In recent decades, Parental’ involvement in their children’s education careers has received more attention due to various efforts taken by schools to improve student learning. Most European countries suggest that students do their homework independently, and parents should involve and support them. The achievements of the students are based on the involvement of the parent. It is also related to the personal attributes conducive to students’ success. This article includes studies about parents’ role in their children’s learning, content, and outcomes.
Many research articles include reports on the involvement of parents in student homework. Various studies reported that motivation and involvement in children’s education are very important requirements and responsibilities of parenting. In general, their involvement help positively influences student outcomes.
PARENTS’ RESPONSES WHEN THEY ARE INVOLVED IN A CHILD’S HOMEWORK?
- Parents try to create a specific environment to ensure homework success, like arranging the homework schedule and specifying regular times for homework.
- They use various strategies to fulfil the student’s task demands and skill levels.
- They break the educational task into different parts to understand, observe and “teach” the child’s developmental level.
- Parents may also employ problem-solving strategies and model or demonstrate the appropriate learning processes.
- The efforts to help their child use more informal and indirect methods, e.g., responding to different questions. They start helping and tutoring the child. And also, they start doing homework with them.
- Parents start interacting with the tutors and school teachers about their child’s academic performance and progress. They also participate in the homework intervention program and offer requested homework-related help.
- They monitor and supervise the homework process (e.g., try to understand the requirement of homework and also try to monitor the understanding level of the child) to provide help related to homework and task.
STRATEGIES TO SUPPORT STUDENT MOTIVATION & ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE
This section discusses some very useful tricks for supporting students’ academic performance in their homework. There are so many tricks teachers can use to encourage the child’s parental involvement because teachers can better understand necessary educational goals.
Responding to the Children’s Homework Performance
The positive responses towards a child’s academic performance from parents, teachers and family members are very beneficial for children. Sincere compliments on work and specific suggestions can influence children’s motivation for homework. The teachers and the after-school staff can also give parents examples of how to offer autonomy-supportive responses and increase their child’s self-confidence. The level of self-confidence can be increased by telling them that they know they can do the homework independently and encouraging them to participate in different learning activities. The suggestions for appropriate positive responses may be very helpful.
Interaction With the Teacher About Homework
Parents always want to encourage and motivate their children and support them in their academic careers, but they don’t always understand how to do that. They don’t know that their involvement is so important for their child. Teachers and other school staff should encourage the parents to communicate with the teachers if they have any inquiries about students’ learning (e.g., the topic of assignments, sites for information or help). The written information (in daily diaries) about homework can benefit parents and students in understanding. Suppose the parents have opportunities to communicate with teachers about different ideas (like thinking skills, practicing skills, responsibility and organizing materials) during an orientation organized by the school. In that case, it can also be very helpful.
Engagement in Homework Processes and Task
Teachers can encourage parents to engage in their child’s learning processes by giving them a specific time-to-time suggestion, which helps children broaden the learning goals of homework assignments. The teachers can also help parents with direct teaching strategies (when practice or memorization involves a child’s homework) that can be very beneficial for students, especially for younger ones who experience difficulties with homework or request help. Learning about indirect teaching methods (including; questions, answer sessions and discussing student needs for the given task) expands the helping skills of parents. Parents can approach online class help service to help their kids and make their learning easier.
Establishing Parameters for Homework Performance
There are various parameters to support children’s learning depending upon their developmental level, e.g., 7-year-old students are more distractible than 15-year-old students, so the younger ones need external structuring more than the elder ones (who like to work independently and need less parental structuring). Teachers should communicate with the parents about various tricks they can use to avoid the distraction of their children during homework, e.g., doing the easier parts of assignments first and not getting up until the part is done; TV, video games, iPad, computers, CD player and the mobile should be turned off during homework. Teachers and parents may suggest alternative homework routines, and school providers can also be very helpful, e.g., parents track time, and students decide the order in which students will finish the homework.
REASONS BEHIND PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT
There are so many reasons, but we only discuss the three major reasons for parent’s involvement in children’s homework issues:
- Parents are very concerned about their children’s learning difficulties; that’s why they think their involvement will be effective and positively affect their children’s academic careers.
- As responsible people, they believe they have to support and involvement in their children’s education due to their experiences, perceptions, expectations and beliefs about what their children should do in their future.
- The parents involve themselves because of the tutor’s invitations suggesting to involve in the child’s daily homework tasks.
The teacher plays an important role in guiding parents to become involved in children’s learning process related to student achievements. The daily homework task provides various opportunities for beneficial communication among schools, teachers, families and students. The homework task can also allow parents to analyze what their children are learning in their schools from teachers. They can communicate about their learnings, educational activities, sports activities, and other things to support student learning. However, the involvement of parents in their child’s learning activities influence student outcome.
Sharing different ideas related to student homework among parents and teachers increases student learning and self-confidence. The different tricks suggested in this literature play an important role in effective learning. Students’ achievements depend on the teacher’s and parent’s roles in the development of student learning.