ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses communication skills in teacher education using established and well-evaluated methods such as microskills training would be a good start, even though it runs the risk of being considered as too technicist. Governments and education authorities often promote the development of partnerships between schools and parents or other carers. Teachers' skills in communicating with parents are central to such partnerships, but little addressed in pre-service and in-service teacher education. Various models are available for incorporating oral communication skills training into teacher education, in both pre-service and in-service contexts. The effective use of such skills, in conjunction with other methods of engaging parents and a consideration of broader contextual issues, has the potential to enhance parent teacher partnerships. The action on developing teacher-parent communication skills, a wealth of research opportunities exists in examining how far parent-teacher partnerships are able to contribute to the ultimate goal of benefiting children's mental health and wellbeing.
