good example for the school management
in creating the school curriculum as a segment allowing for
a fast exchange of information with parents Unfortunately
the educational system in Croatia is traditional and inert
unsuitable for the times and contemporary professions It
does not satisfy the need of the individual and traditional
teaching by using a minimum of technology and information is
utterly un-motivational for the student as well as for the
family The results of this research show that school
websites in Croatia donrsquot fulfil their purpose presenting
pupilsrsquo achievements allowing the parents insight into
everyday activities informing the parents and the wider
community on future activities and strengthening the
cooperation between school home and the local community
Although the purpose of school websites should not be merely
an electronic version of the notice board and an image of
the school that rarely changes its appearance the current
condition of the Croatian school websites in the analysed
counties shows just that therefore confirming the initial
hypothesis
Future research should inquire into the stance of
parents in Croatia on which content they consider important
therefore receiving relevant data which could later be used
by teachers for creating their websites
References
Berger E H (1991) Parent Involvement Yesterday and
Today The Elementary School Journal 91 (3) 209-219
Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb
Educa
Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships
Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76
httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20Articles
ParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
Epstein JL i Sheldon S B (2006) Moving Forward Ideas
for Research on School Family and Community Partnerships
httpwwwcsosjhuedup2000pdfLiterature20Review
2020Epstein20and20Sheldon2006pdf (15112010)
Graham- Clay S (2005) Communicating with Parents
Strategies for Teachers School Community Journal 16 (1)
117-129
Hartshorne R Friedman A Algozzine B i Kaur D
(2008) Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites Educational
Technology amp Society 11 (1) 291-303
Hitrec G(ur) (2006) Škola otvorena roditeljima Zagreb
Udruga roditelja Korak po korak
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE -
- MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE - MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
-
school life has a positive effect on pupilrsquos achievements
and their motivation and the partnership relation between
parents and schools makes the parents more informed of
school affairs gives them a more positive image in the eyes
of the teachers they contribute to a better functioning of
the school strengthen their self-confidence and assurance
in helping their child at home and they become
participants not mere observers of the education of their
child Teachers have also to gain from a partnership
relation with parents since the parents become allies in
solving problems they become more motivated and satisfied
with their job receive more confidence from parents and
have a better reputation in society
These and other benefits for all the participants in
the education process are the result of growing willingness
and need of parent involvement in the school life According
to Walsh (2002) one way of achieving a successful bond
between parents and school is a consistent and clear two-way
communication
Epstein (1995) lists three learning contexts for
pupils in the family in school and in the community and
lists 6 ways of parent involvement These are parenting
communication volunteering learning at home decision
making and collaborating with the community However all of
these ways of cooperation between parents and school presume
direct communication which at times regardless of the
parentsrsquo willingness is impossible Many parents work
during planned school activities or meetings and have not
the possibility to participate especially in schools which
work in a single shift Todayrsquos way of life and both parents
working prevents personal communication and a more active
involvement of parents with schools
2 Contemporary ways of cooperation between parents and
school
One of the key features of humans is the ability to
communicate The exceptional ability of storing data and
fast sharing of enormous amounts of information have
revolutionized business as well as the everyday life of
mankind The access to information is unlimited the sharing
of ideas and thoughts free the worldrsquos business and economy
are being transformed Significant are the changes in the
approach to education Fast communication is becoming a
trend in shaping the future and therefore revolutionary
models of learning are more and more inherent (eg using
interactive computer technology fast learning) Pupils
are assuming responsibility for their life in a world in
which ldquothose who end their education have no futurerdquo (Dryden
and Vos 2001 p 39) Stronger is the criticism of the
educational system for its inertness in the process of
change and positive initiatives empowered by scientific
research become the link for modernization and improvement
of the school in the 21st century
Technology has become a critical component of everyday
life and an increase in the development and use of school
websites over the last few years is evident (Hartshorne and
ass 2008) Research (Aronson 1995 Cameron and Lee 1997
Clemens-Brower 1997 Cleverson 1999 Ramirez 2001) show that
many teachers experiment with various technologies when
communicating with parents (telephones in classrooms voice
mail video technology radio announcements etc) to
improve cooperation School websites provide parents with
useful content such as educational tips homework e-mails
or the school cafeteria menu and expand the borders of
communication between home and school to a 24 hours a day 7
days a week contact That allows parents whose daily
timetable doesnrsquot permit regular visits to the school and
face-to-face interaction with their child or teacher to be
more informed of what is happening at school Internet
becomes an excellent means of connecting home and school
Swan (2008) believes that schools have a lot of
information and parents want to know more about academic
achievements extracurricular activities parentsrsquo meeting
schedule information such as bus transport or lunch and
that it is important that school websites include accurate
and useful information not an exciting design or newest
technological ldquoornamentsrdquo
Online research (Unal 2008) shows that parents and
teachers recognize the importance of school websites
although they do not agree completely on their content
While teachers suggest that links inside the school
classroom rules teaching curriculum and standards list of
obligatory accessories statistics of websites visitors and
guest book should be essential to a school website
significant divergence (plt05) was seen in parents
disagreeing on these elements On the other hand parents
declare they would like to see online practical tests
academic advisory information information about
administrative issues and school direction as well as
teachers CVs Eventually teachers and parents agree that
results of school sport competition and activities
educational philosophy lesson plans links outside the
institution online articles and newsletters class photo
albums and news teachersrsquo blogs menus examples of
didactic cards personal links and teachersrsquo family
information are not essential elements of schoolsrsquo websites
It can be concluded that regardless of many schools today
having their own website not all are important for the
communication of parents and teachers Past research shows
that the structure and content of school websites should be
carefully planned and developed
According to McKenzie J (1997) the best websites have
four purposes 1 introduce visitors to its mission its
character its offerings to children its stance on new
technologies 2 offer an opportunity for the publishing of
student works and parents education 3 act as a mediator to
a larger share of information and 4 provide rich data
locally collected on curriculum related topics (such as
local history) Some school websites contain all four of
these elements but the majority is concentrated upon
providing a quality service in two or three of these
elements
21 Cooperation between parents and school in Croatia
In the elementary education in Croatia prescribed are
(most often by School statute) the following ways of
cooperation with parents parent meeting individual talks
with teachers and school assistants and written messages to
parents According to Law on Primary and Secondary
Education (Ministry of Education Science and Technology
2008) prescribed is the formation a Parentsrsquo Council which
comprises one parent from every class and the president of
the Parentrsquos Council is appointed a member of the School
Committee Practice shows that these prescribed ways of
cooperation do not satisfy the teachers or the parents
Parent participation is merely formal without real
possibility of influencing important decisions
Centralization and standardization of the curriculum do not
allow schools enough space for adapting to the needs of the
local community parent meeting come down to mere
information sharing where parents are usually passive
recipients of information and parents asked to participate
in some kind of school activity are rare A research
conducted among parents of pupil of the 4th and 7th grade
from all Croatian regions and their teachers (Marušić 2007)
shows that two thirds of parents believes that they have too
little possibility of participating in decision making in
schools more than 90 of parents have never taken part in
activities related to cooperation between family and school
three quarters of parents state that there are no lectures
or workshops organized in schools and a third of parents
does not know if such workshops are organized A substantial
number of parents have shown interest in participating in
various school activities but the initiative is expected to
come from teachers
However the practice in Croatian schools in recent
years has shown undertaking additional strategies for
cooperation with parents Many workshops are being held
parents are involved as assistants on projects and in the
communication between parents and school improvement has
been made in following and assessing the pupilsrsquo progress as
well as in the feedback information on the pupilsrsquo progress
(increasingly common are the pupilsrsquo maps as an example of
systematic authentic and development assessment of pupilsrsquo
progress)
As far as electronic cooperation is concerned Croatia
is one step back The project ldquoNet u školirdquo ndash ldquoNet in the
schoolrdquo was initiated in 2003 and all schools in Croatia
have been equipped with ISDN terminals with the aim to
improve the process of learning by using Internet in
teaching and pupilsrsquo research from home and by laying the
foundation for a new culture of learning based on openness
to new knowledge new media and technology Today all
schools in Croatia have the possibility to set up a website
and the teachers to open e-mail accounts
In Croatia websites of teachers are a rare appearance
but the projects ldquoŠkolski infocentarrdquo and ldquoSMS informativkardquo
have been initiated through which informing parents on
success absence and other school activities via simple and
to the majority accessible way of communication (SMS e-
mail Internet and voicemail) has been enabled A small
number of schools have incorporated a web directory updated
monthly by class masters which parents with a special
password can check at any time Although not the most
important fact it should not be ignored that according to
the Central Bureau of Statistics in 2009 only 38 of
households in Croatia had access to the Internet which
complicates communication via websites and not all teachers
are computer literate Such cooperation has its advantages
and disadvantages
Table 1 ndash advantages and disadvantages of cooperation
via electronic media
ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGESInformation on child received daily
Fast information transmission
Not limited by time or place
Time saving for parents
Time saving for teachers when
sending general information
Parents come to school prepared
themes for conversation are
educational
Both parents and teachers must be
computer literate
All participants (parents
teachers) must have Internet access
Additional work for teachers
(regular updating of data)
Rarer encounters among parents and
teachers
Lack of face-to-face communication
Financial expense for parents when
sending SMS messages
Possible abuse (password)
3 Research methodology
31 Aim of research
The aim of the research was to examine whether the
content of Croatian elementary schools websites encourages
frequent parentsrsquo visits and allows pupils to acquire new
knowledge A long term goal is to encourage schools to post
new materials regularly which would result in high-quality
cooperation between home and school along with encouraging
students to research work from their homes and therefore
advancing the quality of learning
32 Problem
The problem of this work is to determine the current
purpose of Croatian elementary schools websites
33 Hypothesis
H-1 Websites of Croatian elementary schools with its
contents do not pose a model for a more intensive
cooperation with parents or lay the foundations for a new
culture of learning
H-2 There is no statistically significant difference in
content between the two counties in neither of the eleven
categories
34 Participants and procedure
School websites are public documents and welcome the
outer world into the school as well as a link between
pupils and teachers with outer sources of information and a
possibility of better cooperation with parents The function
of school websites is to make public the achievements of
pupils to allow parents insight into daily activities and
to inform parents and the larger community of future
activities as well as strengthening cooperation between
school home and the local community The function of the
schoolsrsquo websites should not be a mere electronic version of
a notice board or a picture of a school that seldom changes
its appearance
The research was conducted by content analysis method
on a random selection of 50 elementary school websites in
the counties of Istria and Split ndash Dalmatia (25 schools per
county) The Internet school directory of ldquoPortal za školerdquo
was used Since in Croatia a research has not been conducted
on parents and the content the parents believed to be
important and relevant the authors were led by a research
done by an online study in USA (Unal 2008) and the elements
selected by teachers and parents in that study The
following website content was analysed curriculum about
the school (school history) web counters house rules
(classroom rules) timetable and information for parents
results of school competition photo albums online tests
(study materials) teachersrsquo CV tips for parents and forum
The analysis was done at the beginning of December 2010 by
the end of the first term giving the schools enough time to
update and enrich the websites This research did not take
into consideration the design of websites since in the
majority of cases it has been done using Carnet hosting
services and offered similar links Regarding the fact that
most schools have the same browser a school is considered
to have a website if a private document or link has been
updated
4 Results and discussion
Table 2 ndash Overall analysed content in percentage
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIES
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCETAGECURRICULUM 41 82 9 18 WEBSITE
COUNTER8 16 42 84
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTSrsquo
INFORMATION28 56 22 44
RESULTS OF
SCHOOL
COMPETITION
23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 ONLINE
TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
TEACHERSrsquo 2 4 48 96
CV
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
FORUM 12 24 38 76 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL
(SCHOOL
HISTORY)
50 100 0 0
For table 2 it is evident that all schools have information
about the school on the website ie about its history
(100) the majority has school photo alums (86) and the
curriculum (82) More than half the schools (56) have the
timetable for parentsrsquo information and less then half (46)
have sport achievements of their pupils The fewest schools
publish teachersrsquo CVs (4) and website counters Study
materials and tips for parents are present on just above a
third the websites (34 36)
Chart 1 ndash content according to county
It is visible from Chart 1 that results do not vary much
between counties The most discrepancy is shown in sportsrsquo
achievements (Istria 72 Split ndash Dalmatia 20) and a 20
discrepancy is present in categories photo album and study
material Other discrepancies are smaller than 20 The 2nd
hypothesis was tested with the chi-square test The
hypothesis is considered valid in case that the probability
of error is less than 5 considering that there is a
statistically significant link between the analysed pair of
variables
Table 3 ndash Relations between counties
CURRI
CULUM
WEB
COUNT
ERS
HOUSE
RULES
INFOR
MATIO
N
TIMET
ABLE
SPORT
S
ACHIE
VEMEN
TS
PHOTO
ALBUM
ONLINE
TESTS
TEACHERS
CVs
TIPS
FOR
PARENTS FORUM
10486462 0024 0148 0125 0081 1159 2657 1471 05208 07812 01096
8 4 8
df 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
p 0876
88491
0
0479
50012
0527
0892
0705
31663
0006
71374
0
044
5920
62
02251
8798
0157299
21
03457
4844
05638
979
It is not difficult to notice that a significant
discrepancy is present only in sportsrsquo achievement whereas
in other elements it does not exist which confirms the
stated hypothesis It can be concluded that there are no
differences between the content in the two counties
The website content can be divided into two categories
content intended for parents and pupils (curriculum
timetable for parentsrsquo information teachersrsquo CVs tips for
parents forum online tests and study material house
rules) and content for promoting school activities and
achievements (sportsrsquo achievements photo albums about the
school web counters)
Table 4 ndash analysis according to purpose
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIESINTENDEED FOR
PARENTS AND
PUPILSYES
PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
ONLINE TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
CURRICULUM 41 82 9 18
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTS
INFORMATION
TIMETABLE
28 56 22 44
FORUM 12 24 38 76 TEACHERSrsquo CV 2 4 48 96 PROMOTION OF
SCHOOL
ACTIVITIES
AND
ACVIEVEMENTS
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
SPORTS
ACHIEVEMENTS23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 WEB COUNTERS 8 16 42 84 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL50 100 0 0
Among the content intended for parents and pupils
which would allow pupils to acquire new knowledge and
encourage parents to visit regularly schools offer in high
percentage (82) the curriculum which is a legal obligation
(public notice) and just over half the schools (56) offer
the timetable for parentsrsquo information About one third of
schools (34 36) publish on its websites study materials
and tips for parents and only 24 have an active forum for
exchanging opinions although these forums have an
insignificant number of open themes none of which were
opened by parents Study materials are most often online
tests with a link from the website and tips for parents are
texts compiled by schools assistants Considering the lack
of assistants in schools this may be the cause for a small
percentage of these materials Some schools under the
section tips for parents have links to interesting Internet
articles
Categories intended for the promotion of school
achievements and activities have more contents every school
has a page dedicated to school history 86 updates the
photo album section and less then half the schools (46)
publish sportsrsquo achievements of the pupils The photo albums
offer pictures from school trips out-of-classroom teaching
school events etc Justifying such a large number of
pictures is debatable since none of the published materials
are protected by password but available to everybody the
question arises if the schools have the parentsrsquo permission
Only 16 of schools pay attention to visits which could be
a significant information showing the number of parents and
pupils visiting the website
The mentioned data show that schools consider relevant
the promotion of school activities and success the history
of the school and the timetable for parentsrsquo information
but tips for parents and school materials along with
exchanging opinions are not a priority Schools consider the
teachersrsquo CVs parentsrsquo meeting announcements or the school
cafeteria menu of no relevance to parents These facts point
to the fact that school websites in Croatia are more online
notice-boards than a real possibility for communication
5 Conclusion
Over the last decade cooperation with parents in
Croatia has been improving however in our schools
traditional forms of cooperation with parents are still
prevailing Although in the world there are specialized
radio and TV channels magazines and Internet sites for
exchanging experiences (Mendel 1998) such practice has not
flung into being in Croatia However over the last couple
of years cooperation via websites e-mails and SMS messages
Summarising its advantages and disadvantages and
considering todayrsquos lifestyle this way of cooperation
should be intensified in our schools Contemporary ways of
communication can additionally improve the communication
between parents and school but just as one more way
alongside other ways Consequently although the modern age
presupposes the use of modern technologies no technology
should replace face-to-face communication between parents
and teachers and the responsibility for a good cooperation
still lies on the school
The research demonstrates the possibilities of
communication between family and school by using modern
technology Elements of school websites are shown as well
as ways of planning the content of a website We consider
this research important for informing teachers and school
management of the possibilities of modern communication
between families and school A school website allows for the
possibility of establishing fast communication however its
mere existence does not guarantee the pupils acquiring new
knowledge and a quality relation between the family and
school It can be a good example for the school management
in creating the school curriculum as a segment allowing for
a fast exchange of information with parents Unfortunately
the educational system in Croatia is traditional and inert
unsuitable for the times and contemporary professions It
does not satisfy the need of the individual and traditional
teaching by using a minimum of technology and information is
utterly un-motivational for the student as well as for the
family The results of this research show that school
websites in Croatia donrsquot fulfil their purpose presenting
pupilsrsquo achievements allowing the parents insight into
everyday activities informing the parents and the wider
community on future activities and strengthening the
cooperation between school home and the local community
Although the purpose of school websites should not be merely
an electronic version of the notice board and an image of
the school that rarely changes its appearance the current
condition of the Croatian school websites in the analysed
counties shows just that therefore confirming the initial
hypothesis
Future research should inquire into the stance of
parents in Croatia on which content they consider important
therefore receiving relevant data which could later be used
by teachers for creating their websites
References
Berger E H (1991) Parent Involvement Yesterday and
Today The Elementary School Journal 91 (3) 209-219
Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb
Educa
Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships
Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76
httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20Articles
ParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
Epstein JL i Sheldon S B (2006) Moving Forward Ideas
for Research on School Family and Community Partnerships
httpwwwcsosjhuedup2000pdfLiterature20Review
2020Epstein20and20Sheldon2006pdf (15112010)
Graham- Clay S (2005) Communicating with Parents
Strategies for Teachers School Community Journal 16 (1)
117-129
Hartshorne R Friedman A Algozzine B i Kaur D
(2008) Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites Educational
Technology amp Society 11 (1) 291-303
Hitrec G(ur) (2006) Škola otvorena roditeljima Zagreb
Udruga roditelja Korak po korak
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE -
- MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE - MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
-
parentsrsquo willingness is impossible Many parents work
during planned school activities or meetings and have not
the possibility to participate especially in schools which
work in a single shift Todayrsquos way of life and both parents
working prevents personal communication and a more active
involvement of parents with schools
2 Contemporary ways of cooperation between parents and
school
One of the key features of humans is the ability to
communicate The exceptional ability of storing data and
fast sharing of enormous amounts of information have
revolutionized business as well as the everyday life of
mankind The access to information is unlimited the sharing
of ideas and thoughts free the worldrsquos business and economy
are being transformed Significant are the changes in the
approach to education Fast communication is becoming a
trend in shaping the future and therefore revolutionary
models of learning are more and more inherent (eg using
interactive computer technology fast learning) Pupils
are assuming responsibility for their life in a world in
which ldquothose who end their education have no futurerdquo (Dryden
and Vos 2001 p 39) Stronger is the criticism of the
educational system for its inertness in the process of
change and positive initiatives empowered by scientific
research become the link for modernization and improvement
of the school in the 21st century
Technology has become a critical component of everyday
life and an increase in the development and use of school
websites over the last few years is evident (Hartshorne and
ass 2008) Research (Aronson 1995 Cameron and Lee 1997
Clemens-Brower 1997 Cleverson 1999 Ramirez 2001) show that
many teachers experiment with various technologies when
communicating with parents (telephones in classrooms voice
mail video technology radio announcements etc) to
improve cooperation School websites provide parents with
useful content such as educational tips homework e-mails
or the school cafeteria menu and expand the borders of
communication between home and school to a 24 hours a day 7
days a week contact That allows parents whose daily
timetable doesnrsquot permit regular visits to the school and
face-to-face interaction with their child or teacher to be
more informed of what is happening at school Internet
becomes an excellent means of connecting home and school
Swan (2008) believes that schools have a lot of
information and parents want to know more about academic
achievements extracurricular activities parentsrsquo meeting
schedule information such as bus transport or lunch and
that it is important that school websites include accurate
and useful information not an exciting design or newest
technological ldquoornamentsrdquo
Online research (Unal 2008) shows that parents and
teachers recognize the importance of school websites
although they do not agree completely on their content
While teachers suggest that links inside the school
classroom rules teaching curriculum and standards list of
obligatory accessories statistics of websites visitors and
guest book should be essential to a school website
significant divergence (plt05) was seen in parents
disagreeing on these elements On the other hand parents
declare they would like to see online practical tests
academic advisory information information about
administrative issues and school direction as well as
teachers CVs Eventually teachers and parents agree that
results of school sport competition and activities
educational philosophy lesson plans links outside the
institution online articles and newsletters class photo
albums and news teachersrsquo blogs menus examples of
didactic cards personal links and teachersrsquo family
information are not essential elements of schoolsrsquo websites
It can be concluded that regardless of many schools today
having their own website not all are important for the
communication of parents and teachers Past research shows
that the structure and content of school websites should be
carefully planned and developed
According to McKenzie J (1997) the best websites have
four purposes 1 introduce visitors to its mission its
character its offerings to children its stance on new
technologies 2 offer an opportunity for the publishing of
student works and parents education 3 act as a mediator to
a larger share of information and 4 provide rich data
locally collected on curriculum related topics (such as
local history) Some school websites contain all four of
these elements but the majority is concentrated upon
providing a quality service in two or three of these
elements
21 Cooperation between parents and school in Croatia
In the elementary education in Croatia prescribed are
(most often by School statute) the following ways of
cooperation with parents parent meeting individual talks
with teachers and school assistants and written messages to
parents According to Law on Primary and Secondary
Education (Ministry of Education Science and Technology
2008) prescribed is the formation a Parentsrsquo Council which
comprises one parent from every class and the president of
the Parentrsquos Council is appointed a member of the School
Committee Practice shows that these prescribed ways of
cooperation do not satisfy the teachers or the parents
Parent participation is merely formal without real
possibility of influencing important decisions
Centralization and standardization of the curriculum do not
allow schools enough space for adapting to the needs of the
local community parent meeting come down to mere
information sharing where parents are usually passive
recipients of information and parents asked to participate
in some kind of school activity are rare A research
conducted among parents of pupil of the 4th and 7th grade
from all Croatian regions and their teachers (Marušić 2007)
shows that two thirds of parents believes that they have too
little possibility of participating in decision making in
schools more than 90 of parents have never taken part in
activities related to cooperation between family and school
three quarters of parents state that there are no lectures
or workshops organized in schools and a third of parents
does not know if such workshops are organized A substantial
number of parents have shown interest in participating in
various school activities but the initiative is expected to
come from teachers
However the practice in Croatian schools in recent
years has shown undertaking additional strategies for
cooperation with parents Many workshops are being held
parents are involved as assistants on projects and in the
communication between parents and school improvement has
been made in following and assessing the pupilsrsquo progress as
well as in the feedback information on the pupilsrsquo progress
(increasingly common are the pupilsrsquo maps as an example of
systematic authentic and development assessment of pupilsrsquo
progress)
As far as electronic cooperation is concerned Croatia
is one step back The project ldquoNet u školirdquo ndash ldquoNet in the
schoolrdquo was initiated in 2003 and all schools in Croatia
have been equipped with ISDN terminals with the aim to
improve the process of learning by using Internet in
teaching and pupilsrsquo research from home and by laying the
foundation for a new culture of learning based on openness
to new knowledge new media and technology Today all
schools in Croatia have the possibility to set up a website
and the teachers to open e-mail accounts
In Croatia websites of teachers are a rare appearance
but the projects ldquoŠkolski infocentarrdquo and ldquoSMS informativkardquo
have been initiated through which informing parents on
success absence and other school activities via simple and
to the majority accessible way of communication (SMS e-
mail Internet and voicemail) has been enabled A small
number of schools have incorporated a web directory updated
monthly by class masters which parents with a special
password can check at any time Although not the most
important fact it should not be ignored that according to
the Central Bureau of Statistics in 2009 only 38 of
households in Croatia had access to the Internet which
complicates communication via websites and not all teachers
are computer literate Such cooperation has its advantages
and disadvantages
Table 1 ndash advantages and disadvantages of cooperation
via electronic media
ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGESInformation on child received daily
Fast information transmission
Not limited by time or place
Time saving for parents
Time saving for teachers when
sending general information
Parents come to school prepared
themes for conversation are
educational
Both parents and teachers must be
computer literate
All participants (parents
teachers) must have Internet access
Additional work for teachers
(regular updating of data)
Rarer encounters among parents and
teachers
Lack of face-to-face communication
Financial expense for parents when
sending SMS messages
Possible abuse (password)
3 Research methodology
31 Aim of research
The aim of the research was to examine whether the
content of Croatian elementary schools websites encourages
frequent parentsrsquo visits and allows pupils to acquire new
knowledge A long term goal is to encourage schools to post
new materials regularly which would result in high-quality
cooperation between home and school along with encouraging
students to research work from their homes and therefore
advancing the quality of learning
32 Problem
The problem of this work is to determine the current
purpose of Croatian elementary schools websites
33 Hypothesis
H-1 Websites of Croatian elementary schools with its
contents do not pose a model for a more intensive
cooperation with parents or lay the foundations for a new
culture of learning
H-2 There is no statistically significant difference in
content between the two counties in neither of the eleven
categories
34 Participants and procedure
School websites are public documents and welcome the
outer world into the school as well as a link between
pupils and teachers with outer sources of information and a
possibility of better cooperation with parents The function
of school websites is to make public the achievements of
pupils to allow parents insight into daily activities and
to inform parents and the larger community of future
activities as well as strengthening cooperation between
school home and the local community The function of the
schoolsrsquo websites should not be a mere electronic version of
a notice board or a picture of a school that seldom changes
its appearance
The research was conducted by content analysis method
on a random selection of 50 elementary school websites in
the counties of Istria and Split ndash Dalmatia (25 schools per
county) The Internet school directory of ldquoPortal za školerdquo
was used Since in Croatia a research has not been conducted
on parents and the content the parents believed to be
important and relevant the authors were led by a research
done by an online study in USA (Unal 2008) and the elements
selected by teachers and parents in that study The
following website content was analysed curriculum about
the school (school history) web counters house rules
(classroom rules) timetable and information for parents
results of school competition photo albums online tests
(study materials) teachersrsquo CV tips for parents and forum
The analysis was done at the beginning of December 2010 by
the end of the first term giving the schools enough time to
update and enrich the websites This research did not take
into consideration the design of websites since in the
majority of cases it has been done using Carnet hosting
services and offered similar links Regarding the fact that
most schools have the same browser a school is considered
to have a website if a private document or link has been
updated
4 Results and discussion
Table 2 ndash Overall analysed content in percentage
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIES
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCETAGECURRICULUM 41 82 9 18 WEBSITE
COUNTER8 16 42 84
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTSrsquo
INFORMATION28 56 22 44
RESULTS OF
SCHOOL
COMPETITION
23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 ONLINE
TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
TEACHERSrsquo 2 4 48 96
CV
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
FORUM 12 24 38 76 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL
(SCHOOL
HISTORY)
50 100 0 0
For table 2 it is evident that all schools have information
about the school on the website ie about its history
(100) the majority has school photo alums (86) and the
curriculum (82) More than half the schools (56) have the
timetable for parentsrsquo information and less then half (46)
have sport achievements of their pupils The fewest schools
publish teachersrsquo CVs (4) and website counters Study
materials and tips for parents are present on just above a
third the websites (34 36)
Chart 1 ndash content according to county
It is visible from Chart 1 that results do not vary much
between counties The most discrepancy is shown in sportsrsquo
achievements (Istria 72 Split ndash Dalmatia 20) and a 20
discrepancy is present in categories photo album and study
material Other discrepancies are smaller than 20 The 2nd
hypothesis was tested with the chi-square test The
hypothesis is considered valid in case that the probability
of error is less than 5 considering that there is a
statistically significant link between the analysed pair of
variables
Table 3 ndash Relations between counties
CURRI
CULUM
WEB
COUNT
ERS
HOUSE
RULES
INFOR
MATIO
N
TIMET
ABLE
SPORT
S
ACHIE
VEMEN
TS
PHOTO
ALBUM
ONLINE
TESTS
TEACHERS
CVs
TIPS
FOR
PARENTS FORUM
10486462 0024 0148 0125 0081 1159 2657 1471 05208 07812 01096
8 4 8
df 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
p 0876
88491
0
0479
50012
0527
0892
0705
31663
0006
71374
0
044
5920
62
02251
8798
0157299
21
03457
4844
05638
979
It is not difficult to notice that a significant
discrepancy is present only in sportsrsquo achievement whereas
in other elements it does not exist which confirms the
stated hypothesis It can be concluded that there are no
differences between the content in the two counties
The website content can be divided into two categories
content intended for parents and pupils (curriculum
timetable for parentsrsquo information teachersrsquo CVs tips for
parents forum online tests and study material house
rules) and content for promoting school activities and
achievements (sportsrsquo achievements photo albums about the
school web counters)
Table 4 ndash analysis according to purpose
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIESINTENDEED FOR
PARENTS AND
PUPILSYES
PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
ONLINE TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
CURRICULUM 41 82 9 18
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTS
INFORMATION
TIMETABLE
28 56 22 44
FORUM 12 24 38 76 TEACHERSrsquo CV 2 4 48 96 PROMOTION OF
SCHOOL
ACTIVITIES
AND
ACVIEVEMENTS
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
SPORTS
ACHIEVEMENTS23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 WEB COUNTERS 8 16 42 84 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL50 100 0 0
Among the content intended for parents and pupils
which would allow pupils to acquire new knowledge and
encourage parents to visit regularly schools offer in high
percentage (82) the curriculum which is a legal obligation
(public notice) and just over half the schools (56) offer
the timetable for parentsrsquo information About one third of
schools (34 36) publish on its websites study materials
and tips for parents and only 24 have an active forum for
exchanging opinions although these forums have an
insignificant number of open themes none of which were
opened by parents Study materials are most often online
tests with a link from the website and tips for parents are
texts compiled by schools assistants Considering the lack
of assistants in schools this may be the cause for a small
percentage of these materials Some schools under the
section tips for parents have links to interesting Internet
articles
Categories intended for the promotion of school
achievements and activities have more contents every school
has a page dedicated to school history 86 updates the
photo album section and less then half the schools (46)
publish sportsrsquo achievements of the pupils The photo albums
offer pictures from school trips out-of-classroom teaching
school events etc Justifying such a large number of
pictures is debatable since none of the published materials
are protected by password but available to everybody the
question arises if the schools have the parentsrsquo permission
Only 16 of schools pay attention to visits which could be
a significant information showing the number of parents and
pupils visiting the website
The mentioned data show that schools consider relevant
the promotion of school activities and success the history
of the school and the timetable for parentsrsquo information
but tips for parents and school materials along with
exchanging opinions are not a priority Schools consider the
teachersrsquo CVs parentsrsquo meeting announcements or the school
cafeteria menu of no relevance to parents These facts point
to the fact that school websites in Croatia are more online
notice-boards than a real possibility for communication
5 Conclusion
Over the last decade cooperation with parents in
Croatia has been improving however in our schools
traditional forms of cooperation with parents are still
prevailing Although in the world there are specialized
radio and TV channels magazines and Internet sites for
exchanging experiences (Mendel 1998) such practice has not
flung into being in Croatia However over the last couple
of years cooperation via websites e-mails and SMS messages
Summarising its advantages and disadvantages and
considering todayrsquos lifestyle this way of cooperation
should be intensified in our schools Contemporary ways of
communication can additionally improve the communication
between parents and school but just as one more way
alongside other ways Consequently although the modern age
presupposes the use of modern technologies no technology
should replace face-to-face communication between parents
and teachers and the responsibility for a good cooperation
still lies on the school
The research demonstrates the possibilities of
communication between family and school by using modern
technology Elements of school websites are shown as well
as ways of planning the content of a website We consider
this research important for informing teachers and school
management of the possibilities of modern communication
between families and school A school website allows for the
possibility of establishing fast communication however its
mere existence does not guarantee the pupils acquiring new
knowledge and a quality relation between the family and
school It can be a good example for the school management
in creating the school curriculum as a segment allowing for
a fast exchange of information with parents Unfortunately
the educational system in Croatia is traditional and inert
unsuitable for the times and contemporary professions It
does not satisfy the need of the individual and traditional
teaching by using a minimum of technology and information is
utterly un-motivational for the student as well as for the
family The results of this research show that school
websites in Croatia donrsquot fulfil their purpose presenting
pupilsrsquo achievements allowing the parents insight into
everyday activities informing the parents and the wider
community on future activities and strengthening the
cooperation between school home and the local community
Although the purpose of school websites should not be merely
an electronic version of the notice board and an image of
the school that rarely changes its appearance the current
condition of the Croatian school websites in the analysed
counties shows just that therefore confirming the initial
hypothesis
Future research should inquire into the stance of
parents in Croatia on which content they consider important
therefore receiving relevant data which could later be used
by teachers for creating their websites
References
Berger E H (1991) Parent Involvement Yesterday and
Today The Elementary School Journal 91 (3) 209-219
Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb
Educa
Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships
Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76
httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20Articles
ParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
Epstein JL i Sheldon S B (2006) Moving Forward Ideas
for Research on School Family and Community Partnerships
httpwwwcsosjhuedup2000pdfLiterature20Review
2020Epstein20and20Sheldon2006pdf (15112010)
Graham- Clay S (2005) Communicating with Parents
Strategies for Teachers School Community Journal 16 (1)
117-129
Hartshorne R Friedman A Algozzine B i Kaur D
(2008) Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites Educational
Technology amp Society 11 (1) 291-303
Hitrec G(ur) (2006) Škola otvorena roditeljima Zagreb
Udruga roditelja Korak po korak
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE -
- MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE - MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
-
change and positive initiatives empowered by scientific
research become the link for modernization and improvement
of the school in the 21st century
Technology has become a critical component of everyday
life and an increase in the development and use of school
websites over the last few years is evident (Hartshorne and
ass 2008) Research (Aronson 1995 Cameron and Lee 1997
Clemens-Brower 1997 Cleverson 1999 Ramirez 2001) show that
many teachers experiment with various technologies when
communicating with parents (telephones in classrooms voice
mail video technology radio announcements etc) to
improve cooperation School websites provide parents with
useful content such as educational tips homework e-mails
or the school cafeteria menu and expand the borders of
communication between home and school to a 24 hours a day 7
days a week contact That allows parents whose daily
timetable doesnrsquot permit regular visits to the school and
face-to-face interaction with their child or teacher to be
more informed of what is happening at school Internet
becomes an excellent means of connecting home and school
Swan (2008) believes that schools have a lot of
information and parents want to know more about academic
achievements extracurricular activities parentsrsquo meeting
schedule information such as bus transport or lunch and
that it is important that school websites include accurate
and useful information not an exciting design or newest
technological ldquoornamentsrdquo
Online research (Unal 2008) shows that parents and
teachers recognize the importance of school websites
although they do not agree completely on their content
While teachers suggest that links inside the school
classroom rules teaching curriculum and standards list of
obligatory accessories statistics of websites visitors and
guest book should be essential to a school website
significant divergence (plt05) was seen in parents
disagreeing on these elements On the other hand parents
declare they would like to see online practical tests
academic advisory information information about
administrative issues and school direction as well as
teachers CVs Eventually teachers and parents agree that
results of school sport competition and activities
educational philosophy lesson plans links outside the
institution online articles and newsletters class photo
albums and news teachersrsquo blogs menus examples of
didactic cards personal links and teachersrsquo family
information are not essential elements of schoolsrsquo websites
It can be concluded that regardless of many schools today
having their own website not all are important for the
communication of parents and teachers Past research shows
that the structure and content of school websites should be
carefully planned and developed
According to McKenzie J (1997) the best websites have
four purposes 1 introduce visitors to its mission its
character its offerings to children its stance on new
technologies 2 offer an opportunity for the publishing of
student works and parents education 3 act as a mediator to
a larger share of information and 4 provide rich data
locally collected on curriculum related topics (such as
local history) Some school websites contain all four of
these elements but the majority is concentrated upon
providing a quality service in two or three of these
elements
21 Cooperation between parents and school in Croatia
In the elementary education in Croatia prescribed are
(most often by School statute) the following ways of
cooperation with parents parent meeting individual talks
with teachers and school assistants and written messages to
parents According to Law on Primary and Secondary
Education (Ministry of Education Science and Technology
2008) prescribed is the formation a Parentsrsquo Council which
comprises one parent from every class and the president of
the Parentrsquos Council is appointed a member of the School
Committee Practice shows that these prescribed ways of
cooperation do not satisfy the teachers or the parents
Parent participation is merely formal without real
possibility of influencing important decisions
Centralization and standardization of the curriculum do not
allow schools enough space for adapting to the needs of the
local community parent meeting come down to mere
information sharing where parents are usually passive
recipients of information and parents asked to participate
in some kind of school activity are rare A research
conducted among parents of pupil of the 4th and 7th grade
from all Croatian regions and their teachers (Marušić 2007)
shows that two thirds of parents believes that they have too
little possibility of participating in decision making in
schools more than 90 of parents have never taken part in
activities related to cooperation between family and school
three quarters of parents state that there are no lectures
or workshops organized in schools and a third of parents
does not know if such workshops are organized A substantial
number of parents have shown interest in participating in
various school activities but the initiative is expected to
come from teachers
However the practice in Croatian schools in recent
years has shown undertaking additional strategies for
cooperation with parents Many workshops are being held
parents are involved as assistants on projects and in the
communication between parents and school improvement has
been made in following and assessing the pupilsrsquo progress as
well as in the feedback information on the pupilsrsquo progress
(increasingly common are the pupilsrsquo maps as an example of
systematic authentic and development assessment of pupilsrsquo
progress)
As far as electronic cooperation is concerned Croatia
is one step back The project ldquoNet u školirdquo ndash ldquoNet in the
schoolrdquo was initiated in 2003 and all schools in Croatia
have been equipped with ISDN terminals with the aim to
improve the process of learning by using Internet in
teaching and pupilsrsquo research from home and by laying the
foundation for a new culture of learning based on openness
to new knowledge new media and technology Today all
schools in Croatia have the possibility to set up a website
and the teachers to open e-mail accounts
In Croatia websites of teachers are a rare appearance
but the projects ldquoŠkolski infocentarrdquo and ldquoSMS informativkardquo
have been initiated through which informing parents on
success absence and other school activities via simple and
to the majority accessible way of communication (SMS e-
mail Internet and voicemail) has been enabled A small
number of schools have incorporated a web directory updated
monthly by class masters which parents with a special
password can check at any time Although not the most
important fact it should not be ignored that according to
the Central Bureau of Statistics in 2009 only 38 of
households in Croatia had access to the Internet which
complicates communication via websites and not all teachers
are computer literate Such cooperation has its advantages
and disadvantages
Table 1 ndash advantages and disadvantages of cooperation
via electronic media
ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGESInformation on child received daily
Fast information transmission
Not limited by time or place
Time saving for parents
Time saving for teachers when
sending general information
Parents come to school prepared
themes for conversation are
educational
Both parents and teachers must be
computer literate
All participants (parents
teachers) must have Internet access
Additional work for teachers
(regular updating of data)
Rarer encounters among parents and
teachers
Lack of face-to-face communication
Financial expense for parents when
sending SMS messages
Possible abuse (password)
3 Research methodology
31 Aim of research
The aim of the research was to examine whether the
content of Croatian elementary schools websites encourages
frequent parentsrsquo visits and allows pupils to acquire new
knowledge A long term goal is to encourage schools to post
new materials regularly which would result in high-quality
cooperation between home and school along with encouraging
students to research work from their homes and therefore
advancing the quality of learning
32 Problem
The problem of this work is to determine the current
purpose of Croatian elementary schools websites
33 Hypothesis
H-1 Websites of Croatian elementary schools with its
contents do not pose a model for a more intensive
cooperation with parents or lay the foundations for a new
culture of learning
H-2 There is no statistically significant difference in
content between the two counties in neither of the eleven
categories
34 Participants and procedure
School websites are public documents and welcome the
outer world into the school as well as a link between
pupils and teachers with outer sources of information and a
possibility of better cooperation with parents The function
of school websites is to make public the achievements of
pupils to allow parents insight into daily activities and
to inform parents and the larger community of future
activities as well as strengthening cooperation between
school home and the local community The function of the
schoolsrsquo websites should not be a mere electronic version of
a notice board or a picture of a school that seldom changes
its appearance
The research was conducted by content analysis method
on a random selection of 50 elementary school websites in
the counties of Istria and Split ndash Dalmatia (25 schools per
county) The Internet school directory of ldquoPortal za školerdquo
was used Since in Croatia a research has not been conducted
on parents and the content the parents believed to be
important and relevant the authors were led by a research
done by an online study in USA (Unal 2008) and the elements
selected by teachers and parents in that study The
following website content was analysed curriculum about
the school (school history) web counters house rules
(classroom rules) timetable and information for parents
results of school competition photo albums online tests
(study materials) teachersrsquo CV tips for parents and forum
The analysis was done at the beginning of December 2010 by
the end of the first term giving the schools enough time to
update and enrich the websites This research did not take
into consideration the design of websites since in the
majority of cases it has been done using Carnet hosting
services and offered similar links Regarding the fact that
most schools have the same browser a school is considered
to have a website if a private document or link has been
updated
4 Results and discussion
Table 2 ndash Overall analysed content in percentage
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIES
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCETAGECURRICULUM 41 82 9 18 WEBSITE
COUNTER8 16 42 84
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTSrsquo
INFORMATION28 56 22 44
RESULTS OF
SCHOOL
COMPETITION
23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 ONLINE
TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
TEACHERSrsquo 2 4 48 96
CV
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
FORUM 12 24 38 76 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL
(SCHOOL
HISTORY)
50 100 0 0
For table 2 it is evident that all schools have information
about the school on the website ie about its history
(100) the majority has school photo alums (86) and the
curriculum (82) More than half the schools (56) have the
timetable for parentsrsquo information and less then half (46)
have sport achievements of their pupils The fewest schools
publish teachersrsquo CVs (4) and website counters Study
materials and tips for parents are present on just above a
third the websites (34 36)
Chart 1 ndash content according to county
It is visible from Chart 1 that results do not vary much
between counties The most discrepancy is shown in sportsrsquo
achievements (Istria 72 Split ndash Dalmatia 20) and a 20
discrepancy is present in categories photo album and study
material Other discrepancies are smaller than 20 The 2nd
hypothesis was tested with the chi-square test The
hypothesis is considered valid in case that the probability
of error is less than 5 considering that there is a
statistically significant link between the analysed pair of
variables
Table 3 ndash Relations between counties
CURRI
CULUM
WEB
COUNT
ERS
HOUSE
RULES
INFOR
MATIO
N
TIMET
ABLE
SPORT
S
ACHIE
VEMEN
TS
PHOTO
ALBUM
ONLINE
TESTS
TEACHERS
CVs
TIPS
FOR
PARENTS FORUM
10486462 0024 0148 0125 0081 1159 2657 1471 05208 07812 01096
8 4 8
df 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
p 0876
88491
0
0479
50012
0527
0892
0705
31663
0006
71374
0
044
5920
62
02251
8798
0157299
21
03457
4844
05638
979
It is not difficult to notice that a significant
discrepancy is present only in sportsrsquo achievement whereas
in other elements it does not exist which confirms the
stated hypothesis It can be concluded that there are no
differences between the content in the two counties
The website content can be divided into two categories
content intended for parents and pupils (curriculum
timetable for parentsrsquo information teachersrsquo CVs tips for
parents forum online tests and study material house
rules) and content for promoting school activities and
achievements (sportsrsquo achievements photo albums about the
school web counters)
Table 4 ndash analysis according to purpose
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIESINTENDEED FOR
PARENTS AND
PUPILSYES
PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
ONLINE TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
CURRICULUM 41 82 9 18
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTS
INFORMATION
TIMETABLE
28 56 22 44
FORUM 12 24 38 76 TEACHERSrsquo CV 2 4 48 96 PROMOTION OF
SCHOOL
ACTIVITIES
AND
ACVIEVEMENTS
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
SPORTS
ACHIEVEMENTS23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 WEB COUNTERS 8 16 42 84 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL50 100 0 0
Among the content intended for parents and pupils
which would allow pupils to acquire new knowledge and
encourage parents to visit regularly schools offer in high
percentage (82) the curriculum which is a legal obligation
(public notice) and just over half the schools (56) offer
the timetable for parentsrsquo information About one third of
schools (34 36) publish on its websites study materials
and tips for parents and only 24 have an active forum for
exchanging opinions although these forums have an
insignificant number of open themes none of which were
opened by parents Study materials are most often online
tests with a link from the website and tips for parents are
texts compiled by schools assistants Considering the lack
of assistants in schools this may be the cause for a small
percentage of these materials Some schools under the
section tips for parents have links to interesting Internet
articles
Categories intended for the promotion of school
achievements and activities have more contents every school
has a page dedicated to school history 86 updates the
photo album section and less then half the schools (46)
publish sportsrsquo achievements of the pupils The photo albums
offer pictures from school trips out-of-classroom teaching
school events etc Justifying such a large number of
pictures is debatable since none of the published materials
are protected by password but available to everybody the
question arises if the schools have the parentsrsquo permission
Only 16 of schools pay attention to visits which could be
a significant information showing the number of parents and
pupils visiting the website
The mentioned data show that schools consider relevant
the promotion of school activities and success the history
of the school and the timetable for parentsrsquo information
but tips for parents and school materials along with
exchanging opinions are not a priority Schools consider the
teachersrsquo CVs parentsrsquo meeting announcements or the school
cafeteria menu of no relevance to parents These facts point
to the fact that school websites in Croatia are more online
notice-boards than a real possibility for communication
5 Conclusion
Over the last decade cooperation with parents in
Croatia has been improving however in our schools
traditional forms of cooperation with parents are still
prevailing Although in the world there are specialized
radio and TV channels magazines and Internet sites for
exchanging experiences (Mendel 1998) such practice has not
flung into being in Croatia However over the last couple
of years cooperation via websites e-mails and SMS messages
Summarising its advantages and disadvantages and
considering todayrsquos lifestyle this way of cooperation
should be intensified in our schools Contemporary ways of
communication can additionally improve the communication
between parents and school but just as one more way
alongside other ways Consequently although the modern age
presupposes the use of modern technologies no technology
should replace face-to-face communication between parents
and teachers and the responsibility for a good cooperation
still lies on the school
The research demonstrates the possibilities of
communication between family and school by using modern
technology Elements of school websites are shown as well
as ways of planning the content of a website We consider
this research important for informing teachers and school
management of the possibilities of modern communication
between families and school A school website allows for the
possibility of establishing fast communication however its
mere existence does not guarantee the pupils acquiring new
knowledge and a quality relation between the family and
school It can be a good example for the school management
in creating the school curriculum as a segment allowing for
a fast exchange of information with parents Unfortunately
the educational system in Croatia is traditional and inert
unsuitable for the times and contemporary professions It
does not satisfy the need of the individual and traditional
teaching by using a minimum of technology and information is
utterly un-motivational for the student as well as for the
family The results of this research show that school
websites in Croatia donrsquot fulfil their purpose presenting
pupilsrsquo achievements allowing the parents insight into
everyday activities informing the parents and the wider
community on future activities and strengthening the
cooperation between school home and the local community
Although the purpose of school websites should not be merely
an electronic version of the notice board and an image of
the school that rarely changes its appearance the current
condition of the Croatian school websites in the analysed
counties shows just that therefore confirming the initial
hypothesis
Future research should inquire into the stance of
parents in Croatia on which content they consider important
therefore receiving relevant data which could later be used
by teachers for creating their websites
References
Berger E H (1991) Parent Involvement Yesterday and
Today The Elementary School Journal 91 (3) 209-219
Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb
Educa
Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships
Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76
httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20Articles
ParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
Epstein JL i Sheldon S B (2006) Moving Forward Ideas
for Research on School Family and Community Partnerships
httpwwwcsosjhuedup2000pdfLiterature20Review
2020Epstein20and20Sheldon2006pdf (15112010)
Graham- Clay S (2005) Communicating with Parents
Strategies for Teachers School Community Journal 16 (1)
117-129
Hartshorne R Friedman A Algozzine B i Kaur D
(2008) Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites Educational
Technology amp Society 11 (1) 291-303
Hitrec G(ur) (2006) Škola otvorena roditeljima Zagreb
Udruga roditelja Korak po korak
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE -
- MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE - MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
-
technological ldquoornamentsrdquo
Online research (Unal 2008) shows that parents and
teachers recognize the importance of school websites
although they do not agree completely on their content
While teachers suggest that links inside the school
classroom rules teaching curriculum and standards list of
obligatory accessories statistics of websites visitors and
guest book should be essential to a school website
significant divergence (plt05) was seen in parents
disagreeing on these elements On the other hand parents
declare they would like to see online practical tests
academic advisory information information about
administrative issues and school direction as well as
teachers CVs Eventually teachers and parents agree that
results of school sport competition and activities
educational philosophy lesson plans links outside the
institution online articles and newsletters class photo
albums and news teachersrsquo blogs menus examples of
didactic cards personal links and teachersrsquo family
information are not essential elements of schoolsrsquo websites
It can be concluded that regardless of many schools today
having their own website not all are important for the
communication of parents and teachers Past research shows
that the structure and content of school websites should be
carefully planned and developed
According to McKenzie J (1997) the best websites have
four purposes 1 introduce visitors to its mission its
character its offerings to children its stance on new
technologies 2 offer an opportunity for the publishing of
student works and parents education 3 act as a mediator to
a larger share of information and 4 provide rich data
locally collected on curriculum related topics (such as
local history) Some school websites contain all four of
these elements but the majority is concentrated upon
providing a quality service in two or three of these
elements
21 Cooperation between parents and school in Croatia
In the elementary education in Croatia prescribed are
(most often by School statute) the following ways of
cooperation with parents parent meeting individual talks
with teachers and school assistants and written messages to
parents According to Law on Primary and Secondary
Education (Ministry of Education Science and Technology
2008) prescribed is the formation a Parentsrsquo Council which
comprises one parent from every class and the president of
the Parentrsquos Council is appointed a member of the School
Committee Practice shows that these prescribed ways of
cooperation do not satisfy the teachers or the parents
Parent participation is merely formal without real
possibility of influencing important decisions
Centralization and standardization of the curriculum do not
allow schools enough space for adapting to the needs of the
local community parent meeting come down to mere
information sharing where parents are usually passive
recipients of information and parents asked to participate
in some kind of school activity are rare A research
conducted among parents of pupil of the 4th and 7th grade
from all Croatian regions and their teachers (Marušić 2007)
shows that two thirds of parents believes that they have too
little possibility of participating in decision making in
schools more than 90 of parents have never taken part in
activities related to cooperation between family and school
three quarters of parents state that there are no lectures
or workshops organized in schools and a third of parents
does not know if such workshops are organized A substantial
number of parents have shown interest in participating in
various school activities but the initiative is expected to
come from teachers
However the practice in Croatian schools in recent
years has shown undertaking additional strategies for
cooperation with parents Many workshops are being held
parents are involved as assistants on projects and in the
communication between parents and school improvement has
been made in following and assessing the pupilsrsquo progress as
well as in the feedback information on the pupilsrsquo progress
(increasingly common are the pupilsrsquo maps as an example of
systematic authentic and development assessment of pupilsrsquo
progress)
As far as electronic cooperation is concerned Croatia
is one step back The project ldquoNet u školirdquo ndash ldquoNet in the
schoolrdquo was initiated in 2003 and all schools in Croatia
have been equipped with ISDN terminals with the aim to
improve the process of learning by using Internet in
teaching and pupilsrsquo research from home and by laying the
foundation for a new culture of learning based on openness
to new knowledge new media and technology Today all
schools in Croatia have the possibility to set up a website
and the teachers to open e-mail accounts
In Croatia websites of teachers are a rare appearance
but the projects ldquoŠkolski infocentarrdquo and ldquoSMS informativkardquo
have been initiated through which informing parents on
success absence and other school activities via simple and
to the majority accessible way of communication (SMS e-
mail Internet and voicemail) has been enabled A small
number of schools have incorporated a web directory updated
monthly by class masters which parents with a special
password can check at any time Although not the most
important fact it should not be ignored that according to
the Central Bureau of Statistics in 2009 only 38 of
households in Croatia had access to the Internet which
complicates communication via websites and not all teachers
are computer literate Such cooperation has its advantages
and disadvantages
Table 1 ndash advantages and disadvantages of cooperation
via electronic media
ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGESInformation on child received daily
Fast information transmission
Not limited by time or place
Time saving for parents
Time saving for teachers when
sending general information
Parents come to school prepared
themes for conversation are
educational
Both parents and teachers must be
computer literate
All participants (parents
teachers) must have Internet access
Additional work for teachers
(regular updating of data)
Rarer encounters among parents and
teachers
Lack of face-to-face communication
Financial expense for parents when
sending SMS messages
Possible abuse (password)
3 Research methodology
31 Aim of research
The aim of the research was to examine whether the
content of Croatian elementary schools websites encourages
frequent parentsrsquo visits and allows pupils to acquire new
knowledge A long term goal is to encourage schools to post
new materials regularly which would result in high-quality
cooperation between home and school along with encouraging
students to research work from their homes and therefore
advancing the quality of learning
32 Problem
The problem of this work is to determine the current
purpose of Croatian elementary schools websites
33 Hypothesis
H-1 Websites of Croatian elementary schools with its
contents do not pose a model for a more intensive
cooperation with parents or lay the foundations for a new
culture of learning
H-2 There is no statistically significant difference in
content between the two counties in neither of the eleven
categories
34 Participants and procedure
School websites are public documents and welcome the
outer world into the school as well as a link between
pupils and teachers with outer sources of information and a
possibility of better cooperation with parents The function
of school websites is to make public the achievements of
pupils to allow parents insight into daily activities and
to inform parents and the larger community of future
activities as well as strengthening cooperation between
school home and the local community The function of the
schoolsrsquo websites should not be a mere electronic version of
a notice board or a picture of a school that seldom changes
its appearance
The research was conducted by content analysis method
on a random selection of 50 elementary school websites in
the counties of Istria and Split ndash Dalmatia (25 schools per
county) The Internet school directory of ldquoPortal za školerdquo
was used Since in Croatia a research has not been conducted
on parents and the content the parents believed to be
important and relevant the authors were led by a research
done by an online study in USA (Unal 2008) and the elements
selected by teachers and parents in that study The
following website content was analysed curriculum about
the school (school history) web counters house rules
(classroom rules) timetable and information for parents
results of school competition photo albums online tests
(study materials) teachersrsquo CV tips for parents and forum
The analysis was done at the beginning of December 2010 by
the end of the first term giving the schools enough time to
update and enrich the websites This research did not take
into consideration the design of websites since in the
majority of cases it has been done using Carnet hosting
services and offered similar links Regarding the fact that
most schools have the same browser a school is considered
to have a website if a private document or link has been
updated
4 Results and discussion
Table 2 ndash Overall analysed content in percentage
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIES
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCETAGECURRICULUM 41 82 9 18 WEBSITE
COUNTER8 16 42 84
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTSrsquo
INFORMATION28 56 22 44
RESULTS OF
SCHOOL
COMPETITION
23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 ONLINE
TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
TEACHERSrsquo 2 4 48 96
CV
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
FORUM 12 24 38 76 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL
(SCHOOL
HISTORY)
50 100 0 0
For table 2 it is evident that all schools have information
about the school on the website ie about its history
(100) the majority has school photo alums (86) and the
curriculum (82) More than half the schools (56) have the
timetable for parentsrsquo information and less then half (46)
have sport achievements of their pupils The fewest schools
publish teachersrsquo CVs (4) and website counters Study
materials and tips for parents are present on just above a
third the websites (34 36)
Chart 1 ndash content according to county
It is visible from Chart 1 that results do not vary much
between counties The most discrepancy is shown in sportsrsquo
achievements (Istria 72 Split ndash Dalmatia 20) and a 20
discrepancy is present in categories photo album and study
material Other discrepancies are smaller than 20 The 2nd
hypothesis was tested with the chi-square test The
hypothesis is considered valid in case that the probability
of error is less than 5 considering that there is a
statistically significant link between the analysed pair of
variables
Table 3 ndash Relations between counties
CURRI
CULUM
WEB
COUNT
ERS
HOUSE
RULES
INFOR
MATIO
N
TIMET
ABLE
SPORT
S
ACHIE
VEMEN
TS
PHOTO
ALBUM
ONLINE
TESTS
TEACHERS
CVs
TIPS
FOR
PARENTS FORUM
10486462 0024 0148 0125 0081 1159 2657 1471 05208 07812 01096
8 4 8
df 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
p 0876
88491
0
0479
50012
0527
0892
0705
31663
0006
71374
0
044
5920
62
02251
8798
0157299
21
03457
4844
05638
979
It is not difficult to notice that a significant
discrepancy is present only in sportsrsquo achievement whereas
in other elements it does not exist which confirms the
stated hypothesis It can be concluded that there are no
differences between the content in the two counties
The website content can be divided into two categories
content intended for parents and pupils (curriculum
timetable for parentsrsquo information teachersrsquo CVs tips for
parents forum online tests and study material house
rules) and content for promoting school activities and
achievements (sportsrsquo achievements photo albums about the
school web counters)
Table 4 ndash analysis according to purpose
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIESINTENDEED FOR
PARENTS AND
PUPILSYES
PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
ONLINE TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
CURRICULUM 41 82 9 18
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTS
INFORMATION
TIMETABLE
28 56 22 44
FORUM 12 24 38 76 TEACHERSrsquo CV 2 4 48 96 PROMOTION OF
SCHOOL
ACTIVITIES
AND
ACVIEVEMENTS
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
SPORTS
ACHIEVEMENTS23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 WEB COUNTERS 8 16 42 84 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL50 100 0 0
Among the content intended for parents and pupils
which would allow pupils to acquire new knowledge and
encourage parents to visit regularly schools offer in high
percentage (82) the curriculum which is a legal obligation
(public notice) and just over half the schools (56) offer
the timetable for parentsrsquo information About one third of
schools (34 36) publish on its websites study materials
and tips for parents and only 24 have an active forum for
exchanging opinions although these forums have an
insignificant number of open themes none of which were
opened by parents Study materials are most often online
tests with a link from the website and tips for parents are
texts compiled by schools assistants Considering the lack
of assistants in schools this may be the cause for a small
percentage of these materials Some schools under the
section tips for parents have links to interesting Internet
articles
Categories intended for the promotion of school
achievements and activities have more contents every school
has a page dedicated to school history 86 updates the
photo album section and less then half the schools (46)
publish sportsrsquo achievements of the pupils The photo albums
offer pictures from school trips out-of-classroom teaching
school events etc Justifying such a large number of
pictures is debatable since none of the published materials
are protected by password but available to everybody the
question arises if the schools have the parentsrsquo permission
Only 16 of schools pay attention to visits which could be
a significant information showing the number of parents and
pupils visiting the website
The mentioned data show that schools consider relevant
the promotion of school activities and success the history
of the school and the timetable for parentsrsquo information
but tips for parents and school materials along with
exchanging opinions are not a priority Schools consider the
teachersrsquo CVs parentsrsquo meeting announcements or the school
cafeteria menu of no relevance to parents These facts point
to the fact that school websites in Croatia are more online
notice-boards than a real possibility for communication
5 Conclusion
Over the last decade cooperation with parents in
Croatia has been improving however in our schools
traditional forms of cooperation with parents are still
prevailing Although in the world there are specialized
radio and TV channels magazines and Internet sites for
exchanging experiences (Mendel 1998) such practice has not
flung into being in Croatia However over the last couple
of years cooperation via websites e-mails and SMS messages
Summarising its advantages and disadvantages and
considering todayrsquos lifestyle this way of cooperation
should be intensified in our schools Contemporary ways of
communication can additionally improve the communication
between parents and school but just as one more way
alongside other ways Consequently although the modern age
presupposes the use of modern technologies no technology
should replace face-to-face communication between parents
and teachers and the responsibility for a good cooperation
still lies on the school
The research demonstrates the possibilities of
communication between family and school by using modern
technology Elements of school websites are shown as well
as ways of planning the content of a website We consider
this research important for informing teachers and school
management of the possibilities of modern communication
between families and school A school website allows for the
possibility of establishing fast communication however its
mere existence does not guarantee the pupils acquiring new
knowledge and a quality relation between the family and
school It can be a good example for the school management
in creating the school curriculum as a segment allowing for
a fast exchange of information with parents Unfortunately
the educational system in Croatia is traditional and inert
unsuitable for the times and contemporary professions It
does not satisfy the need of the individual and traditional
teaching by using a minimum of technology and information is
utterly un-motivational for the student as well as for the
family The results of this research show that school
websites in Croatia donrsquot fulfil their purpose presenting
pupilsrsquo achievements allowing the parents insight into
everyday activities informing the parents and the wider
community on future activities and strengthening the
cooperation between school home and the local community
Although the purpose of school websites should not be merely
an electronic version of the notice board and an image of
the school that rarely changes its appearance the current
condition of the Croatian school websites in the analysed
counties shows just that therefore confirming the initial
hypothesis
Future research should inquire into the stance of
parents in Croatia on which content they consider important
therefore receiving relevant data which could later be used
by teachers for creating their websites
References
Berger E H (1991) Parent Involvement Yesterday and
Today The Elementary School Journal 91 (3) 209-219
Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb
Educa
Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships
Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76
httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20Articles
ParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
Epstein JL i Sheldon S B (2006) Moving Forward Ideas
for Research on School Family and Community Partnerships
httpwwwcsosjhuedup2000pdfLiterature20Review
2020Epstein20and20Sheldon2006pdf (15112010)
Graham- Clay S (2005) Communicating with Parents
Strategies for Teachers School Community Journal 16 (1)
117-129
Hartshorne R Friedman A Algozzine B i Kaur D
(2008) Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites Educational
Technology amp Society 11 (1) 291-303
Hitrec G(ur) (2006) Škola otvorena roditeljima Zagreb
Udruga roditelja Korak po korak
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE -
- MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE - MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
-
four purposes 1 introduce visitors to its mission its
character its offerings to children its stance on new
technologies 2 offer an opportunity for the publishing of
student works and parents education 3 act as a mediator to
a larger share of information and 4 provide rich data
locally collected on curriculum related topics (such as
local history) Some school websites contain all four of
these elements but the majority is concentrated upon
providing a quality service in two or three of these
elements
21 Cooperation between parents and school in Croatia
In the elementary education in Croatia prescribed are
(most often by School statute) the following ways of
cooperation with parents parent meeting individual talks
with teachers and school assistants and written messages to
parents According to Law on Primary and Secondary
Education (Ministry of Education Science and Technology
2008) prescribed is the formation a Parentsrsquo Council which
comprises one parent from every class and the president of
the Parentrsquos Council is appointed a member of the School
Committee Practice shows that these prescribed ways of
cooperation do not satisfy the teachers or the parents
Parent participation is merely formal without real
possibility of influencing important decisions
Centralization and standardization of the curriculum do not
allow schools enough space for adapting to the needs of the
local community parent meeting come down to mere
information sharing where parents are usually passive
recipients of information and parents asked to participate
in some kind of school activity are rare A research
conducted among parents of pupil of the 4th and 7th grade
from all Croatian regions and their teachers (Marušić 2007)
shows that two thirds of parents believes that they have too
little possibility of participating in decision making in
schools more than 90 of parents have never taken part in
activities related to cooperation between family and school
three quarters of parents state that there are no lectures
or workshops organized in schools and a third of parents
does not know if such workshops are organized A substantial
number of parents have shown interest in participating in
various school activities but the initiative is expected to
come from teachers
However the practice in Croatian schools in recent
years has shown undertaking additional strategies for
cooperation with parents Many workshops are being held
parents are involved as assistants on projects and in the
communication between parents and school improvement has
been made in following and assessing the pupilsrsquo progress as
well as in the feedback information on the pupilsrsquo progress
(increasingly common are the pupilsrsquo maps as an example of
systematic authentic and development assessment of pupilsrsquo
progress)
As far as electronic cooperation is concerned Croatia
is one step back The project ldquoNet u školirdquo ndash ldquoNet in the
schoolrdquo was initiated in 2003 and all schools in Croatia
have been equipped with ISDN terminals with the aim to
improve the process of learning by using Internet in
teaching and pupilsrsquo research from home and by laying the
foundation for a new culture of learning based on openness
to new knowledge new media and technology Today all
schools in Croatia have the possibility to set up a website
and the teachers to open e-mail accounts
In Croatia websites of teachers are a rare appearance
but the projects ldquoŠkolski infocentarrdquo and ldquoSMS informativkardquo
have been initiated through which informing parents on
success absence and other school activities via simple and
to the majority accessible way of communication (SMS e-
mail Internet and voicemail) has been enabled A small
number of schools have incorporated a web directory updated
monthly by class masters which parents with a special
password can check at any time Although not the most
important fact it should not be ignored that according to
the Central Bureau of Statistics in 2009 only 38 of
households in Croatia had access to the Internet which
complicates communication via websites and not all teachers
are computer literate Such cooperation has its advantages
and disadvantages
Table 1 ndash advantages and disadvantages of cooperation
via electronic media
ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGESInformation on child received daily
Fast information transmission
Not limited by time or place
Time saving for parents
Time saving for teachers when
sending general information
Parents come to school prepared
themes for conversation are
educational
Both parents and teachers must be
computer literate
All participants (parents
teachers) must have Internet access
Additional work for teachers
(regular updating of data)
Rarer encounters among parents and
teachers
Lack of face-to-face communication
Financial expense for parents when
sending SMS messages
Possible abuse (password)
3 Research methodology
31 Aim of research
The aim of the research was to examine whether the
content of Croatian elementary schools websites encourages
frequent parentsrsquo visits and allows pupils to acquire new
knowledge A long term goal is to encourage schools to post
new materials regularly which would result in high-quality
cooperation between home and school along with encouraging
students to research work from their homes and therefore
advancing the quality of learning
32 Problem
The problem of this work is to determine the current
purpose of Croatian elementary schools websites
33 Hypothesis
H-1 Websites of Croatian elementary schools with its
contents do not pose a model for a more intensive
cooperation with parents or lay the foundations for a new
culture of learning
H-2 There is no statistically significant difference in
content between the two counties in neither of the eleven
categories
34 Participants and procedure
School websites are public documents and welcome the
outer world into the school as well as a link between
pupils and teachers with outer sources of information and a
possibility of better cooperation with parents The function
of school websites is to make public the achievements of
pupils to allow parents insight into daily activities and
to inform parents and the larger community of future
activities as well as strengthening cooperation between
school home and the local community The function of the
schoolsrsquo websites should not be a mere electronic version of
a notice board or a picture of a school that seldom changes
its appearance
The research was conducted by content analysis method
on a random selection of 50 elementary school websites in
the counties of Istria and Split ndash Dalmatia (25 schools per
county) The Internet school directory of ldquoPortal za školerdquo
was used Since in Croatia a research has not been conducted
on parents and the content the parents believed to be
important and relevant the authors were led by a research
done by an online study in USA (Unal 2008) and the elements
selected by teachers and parents in that study The
following website content was analysed curriculum about
the school (school history) web counters house rules
(classroom rules) timetable and information for parents
results of school competition photo albums online tests
(study materials) teachersrsquo CV tips for parents and forum
The analysis was done at the beginning of December 2010 by
the end of the first term giving the schools enough time to
update and enrich the websites This research did not take
into consideration the design of websites since in the
majority of cases it has been done using Carnet hosting
services and offered similar links Regarding the fact that
most schools have the same browser a school is considered
to have a website if a private document or link has been
updated
4 Results and discussion
Table 2 ndash Overall analysed content in percentage
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIES
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCETAGECURRICULUM 41 82 9 18 WEBSITE
COUNTER8 16 42 84
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTSrsquo
INFORMATION28 56 22 44
RESULTS OF
SCHOOL
COMPETITION
23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 ONLINE
TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
TEACHERSrsquo 2 4 48 96
CV
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
FORUM 12 24 38 76 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL
(SCHOOL
HISTORY)
50 100 0 0
For table 2 it is evident that all schools have information
about the school on the website ie about its history
(100) the majority has school photo alums (86) and the
curriculum (82) More than half the schools (56) have the
timetable for parentsrsquo information and less then half (46)
have sport achievements of their pupils The fewest schools
publish teachersrsquo CVs (4) and website counters Study
materials and tips for parents are present on just above a
third the websites (34 36)
Chart 1 ndash content according to county
It is visible from Chart 1 that results do not vary much
between counties The most discrepancy is shown in sportsrsquo
achievements (Istria 72 Split ndash Dalmatia 20) and a 20
discrepancy is present in categories photo album and study
material Other discrepancies are smaller than 20 The 2nd
hypothesis was tested with the chi-square test The
hypothesis is considered valid in case that the probability
of error is less than 5 considering that there is a
statistically significant link between the analysed pair of
variables
Table 3 ndash Relations between counties
CURRI
CULUM
WEB
COUNT
ERS
HOUSE
RULES
INFOR
MATIO
N
TIMET
ABLE
SPORT
S
ACHIE
VEMEN
TS
PHOTO
ALBUM
ONLINE
TESTS
TEACHERS
CVs
TIPS
FOR
PARENTS FORUM
10486462 0024 0148 0125 0081 1159 2657 1471 05208 07812 01096
8 4 8
df 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
p 0876
88491
0
0479
50012
0527
0892
0705
31663
0006
71374
0
044
5920
62
02251
8798
0157299
21
03457
4844
05638
979
It is not difficult to notice that a significant
discrepancy is present only in sportsrsquo achievement whereas
in other elements it does not exist which confirms the
stated hypothesis It can be concluded that there are no
differences between the content in the two counties
The website content can be divided into two categories
content intended for parents and pupils (curriculum
timetable for parentsrsquo information teachersrsquo CVs tips for
parents forum online tests and study material house
rules) and content for promoting school activities and
achievements (sportsrsquo achievements photo albums about the
school web counters)
Table 4 ndash analysis according to purpose
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIESINTENDEED FOR
PARENTS AND
PUPILSYES
PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
ONLINE TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
CURRICULUM 41 82 9 18
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTS
INFORMATION
TIMETABLE
28 56 22 44
FORUM 12 24 38 76 TEACHERSrsquo CV 2 4 48 96 PROMOTION OF
SCHOOL
ACTIVITIES
AND
ACVIEVEMENTS
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
SPORTS
ACHIEVEMENTS23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 WEB COUNTERS 8 16 42 84 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL50 100 0 0
Among the content intended for parents and pupils
which would allow pupils to acquire new knowledge and
encourage parents to visit regularly schools offer in high
percentage (82) the curriculum which is a legal obligation
(public notice) and just over half the schools (56) offer
the timetable for parentsrsquo information About one third of
schools (34 36) publish on its websites study materials
and tips for parents and only 24 have an active forum for
exchanging opinions although these forums have an
insignificant number of open themes none of which were
opened by parents Study materials are most often online
tests with a link from the website and tips for parents are
texts compiled by schools assistants Considering the lack
of assistants in schools this may be the cause for a small
percentage of these materials Some schools under the
section tips for parents have links to interesting Internet
articles
Categories intended for the promotion of school
achievements and activities have more contents every school
has a page dedicated to school history 86 updates the
photo album section and less then half the schools (46)
publish sportsrsquo achievements of the pupils The photo albums
offer pictures from school trips out-of-classroom teaching
school events etc Justifying such a large number of
pictures is debatable since none of the published materials
are protected by password but available to everybody the
question arises if the schools have the parentsrsquo permission
Only 16 of schools pay attention to visits which could be
a significant information showing the number of parents and
pupils visiting the website
The mentioned data show that schools consider relevant
the promotion of school activities and success the history
of the school and the timetable for parentsrsquo information
but tips for parents and school materials along with
exchanging opinions are not a priority Schools consider the
teachersrsquo CVs parentsrsquo meeting announcements or the school
cafeteria menu of no relevance to parents These facts point
to the fact that school websites in Croatia are more online
notice-boards than a real possibility for communication
5 Conclusion
Over the last decade cooperation with parents in
Croatia has been improving however in our schools
traditional forms of cooperation with parents are still
prevailing Although in the world there are specialized
radio and TV channels magazines and Internet sites for
exchanging experiences (Mendel 1998) such practice has not
flung into being in Croatia However over the last couple
of years cooperation via websites e-mails and SMS messages
Summarising its advantages and disadvantages and
considering todayrsquos lifestyle this way of cooperation
should be intensified in our schools Contemporary ways of
communication can additionally improve the communication
between parents and school but just as one more way
alongside other ways Consequently although the modern age
presupposes the use of modern technologies no technology
should replace face-to-face communication between parents
and teachers and the responsibility for a good cooperation
still lies on the school
The research demonstrates the possibilities of
communication between family and school by using modern
technology Elements of school websites are shown as well
as ways of planning the content of a website We consider
this research important for informing teachers and school
management of the possibilities of modern communication
between families and school A school website allows for the
possibility of establishing fast communication however its
mere existence does not guarantee the pupils acquiring new
knowledge and a quality relation between the family and
school It can be a good example for the school management
in creating the school curriculum as a segment allowing for
a fast exchange of information with parents Unfortunately
the educational system in Croatia is traditional and inert
unsuitable for the times and contemporary professions It
does not satisfy the need of the individual and traditional
teaching by using a minimum of technology and information is
utterly un-motivational for the student as well as for the
family The results of this research show that school
websites in Croatia donrsquot fulfil their purpose presenting
pupilsrsquo achievements allowing the parents insight into
everyday activities informing the parents and the wider
community on future activities and strengthening the
cooperation between school home and the local community
Although the purpose of school websites should not be merely
an electronic version of the notice board and an image of
the school that rarely changes its appearance the current
condition of the Croatian school websites in the analysed
counties shows just that therefore confirming the initial
hypothesis
Future research should inquire into the stance of
parents in Croatia on which content they consider important
therefore receiving relevant data which could later be used
by teachers for creating their websites
References
Berger E H (1991) Parent Involvement Yesterday and
Today The Elementary School Journal 91 (3) 209-219
Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb
Educa
Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships
Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76
httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20Articles
ParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
Epstein JL i Sheldon S B (2006) Moving Forward Ideas
for Research on School Family and Community Partnerships
httpwwwcsosjhuedup2000pdfLiterature20Review
2020Epstein20and20Sheldon2006pdf (15112010)
Graham- Clay S (2005) Communicating with Parents
Strategies for Teachers School Community Journal 16 (1)
117-129
Hartshorne R Friedman A Algozzine B i Kaur D
(2008) Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites Educational
Technology amp Society 11 (1) 291-303
Hitrec G(ur) (2006) Škola otvorena roditeljima Zagreb
Udruga roditelja Korak po korak
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE -
- MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE - MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
-
Centralization and standardization of the curriculum do not
allow schools enough space for adapting to the needs of the
local community parent meeting come down to mere
information sharing where parents are usually passive
recipients of information and parents asked to participate
in some kind of school activity are rare A research
conducted among parents of pupil of the 4th and 7th grade
from all Croatian regions and their teachers (Marušić 2007)
shows that two thirds of parents believes that they have too
little possibility of participating in decision making in
schools more than 90 of parents have never taken part in
activities related to cooperation between family and school
three quarters of parents state that there are no lectures
or workshops organized in schools and a third of parents
does not know if such workshops are organized A substantial
number of parents have shown interest in participating in
various school activities but the initiative is expected to
come from teachers
However the practice in Croatian schools in recent
years has shown undertaking additional strategies for
cooperation with parents Many workshops are being held
parents are involved as assistants on projects and in the
communication between parents and school improvement has
been made in following and assessing the pupilsrsquo progress as
well as in the feedback information on the pupilsrsquo progress
(increasingly common are the pupilsrsquo maps as an example of
systematic authentic and development assessment of pupilsrsquo
progress)
As far as electronic cooperation is concerned Croatia
is one step back The project ldquoNet u školirdquo ndash ldquoNet in the
schoolrdquo was initiated in 2003 and all schools in Croatia
have been equipped with ISDN terminals with the aim to
improve the process of learning by using Internet in
teaching and pupilsrsquo research from home and by laying the
foundation for a new culture of learning based on openness
to new knowledge new media and technology Today all
schools in Croatia have the possibility to set up a website
and the teachers to open e-mail accounts
In Croatia websites of teachers are a rare appearance
but the projects ldquoŠkolski infocentarrdquo and ldquoSMS informativkardquo
have been initiated through which informing parents on
success absence and other school activities via simple and
to the majority accessible way of communication (SMS e-
mail Internet and voicemail) has been enabled A small
number of schools have incorporated a web directory updated
monthly by class masters which parents with a special
password can check at any time Although not the most
important fact it should not be ignored that according to
the Central Bureau of Statistics in 2009 only 38 of
households in Croatia had access to the Internet which
complicates communication via websites and not all teachers
are computer literate Such cooperation has its advantages
and disadvantages
Table 1 ndash advantages and disadvantages of cooperation
via electronic media
ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGESInformation on child received daily
Fast information transmission
Not limited by time or place
Time saving for parents
Time saving for teachers when
sending general information
Parents come to school prepared
themes for conversation are
educational
Both parents and teachers must be
computer literate
All participants (parents
teachers) must have Internet access
Additional work for teachers
(regular updating of data)
Rarer encounters among parents and
teachers
Lack of face-to-face communication
Financial expense for parents when
sending SMS messages
Possible abuse (password)
3 Research methodology
31 Aim of research
The aim of the research was to examine whether the
content of Croatian elementary schools websites encourages
frequent parentsrsquo visits and allows pupils to acquire new
knowledge A long term goal is to encourage schools to post
new materials regularly which would result in high-quality
cooperation between home and school along with encouraging
students to research work from their homes and therefore
advancing the quality of learning
32 Problem
The problem of this work is to determine the current
purpose of Croatian elementary schools websites
33 Hypothesis
H-1 Websites of Croatian elementary schools with its
contents do not pose a model for a more intensive
cooperation with parents or lay the foundations for a new
culture of learning
H-2 There is no statistically significant difference in
content between the two counties in neither of the eleven
categories
34 Participants and procedure
School websites are public documents and welcome the
outer world into the school as well as a link between
pupils and teachers with outer sources of information and a
possibility of better cooperation with parents The function
of school websites is to make public the achievements of
pupils to allow parents insight into daily activities and
to inform parents and the larger community of future
activities as well as strengthening cooperation between
school home and the local community The function of the
schoolsrsquo websites should not be a mere electronic version of
a notice board or a picture of a school that seldom changes
its appearance
The research was conducted by content analysis method
on a random selection of 50 elementary school websites in
the counties of Istria and Split ndash Dalmatia (25 schools per
county) The Internet school directory of ldquoPortal za školerdquo
was used Since in Croatia a research has not been conducted
on parents and the content the parents believed to be
important and relevant the authors were led by a research
done by an online study in USA (Unal 2008) and the elements
selected by teachers and parents in that study The
following website content was analysed curriculum about
the school (school history) web counters house rules
(classroom rules) timetable and information for parents
results of school competition photo albums online tests
(study materials) teachersrsquo CV tips for parents and forum
The analysis was done at the beginning of December 2010 by
the end of the first term giving the schools enough time to
update and enrich the websites This research did not take
into consideration the design of websites since in the
majority of cases it has been done using Carnet hosting
services and offered similar links Regarding the fact that
most schools have the same browser a school is considered
to have a website if a private document or link has been
updated
4 Results and discussion
Table 2 ndash Overall analysed content in percentage
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIES
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCETAGECURRICULUM 41 82 9 18 WEBSITE
COUNTER8 16 42 84
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTSrsquo
INFORMATION28 56 22 44
RESULTS OF
SCHOOL
COMPETITION
23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 ONLINE
TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
TEACHERSrsquo 2 4 48 96
CV
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
FORUM 12 24 38 76 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL
(SCHOOL
HISTORY)
50 100 0 0
For table 2 it is evident that all schools have information
about the school on the website ie about its history
(100) the majority has school photo alums (86) and the
curriculum (82) More than half the schools (56) have the
timetable for parentsrsquo information and less then half (46)
have sport achievements of their pupils The fewest schools
publish teachersrsquo CVs (4) and website counters Study
materials and tips for parents are present on just above a
third the websites (34 36)
Chart 1 ndash content according to county
It is visible from Chart 1 that results do not vary much
between counties The most discrepancy is shown in sportsrsquo
achievements (Istria 72 Split ndash Dalmatia 20) and a 20
discrepancy is present in categories photo album and study
material Other discrepancies are smaller than 20 The 2nd
hypothesis was tested with the chi-square test The
hypothesis is considered valid in case that the probability
of error is less than 5 considering that there is a
statistically significant link between the analysed pair of
variables
Table 3 ndash Relations between counties
CURRI
CULUM
WEB
COUNT
ERS
HOUSE
RULES
INFOR
MATIO
N
TIMET
ABLE
SPORT
S
ACHIE
VEMEN
TS
PHOTO
ALBUM
ONLINE
TESTS
TEACHERS
CVs
TIPS
FOR
PARENTS FORUM
10486462 0024 0148 0125 0081 1159 2657 1471 05208 07812 01096
8 4 8
df 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
p 0876
88491
0
0479
50012
0527
0892
0705
31663
0006
71374
0
044
5920
62
02251
8798
0157299
21
03457
4844
05638
979
It is not difficult to notice that a significant
discrepancy is present only in sportsrsquo achievement whereas
in other elements it does not exist which confirms the
stated hypothesis It can be concluded that there are no
differences between the content in the two counties
The website content can be divided into two categories
content intended for parents and pupils (curriculum
timetable for parentsrsquo information teachersrsquo CVs tips for
parents forum online tests and study material house
rules) and content for promoting school activities and
achievements (sportsrsquo achievements photo albums about the
school web counters)
Table 4 ndash analysis according to purpose
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIESINTENDEED FOR
PARENTS AND
PUPILSYES
PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
ONLINE TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
CURRICULUM 41 82 9 18
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTS
INFORMATION
TIMETABLE
28 56 22 44
FORUM 12 24 38 76 TEACHERSrsquo CV 2 4 48 96 PROMOTION OF
SCHOOL
ACTIVITIES
AND
ACVIEVEMENTS
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
SPORTS
ACHIEVEMENTS23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 WEB COUNTERS 8 16 42 84 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL50 100 0 0
Among the content intended for parents and pupils
which would allow pupils to acquire new knowledge and
encourage parents to visit regularly schools offer in high
percentage (82) the curriculum which is a legal obligation
(public notice) and just over half the schools (56) offer
the timetable for parentsrsquo information About one third of
schools (34 36) publish on its websites study materials
and tips for parents and only 24 have an active forum for
exchanging opinions although these forums have an
insignificant number of open themes none of which were
opened by parents Study materials are most often online
tests with a link from the website and tips for parents are
texts compiled by schools assistants Considering the lack
of assistants in schools this may be the cause for a small
percentage of these materials Some schools under the
section tips for parents have links to interesting Internet
articles
Categories intended for the promotion of school
achievements and activities have more contents every school
has a page dedicated to school history 86 updates the
photo album section and less then half the schools (46)
publish sportsrsquo achievements of the pupils The photo albums
offer pictures from school trips out-of-classroom teaching
school events etc Justifying such a large number of
pictures is debatable since none of the published materials
are protected by password but available to everybody the
question arises if the schools have the parentsrsquo permission
Only 16 of schools pay attention to visits which could be
a significant information showing the number of parents and
pupils visiting the website
The mentioned data show that schools consider relevant
the promotion of school activities and success the history
of the school and the timetable for parentsrsquo information
but tips for parents and school materials along with
exchanging opinions are not a priority Schools consider the
teachersrsquo CVs parentsrsquo meeting announcements or the school
cafeteria menu of no relevance to parents These facts point
to the fact that school websites in Croatia are more online
notice-boards than a real possibility for communication
5 Conclusion
Over the last decade cooperation with parents in
Croatia has been improving however in our schools
traditional forms of cooperation with parents are still
prevailing Although in the world there are specialized
radio and TV channels magazines and Internet sites for
exchanging experiences (Mendel 1998) such practice has not
flung into being in Croatia However over the last couple
of years cooperation via websites e-mails and SMS messages
Summarising its advantages and disadvantages and
considering todayrsquos lifestyle this way of cooperation
should be intensified in our schools Contemporary ways of
communication can additionally improve the communication
between parents and school but just as one more way
alongside other ways Consequently although the modern age
presupposes the use of modern technologies no technology
should replace face-to-face communication between parents
and teachers and the responsibility for a good cooperation
still lies on the school
The research demonstrates the possibilities of
communication between family and school by using modern
technology Elements of school websites are shown as well
as ways of planning the content of a website We consider
this research important for informing teachers and school
management of the possibilities of modern communication
between families and school A school website allows for the
possibility of establishing fast communication however its
mere existence does not guarantee the pupils acquiring new
knowledge and a quality relation between the family and
school It can be a good example for the school management
in creating the school curriculum as a segment allowing for
a fast exchange of information with parents Unfortunately
the educational system in Croatia is traditional and inert
unsuitable for the times and contemporary professions It
does not satisfy the need of the individual and traditional
teaching by using a minimum of technology and information is
utterly un-motivational for the student as well as for the
family The results of this research show that school
websites in Croatia donrsquot fulfil their purpose presenting
pupilsrsquo achievements allowing the parents insight into
everyday activities informing the parents and the wider
community on future activities and strengthening the
cooperation between school home and the local community
Although the purpose of school websites should not be merely
an electronic version of the notice board and an image of
the school that rarely changes its appearance the current
condition of the Croatian school websites in the analysed
counties shows just that therefore confirming the initial
hypothesis
Future research should inquire into the stance of
parents in Croatia on which content they consider important
therefore receiving relevant data which could later be used
by teachers for creating their websites
References
Berger E H (1991) Parent Involvement Yesterday and
Today The Elementary School Journal 91 (3) 209-219
Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb
Educa
Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships
Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76
httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20Articles
ParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
Epstein JL i Sheldon S B (2006) Moving Forward Ideas
for Research on School Family and Community Partnerships
httpwwwcsosjhuedup2000pdfLiterature20Review
2020Epstein20and20Sheldon2006pdf (15112010)
Graham- Clay S (2005) Communicating with Parents
Strategies for Teachers School Community Journal 16 (1)
117-129
Hartshorne R Friedman A Algozzine B i Kaur D
(2008) Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites Educational
Technology amp Society 11 (1) 291-303
Hitrec G(ur) (2006) Škola otvorena roditeljima Zagreb
Udruga roditelja Korak po korak
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE -
- MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE - MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
-
systematic authentic and development assessment of pupilsrsquo
progress)
As far as electronic cooperation is concerned Croatia
is one step back The project ldquoNet u školirdquo ndash ldquoNet in the
schoolrdquo was initiated in 2003 and all schools in Croatia
have been equipped with ISDN terminals with the aim to
improve the process of learning by using Internet in
teaching and pupilsrsquo research from home and by laying the
foundation for a new culture of learning based on openness
to new knowledge new media and technology Today all
schools in Croatia have the possibility to set up a website
and the teachers to open e-mail accounts
In Croatia websites of teachers are a rare appearance
but the projects ldquoŠkolski infocentarrdquo and ldquoSMS informativkardquo
have been initiated through which informing parents on
success absence and other school activities via simple and
to the majority accessible way of communication (SMS e-
mail Internet and voicemail) has been enabled A small
number of schools have incorporated a web directory updated
monthly by class masters which parents with a special
password can check at any time Although not the most
important fact it should not be ignored that according to
the Central Bureau of Statistics in 2009 only 38 of
households in Croatia had access to the Internet which
complicates communication via websites and not all teachers
are computer literate Such cooperation has its advantages
and disadvantages
Table 1 ndash advantages and disadvantages of cooperation
via electronic media
ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGESInformation on child received daily
Fast information transmission
Not limited by time or place
Time saving for parents
Time saving for teachers when
sending general information
Parents come to school prepared
themes for conversation are
educational
Both parents and teachers must be
computer literate
All participants (parents
teachers) must have Internet access
Additional work for teachers
(regular updating of data)
Rarer encounters among parents and
teachers
Lack of face-to-face communication
Financial expense for parents when
sending SMS messages
Possible abuse (password)
3 Research methodology
31 Aim of research
The aim of the research was to examine whether the
content of Croatian elementary schools websites encourages
frequent parentsrsquo visits and allows pupils to acquire new
knowledge A long term goal is to encourage schools to post
new materials regularly which would result in high-quality
cooperation between home and school along with encouraging
students to research work from their homes and therefore
advancing the quality of learning
32 Problem
The problem of this work is to determine the current
purpose of Croatian elementary schools websites
33 Hypothesis
H-1 Websites of Croatian elementary schools with its
contents do not pose a model for a more intensive
cooperation with parents or lay the foundations for a new
culture of learning
H-2 There is no statistically significant difference in
content between the two counties in neither of the eleven
categories
34 Participants and procedure
School websites are public documents and welcome the
outer world into the school as well as a link between
pupils and teachers with outer sources of information and a
possibility of better cooperation with parents The function
of school websites is to make public the achievements of
pupils to allow parents insight into daily activities and
to inform parents and the larger community of future
activities as well as strengthening cooperation between
school home and the local community The function of the
schoolsrsquo websites should not be a mere electronic version of
a notice board or a picture of a school that seldom changes
its appearance
The research was conducted by content analysis method
on a random selection of 50 elementary school websites in
the counties of Istria and Split ndash Dalmatia (25 schools per
county) The Internet school directory of ldquoPortal za školerdquo
was used Since in Croatia a research has not been conducted
on parents and the content the parents believed to be
important and relevant the authors were led by a research
done by an online study in USA (Unal 2008) and the elements
selected by teachers and parents in that study The
following website content was analysed curriculum about
the school (school history) web counters house rules
(classroom rules) timetable and information for parents
results of school competition photo albums online tests
(study materials) teachersrsquo CV tips for parents and forum
The analysis was done at the beginning of December 2010 by
the end of the first term giving the schools enough time to
update and enrich the websites This research did not take
into consideration the design of websites since in the
majority of cases it has been done using Carnet hosting
services and offered similar links Regarding the fact that
most schools have the same browser a school is considered
to have a website if a private document or link has been
updated
4 Results and discussion
Table 2 ndash Overall analysed content in percentage
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIES
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCETAGECURRICULUM 41 82 9 18 WEBSITE
COUNTER8 16 42 84
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTSrsquo
INFORMATION28 56 22 44
RESULTS OF
SCHOOL
COMPETITION
23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 ONLINE
TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
TEACHERSrsquo 2 4 48 96
CV
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
FORUM 12 24 38 76 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL
(SCHOOL
HISTORY)
50 100 0 0
For table 2 it is evident that all schools have information
about the school on the website ie about its history
(100) the majority has school photo alums (86) and the
curriculum (82) More than half the schools (56) have the
timetable for parentsrsquo information and less then half (46)
have sport achievements of their pupils The fewest schools
publish teachersrsquo CVs (4) and website counters Study
materials and tips for parents are present on just above a
third the websites (34 36)
Chart 1 ndash content according to county
It is visible from Chart 1 that results do not vary much
between counties The most discrepancy is shown in sportsrsquo
achievements (Istria 72 Split ndash Dalmatia 20) and a 20
discrepancy is present in categories photo album and study
material Other discrepancies are smaller than 20 The 2nd
hypothesis was tested with the chi-square test The
hypothesis is considered valid in case that the probability
of error is less than 5 considering that there is a
statistically significant link between the analysed pair of
variables
Table 3 ndash Relations between counties
CURRI
CULUM
WEB
COUNT
ERS
HOUSE
RULES
INFOR
MATIO
N
TIMET
ABLE
SPORT
S
ACHIE
VEMEN
TS
PHOTO
ALBUM
ONLINE
TESTS
TEACHERS
CVs
TIPS
FOR
PARENTS FORUM
10486462 0024 0148 0125 0081 1159 2657 1471 05208 07812 01096
8 4 8
df 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
p 0876
88491
0
0479
50012
0527
0892
0705
31663
0006
71374
0
044
5920
62
02251
8798
0157299
21
03457
4844
05638
979
It is not difficult to notice that a significant
discrepancy is present only in sportsrsquo achievement whereas
in other elements it does not exist which confirms the
stated hypothesis It can be concluded that there are no
differences between the content in the two counties
The website content can be divided into two categories
content intended for parents and pupils (curriculum
timetable for parentsrsquo information teachersrsquo CVs tips for
parents forum online tests and study material house
rules) and content for promoting school activities and
achievements (sportsrsquo achievements photo albums about the
school web counters)
Table 4 ndash analysis according to purpose
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIESINTENDEED FOR
PARENTS AND
PUPILSYES
PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
ONLINE TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
CURRICULUM 41 82 9 18
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTS
INFORMATION
TIMETABLE
28 56 22 44
FORUM 12 24 38 76 TEACHERSrsquo CV 2 4 48 96 PROMOTION OF
SCHOOL
ACTIVITIES
AND
ACVIEVEMENTS
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
SPORTS
ACHIEVEMENTS23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 WEB COUNTERS 8 16 42 84 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL50 100 0 0
Among the content intended for parents and pupils
which would allow pupils to acquire new knowledge and
encourage parents to visit regularly schools offer in high
percentage (82) the curriculum which is a legal obligation
(public notice) and just over half the schools (56) offer
the timetable for parentsrsquo information About one third of
schools (34 36) publish on its websites study materials
and tips for parents and only 24 have an active forum for
exchanging opinions although these forums have an
insignificant number of open themes none of which were
opened by parents Study materials are most often online
tests with a link from the website and tips for parents are
texts compiled by schools assistants Considering the lack
of assistants in schools this may be the cause for a small
percentage of these materials Some schools under the
section tips for parents have links to interesting Internet
articles
Categories intended for the promotion of school
achievements and activities have more contents every school
has a page dedicated to school history 86 updates the
photo album section and less then half the schools (46)
publish sportsrsquo achievements of the pupils The photo albums
offer pictures from school trips out-of-classroom teaching
school events etc Justifying such a large number of
pictures is debatable since none of the published materials
are protected by password but available to everybody the
question arises if the schools have the parentsrsquo permission
Only 16 of schools pay attention to visits which could be
a significant information showing the number of parents and
pupils visiting the website
The mentioned data show that schools consider relevant
the promotion of school activities and success the history
of the school and the timetable for parentsrsquo information
but tips for parents and school materials along with
exchanging opinions are not a priority Schools consider the
teachersrsquo CVs parentsrsquo meeting announcements or the school
cafeteria menu of no relevance to parents These facts point
to the fact that school websites in Croatia are more online
notice-boards than a real possibility for communication
5 Conclusion
Over the last decade cooperation with parents in
Croatia has been improving however in our schools
traditional forms of cooperation with parents are still
prevailing Although in the world there are specialized
radio and TV channels magazines and Internet sites for
exchanging experiences (Mendel 1998) such practice has not
flung into being in Croatia However over the last couple
of years cooperation via websites e-mails and SMS messages
Summarising its advantages and disadvantages and
considering todayrsquos lifestyle this way of cooperation
should be intensified in our schools Contemporary ways of
communication can additionally improve the communication
between parents and school but just as one more way
alongside other ways Consequently although the modern age
presupposes the use of modern technologies no technology
should replace face-to-face communication between parents
and teachers and the responsibility for a good cooperation
still lies on the school
The research demonstrates the possibilities of
communication between family and school by using modern
technology Elements of school websites are shown as well
as ways of planning the content of a website We consider
this research important for informing teachers and school
management of the possibilities of modern communication
between families and school A school website allows for the
possibility of establishing fast communication however its
mere existence does not guarantee the pupils acquiring new
knowledge and a quality relation between the family and
school It can be a good example for the school management
in creating the school curriculum as a segment allowing for
a fast exchange of information with parents Unfortunately
the educational system in Croatia is traditional and inert
unsuitable for the times and contemporary professions It
does not satisfy the need of the individual and traditional
teaching by using a minimum of technology and information is
utterly un-motivational for the student as well as for the
family The results of this research show that school
websites in Croatia donrsquot fulfil their purpose presenting
pupilsrsquo achievements allowing the parents insight into
everyday activities informing the parents and the wider
community on future activities and strengthening the
cooperation between school home and the local community
Although the purpose of school websites should not be merely
an electronic version of the notice board and an image of
the school that rarely changes its appearance the current
condition of the Croatian school websites in the analysed
counties shows just that therefore confirming the initial
hypothesis
Future research should inquire into the stance of
parents in Croatia on which content they consider important
therefore receiving relevant data which could later be used
by teachers for creating their websites
References
Berger E H (1991) Parent Involvement Yesterday and
Today The Elementary School Journal 91 (3) 209-219
Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb
Educa
Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships
Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76
httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20Articles
ParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
Epstein JL i Sheldon S B (2006) Moving Forward Ideas
for Research on School Family and Community Partnerships
httpwwwcsosjhuedup2000pdfLiterature20Review
2020Epstein20and20Sheldon2006pdf (15112010)
Graham- Clay S (2005) Communicating with Parents
Strategies for Teachers School Community Journal 16 (1)
117-129
Hartshorne R Friedman A Algozzine B i Kaur D
(2008) Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites Educational
Technology amp Society 11 (1) 291-303
Hitrec G(ur) (2006) Škola otvorena roditeljima Zagreb
Udruga roditelja Korak po korak
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE -
- MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE - MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
-
and disadvantages
Table 1 ndash advantages and disadvantages of cooperation
via electronic media
ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGESInformation on child received daily
Fast information transmission
Not limited by time or place
Time saving for parents
Time saving for teachers when
sending general information
Parents come to school prepared
themes for conversation are
educational
Both parents and teachers must be
computer literate
All participants (parents
teachers) must have Internet access
Additional work for teachers
(regular updating of data)
Rarer encounters among parents and
teachers
Lack of face-to-face communication
Financial expense for parents when
sending SMS messages
Possible abuse (password)
3 Research methodology
31 Aim of research
The aim of the research was to examine whether the
content of Croatian elementary schools websites encourages
frequent parentsrsquo visits and allows pupils to acquire new
knowledge A long term goal is to encourage schools to post
new materials regularly which would result in high-quality
cooperation between home and school along with encouraging
students to research work from their homes and therefore
advancing the quality of learning
32 Problem
The problem of this work is to determine the current
purpose of Croatian elementary schools websites
33 Hypothesis
H-1 Websites of Croatian elementary schools with its
contents do not pose a model for a more intensive
cooperation with parents or lay the foundations for a new
culture of learning
H-2 There is no statistically significant difference in
content between the two counties in neither of the eleven
categories
34 Participants and procedure
School websites are public documents and welcome the
outer world into the school as well as a link between
pupils and teachers with outer sources of information and a
possibility of better cooperation with parents The function
of school websites is to make public the achievements of
pupils to allow parents insight into daily activities and
to inform parents and the larger community of future
activities as well as strengthening cooperation between
school home and the local community The function of the
schoolsrsquo websites should not be a mere electronic version of
a notice board or a picture of a school that seldom changes
its appearance
The research was conducted by content analysis method
on a random selection of 50 elementary school websites in
the counties of Istria and Split ndash Dalmatia (25 schools per
county) The Internet school directory of ldquoPortal za školerdquo
was used Since in Croatia a research has not been conducted
on parents and the content the parents believed to be
important and relevant the authors were led by a research
done by an online study in USA (Unal 2008) and the elements
selected by teachers and parents in that study The
following website content was analysed curriculum about
the school (school history) web counters house rules
(classroom rules) timetable and information for parents
results of school competition photo albums online tests
(study materials) teachersrsquo CV tips for parents and forum
The analysis was done at the beginning of December 2010 by
the end of the first term giving the schools enough time to
update and enrich the websites This research did not take
into consideration the design of websites since in the
majority of cases it has been done using Carnet hosting
services and offered similar links Regarding the fact that
most schools have the same browser a school is considered
to have a website if a private document or link has been
updated
4 Results and discussion
Table 2 ndash Overall analysed content in percentage
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIES
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCETAGECURRICULUM 41 82 9 18 WEBSITE
COUNTER8 16 42 84
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTSrsquo
INFORMATION28 56 22 44
RESULTS OF
SCHOOL
COMPETITION
23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 ONLINE
TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
TEACHERSrsquo 2 4 48 96
CV
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
FORUM 12 24 38 76 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL
(SCHOOL
HISTORY)
50 100 0 0
For table 2 it is evident that all schools have information
about the school on the website ie about its history
(100) the majority has school photo alums (86) and the
curriculum (82) More than half the schools (56) have the
timetable for parentsrsquo information and less then half (46)
have sport achievements of their pupils The fewest schools
publish teachersrsquo CVs (4) and website counters Study
materials and tips for parents are present on just above a
third the websites (34 36)
Chart 1 ndash content according to county
It is visible from Chart 1 that results do not vary much
between counties The most discrepancy is shown in sportsrsquo
achievements (Istria 72 Split ndash Dalmatia 20) and a 20
discrepancy is present in categories photo album and study
material Other discrepancies are smaller than 20 The 2nd
hypothesis was tested with the chi-square test The
hypothesis is considered valid in case that the probability
of error is less than 5 considering that there is a
statistically significant link between the analysed pair of
variables
Table 3 ndash Relations between counties
CURRI
CULUM
WEB
COUNT
ERS
HOUSE
RULES
INFOR
MATIO
N
TIMET
ABLE
SPORT
S
ACHIE
VEMEN
TS
PHOTO
ALBUM
ONLINE
TESTS
TEACHERS
CVs
TIPS
FOR
PARENTS FORUM
10486462 0024 0148 0125 0081 1159 2657 1471 05208 07812 01096
8 4 8
df 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
p 0876
88491
0
0479
50012
0527
0892
0705
31663
0006
71374
0
044
5920
62
02251
8798
0157299
21
03457
4844
05638
979
It is not difficult to notice that a significant
discrepancy is present only in sportsrsquo achievement whereas
in other elements it does not exist which confirms the
stated hypothesis It can be concluded that there are no
differences between the content in the two counties
The website content can be divided into two categories
content intended for parents and pupils (curriculum
timetable for parentsrsquo information teachersrsquo CVs tips for
parents forum online tests and study material house
rules) and content for promoting school activities and
achievements (sportsrsquo achievements photo albums about the
school web counters)
Table 4 ndash analysis according to purpose
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIESINTENDEED FOR
PARENTS AND
PUPILSYES
PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
ONLINE TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
CURRICULUM 41 82 9 18
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTS
INFORMATION
TIMETABLE
28 56 22 44
FORUM 12 24 38 76 TEACHERSrsquo CV 2 4 48 96 PROMOTION OF
SCHOOL
ACTIVITIES
AND
ACVIEVEMENTS
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
SPORTS
ACHIEVEMENTS23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 WEB COUNTERS 8 16 42 84 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL50 100 0 0
Among the content intended for parents and pupils
which would allow pupils to acquire new knowledge and
encourage parents to visit regularly schools offer in high
percentage (82) the curriculum which is a legal obligation
(public notice) and just over half the schools (56) offer
the timetable for parentsrsquo information About one third of
schools (34 36) publish on its websites study materials
and tips for parents and only 24 have an active forum for
exchanging opinions although these forums have an
insignificant number of open themes none of which were
opened by parents Study materials are most often online
tests with a link from the website and tips for parents are
texts compiled by schools assistants Considering the lack
of assistants in schools this may be the cause for a small
percentage of these materials Some schools under the
section tips for parents have links to interesting Internet
articles
Categories intended for the promotion of school
achievements and activities have more contents every school
has a page dedicated to school history 86 updates the
photo album section and less then half the schools (46)
publish sportsrsquo achievements of the pupils The photo albums
offer pictures from school trips out-of-classroom teaching
school events etc Justifying such a large number of
pictures is debatable since none of the published materials
are protected by password but available to everybody the
question arises if the schools have the parentsrsquo permission
Only 16 of schools pay attention to visits which could be
a significant information showing the number of parents and
pupils visiting the website
The mentioned data show that schools consider relevant
the promotion of school activities and success the history
of the school and the timetable for parentsrsquo information
but tips for parents and school materials along with
exchanging opinions are not a priority Schools consider the
teachersrsquo CVs parentsrsquo meeting announcements or the school
cafeteria menu of no relevance to parents These facts point
to the fact that school websites in Croatia are more online
notice-boards than a real possibility for communication
5 Conclusion
Over the last decade cooperation with parents in
Croatia has been improving however in our schools
traditional forms of cooperation with parents are still
prevailing Although in the world there are specialized
radio and TV channels magazines and Internet sites for
exchanging experiences (Mendel 1998) such practice has not
flung into being in Croatia However over the last couple
of years cooperation via websites e-mails and SMS messages
Summarising its advantages and disadvantages and
considering todayrsquos lifestyle this way of cooperation
should be intensified in our schools Contemporary ways of
communication can additionally improve the communication
between parents and school but just as one more way
alongside other ways Consequently although the modern age
presupposes the use of modern technologies no technology
should replace face-to-face communication between parents
and teachers and the responsibility for a good cooperation
still lies on the school
The research demonstrates the possibilities of
communication between family and school by using modern
technology Elements of school websites are shown as well
as ways of planning the content of a website We consider
this research important for informing teachers and school
management of the possibilities of modern communication
between families and school A school website allows for the
possibility of establishing fast communication however its
mere existence does not guarantee the pupils acquiring new
knowledge and a quality relation between the family and
school It can be a good example for the school management
in creating the school curriculum as a segment allowing for
a fast exchange of information with parents Unfortunately
the educational system in Croatia is traditional and inert
unsuitable for the times and contemporary professions It
does not satisfy the need of the individual and traditional
teaching by using a minimum of technology and information is
utterly un-motivational for the student as well as for the
family The results of this research show that school
websites in Croatia donrsquot fulfil their purpose presenting
pupilsrsquo achievements allowing the parents insight into
everyday activities informing the parents and the wider
community on future activities and strengthening the
cooperation between school home and the local community
Although the purpose of school websites should not be merely
an electronic version of the notice board and an image of
the school that rarely changes its appearance the current
condition of the Croatian school websites in the analysed
counties shows just that therefore confirming the initial
hypothesis
Future research should inquire into the stance of
parents in Croatia on which content they consider important
therefore receiving relevant data which could later be used
by teachers for creating their websites
References
Berger E H (1991) Parent Involvement Yesterday and
Today The Elementary School Journal 91 (3) 209-219
Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb
Educa
Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships
Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76
httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20Articles
ParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
Epstein JL i Sheldon S B (2006) Moving Forward Ideas
for Research on School Family and Community Partnerships
httpwwwcsosjhuedup2000pdfLiterature20Review
2020Epstein20and20Sheldon2006pdf (15112010)
Graham- Clay S (2005) Communicating with Parents
Strategies for Teachers School Community Journal 16 (1)
117-129
Hartshorne R Friedman A Algozzine B i Kaur D
(2008) Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites Educational
Technology amp Society 11 (1) 291-303
Hitrec G(ur) (2006) Škola otvorena roditeljima Zagreb
Udruga roditelja Korak po korak
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE -
- MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE - MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
-
frequent parentsrsquo visits and allows pupils to acquire new
knowledge A long term goal is to encourage schools to post
new materials regularly which would result in high-quality
cooperation between home and school along with encouraging
students to research work from their homes and therefore
advancing the quality of learning
32 Problem
The problem of this work is to determine the current
purpose of Croatian elementary schools websites
33 Hypothesis
H-1 Websites of Croatian elementary schools with its
contents do not pose a model for a more intensive
cooperation with parents or lay the foundations for a new
culture of learning
H-2 There is no statistically significant difference in
content between the two counties in neither of the eleven
categories
34 Participants and procedure
School websites are public documents and welcome the
outer world into the school as well as a link between
pupils and teachers with outer sources of information and a
possibility of better cooperation with parents The function
of school websites is to make public the achievements of
pupils to allow parents insight into daily activities and
to inform parents and the larger community of future
activities as well as strengthening cooperation between
school home and the local community The function of the
schoolsrsquo websites should not be a mere electronic version of
a notice board or a picture of a school that seldom changes
its appearance
The research was conducted by content analysis method
on a random selection of 50 elementary school websites in
the counties of Istria and Split ndash Dalmatia (25 schools per
county) The Internet school directory of ldquoPortal za školerdquo
was used Since in Croatia a research has not been conducted
on parents and the content the parents believed to be
important and relevant the authors were led by a research
done by an online study in USA (Unal 2008) and the elements
selected by teachers and parents in that study The
following website content was analysed curriculum about
the school (school history) web counters house rules
(classroom rules) timetable and information for parents
results of school competition photo albums online tests
(study materials) teachersrsquo CV tips for parents and forum
The analysis was done at the beginning of December 2010 by
the end of the first term giving the schools enough time to
update and enrich the websites This research did not take
into consideration the design of websites since in the
majority of cases it has been done using Carnet hosting
services and offered similar links Regarding the fact that
most schools have the same browser a school is considered
to have a website if a private document or link has been
updated
4 Results and discussion
Table 2 ndash Overall analysed content in percentage
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIES
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCETAGECURRICULUM 41 82 9 18 WEBSITE
COUNTER8 16 42 84
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTSrsquo
INFORMATION28 56 22 44
RESULTS OF
SCHOOL
COMPETITION
23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 ONLINE
TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
TEACHERSrsquo 2 4 48 96
CV
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
FORUM 12 24 38 76 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL
(SCHOOL
HISTORY)
50 100 0 0
For table 2 it is evident that all schools have information
about the school on the website ie about its history
(100) the majority has school photo alums (86) and the
curriculum (82) More than half the schools (56) have the
timetable for parentsrsquo information and less then half (46)
have sport achievements of their pupils The fewest schools
publish teachersrsquo CVs (4) and website counters Study
materials and tips for parents are present on just above a
third the websites (34 36)
Chart 1 ndash content according to county
It is visible from Chart 1 that results do not vary much
between counties The most discrepancy is shown in sportsrsquo
achievements (Istria 72 Split ndash Dalmatia 20) and a 20
discrepancy is present in categories photo album and study
material Other discrepancies are smaller than 20 The 2nd
hypothesis was tested with the chi-square test The
hypothesis is considered valid in case that the probability
of error is less than 5 considering that there is a
statistically significant link between the analysed pair of
variables
Table 3 ndash Relations between counties
CURRI
CULUM
WEB
COUNT
ERS
HOUSE
RULES
INFOR
MATIO
N
TIMET
ABLE
SPORT
S
ACHIE
VEMEN
TS
PHOTO
ALBUM
ONLINE
TESTS
TEACHERS
CVs
TIPS
FOR
PARENTS FORUM
10486462 0024 0148 0125 0081 1159 2657 1471 05208 07812 01096
8 4 8
df 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
p 0876
88491
0
0479
50012
0527
0892
0705
31663
0006
71374
0
044
5920
62
02251
8798
0157299
21
03457
4844
05638
979
It is not difficult to notice that a significant
discrepancy is present only in sportsrsquo achievement whereas
in other elements it does not exist which confirms the
stated hypothesis It can be concluded that there are no
differences between the content in the two counties
The website content can be divided into two categories
content intended for parents and pupils (curriculum
timetable for parentsrsquo information teachersrsquo CVs tips for
parents forum online tests and study material house
rules) and content for promoting school activities and
achievements (sportsrsquo achievements photo albums about the
school web counters)
Table 4 ndash analysis according to purpose
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIESINTENDEED FOR
PARENTS AND
PUPILSYES
PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
ONLINE TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
CURRICULUM 41 82 9 18
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTS
INFORMATION
TIMETABLE
28 56 22 44
FORUM 12 24 38 76 TEACHERSrsquo CV 2 4 48 96 PROMOTION OF
SCHOOL
ACTIVITIES
AND
ACVIEVEMENTS
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
SPORTS
ACHIEVEMENTS23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 WEB COUNTERS 8 16 42 84 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL50 100 0 0
Among the content intended for parents and pupils
which would allow pupils to acquire new knowledge and
encourage parents to visit regularly schools offer in high
percentage (82) the curriculum which is a legal obligation
(public notice) and just over half the schools (56) offer
the timetable for parentsrsquo information About one third of
schools (34 36) publish on its websites study materials
and tips for parents and only 24 have an active forum for
exchanging opinions although these forums have an
insignificant number of open themes none of which were
opened by parents Study materials are most often online
tests with a link from the website and tips for parents are
texts compiled by schools assistants Considering the lack
of assistants in schools this may be the cause for a small
percentage of these materials Some schools under the
section tips for parents have links to interesting Internet
articles
Categories intended for the promotion of school
achievements and activities have more contents every school
has a page dedicated to school history 86 updates the
photo album section and less then half the schools (46)
publish sportsrsquo achievements of the pupils The photo albums
offer pictures from school trips out-of-classroom teaching
school events etc Justifying such a large number of
pictures is debatable since none of the published materials
are protected by password but available to everybody the
question arises if the schools have the parentsrsquo permission
Only 16 of schools pay attention to visits which could be
a significant information showing the number of parents and
pupils visiting the website
The mentioned data show that schools consider relevant
the promotion of school activities and success the history
of the school and the timetable for parentsrsquo information
but tips for parents and school materials along with
exchanging opinions are not a priority Schools consider the
teachersrsquo CVs parentsrsquo meeting announcements or the school
cafeteria menu of no relevance to parents These facts point
to the fact that school websites in Croatia are more online
notice-boards than a real possibility for communication
5 Conclusion
Over the last decade cooperation with parents in
Croatia has been improving however in our schools
traditional forms of cooperation with parents are still
prevailing Although in the world there are specialized
radio and TV channels magazines and Internet sites for
exchanging experiences (Mendel 1998) such practice has not
flung into being in Croatia However over the last couple
of years cooperation via websites e-mails and SMS messages
Summarising its advantages and disadvantages and
considering todayrsquos lifestyle this way of cooperation
should be intensified in our schools Contemporary ways of
communication can additionally improve the communication
between parents and school but just as one more way
alongside other ways Consequently although the modern age
presupposes the use of modern technologies no technology
should replace face-to-face communication between parents
and teachers and the responsibility for a good cooperation
still lies on the school
The research demonstrates the possibilities of
communication between family and school by using modern
technology Elements of school websites are shown as well
as ways of planning the content of a website We consider
this research important for informing teachers and school
management of the possibilities of modern communication
between families and school A school website allows for the
possibility of establishing fast communication however its
mere existence does not guarantee the pupils acquiring new
knowledge and a quality relation between the family and
school It can be a good example for the school management
in creating the school curriculum as a segment allowing for
a fast exchange of information with parents Unfortunately
the educational system in Croatia is traditional and inert
unsuitable for the times and contemporary professions It
does not satisfy the need of the individual and traditional
teaching by using a minimum of technology and information is
utterly un-motivational for the student as well as for the
family The results of this research show that school
websites in Croatia donrsquot fulfil their purpose presenting
pupilsrsquo achievements allowing the parents insight into
everyday activities informing the parents and the wider
community on future activities and strengthening the
cooperation between school home and the local community
Although the purpose of school websites should not be merely
an electronic version of the notice board and an image of
the school that rarely changes its appearance the current
condition of the Croatian school websites in the analysed
counties shows just that therefore confirming the initial
hypothesis
Future research should inquire into the stance of
parents in Croatia on which content they consider important
therefore receiving relevant data which could later be used
by teachers for creating their websites
References
Berger E H (1991) Parent Involvement Yesterday and
Today The Elementary School Journal 91 (3) 209-219
Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb
Educa
Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships
Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76
httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20Articles
ParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
Epstein JL i Sheldon S B (2006) Moving Forward Ideas
for Research on School Family and Community Partnerships
httpwwwcsosjhuedup2000pdfLiterature20Review
2020Epstein20and20Sheldon2006pdf (15112010)
Graham- Clay S (2005) Communicating with Parents
Strategies for Teachers School Community Journal 16 (1)
117-129
Hartshorne R Friedman A Algozzine B i Kaur D
(2008) Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites Educational
Technology amp Society 11 (1) 291-303
Hitrec G(ur) (2006) Škola otvorena roditeljima Zagreb
Udruga roditelja Korak po korak
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE -
- MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE - MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
-
outer world into the school as well as a link between
pupils and teachers with outer sources of information and a
possibility of better cooperation with parents The function
of school websites is to make public the achievements of
pupils to allow parents insight into daily activities and
to inform parents and the larger community of future
activities as well as strengthening cooperation between
school home and the local community The function of the
schoolsrsquo websites should not be a mere electronic version of
a notice board or a picture of a school that seldom changes
its appearance
The research was conducted by content analysis method
on a random selection of 50 elementary school websites in
the counties of Istria and Split ndash Dalmatia (25 schools per
county) The Internet school directory of ldquoPortal za školerdquo
was used Since in Croatia a research has not been conducted
on parents and the content the parents believed to be
important and relevant the authors were led by a research
done by an online study in USA (Unal 2008) and the elements
selected by teachers and parents in that study The
following website content was analysed curriculum about
the school (school history) web counters house rules
(classroom rules) timetable and information for parents
results of school competition photo albums online tests
(study materials) teachersrsquo CV tips for parents and forum
The analysis was done at the beginning of December 2010 by
the end of the first term giving the schools enough time to
update and enrich the websites This research did not take
into consideration the design of websites since in the
majority of cases it has been done using Carnet hosting
services and offered similar links Regarding the fact that
most schools have the same browser a school is considered
to have a website if a private document or link has been
updated
4 Results and discussion
Table 2 ndash Overall analysed content in percentage
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIES
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCETAGECURRICULUM 41 82 9 18 WEBSITE
COUNTER8 16 42 84
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTSrsquo
INFORMATION28 56 22 44
RESULTS OF
SCHOOL
COMPETITION
23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 ONLINE
TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
TEACHERSrsquo 2 4 48 96
CV
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
FORUM 12 24 38 76 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL
(SCHOOL
HISTORY)
50 100 0 0
For table 2 it is evident that all schools have information
about the school on the website ie about its history
(100) the majority has school photo alums (86) and the
curriculum (82) More than half the schools (56) have the
timetable for parentsrsquo information and less then half (46)
have sport achievements of their pupils The fewest schools
publish teachersrsquo CVs (4) and website counters Study
materials and tips for parents are present on just above a
third the websites (34 36)
Chart 1 ndash content according to county
It is visible from Chart 1 that results do not vary much
between counties The most discrepancy is shown in sportsrsquo
achievements (Istria 72 Split ndash Dalmatia 20) and a 20
discrepancy is present in categories photo album and study
material Other discrepancies are smaller than 20 The 2nd
hypothesis was tested with the chi-square test The
hypothesis is considered valid in case that the probability
of error is less than 5 considering that there is a
statistically significant link between the analysed pair of
variables
Table 3 ndash Relations between counties
CURRI
CULUM
WEB
COUNT
ERS
HOUSE
RULES
INFOR
MATIO
N
TIMET
ABLE
SPORT
S
ACHIE
VEMEN
TS
PHOTO
ALBUM
ONLINE
TESTS
TEACHERS
CVs
TIPS
FOR
PARENTS FORUM
10486462 0024 0148 0125 0081 1159 2657 1471 05208 07812 01096
8 4 8
df 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
p 0876
88491
0
0479
50012
0527
0892
0705
31663
0006
71374
0
044
5920
62
02251
8798
0157299
21
03457
4844
05638
979
It is not difficult to notice that a significant
discrepancy is present only in sportsrsquo achievement whereas
in other elements it does not exist which confirms the
stated hypothesis It can be concluded that there are no
differences between the content in the two counties
The website content can be divided into two categories
content intended for parents and pupils (curriculum
timetable for parentsrsquo information teachersrsquo CVs tips for
parents forum online tests and study material house
rules) and content for promoting school activities and
achievements (sportsrsquo achievements photo albums about the
school web counters)
Table 4 ndash analysis according to purpose
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIESINTENDEED FOR
PARENTS AND
PUPILSYES
PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
ONLINE TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
CURRICULUM 41 82 9 18
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTS
INFORMATION
TIMETABLE
28 56 22 44
FORUM 12 24 38 76 TEACHERSrsquo CV 2 4 48 96 PROMOTION OF
SCHOOL
ACTIVITIES
AND
ACVIEVEMENTS
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
SPORTS
ACHIEVEMENTS23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 WEB COUNTERS 8 16 42 84 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL50 100 0 0
Among the content intended for parents and pupils
which would allow pupils to acquire new knowledge and
encourage parents to visit regularly schools offer in high
percentage (82) the curriculum which is a legal obligation
(public notice) and just over half the schools (56) offer
the timetable for parentsrsquo information About one third of
schools (34 36) publish on its websites study materials
and tips for parents and only 24 have an active forum for
exchanging opinions although these forums have an
insignificant number of open themes none of which were
opened by parents Study materials are most often online
tests with a link from the website and tips for parents are
texts compiled by schools assistants Considering the lack
of assistants in schools this may be the cause for a small
percentage of these materials Some schools under the
section tips for parents have links to interesting Internet
articles
Categories intended for the promotion of school
achievements and activities have more contents every school
has a page dedicated to school history 86 updates the
photo album section and less then half the schools (46)
publish sportsrsquo achievements of the pupils The photo albums
offer pictures from school trips out-of-classroom teaching
school events etc Justifying such a large number of
pictures is debatable since none of the published materials
are protected by password but available to everybody the
question arises if the schools have the parentsrsquo permission
Only 16 of schools pay attention to visits which could be
a significant information showing the number of parents and
pupils visiting the website
The mentioned data show that schools consider relevant
the promotion of school activities and success the history
of the school and the timetable for parentsrsquo information
but tips for parents and school materials along with
exchanging opinions are not a priority Schools consider the
teachersrsquo CVs parentsrsquo meeting announcements or the school
cafeteria menu of no relevance to parents These facts point
to the fact that school websites in Croatia are more online
notice-boards than a real possibility for communication
5 Conclusion
Over the last decade cooperation with parents in
Croatia has been improving however in our schools
traditional forms of cooperation with parents are still
prevailing Although in the world there are specialized
radio and TV channels magazines and Internet sites for
exchanging experiences (Mendel 1998) such practice has not
flung into being in Croatia However over the last couple
of years cooperation via websites e-mails and SMS messages
Summarising its advantages and disadvantages and
considering todayrsquos lifestyle this way of cooperation
should be intensified in our schools Contemporary ways of
communication can additionally improve the communication
between parents and school but just as one more way
alongside other ways Consequently although the modern age
presupposes the use of modern technologies no technology
should replace face-to-face communication between parents
and teachers and the responsibility for a good cooperation
still lies on the school
The research demonstrates the possibilities of
communication between family and school by using modern
technology Elements of school websites are shown as well
as ways of planning the content of a website We consider
this research important for informing teachers and school
management of the possibilities of modern communication
between families and school A school website allows for the
possibility of establishing fast communication however its
mere existence does not guarantee the pupils acquiring new
knowledge and a quality relation between the family and
school It can be a good example for the school management
in creating the school curriculum as a segment allowing for
a fast exchange of information with parents Unfortunately
the educational system in Croatia is traditional and inert
unsuitable for the times and contemporary professions It
does not satisfy the need of the individual and traditional
teaching by using a minimum of technology and information is
utterly un-motivational for the student as well as for the
family The results of this research show that school
websites in Croatia donrsquot fulfil their purpose presenting
pupilsrsquo achievements allowing the parents insight into
everyday activities informing the parents and the wider
community on future activities and strengthening the
cooperation between school home and the local community
Although the purpose of school websites should not be merely
an electronic version of the notice board and an image of
the school that rarely changes its appearance the current
condition of the Croatian school websites in the analysed
counties shows just that therefore confirming the initial
hypothesis
Future research should inquire into the stance of
parents in Croatia on which content they consider important
therefore receiving relevant data which could later be used
by teachers for creating their websites
References
Berger E H (1991) Parent Involvement Yesterday and
Today The Elementary School Journal 91 (3) 209-219
Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb
Educa
Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships
Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76
httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20Articles
ParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
Epstein JL i Sheldon S B (2006) Moving Forward Ideas
for Research on School Family and Community Partnerships
httpwwwcsosjhuedup2000pdfLiterature20Review
2020Epstein20and20Sheldon2006pdf (15112010)
Graham- Clay S (2005) Communicating with Parents
Strategies for Teachers School Community Journal 16 (1)
117-129
Hartshorne R Friedman A Algozzine B i Kaur D
(2008) Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites Educational
Technology amp Society 11 (1) 291-303
Hitrec G(ur) (2006) Škola otvorena roditeljima Zagreb
Udruga roditelja Korak po korak
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE -
- MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE - MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
-
the end of the first term giving the schools enough time to
update and enrich the websites This research did not take
into consideration the design of websites since in the
majority of cases it has been done using Carnet hosting
services and offered similar links Regarding the fact that
most schools have the same browser a school is considered
to have a website if a private document or link has been
updated
4 Results and discussion
Table 2 ndash Overall analysed content in percentage
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIES
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCETAGECURRICULUM 41 82 9 18 WEBSITE
COUNTER8 16 42 84
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTSrsquo
INFORMATION28 56 22 44
RESULTS OF
SCHOOL
COMPETITION
23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 ONLINE
TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
TEACHERSrsquo 2 4 48 96
CV
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
FORUM 12 24 38 76 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL
(SCHOOL
HISTORY)
50 100 0 0
For table 2 it is evident that all schools have information
about the school on the website ie about its history
(100) the majority has school photo alums (86) and the
curriculum (82) More than half the schools (56) have the
timetable for parentsrsquo information and less then half (46)
have sport achievements of their pupils The fewest schools
publish teachersrsquo CVs (4) and website counters Study
materials and tips for parents are present on just above a
third the websites (34 36)
Chart 1 ndash content according to county
It is visible from Chart 1 that results do not vary much
between counties The most discrepancy is shown in sportsrsquo
achievements (Istria 72 Split ndash Dalmatia 20) and a 20
discrepancy is present in categories photo album and study
material Other discrepancies are smaller than 20 The 2nd
hypothesis was tested with the chi-square test The
hypothesis is considered valid in case that the probability
of error is less than 5 considering that there is a
statistically significant link between the analysed pair of
variables
Table 3 ndash Relations between counties
CURRI
CULUM
WEB
COUNT
ERS
HOUSE
RULES
INFOR
MATIO
N
TIMET
ABLE
SPORT
S
ACHIE
VEMEN
TS
PHOTO
ALBUM
ONLINE
TESTS
TEACHERS
CVs
TIPS
FOR
PARENTS FORUM
10486462 0024 0148 0125 0081 1159 2657 1471 05208 07812 01096
8 4 8
df 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
p 0876
88491
0
0479
50012
0527
0892
0705
31663
0006
71374
0
044
5920
62
02251
8798
0157299
21
03457
4844
05638
979
It is not difficult to notice that a significant
discrepancy is present only in sportsrsquo achievement whereas
in other elements it does not exist which confirms the
stated hypothesis It can be concluded that there are no
differences between the content in the two counties
The website content can be divided into two categories
content intended for parents and pupils (curriculum
timetable for parentsrsquo information teachersrsquo CVs tips for
parents forum online tests and study material house
rules) and content for promoting school activities and
achievements (sportsrsquo achievements photo albums about the
school web counters)
Table 4 ndash analysis according to purpose
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIESINTENDEED FOR
PARENTS AND
PUPILSYES
PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
ONLINE TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
CURRICULUM 41 82 9 18
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTS
INFORMATION
TIMETABLE
28 56 22 44
FORUM 12 24 38 76 TEACHERSrsquo CV 2 4 48 96 PROMOTION OF
SCHOOL
ACTIVITIES
AND
ACVIEVEMENTS
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
SPORTS
ACHIEVEMENTS23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 WEB COUNTERS 8 16 42 84 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL50 100 0 0
Among the content intended for parents and pupils
which would allow pupils to acquire new knowledge and
encourage parents to visit regularly schools offer in high
percentage (82) the curriculum which is a legal obligation
(public notice) and just over half the schools (56) offer
the timetable for parentsrsquo information About one third of
schools (34 36) publish on its websites study materials
and tips for parents and only 24 have an active forum for
exchanging opinions although these forums have an
insignificant number of open themes none of which were
opened by parents Study materials are most often online
tests with a link from the website and tips for parents are
texts compiled by schools assistants Considering the lack
of assistants in schools this may be the cause for a small
percentage of these materials Some schools under the
section tips for parents have links to interesting Internet
articles
Categories intended for the promotion of school
achievements and activities have more contents every school
has a page dedicated to school history 86 updates the
photo album section and less then half the schools (46)
publish sportsrsquo achievements of the pupils The photo albums
offer pictures from school trips out-of-classroom teaching
school events etc Justifying such a large number of
pictures is debatable since none of the published materials
are protected by password but available to everybody the
question arises if the schools have the parentsrsquo permission
Only 16 of schools pay attention to visits which could be
a significant information showing the number of parents and
pupils visiting the website
The mentioned data show that schools consider relevant
the promotion of school activities and success the history
of the school and the timetable for parentsrsquo information
but tips for parents and school materials along with
exchanging opinions are not a priority Schools consider the
teachersrsquo CVs parentsrsquo meeting announcements or the school
cafeteria menu of no relevance to parents These facts point
to the fact that school websites in Croatia are more online
notice-boards than a real possibility for communication
5 Conclusion
Over the last decade cooperation with parents in
Croatia has been improving however in our schools
traditional forms of cooperation with parents are still
prevailing Although in the world there are specialized
radio and TV channels magazines and Internet sites for
exchanging experiences (Mendel 1998) such practice has not
flung into being in Croatia However over the last couple
of years cooperation via websites e-mails and SMS messages
Summarising its advantages and disadvantages and
considering todayrsquos lifestyle this way of cooperation
should be intensified in our schools Contemporary ways of
communication can additionally improve the communication
between parents and school but just as one more way
alongside other ways Consequently although the modern age
presupposes the use of modern technologies no technology
should replace face-to-face communication between parents
and teachers and the responsibility for a good cooperation
still lies on the school
The research demonstrates the possibilities of
communication between family and school by using modern
technology Elements of school websites are shown as well
as ways of planning the content of a website We consider
this research important for informing teachers and school
management of the possibilities of modern communication
between families and school A school website allows for the
possibility of establishing fast communication however its
mere existence does not guarantee the pupils acquiring new
knowledge and a quality relation between the family and
school It can be a good example for the school management
in creating the school curriculum as a segment allowing for
a fast exchange of information with parents Unfortunately
the educational system in Croatia is traditional and inert
unsuitable for the times and contemporary professions It
does not satisfy the need of the individual and traditional
teaching by using a minimum of technology and information is
utterly un-motivational for the student as well as for the
family The results of this research show that school
websites in Croatia donrsquot fulfil their purpose presenting
pupilsrsquo achievements allowing the parents insight into
everyday activities informing the parents and the wider
community on future activities and strengthening the
cooperation between school home and the local community
Although the purpose of school websites should not be merely
an electronic version of the notice board and an image of
the school that rarely changes its appearance the current
condition of the Croatian school websites in the analysed
counties shows just that therefore confirming the initial
hypothesis
Future research should inquire into the stance of
parents in Croatia on which content they consider important
therefore receiving relevant data which could later be used
by teachers for creating their websites
References
Berger E H (1991) Parent Involvement Yesterday and
Today The Elementary School Journal 91 (3) 209-219
Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb
Educa
Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships
Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76
httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20Articles
ParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
Epstein JL i Sheldon S B (2006) Moving Forward Ideas
for Research on School Family and Community Partnerships
httpwwwcsosjhuedup2000pdfLiterature20Review
2020Epstein20and20Sheldon2006pdf (15112010)
Graham- Clay S (2005) Communicating with Parents
Strategies for Teachers School Community Journal 16 (1)
117-129
Hartshorne R Friedman A Algozzine B i Kaur D
(2008) Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites Educational
Technology amp Society 11 (1) 291-303
Hitrec G(ur) (2006) Škola otvorena roditeljima Zagreb
Udruga roditelja Korak po korak
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE -
- MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE - MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
-
CV
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
FORUM 12 24 38 76 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL
(SCHOOL
HISTORY)
50 100 0 0
For table 2 it is evident that all schools have information
about the school on the website ie about its history
(100) the majority has school photo alums (86) and the
curriculum (82) More than half the schools (56) have the
timetable for parentsrsquo information and less then half (46)
have sport achievements of their pupils The fewest schools
publish teachersrsquo CVs (4) and website counters Study
materials and tips for parents are present on just above a
third the websites (34 36)
Chart 1 ndash content according to county
It is visible from Chart 1 that results do not vary much
between counties The most discrepancy is shown in sportsrsquo
achievements (Istria 72 Split ndash Dalmatia 20) and a 20
discrepancy is present in categories photo album and study
material Other discrepancies are smaller than 20 The 2nd
hypothesis was tested with the chi-square test The
hypothesis is considered valid in case that the probability
of error is less than 5 considering that there is a
statistically significant link between the analysed pair of
variables
Table 3 ndash Relations between counties
CURRI
CULUM
WEB
COUNT
ERS
HOUSE
RULES
INFOR
MATIO
N
TIMET
ABLE
SPORT
S
ACHIE
VEMEN
TS
PHOTO
ALBUM
ONLINE
TESTS
TEACHERS
CVs
TIPS
FOR
PARENTS FORUM
10486462 0024 0148 0125 0081 1159 2657 1471 05208 07812 01096
8 4 8
df 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
p 0876
88491
0
0479
50012
0527
0892
0705
31663
0006
71374
0
044
5920
62
02251
8798
0157299
21
03457
4844
05638
979
It is not difficult to notice that a significant
discrepancy is present only in sportsrsquo achievement whereas
in other elements it does not exist which confirms the
stated hypothesis It can be concluded that there are no
differences between the content in the two counties
The website content can be divided into two categories
content intended for parents and pupils (curriculum
timetable for parentsrsquo information teachersrsquo CVs tips for
parents forum online tests and study material house
rules) and content for promoting school activities and
achievements (sportsrsquo achievements photo albums about the
school web counters)
Table 4 ndash analysis according to purpose
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIESINTENDEED FOR
PARENTS AND
PUPILSYES
PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
ONLINE TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
CURRICULUM 41 82 9 18
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTS
INFORMATION
TIMETABLE
28 56 22 44
FORUM 12 24 38 76 TEACHERSrsquo CV 2 4 48 96 PROMOTION OF
SCHOOL
ACTIVITIES
AND
ACVIEVEMENTS
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
SPORTS
ACHIEVEMENTS23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 WEB COUNTERS 8 16 42 84 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL50 100 0 0
Among the content intended for parents and pupils
which would allow pupils to acquire new knowledge and
encourage parents to visit regularly schools offer in high
percentage (82) the curriculum which is a legal obligation
(public notice) and just over half the schools (56) offer
the timetable for parentsrsquo information About one third of
schools (34 36) publish on its websites study materials
and tips for parents and only 24 have an active forum for
exchanging opinions although these forums have an
insignificant number of open themes none of which were
opened by parents Study materials are most often online
tests with a link from the website and tips for parents are
texts compiled by schools assistants Considering the lack
of assistants in schools this may be the cause for a small
percentage of these materials Some schools under the
section tips for parents have links to interesting Internet
articles
Categories intended for the promotion of school
achievements and activities have more contents every school
has a page dedicated to school history 86 updates the
photo album section and less then half the schools (46)
publish sportsrsquo achievements of the pupils The photo albums
offer pictures from school trips out-of-classroom teaching
school events etc Justifying such a large number of
pictures is debatable since none of the published materials
are protected by password but available to everybody the
question arises if the schools have the parentsrsquo permission
Only 16 of schools pay attention to visits which could be
a significant information showing the number of parents and
pupils visiting the website
The mentioned data show that schools consider relevant
the promotion of school activities and success the history
of the school and the timetable for parentsrsquo information
but tips for parents and school materials along with
exchanging opinions are not a priority Schools consider the
teachersrsquo CVs parentsrsquo meeting announcements or the school
cafeteria menu of no relevance to parents These facts point
to the fact that school websites in Croatia are more online
notice-boards than a real possibility for communication
5 Conclusion
Over the last decade cooperation with parents in
Croatia has been improving however in our schools
traditional forms of cooperation with parents are still
prevailing Although in the world there are specialized
radio and TV channels magazines and Internet sites for
exchanging experiences (Mendel 1998) such practice has not
flung into being in Croatia However over the last couple
of years cooperation via websites e-mails and SMS messages
Summarising its advantages and disadvantages and
considering todayrsquos lifestyle this way of cooperation
should be intensified in our schools Contemporary ways of
communication can additionally improve the communication
between parents and school but just as one more way
alongside other ways Consequently although the modern age
presupposes the use of modern technologies no technology
should replace face-to-face communication between parents
and teachers and the responsibility for a good cooperation
still lies on the school
The research demonstrates the possibilities of
communication between family and school by using modern
technology Elements of school websites are shown as well
as ways of planning the content of a website We consider
this research important for informing teachers and school
management of the possibilities of modern communication
between families and school A school website allows for the
possibility of establishing fast communication however its
mere existence does not guarantee the pupils acquiring new
knowledge and a quality relation between the family and
school It can be a good example for the school management
in creating the school curriculum as a segment allowing for
a fast exchange of information with parents Unfortunately
the educational system in Croatia is traditional and inert
unsuitable for the times and contemporary professions It
does not satisfy the need of the individual and traditional
teaching by using a minimum of technology and information is
utterly un-motivational for the student as well as for the
family The results of this research show that school
websites in Croatia donrsquot fulfil their purpose presenting
pupilsrsquo achievements allowing the parents insight into
everyday activities informing the parents and the wider
community on future activities and strengthening the
cooperation between school home and the local community
Although the purpose of school websites should not be merely
an electronic version of the notice board and an image of
the school that rarely changes its appearance the current
condition of the Croatian school websites in the analysed
counties shows just that therefore confirming the initial
hypothesis
Future research should inquire into the stance of
parents in Croatia on which content they consider important
therefore receiving relevant data which could later be used
by teachers for creating their websites
References
Berger E H (1991) Parent Involvement Yesterday and
Today The Elementary School Journal 91 (3) 209-219
Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb
Educa
Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships
Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76
httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20Articles
ParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
Epstein JL i Sheldon S B (2006) Moving Forward Ideas
for Research on School Family and Community Partnerships
httpwwwcsosjhuedup2000pdfLiterature20Review
2020Epstein20and20Sheldon2006pdf (15112010)
Graham- Clay S (2005) Communicating with Parents
Strategies for Teachers School Community Journal 16 (1)
117-129
Hartshorne R Friedman A Algozzine B i Kaur D
(2008) Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites Educational
Technology amp Society 11 (1) 291-303
Hitrec G(ur) (2006) Škola otvorena roditeljima Zagreb
Udruga roditelja Korak po korak
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE -
- MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE - MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
-
It is visible from Chart 1 that results do not vary much
between counties The most discrepancy is shown in sportsrsquo
achievements (Istria 72 Split ndash Dalmatia 20) and a 20
discrepancy is present in categories photo album and study
material Other discrepancies are smaller than 20 The 2nd
hypothesis was tested with the chi-square test The
hypothesis is considered valid in case that the probability
of error is less than 5 considering that there is a
statistically significant link between the analysed pair of
variables
Table 3 ndash Relations between counties
CURRI
CULUM
WEB
COUNT
ERS
HOUSE
RULES
INFOR
MATIO
N
TIMET
ABLE
SPORT
S
ACHIE
VEMEN
TS
PHOTO
ALBUM
ONLINE
TESTS
TEACHERS
CVs
TIPS
FOR
PARENTS FORUM
10486462 0024 0148 0125 0081 1159 2657 1471 05208 07812 01096
8 4 8
df 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
p 0876
88491
0
0479
50012
0527
0892
0705
31663
0006
71374
0
044
5920
62
02251
8798
0157299
21
03457
4844
05638
979
It is not difficult to notice that a significant
discrepancy is present only in sportsrsquo achievement whereas
in other elements it does not exist which confirms the
stated hypothesis It can be concluded that there are no
differences between the content in the two counties
The website content can be divided into two categories
content intended for parents and pupils (curriculum
timetable for parentsrsquo information teachersrsquo CVs tips for
parents forum online tests and study material house
rules) and content for promoting school activities and
achievements (sportsrsquo achievements photo albums about the
school web counters)
Table 4 ndash analysis according to purpose
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIESINTENDEED FOR
PARENTS AND
PUPILSYES
PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
ONLINE TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
CURRICULUM 41 82 9 18
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTS
INFORMATION
TIMETABLE
28 56 22 44
FORUM 12 24 38 76 TEACHERSrsquo CV 2 4 48 96 PROMOTION OF
SCHOOL
ACTIVITIES
AND
ACVIEVEMENTS
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
SPORTS
ACHIEVEMENTS23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 WEB COUNTERS 8 16 42 84 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL50 100 0 0
Among the content intended for parents and pupils
which would allow pupils to acquire new knowledge and
encourage parents to visit regularly schools offer in high
percentage (82) the curriculum which is a legal obligation
(public notice) and just over half the schools (56) offer
the timetable for parentsrsquo information About one third of
schools (34 36) publish on its websites study materials
and tips for parents and only 24 have an active forum for
exchanging opinions although these forums have an
insignificant number of open themes none of which were
opened by parents Study materials are most often online
tests with a link from the website and tips for parents are
texts compiled by schools assistants Considering the lack
of assistants in schools this may be the cause for a small
percentage of these materials Some schools under the
section tips for parents have links to interesting Internet
articles
Categories intended for the promotion of school
achievements and activities have more contents every school
has a page dedicated to school history 86 updates the
photo album section and less then half the schools (46)
publish sportsrsquo achievements of the pupils The photo albums
offer pictures from school trips out-of-classroom teaching
school events etc Justifying such a large number of
pictures is debatable since none of the published materials
are protected by password but available to everybody the
question arises if the schools have the parentsrsquo permission
Only 16 of schools pay attention to visits which could be
a significant information showing the number of parents and
pupils visiting the website
The mentioned data show that schools consider relevant
the promotion of school activities and success the history
of the school and the timetable for parentsrsquo information
but tips for parents and school materials along with
exchanging opinions are not a priority Schools consider the
teachersrsquo CVs parentsrsquo meeting announcements or the school
cafeteria menu of no relevance to parents These facts point
to the fact that school websites in Croatia are more online
notice-boards than a real possibility for communication
5 Conclusion
Over the last decade cooperation with parents in
Croatia has been improving however in our schools
traditional forms of cooperation with parents are still
prevailing Although in the world there are specialized
radio and TV channels magazines and Internet sites for
exchanging experiences (Mendel 1998) such practice has not
flung into being in Croatia However over the last couple
of years cooperation via websites e-mails and SMS messages
Summarising its advantages and disadvantages and
considering todayrsquos lifestyle this way of cooperation
should be intensified in our schools Contemporary ways of
communication can additionally improve the communication
between parents and school but just as one more way
alongside other ways Consequently although the modern age
presupposes the use of modern technologies no technology
should replace face-to-face communication between parents
and teachers and the responsibility for a good cooperation
still lies on the school
The research demonstrates the possibilities of
communication between family and school by using modern
technology Elements of school websites are shown as well
as ways of planning the content of a website We consider
this research important for informing teachers and school
management of the possibilities of modern communication
between families and school A school website allows for the
possibility of establishing fast communication however its
mere existence does not guarantee the pupils acquiring new
knowledge and a quality relation between the family and
school It can be a good example for the school management
in creating the school curriculum as a segment allowing for
a fast exchange of information with parents Unfortunately
the educational system in Croatia is traditional and inert
unsuitable for the times and contemporary professions It
does not satisfy the need of the individual and traditional
teaching by using a minimum of technology and information is
utterly un-motivational for the student as well as for the
family The results of this research show that school
websites in Croatia donrsquot fulfil their purpose presenting
pupilsrsquo achievements allowing the parents insight into
everyday activities informing the parents and the wider
community on future activities and strengthening the
cooperation between school home and the local community
Although the purpose of school websites should not be merely
an electronic version of the notice board and an image of
the school that rarely changes its appearance the current
condition of the Croatian school websites in the analysed
counties shows just that therefore confirming the initial
hypothesis
Future research should inquire into the stance of
parents in Croatia on which content they consider important
therefore receiving relevant data which could later be used
by teachers for creating their websites
References
Berger E H (1991) Parent Involvement Yesterday and
Today The Elementary School Journal 91 (3) 209-219
Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb
Educa
Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships
Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76
httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20Articles
ParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
Epstein JL i Sheldon S B (2006) Moving Forward Ideas
for Research on School Family and Community Partnerships
httpwwwcsosjhuedup2000pdfLiterature20Review
2020Epstein20and20Sheldon2006pdf (15112010)
Graham- Clay S (2005) Communicating with Parents
Strategies for Teachers School Community Journal 16 (1)
117-129
Hartshorne R Friedman A Algozzine B i Kaur D
(2008) Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites Educational
Technology amp Society 11 (1) 291-303
Hitrec G(ur) (2006) Škola otvorena roditeljima Zagreb
Udruga roditelja Korak po korak
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE -
- MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE - MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
-
8 4 8
df 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
p 0876
88491
0
0479
50012
0527
0892
0705
31663
0006
71374
0
044
5920
62
02251
8798
0157299
21
03457
4844
05638
979
It is not difficult to notice that a significant
discrepancy is present only in sportsrsquo achievement whereas
in other elements it does not exist which confirms the
stated hypothesis It can be concluded that there are no
differences between the content in the two counties
The website content can be divided into two categories
content intended for parents and pupils (curriculum
timetable for parentsrsquo information teachersrsquo CVs tips for
parents forum online tests and study material house
rules) and content for promoting school activities and
achievements (sportsrsquo achievements photo albums about the
school web counters)
Table 4 ndash analysis according to purpose
CONTENT BOTH COUNTIESINTENDEED FOR
PARENTS AND
PUPILSYES
PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
ONLINE TESTS
(STUDY
MATERIAL)
17 34 33 66
CURRICULUM 41 82 9 18
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTS
INFORMATION
TIMETABLE
28 56 22 44
FORUM 12 24 38 76 TEACHERSrsquo CV 2 4 48 96 PROMOTION OF
SCHOOL
ACTIVITIES
AND
ACVIEVEMENTS
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
SPORTS
ACHIEVEMENTS23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 WEB COUNTERS 8 16 42 84 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL50 100 0 0
Among the content intended for parents and pupils
which would allow pupils to acquire new knowledge and
encourage parents to visit regularly schools offer in high
percentage (82) the curriculum which is a legal obligation
(public notice) and just over half the schools (56) offer
the timetable for parentsrsquo information About one third of
schools (34 36) publish on its websites study materials
and tips for parents and only 24 have an active forum for
exchanging opinions although these forums have an
insignificant number of open themes none of which were
opened by parents Study materials are most often online
tests with a link from the website and tips for parents are
texts compiled by schools assistants Considering the lack
of assistants in schools this may be the cause for a small
percentage of these materials Some schools under the
section tips for parents have links to interesting Internet
articles
Categories intended for the promotion of school
achievements and activities have more contents every school
has a page dedicated to school history 86 updates the
photo album section and less then half the schools (46)
publish sportsrsquo achievements of the pupils The photo albums
offer pictures from school trips out-of-classroom teaching
school events etc Justifying such a large number of
pictures is debatable since none of the published materials
are protected by password but available to everybody the
question arises if the schools have the parentsrsquo permission
Only 16 of schools pay attention to visits which could be
a significant information showing the number of parents and
pupils visiting the website
The mentioned data show that schools consider relevant
the promotion of school activities and success the history
of the school and the timetable for parentsrsquo information
but tips for parents and school materials along with
exchanging opinions are not a priority Schools consider the
teachersrsquo CVs parentsrsquo meeting announcements or the school
cafeteria menu of no relevance to parents These facts point
to the fact that school websites in Croatia are more online
notice-boards than a real possibility for communication
5 Conclusion
Over the last decade cooperation with parents in
Croatia has been improving however in our schools
traditional forms of cooperation with parents are still
prevailing Although in the world there are specialized
radio and TV channels magazines and Internet sites for
exchanging experiences (Mendel 1998) such practice has not
flung into being in Croatia However over the last couple
of years cooperation via websites e-mails and SMS messages
Summarising its advantages and disadvantages and
considering todayrsquos lifestyle this way of cooperation
should be intensified in our schools Contemporary ways of
communication can additionally improve the communication
between parents and school but just as one more way
alongside other ways Consequently although the modern age
presupposes the use of modern technologies no technology
should replace face-to-face communication between parents
and teachers and the responsibility for a good cooperation
still lies on the school
The research demonstrates the possibilities of
communication between family and school by using modern
technology Elements of school websites are shown as well
as ways of planning the content of a website We consider
this research important for informing teachers and school
management of the possibilities of modern communication
between families and school A school website allows for the
possibility of establishing fast communication however its
mere existence does not guarantee the pupils acquiring new
knowledge and a quality relation between the family and
school It can be a good example for the school management
in creating the school curriculum as a segment allowing for
a fast exchange of information with parents Unfortunately
the educational system in Croatia is traditional and inert
unsuitable for the times and contemporary professions It
does not satisfy the need of the individual and traditional
teaching by using a minimum of technology and information is
utterly un-motivational for the student as well as for the
family The results of this research show that school
websites in Croatia donrsquot fulfil their purpose presenting
pupilsrsquo achievements allowing the parents insight into
everyday activities informing the parents and the wider
community on future activities and strengthening the
cooperation between school home and the local community
Although the purpose of school websites should not be merely
an electronic version of the notice board and an image of
the school that rarely changes its appearance the current
condition of the Croatian school websites in the analysed
counties shows just that therefore confirming the initial
hypothesis
Future research should inquire into the stance of
parents in Croatia on which content they consider important
therefore receiving relevant data which could later be used
by teachers for creating their websites
References
Berger E H (1991) Parent Involvement Yesterday and
Today The Elementary School Journal 91 (3) 209-219
Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb
Educa
Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships
Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76
httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20Articles
ParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
Epstein JL i Sheldon S B (2006) Moving Forward Ideas
for Research on School Family and Community Partnerships
httpwwwcsosjhuedup2000pdfLiterature20Review
2020Epstein20and20Sheldon2006pdf (15112010)
Graham- Clay S (2005) Communicating with Parents
Strategies for Teachers School Community Journal 16 (1)
117-129
Hartshorne R Friedman A Algozzine B i Kaur D
(2008) Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites Educational
Technology amp Society 11 (1) 291-303
Hitrec G(ur) (2006) Škola otvorena roditeljima Zagreb
Udruga roditelja Korak po korak
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE -
- MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE - MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
-
TIPS FOR
PARENTS18 36 32 64
HOUSE RULES 10 20 40 80 PARENTS
INFORMATION
TIMETABLE
28 56 22 44
FORUM 12 24 38 76 TEACHERSrsquo CV 2 4 48 96 PROMOTION OF
SCHOOL
ACTIVITIES
AND
ACVIEVEMENTS
YES PERCENTAGE NO PERCENTAGE
SPORTS
ACHIEVEMENTS23 46 27 54
PHOTO ALBUM 43 86 7 14 WEB COUNTERS 8 16 42 84 ABOUT THE
SCHOOL50 100 0 0
Among the content intended for parents and pupils
which would allow pupils to acquire new knowledge and
encourage parents to visit regularly schools offer in high
percentage (82) the curriculum which is a legal obligation
(public notice) and just over half the schools (56) offer
the timetable for parentsrsquo information About one third of
schools (34 36) publish on its websites study materials
and tips for parents and only 24 have an active forum for
exchanging opinions although these forums have an
insignificant number of open themes none of which were
opened by parents Study materials are most often online
tests with a link from the website and tips for parents are
texts compiled by schools assistants Considering the lack
of assistants in schools this may be the cause for a small
percentage of these materials Some schools under the
section tips for parents have links to interesting Internet
articles
Categories intended for the promotion of school
achievements and activities have more contents every school
has a page dedicated to school history 86 updates the
photo album section and less then half the schools (46)
publish sportsrsquo achievements of the pupils The photo albums
offer pictures from school trips out-of-classroom teaching
school events etc Justifying such a large number of
pictures is debatable since none of the published materials
are protected by password but available to everybody the
question arises if the schools have the parentsrsquo permission
Only 16 of schools pay attention to visits which could be
a significant information showing the number of parents and
pupils visiting the website
The mentioned data show that schools consider relevant
the promotion of school activities and success the history
of the school and the timetable for parentsrsquo information
but tips for parents and school materials along with
exchanging opinions are not a priority Schools consider the
teachersrsquo CVs parentsrsquo meeting announcements or the school
cafeteria menu of no relevance to parents These facts point
to the fact that school websites in Croatia are more online
notice-boards than a real possibility for communication
5 Conclusion
Over the last decade cooperation with parents in
Croatia has been improving however in our schools
traditional forms of cooperation with parents are still
prevailing Although in the world there are specialized
radio and TV channels magazines and Internet sites for
exchanging experiences (Mendel 1998) such practice has not
flung into being in Croatia However over the last couple
of years cooperation via websites e-mails and SMS messages
Summarising its advantages and disadvantages and
considering todayrsquos lifestyle this way of cooperation
should be intensified in our schools Contemporary ways of
communication can additionally improve the communication
between parents and school but just as one more way
alongside other ways Consequently although the modern age
presupposes the use of modern technologies no technology
should replace face-to-face communication between parents
and teachers and the responsibility for a good cooperation
still lies on the school
The research demonstrates the possibilities of
communication between family and school by using modern
technology Elements of school websites are shown as well
as ways of planning the content of a website We consider
this research important for informing teachers and school
management of the possibilities of modern communication
between families and school A school website allows for the
possibility of establishing fast communication however its
mere existence does not guarantee the pupils acquiring new
knowledge and a quality relation between the family and
school It can be a good example for the school management
in creating the school curriculum as a segment allowing for
a fast exchange of information with parents Unfortunately
the educational system in Croatia is traditional and inert
unsuitable for the times and contemporary professions It
does not satisfy the need of the individual and traditional
teaching by using a minimum of technology and information is
utterly un-motivational for the student as well as for the
family The results of this research show that school
websites in Croatia donrsquot fulfil their purpose presenting
pupilsrsquo achievements allowing the parents insight into
everyday activities informing the parents and the wider
community on future activities and strengthening the
cooperation between school home and the local community
Although the purpose of school websites should not be merely
an electronic version of the notice board and an image of
the school that rarely changes its appearance the current
condition of the Croatian school websites in the analysed
counties shows just that therefore confirming the initial
hypothesis
Future research should inquire into the stance of
parents in Croatia on which content they consider important
therefore receiving relevant data which could later be used
by teachers for creating their websites
References
Berger E H (1991) Parent Involvement Yesterday and
Today The Elementary School Journal 91 (3) 209-219
Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb
Educa
Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships
Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76
httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20Articles
ParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
Epstein JL i Sheldon S B (2006) Moving Forward Ideas
for Research on School Family and Community Partnerships
httpwwwcsosjhuedup2000pdfLiterature20Review
2020Epstein20and20Sheldon2006pdf (15112010)
Graham- Clay S (2005) Communicating with Parents
Strategies for Teachers School Community Journal 16 (1)
117-129
Hartshorne R Friedman A Algozzine B i Kaur D
(2008) Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites Educational
Technology amp Society 11 (1) 291-303
Hitrec G(ur) (2006) Škola otvorena roditeljima Zagreb
Udruga roditelja Korak po korak
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE -
- MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE - MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
-
insignificant number of open themes none of which were
opened by parents Study materials are most often online
tests with a link from the website and tips for parents are
texts compiled by schools assistants Considering the lack
of assistants in schools this may be the cause for a small
percentage of these materials Some schools under the
section tips for parents have links to interesting Internet
articles
Categories intended for the promotion of school
achievements and activities have more contents every school
has a page dedicated to school history 86 updates the
photo album section and less then half the schools (46)
publish sportsrsquo achievements of the pupils The photo albums
offer pictures from school trips out-of-classroom teaching
school events etc Justifying such a large number of
pictures is debatable since none of the published materials
are protected by password but available to everybody the
question arises if the schools have the parentsrsquo permission
Only 16 of schools pay attention to visits which could be
a significant information showing the number of parents and
pupils visiting the website
The mentioned data show that schools consider relevant
the promotion of school activities and success the history
of the school and the timetable for parentsrsquo information
but tips for parents and school materials along with
exchanging opinions are not a priority Schools consider the
teachersrsquo CVs parentsrsquo meeting announcements or the school
cafeteria menu of no relevance to parents These facts point
to the fact that school websites in Croatia are more online
notice-boards than a real possibility for communication
5 Conclusion
Over the last decade cooperation with parents in
Croatia has been improving however in our schools
traditional forms of cooperation with parents are still
prevailing Although in the world there are specialized
radio and TV channels magazines and Internet sites for
exchanging experiences (Mendel 1998) such practice has not
flung into being in Croatia However over the last couple
of years cooperation via websites e-mails and SMS messages
Summarising its advantages and disadvantages and
considering todayrsquos lifestyle this way of cooperation
should be intensified in our schools Contemporary ways of
communication can additionally improve the communication
between parents and school but just as one more way
alongside other ways Consequently although the modern age
presupposes the use of modern technologies no technology
should replace face-to-face communication between parents
and teachers and the responsibility for a good cooperation
still lies on the school
The research demonstrates the possibilities of
communication between family and school by using modern
technology Elements of school websites are shown as well
as ways of planning the content of a website We consider
this research important for informing teachers and school
management of the possibilities of modern communication
between families and school A school website allows for the
possibility of establishing fast communication however its
mere existence does not guarantee the pupils acquiring new
knowledge and a quality relation between the family and
school It can be a good example for the school management
in creating the school curriculum as a segment allowing for
a fast exchange of information with parents Unfortunately
the educational system in Croatia is traditional and inert
unsuitable for the times and contemporary professions It
does not satisfy the need of the individual and traditional
teaching by using a minimum of technology and information is
utterly un-motivational for the student as well as for the
family The results of this research show that school
websites in Croatia donrsquot fulfil their purpose presenting
pupilsrsquo achievements allowing the parents insight into
everyday activities informing the parents and the wider
community on future activities and strengthening the
cooperation between school home and the local community
Although the purpose of school websites should not be merely
an electronic version of the notice board and an image of
the school that rarely changes its appearance the current
condition of the Croatian school websites in the analysed
counties shows just that therefore confirming the initial
hypothesis
Future research should inquire into the stance of
parents in Croatia on which content they consider important
therefore receiving relevant data which could later be used
by teachers for creating their websites
References
Berger E H (1991) Parent Involvement Yesterday and
Today The Elementary School Journal 91 (3) 209-219
Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb
Educa
Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships
Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76
httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20Articles
ParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
Epstein JL i Sheldon S B (2006) Moving Forward Ideas
for Research on School Family and Community Partnerships
httpwwwcsosjhuedup2000pdfLiterature20Review
2020Epstein20and20Sheldon2006pdf (15112010)
Graham- Clay S (2005) Communicating with Parents
Strategies for Teachers School Community Journal 16 (1)
117-129
Hartshorne R Friedman A Algozzine B i Kaur D
(2008) Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites Educational
Technology amp Society 11 (1) 291-303
Hitrec G(ur) (2006) Škola otvorena roditeljima Zagreb
Udruga roditelja Korak po korak
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE -
- MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE - MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
-
teachersrsquo CVs parentsrsquo meeting announcements or the school
cafeteria menu of no relevance to parents These facts point
to the fact that school websites in Croatia are more online
notice-boards than a real possibility for communication
5 Conclusion
Over the last decade cooperation with parents in
Croatia has been improving however in our schools
traditional forms of cooperation with parents are still
prevailing Although in the world there are specialized
radio and TV channels magazines and Internet sites for
exchanging experiences (Mendel 1998) such practice has not
flung into being in Croatia However over the last couple
of years cooperation via websites e-mails and SMS messages
Summarising its advantages and disadvantages and
considering todayrsquos lifestyle this way of cooperation
should be intensified in our schools Contemporary ways of
communication can additionally improve the communication
between parents and school but just as one more way
alongside other ways Consequently although the modern age
presupposes the use of modern technologies no technology
should replace face-to-face communication between parents
and teachers and the responsibility for a good cooperation
still lies on the school
The research demonstrates the possibilities of
communication between family and school by using modern
technology Elements of school websites are shown as well
as ways of planning the content of a website We consider
this research important for informing teachers and school
management of the possibilities of modern communication
between families and school A school website allows for the
possibility of establishing fast communication however its
mere existence does not guarantee the pupils acquiring new
knowledge and a quality relation between the family and
school It can be a good example for the school management
in creating the school curriculum as a segment allowing for
a fast exchange of information with parents Unfortunately
the educational system in Croatia is traditional and inert
unsuitable for the times and contemporary professions It
does not satisfy the need of the individual and traditional
teaching by using a minimum of technology and information is
utterly un-motivational for the student as well as for the
family The results of this research show that school
websites in Croatia donrsquot fulfil their purpose presenting
pupilsrsquo achievements allowing the parents insight into
everyday activities informing the parents and the wider
community on future activities and strengthening the
cooperation between school home and the local community
Although the purpose of school websites should not be merely
an electronic version of the notice board and an image of
the school that rarely changes its appearance the current
condition of the Croatian school websites in the analysed
counties shows just that therefore confirming the initial
hypothesis
Future research should inquire into the stance of
parents in Croatia on which content they consider important
therefore receiving relevant data which could later be used
by teachers for creating their websites
References
Berger E H (1991) Parent Involvement Yesterday and
Today The Elementary School Journal 91 (3) 209-219
Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb
Educa
Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships
Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76
httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20Articles
ParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
Epstein JL i Sheldon S B (2006) Moving Forward Ideas
for Research on School Family and Community Partnerships
httpwwwcsosjhuedup2000pdfLiterature20Review
2020Epstein20and20Sheldon2006pdf (15112010)
Graham- Clay S (2005) Communicating with Parents
Strategies for Teachers School Community Journal 16 (1)
117-129
Hartshorne R Friedman A Algozzine B i Kaur D
(2008) Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites Educational
Technology amp Society 11 (1) 291-303
Hitrec G(ur) (2006) Škola otvorena roditeljima Zagreb
Udruga roditelja Korak po korak
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE -
- MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE - MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
-
communication between family and school by using modern
technology Elements of school websites are shown as well
as ways of planning the content of a website We consider
this research important for informing teachers and school
management of the possibilities of modern communication
between families and school A school website allows for the
possibility of establishing fast communication however its
mere existence does not guarantee the pupils acquiring new
knowledge and a quality relation between the family and
school It can be a good example for the school management
in creating the school curriculum as a segment allowing for
a fast exchange of information with parents Unfortunately
the educational system in Croatia is traditional and inert
unsuitable for the times and contemporary professions It
does not satisfy the need of the individual and traditional
teaching by using a minimum of technology and information is
utterly un-motivational for the student as well as for the
family The results of this research show that school
websites in Croatia donrsquot fulfil their purpose presenting
pupilsrsquo achievements allowing the parents insight into
everyday activities informing the parents and the wider
community on future activities and strengthening the
cooperation between school home and the local community
Although the purpose of school websites should not be merely
an electronic version of the notice board and an image of
the school that rarely changes its appearance the current
condition of the Croatian school websites in the analysed
counties shows just that therefore confirming the initial
hypothesis
Future research should inquire into the stance of
parents in Croatia on which content they consider important
therefore receiving relevant data which could later be used
by teachers for creating their websites
References
Berger E H (1991) Parent Involvement Yesterday and
Today The Elementary School Journal 91 (3) 209-219
Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb
Educa
Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships
Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76
httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20Articles
ParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
Epstein JL i Sheldon S B (2006) Moving Forward Ideas
for Research on School Family and Community Partnerships
httpwwwcsosjhuedup2000pdfLiterature20Review
2020Epstein20and20Sheldon2006pdf (15112010)
Graham- Clay S (2005) Communicating with Parents
Strategies for Teachers School Community Journal 16 (1)
117-129
Hartshorne R Friedman A Algozzine B i Kaur D
(2008) Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites Educational
Technology amp Society 11 (1) 291-303
Hitrec G(ur) (2006) Škola otvorena roditeljima Zagreb
Udruga roditelja Korak po korak
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE -
- MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE - MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
-
condition of the Croatian school websites in the analysed
counties shows just that therefore confirming the initial
hypothesis
Future research should inquire into the stance of
parents in Croatia on which content they consider important
therefore receiving relevant data which could later be used
by teachers for creating their websites
References
Berger E H (1991) Parent Involvement Yesterday and
Today The Elementary School Journal 91 (3) 209-219
Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb
Educa
Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships
Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76
httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20Articles
ParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
Epstein JL i Sheldon S B (2006) Moving Forward Ideas
for Research on School Family and Community Partnerships
httpwwwcsosjhuedup2000pdfLiterature20Review
2020Epstein20and20Sheldon2006pdf (15112010)
Graham- Clay S (2005) Communicating with Parents
Strategies for Teachers School Community Journal 16 (1)
117-129
Hartshorne R Friedman A Algozzine B i Kaur D
(2008) Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites Educational
Technology amp Society 11 (1) 291-303
Hitrec G(ur) (2006) Škola otvorena roditeljima Zagreb
Udruga roditelja Korak po korak
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE -
- MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE - MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
-
117-129
Hartshorne R Friedman A Algozzine B i Kaur D
(2008) Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites Educational
Technology amp Society 11 (1) 291-303
Hitrec G(ur) (2006) Škola otvorena roditeljima Zagreb
Udruga roditelja Korak po korak
Marušić I (2007) Škola otvorena roditeljima ndash rezultati
istraživanja Dijete Škola Obitelj 20 2-6
Mendel M (1998) lsquoParents at Schoolrsquo programme as a
perspective of partnershiprsquos orientation increase in Poland
httpwwwernapenetarticles1999mendel99pdf
(15112010)
Ryan K Cooper J M (2010) Those Who Can Teach
Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Bostonhttpbooksgooglehrbooks
id=rqmdR6Xrgq8Campprintsec=frontcoverampsource=gbs_ge_summary_ramp
cad=0v=onepageampqampf=false (15112010)
Swann P (2006) Got Web Investing in a District Website
[Electronic Version] The
School Administrator
httpwwwaasaorgpublicationssaarticledetailcfm
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE -
- MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE - MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
-
ItemNumber=6068 (15112010)
Unal Z (2008) Going The Extra Step For Parental
Involvement Connecting Family And School With The Power Of
Teacher Websites Journal of College Teaching amp Learning 5
(6) 43-50
httpwwwcluteinstitute-onlinejournalscomPDFs996pdf
(15112010)
Vizek Vidović V i sur (2003) Psihologija obrazovanja
Zagreb IEP
Walsh KB (2002) Kurikulum za prvi razred osnovne škole
stvaranje razreda usmjerenog na dijete Zagreb Matica
doo
Zarevski P ur (2003) Učitelji za učitelje primjeri
provedbe načela Aktivneefikasne škole Zagreb IEP
Zakon o osnovnoškolskom i srednjem obrazovanju (2008) MZOŠ
httpwwwskolehrskolepopis (15112010)
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE -
- MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- ŠKOLSKE WEB STRANICE - MOGUĆNOST SURADNJE S RODITELJIMA
- Dryden G i Vos J (2001) Revolucija u učenju Zagreb Educa
- Epstein JL (1995) Schoolfamilycommunity Partnerships Caring for the Children We Share Phi Delta Kappan 76 httpnhsneedhamk12mauspagesstressrDocsWebsite20ArticlesParentsEpstein20-20Parentsdoc (15112010)
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