The involvement of parents in their children’s education has been observed to have a direct effect on their general performance. Several articles and books have revealed such evidences that seek to encourage the parents to affect their children positively as they get involved in their educational activities. The journal article on ‘parental involvement in and educational achievement’ was written with the aim of reviewing published materials on this topic to identify the various activities that will support the children in achieving higher educational goals.
This review discovered that even though the parents are willing and ready to support their children at home, some of them are limited with such resources due to their socio economic status. The programs that the parents are meant to employ may be involving, making most parents unable to follow them strictly. It was also found out that early intervention by parents in their children’s education would have an effect on their later development.
The kind of research employed in this journal article was applied because researchers used a small sample group of students, schools and parents to represent a larger population. It was assumed that the details obtained from the sample group were a reflection of the majority. The researchers went out into the field to interview parents and schools to find out how they were involved in the children’s academic. They qualitatively collected the data that they believed was right.
The data was comparative since they relied on the information they received from the interviewees. The research question is mainly to find out if the parents had an influence on their children’s education. The introduction of the article has given detailed information of the various activities that the parents can be involved in both at school and at home that will ensure their children advance higher in their academics (Driessen, 2005).
The author has addressed the research question to the extent of addressing critical issues that are needed to ensure that parents are adequately involved in the education of the children. They also highlighted the different measures that are involved by parents in supporting the children and their limitations. The authors clearly enumerate such measures and looks at the different background and the socio-economic challenges that may hinder some parents from adequately supporting their children. The hypothesis of the material collected in the data was based on the assumption that the data collected from a sample group was a representation of a larger group that could not be statistically reached.
The researchers have exhaustively addressed the research question by identifying specific areas that the parents would influence their children. The researchers also enumerated the different ways in which parents affected their children’s performance in schools. They also enumerate how the parents can be involved in the school activities and school boards to strike a balance between the services offered by the teachers and them (Driessen, 2005).
The intensity of their influence depends on the relationship between the characters of the parent, the school and the local environment. The schools have a responsibility of creating a positive environment at home for the children’s development, and the parents to prepare them by guiding and raising them up.
The schools must provide the necessary information to the parents on how they are progressing in their studies and the parents to show concern by reacting to such progress. The parents should be actively involved in other co curricular activities of the school. The parents are required to assist their children at home and supervise their homework assignments. The parents should be involved in the managerial activities of the school by giving them the necessary advice. Different community resources should be integrated in the school programs.
The literature review of the article defines the various ways through which parents influence their children. This is in relation to the research question that seeks to find out if the involvement of parents in their children’s academics will boost their performance. The authors of the article have defined the different ways through which the parents can be involved in their children’s education and the various challenges that are facing such implementation.
The participation of the parents varied from those that are well educated reporting the highest involvement. The second category is that of the parents that are working and educated contacting the school in case they needed clarification of any kind from the administration and the third category was of the parents that were least educated and found it difficult to communicate with the administration concerning the relevant and important activities of the school (Driessen, 2005).
There is, however, no alternative measure for such parents that cannot adequately communicate with the school administration. Such parents can be assisted by the administration by making them be informed of what is going on. They need to be explained the different activities of the school in a language that they can understand.
Whenever any such meeting has been held in the school involving the parents, the school administration should involve the help of some social workers to interpret to them the different agendas that discussed and encourage them to give their views on the same. Such views shall then be communicated to the school administration for implementation. The different groups of parents need to be dealt with in a different manner, and the administration should ensure that they clearly understand each view of the parent. Assumptions may be made through the active participation of the well-educated parents that provides only a small percentage of the parents (Driessen, 2005).
It is also important for the school to be involved in other non-academic procedures that affect the Childs education, like health care facilities. Some parents may not be able to provide such facilities to their children not only because of their economic situation but also due to their ethical backgrounds.
The procedure used to collect data may not adequately provide the answers to the research question since their research was based on a certain group of people. The situations in a certain area may not necessarily be the same in other areas. The research done will only help to improve the education system in the Dutch community. It would have been helpful if they collected research samples from different groups of people with different environmental conditions. Such comparisons would have given a general picture of how the parents’ involvement in the children’s education affects their development.
The sampling technique used to present data in the journal was a stratified sampling technique. This is because a targeted population of schools was analysed and then details collected on different aspects of parental involvement fostered their children’s academic performance. These aspects included how they supervised their children when watching television, doing their homework and helping them to select secondary schools (Driessen, 2005).
The sampling technique was appropriate considering the different aspects that were to be considered. A comparison was to be made on how the mentioned aspects influenced the student and the effect that parents had depending on the rate of their participation. It also provided a critical view of how the parents, the school environment and other socio economic factors affected their progress.
In most cases when such kind of sampling is done, there are usually errors that may not be prominent but have an effect on the clarity of information provided. The targeted group may not be adequately available for the exercise, which makes the researchers to exclude them in their results or make assumptions on their behalf. It may not also be clear on the sincerity of the individuals being interviewed, some may not be open to tell the truth and answer in a way they feel. The researchers may not be in a position to prove whether the information given to them is right or not. They simply rely on their research findings in making conclusions without knowing what percentage is correct or wrong.
The analysis conducted in the journal article was from parents, schools where they learned and the social background of the students. It was found that the parents with a much higher education participated more in the schools activities compared to the parents that were averagely educated. Parental involvement procedures were in relation to school and parent initiated included, the extra finances they used, developing a good contact with the parents, parental initiated methods involved, the choice of secondary schools, cultural capital investment, making necessary enquiries in schools and helping them with homework (Driessen, 2005).
The school background characters were based on urbanisation, the size of the school and percentage of ethnicity. The student outcome samples included their outcome in languages and mathematics, their well-being, self-confidence and their home environment. The analysis collected was appropriate for the research questions since they were looking into issues that affected the students that were directly impacted by their parents.
The results of the data collected are practically significant to the research question. This is because the researchers identified the different areas that parents can be involved and how their participation will go a long way in strengthening their children’s academic life.The direct effects of the results shown could not be demonstrated, the involvement of parents in schools with many ethnic minorities was high, but no positive result was indicated.
Then effects of parents involvement has been demonstrated in the data to reveal that how well a student performs and the level of his parent participating in his academic process are to a large extend affected by their cultural background. The claims are valid considering the disparity that has been recorded between the active involvement of parents in schools with numerous ethnic minorities that recorded no result of improvement and that of the parents in urban schools.
Reference
Driessen G. Parental Involvement and Educational Achievement: British Educational Research Association (2005).