Universidad Catlica de la Santsima Concepcin

Facultad de Educacin

Case Study

Students: Katherine Jofr

Isidora Herrera
Valentina Iluf
Karen Utreras
Teacher: Astrid Guerra.
Subject: Teaching Practice III.

Problem

Palomas marks and participation in class have been considerably affected by the
current divorce of her parents. Her academic achievement has been consistently
lower this year and her behavior has been clearly affected by the separation of her
parents and the lack of support from her parents. As a result, nowadays she is
achieving barely passing grades and she has not shown an active participation in
most of her courses.
Theory
A decade ago, HooverDempsey and Sandler offered a model of the parental
involvement process that focused on understanding why parents become involved
in their childrens education and how their involvement influences student outcome
(HooverDempsey, et al., 2005). Parents roles in students educational
performance has been deeply investigated in order to have a better understating
on this topic. This role can be divided into multiple parts, such as: helping with
homework, attending school events, talking to the teacher about homework, among
others. Nonetheless, the commitment that parents present in these areas can be
either positive or negative, in the case of a negative role the results will be shown
in the student motivational, cognitive, social, and behavioral attributes (Hoover
Dempsey, et al., 2005). Additionally, low marks and little communication with the
rest of the people are some of the results of this problem. Furthermore, the
compromise of parenting on children has a high level of impact in their lifes,
according to

a research conducted by Professor Gianni De Fraja and Tania

Oliveira, both in the Economics Department at the University of Leicester and Luisa
Zanchi, at the Leeds University Business School, that has resulted in that parents'

effort is more important for a child's educational attainment than the school's effort,
which in turn is more important than the child's own effort (ScienceDaily, 2010).
Background
Paloma is a 10 year old girl who is in her fifth year primary school and she does not
have siblings. She used to have very good marks until this year when their parents
separated. She used to be an enthusiastic student and participated frequently in
classes. However, this year everything has changed because she does not have
support from her parents. Currently, she lives with her mother and her father lives
far away from her. Her mother does not help her with her homework and is not
committed to the academic performance of her daughter due to the fact that she
does not attend the course meetings of her child and she does not care about her
low academic performance and her behavior at all. Moreover, Palomas mother
goes out to drink with her friends every weekend and leaves Paloma at her
grandmothers house. Furthermore, Paloma does not trust her mother because she
used to share her experiences and asks for help to her father. Consequently, as
Paloma just trusted in her father, now that she does not live with him, she does not
have anybody to tell her things or to ask for help.

Procedures
The current problem was firstly followed by the natural observation method, which
consisted of observing the behavior and performance of the student for a certain
period of time with no interventions between. After seeing Palomas attitudinal

changes, the teams of professionals took this into account and proceed to evaluate
considering the observation record class book, in order to compare her behavior
and marks of previous years and to look if there was a tendency attitudinal
behavior and performance during previous years.

When the comparison was

made, it was seen a noticeable change of the student. As a measure, she was
asked to attend an informal interview, where the interviewer talks with the student
informally. After that, the psychologist arranged an interview with Palomas mother,
she sent Palomas mother a note in order to emphasize the importance of the
meeting. Both interviews were conducted without using a structured interview
guide of any kind. Moreover, the psychologist of the school tries to remember what
was mentioned to her in the conversations with the teachers, the student and
Palomas mother and uses brief notes taken in the previous conversations about
Palomas attitude.
Results
After the observation period, the non-structured interview and the interview of the
student and her mother with the psychologist, it was concluded that the student
was having depression symptoms, lower marks and bad behavior due to the fact of
the abandonment that she started feeling after their parents divorced and the lack
of support that she has received during her academic training. Furthermore, it is
important to highlight that the fact that she has nobody in whom to trust plays an
important role in Palomas situation because she feels neglected and indeed she
knows that she has no support from her family. Consequently, all of the factors
mentioned before are affecting Palomas behavior.

Possible solutions

To request an appointment with Palomas mother in order to let her know

how this situation is affecting Palomas performance, behavior and self-

confidence.
To build trust and a good relationship with Paloma in order to let her know
that there is a teacher who can help her at any moment, because in this way

she will feel supported by the professional.

Paloma should have appointments with the psychologist of the school to be

helped with their emotions and feelings and to learn how to deal with them.
To let all the teams of professionals at the school know about Palomas case

in order to considerate alternatives ways to deal with her needed.

Offer tutoring in areas where Paloma is having difficulties, thus, it would

facilitate her school success and enhance her self-esteem.

To give Paloma opportunities in classes in which she has demonstrated to
have the skills needed to perform the tasks successfully. Bearing this in
mind, she could feel that she can have a good academic performance and
this will help her to improve her self-esteem and her interest in the subjects.

References
HooverDempsey, K. V., Walker, J., Sandler, H., Whetsel, D., Green, C., Wilkins,
A., & Closson, K. (2005, November). Why Do Parents Become Involved?
Research Findings and Implications. The Elementary School Journal,
106(2), 105-130. Retrieved from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/info/10.1086/499194
ScienceDaily. (2010, November 5). ScienceDaily. Retrieved from Parents' effort
key to child's educational performance:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/10/101029121554.htm