Webpage Supplement to
Chapter 19: Learning to Parent Apart
Deborah Zuver & Mary Grigsby
Posted
Sept. 29, 2006
Related Parenting Education Programs
One goal
of an effective divorce education program is to convey this critical
message to parents: you love your child and you need to empathize with
your child; you must reduce your level of conflict or your child will
suffer. Another goal is to provide practical take-home information and
resources. How the information is conveyed will affect whether parents
are able to fulfill this expectation. Several parent education programs
serve as helpful examples.
“Spice it Up” is the program used by Jody Johnston Pawel, a powerhouse
in the field of parent education. She says, “Most people come to an
educational program to learn, but will enjoy it more if they are
entertained and involved. The best presenters are performers” (Pawel,
2003). She uses props, story-telling, and interactive scenes. For
example, one person is seated in a chair as the child; two people stand
behind the chair as parents. The instruction is, “Parents, your job is
to keep the child in the chair. Go!” After about 20 seconds,
participants are “paused” and they consider what they tried: Did they
use force? Did anyone ask the child to remain sitting? How did
“parents” feel? How did the “child” feel? In the course of this brief
role-play exercise, the group of parents is immersed in exploring
issues of power, obedience, cooperation, and communication. “Simple
stories and small problems are little tests” of how to deal with larger
and more complex ones. Pawel tackles a range of issues that are
pertinent to families in transition.
Another program, “Children in the Middle” (CIM), is a skills-based
divorce education program for parents in Jacksonville, Florida. About
five years ago, a study examined the effectiveness of the program, as
compared with another program that is information-based (Kramer et al.,
1998). CIM’s specific focus is for instructors to have parents actively
practice communication skills and conflict resolution techniques. While
neither CIM nor the information-only program reduced actual levels of
parental conflict, children of parents in the CIM program seemed to
fare better in a number of ways. They were exposed to less conflict
between their parents and they had fewer doctor visits and school
absences. More research is needed, but findings suggest that the
skills-based CIM approach makes a difference in helping parents
communicate. It is interesting to note that what parents do not seem to
be learning is the more difficult task of responding to their
children’s emotions. This is the area where the L2PA enactment process
can take the skill another step closer to application because emotion
is such a strong component of L2PA.
The “Parents’ Education About Children’s Emotions” (PEACE) Program in
Marion, Ohio began more than ten years ago as a court-mandated program
for divorcing parents. The parents voted the role-plays as the “most
helpful aspect of the program, and any information that was
communicated to the parents through a role-play seemed to be remembered
with the greatest clarity.” One father said, “It’s hard to see things
through a kid’s eyes when you are not a kid anymore, but that’s one of
the advantages to the program. It sort of shows you through a kid’s
eyes” (McKenry, Clark & Stone, 1998).
The field of training in general has been taking a closer look at how
emotion enhances learning. In Training and Development, Ruth Palombo
Weiss (2000) noted “that the same areas of the brain that are involved
in processing emotion are also involved in processing memory…. The more
emotionally engaged a learner is, the more likely he or she is to
learn.” Trainers who keep this concept in mind “create a sense of
surprise and mystery in teaching and use humor.” Certainly this applies
to parents in a life transition who may be charged with a range of
emotions.
McKenry, P, Clark, K., & Stone, G. (1998). A qualitative
evaluation of a divorce education program. Human Development and Family
Life Bulletin 4(2):5-6.
Describes the impact of Parents’ Education About Children’s Emotions
(PEACE) program; participants voted role-play was as the most helpful
aspect of the program.
Pawel, Jody Johnston. (2003). Spice it up! Using interactive activities
to energize groups and boost skill building. In Parents Toolshop
“Tour Guide” Instructor Manual. Springboro, OH: Ambris Publishing.
Offers interactive activities, including role-play
games, to energize groups and boost skill building.
Weiss, Ruth P. (2000). Emotion and learning. Training & Development
November:45-48.
Describes how feelings, bodily sensations, and
memory are intertwined in the brain and discusses implications for
linking emotion and learning; cites examples.
Web Resources and Links
1. Parenting
After Divorce , 1006 W. 104th #315 , Denver, CO 80234
, Phone: 303-329-9942
Fax:
303-280-0130pad@ecentral.com
Co-Parenting After Divorce - is a four-session, ten-hour class offered
by Parenting After Divorce-Denver to divorcing, divorced and
never-married parents who live apart. It is a skills-based class that
parents attend together with three to five other co-parent teams. It is
designed for parents who want to improve a co-parenting relationship
that is working fairly well, as well as for those parents who have more
difficulty getting along. Parents will learn skills and strategies
needed to successfully communicate and work together for the sake of
their children and to form the foundation of a businesslike
co-parenting relationship.
2. Parenthood
Requires Supportive Neighborhoods and Communities
“In order to succeed in life, children need supportive families. In
order to be successful parents, many parents need support and
education.” -- Lisbeth B. Schorr, Director, Harvard University Project
on Effective Interventions, Washington, D.C.
http://parenthood.library.wisc.edu/Schorr/Schorr.html
This site supports the scholarship of teaching by providing
research-based resources designed to help faculty use active learning
successfully in college and university classrooms.
http://www.active-learning-site.com/
These resources
include: Active Learning Workshops
VARK: A Starter
Kit for Learning Styles is now located at
www.vark-learn.com
Active Learning Bibliographies, Research Summaries, Internet Links
For further information, contact bonwell@ix.netcom.com or Dr.
Charles Bonwell, Active Learning Workshops, P.O. Box 407, Green
Mountain Falls, CO 80819(719) 684-9261
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The Individual
Development and Educational Assessment Center (IDEA) has twenty-six,
excellent online-papers focused on the improvement of learning and
teaching. www.idea.ksu.edu/resources/index.html
The National
Teaching and Learning Forum provides thoughtful essays and practical
articles on learning and teaching, as well as an online teaching
forum.www.NTLF.com
Sites at Faculty
Development Centers that have a number of useful articles on learning
and teaching are:The Center for Teaching
and Learning, University of Carolina--Chapel Hill.
www.unc.edu/depts/ctl/pub.html
The Teaching and
Learning Center, University of Nebraska-- Lincoln
www.unl.edu/teaching/Teachtips.html
Faculty
Development Committee, Honolulu Community College
www.hcc.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/teachtip.htm
The
International Alliance of Teacher Scholars provides information of the
Lilly Conferences on Teaching. These conferences are a wonderful
opportunity to meet others who are trying innovative activities in the
classroom. www.iats.com