Fostering parental involvement in children’s mathematics homework in Singapore pre-primary education: an intervention using parental education and school-home communication

Abstract

The intent of this study was to compare two different types of parent involvement strategies: Parent Education Workshops and communication through newsletters and the impact they have on children’s math achievement and parent efficacy, parent encouragement and parent home involvement. Participating in the study were 259 children, 5 to 6 years old and their parents, who were assigned to three experimental and one control group. The study adopted a randomised pre-test, post test 2x2 factorial experimental design with control group. A self-developed criterion-referenced math assessment containing 58 test items was used to measure children's knowledge of basic math concepts. A self-administered parent survey to measure parent confidence, parent encouragement and home involvement adapted from Hoover-Dempsey's scales for measuring parent mechanisms of involvement was modified and used for this study. Both the math assessment and the parent survey were administered as a pre-test and post-test. Three parent training sessions modelled on the Berkeley Family Math programme were conducted over a period of 4 weeks for parents in the workshop and workshop*communication groups on how to help children with math at home. Parents who attended the workshops were provided with take home math kits designed to enable parents to use developmentally appropriate materials and activities to encourage their children's interest in math. The communication and workshop*communication groups received three issues of newsletters that contained information and ideas for parental involvement to help children learn math at home. The results of the study showed significant gains in children's math where both the workshop*communication conditions were present, in particular for children with lower pre-test math scores. No significant effects of the treatment on the three parental variables were found. Qualitative data collected from parents and teachers indicated that the parent education workshops had positive results and impact on parents' self efficacy.