Parents, you play a vital role in your children's education. But, are you ready? With the school year looming, Bruce Munro asks how best to handle three of the big challenges: screens, homework and report night.
Stationers, footwear merchants, uniform specialists and bag-shop managers are rubbing their hands in glee at the imminent arrival of their own belated version of Christmas, the return-to-school retail frenzy.
Soon, about 780,000 New Zealand school pupils, including some 32,000 in Otago, will walk, run or be dragged screaming back through school gates for another year of learning, socialising and growing.
With a fortnight to go, parents are conflicted by relief at the thought of educational minders taking back the reins and horror at how much money needs to be doled out to effect the transition.
And lurking in the back of their minds is the knowledge they will still have a role to play; a crucial one, fraught with difficulties, and often unexamined until well into the fray.
What to do about all that time spent on screens? To help or not to help with homework, essays and school projects? And, is there a right response to the disappointing report card?
But forewarned is, potentially, forearmed. A few minutes considering options and gathering thoughts is time, well, spent, and maybe even well spent.
One of the most pervasive changes in the lives of pupils, compared with their parents' generation, is the use of digital devices. They are everywhere, all the time.
A recent survey in the United States has revealed the average teen in that country now spends more time consuming entertainment media than sleeping.
That is an average of nine hours a day in front of screens, excluding school time. To those of us who grew up without a smartphone within arm's reach 24/7, it sounds terrible. Surely it is creating children who will be less healthy, get lower grades and die younger.
Or is it? We just don't know, Erik Landhuis says.
Dr Landhuis is a senior lecturer at the Auckland University of Technology School of Social Science and Public Policy. He is in the midst of setting up a longitudinal study to examine how time spent on media affects children's attention, memory, social skills and understanding of emotional cues.
There are some studies that give useful pointers but the technology landscape has changed so utterly - and is changing so rapidly - researchers are scrambling to catch up, Dr Landhuis says.
He gives the example of the "no television for under-twos, and no more than two hours a day for others'' guideline promoted by the American Academy of Paediatrics.
A few years ago, the academy changed the word television to "screen time'' in a nod to the different ways media was being consumed. Now, it is in the midst of trying to rewrite the guidelines completely "because they've realised they just aren't realistic for the day and age we live in''.
What we do know is that multi-platform media consumption is now ubiquitous. Every time you turn around the children are online, be it through a smart phone, TV or laptop. It is multifaceted and fully integrated into their lives. They can be watching a video, talking to mates, buying music and playing a game simultaneously, all while sitting on a couch, riding a bus or walking the dog.
What we also know, from the US study, is that not all media consumption is the same.
The national sample of more than 2600 young people showed that on any given day 6% do not use screen media at all, 17% use it for two hours or less, 31% spend four to eight hours on screens and 26% spend more than eight hours.
And the ways it is used also varies: 40% of the time is spent in passive consumption (watching and listening), 26% is communication, 25% is interaction, such as video games, and 3% is content creation.
The picture may be slightly different for New Zealand but we are certainly trending in the same direction.
While we are waiting for the surveyors and researchers to quantify how horrified New Zealand parents should be, there are some steps that make sense right now.
If children are going to be online, parents can at least encourage a shift towards media consumption that will fire the brain cells. There are myriad websites that are educational while still engaging.
Ted Ed has everything from "What is depression'' to "The history of the potato''; Veritasium will explain dozens of science phenomena such as what a candle flame is made of and whether the universe has a speed limit; Numberphile explores all things number-based, including the unsolved problem with the number 33 and the best ways to shuffle cards ...
Even video-based gaming might be a step up from watching endless, vaguely amusing"memes'' (ask your teen).
Video games have been shown to improve spatial abilities. But beware which ones are played, as they have been shown to reduce attention spans and
promote anti-social attitudes, Dr Landhuis warns.
And how about increasing the content-creation percentage?
Perhaps your teenager could use their smartphone to become a vlog (videoblog) star, or their laptop to become the next Edward Snowden (consult a lawyer first).
They can learn to create their own computer programs, starting with simple block-coding software such as Scratch; or discover the world of 3-D modelling with software such as Blender or 3ds Max.
In summary, get to know what they are using their devices for; try to move media consumption towards the active and educational end of the spectrum, and encourage a variety of other activities such as reading, going for a bike ride with friends, tidying their bedroom without being asked for once in their lifetime ... and doing their homework.
Homework is where parental involvement in children's education is most explicit. If they do not get the work done, or do it badly, parents may feel it reflects on them just as much as on their children.
But making sure homework is completed, and to a good standard, can go wrong.
A recent Australian report suggested parents are helping children cheat by doing their homework for them. The New South Wales Board of Studies, Teaching and Educational Standards has called for the issue to be addressed.
Homework should not require a lot of parental involvement, Steven Sexton says.
Dr Sexton, who is co-ordinator of the master of teaching and learning degree programme at the College of Education, University of Otago, says homework should let pupils "go home and practise what they already know how to do''.
"If kids can't do their homework, it is ill-assigned or they were not prepared to take that homework home,'' he says.
So, is it ever OK to get involved? It turns out that depends on what goal is motivating the parent.
There are two broad goal categories that everyone falls into: performance or mastery, Rachael Sharman says.
Dr Sharman, a lecturer in psychology at the University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia, wrote about the categories in response to the homework cheating issue.
"People who are performance-motivated are all about outcome; those who are mastery-oriented are interested in what can be learned from the journey rather than the destination,'' she wrote in an article published on the academic and research website The Conversation.
People with mastery goals believe they can improve with hard work and tend to see failure as a necessary part of learning.
"Failure teaches you some seriously important skills: what you are doing wrong, what you need to do differently next time, and emotional coping strategies to overcome the real heartache that can occur when we crash and burn.''
People with performance goals believe that having to make lots of effort is a sign of low natural ability and ability is something you either have or lack.
"These people tend to be psychologically fragile in the face of failure and therefore avoid the experience at all costs.''
If the homework is just above what the child can do, then it could be OK to give a little parental help, Dr Sexton says.
"Parents can get involved by asking ‘how did you do this?', or ‘how do you know this answer is correct?' or ‘what did you do to get this answer?'. Because when they have to explain what they are doing, then they are really going to know it.''
But parents should not be picking up the pen and doing it for them.
It is not going to do them any favours.
"Parents doing homework for kids is a crutch which will only make things worse for their children in later life. If they are used to it being done for them, why should they do it?''
If mastery drives a parent's goals for themselves and their children, they will be willing to let them struggle somewhat with their homework in order to learn and succeed.
"Evidence typically shows that people with mastery goals ultimately outperform those with performance goals, '' Dr Sharman concludes.
But what if, when that all-important report card comes home, your progeny fails to look like a prodigy? How are you best to respond?
A study by the University of Michigan offers some evidence-based advice.
The university's department of psychology asked parents of nearly 500 children how they would respond if their 11- to 13-year-old child brought home a report card with lower-than-expected grades.
The responses were sorted into two categories: "punitive'' - for parents who would respond by lecturing or punishing - and "proactive''.
Five years later, the children's school results were checked to see if there were any patterns.
The study found that children whose parents fell in to the punitive camp had lower levels of literacy and maths achievement by the end of high school.
Lisa Rodgers, who is deputy secretary of early learning and student achievement at the Ministry of Education, concurs.
Ms Rodgers says parents should read their child's report card, discuss it and celebrate achievement and what progress has been made.
If parents have any concerns or questions they should talk to their child's teacher and school.
"Children succeed in positive and supportive environments, particularly where both parent and child are working together,'' Ms Rodgers says.
"Punitive environments often affect children's achievement and behaviour, as well as their self-esteem, confidence and social skills. Children in such family circumstances are at increased risk of hyperactivity, truancy, mental health disorders and suicide, delinquency, and low levels of literacy and self-esteem.
"Positive engagement in their children's education is one of the most important factors in boosting achievement.''
