Straits Times: Teacher-parent partnership important in motivating secondary school students

SINGAPORE – When parents and teachers communicate and work together, students feel more supported and motivated in their studies.

This is according to the findings of two studies by the National Institute of Education (NIE) released in May about how parents and teachers impact students’ academic motivation.

Dr Wong Zi Yang, an NIE research fellow, led one study to understand how support from parents and teachers, which allowed students to make their own choices and be vocal about their thoughts, impacted how driven they were in their studies.

Straits Times: Adolescent boys feel more supported by parents, compared with adolescent girls

SINGAPORE – When Ms Tunitha Reku, 44, talks to her 15-year-old son, he is happy to give his mother just the gist of what happened in his school. However, it is different with her daughters, who are 13 and 14.

“Whatever Leshawn discusses with me is usually on the surface; he doesn’t go into details. But my daughters like to have detailed discussions. So there’s definitely more in-depth discussions with them,” said Ms Tunitha.