The study aims at investigating the importance of parental involvement in the teaching and learning of learners in their early years of schooling, especially in rural areas. The researcher is of the opinion that many parents in rural areas are illiterate and poor. Their disadvantages are therefore vast to their counterparts who live in urban areas. Parents could become involved in several activities occurring at school which could provide opportunities for them to be familiar with the school and at the same lime provide opportunities for their children to get more support at school and home. There are activities and responsibilities that parents can perform, which would help teachers to achieve the required goals of teaching and learning within the school. , The literature reviewed in this study on parental involvement in teaching and learning of learners at an early age, shows the awareness of both the rights and responsibilities of parents in their children's education and the vital role that they can play in decision making as well as behavioral change. A qualitative research approach was used in this study. Questionnaires as well as focus group interviews were used as instruments for data collection. The most important findings of the study are as follows: • Teachers and parents in rural areas lack knowledge about the importance of parental involvement, in the learning as well as teaching of learners at an early age. • Special efforts should be made to involve parents of disadvantaged learners. Due to poverty parents are often reluctant to become involved and deny the learners to benefit from parental participation in their learning. • Parent involvement programmes that include focus on parental involvement in instruction, conducting learning activities with learners at home, assisting with homework and so forth should be developed. • Parental involvement requires to be planned and coordinated thoughtfully. • Parents should be reminded time and again that their involvement and support make a great difference in their children's school performance, and that they need not be highly educated or have more free time for their involvement to be beneficial. • Parental involvement is a two-way communication process. / Thesis (M.Ed) North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, 2010

Diss. Uppsala : Univ., 2006.

No description available.

Thesis (MEd)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Parental involvement in a child’s life forms a significant part of parenting, regardless of a parent and child’s background or context. The complexity of the concept is evident considering the diverse nature of existing definitions, models and theories. However, it appears that the approach to the term is greatly determined by the context in which it is used or referred to. Through a case study of a group of South African parents of Grade 9 children at a local high school, the study explores parents’ experiences of their parental involvement and adaption thereof following the transition from primary to high school. The study is qualitative and based on a social-constructivist theoretical framework which is concerned with how each person’s reality is shaped by social interaction with others, as well as historical and cultural influences. The Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler (2005) model of parental involvement takes a central stance in the study. Research findings confirmed the complex nature of parental involvement. Each parent’s experience of his or her parental involvement was uniquely expressed, while the adolescent and school’s invitations for involvement, or rather the lack thereof, were the main determinants of parental involvement at the beginning of high school. A general tendency to decrease involvement following the transition to high school was noted, although it appeared that parents prefer to be more involved, or at least as involved as possible. In this study, parents’ expectations and experiences of their involvement and the transition from primary to high school, concurs with existing literature in the field. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Ouerbetrokkenheid in ‘n kind se lewe is ‘n belangrike aspek van ouerskap, ongeag die agtergrond of konteks van die ouer en kind. Die kompleksiteit van die term is duidelik wanneer die uiteenlopende definisies, modelle en teorieë wat daaroor bestaan in ag geneem word. Dit wil egter voorkom asof die konteks waarin die term gebruik of na verwys word, veral grootliks die benadering daartoe bepaal. Deur gebruik te maak van ‘n gevallestudie van ‘n groep Suid-Afrikaanse ouers van Graad 9 kinders by ‘n plaaslike hoërskool, ondersoek die studie ouers se ervaringe oor hul ouerbetrokkenheid en aanpassing daarvan na die oorgang van laerskool na hoërskool. Die studie is kwalitatief en gebaseer op ’n sosiaal-konstruksionistiese teoretiese raamwerk, wat bemoeid is met hoe elke persoon se realiteit beïnvloed word deur sosiale interaksie met ander, asook die historiese en kulturele invloede in daardie persoon se lewe. Die Hoover-Dempsey en Sandler (2005) model van ouerbetrokkenheid staan sentraal tot die studie. Die navorsingsbevindings het die kompleksiteit van ouerbetrokkenheid bevestig. Elke ouer se ervaring van sy/haar betrokkenheid is uniek uitgedruk, met die adolessent en skool se aanvraag na betrokkenheid, of eerder die afwesigheid daarvan, as die hoofdeterminant van betrokkenheid tydens die begin van hoërskool. ‘n Algemene geneigdheid om ouerbetrokkenheid te verlaag na die oorgang van laerskool na hoërskool is bevind, alhoewel dit voorkom asof ouers tog ‘n voorkeur het om meer betrokke te wees, of ten minste so betrokke as wat hul kind dit toelaat. Ouers se ervaringe ten opsigte van hul verwagtinge en belewenis van betrokkenheid, asook die oorgang van laerskool na hoërskool, hou verband met bestaande literatuur in die veld.

M.Ed. / The purpose of this study is to investigate the parental involvement in the education of their children. This research study is also an endeavour to explore the views of parents of students in grade eleven at Sitintile secondary school and on their role as support structure. In gathering data, qualitative research methods were used. This qualitative research methods lead to the understanding of people's perceptions. Processes that were involved in the data collection were one to one interviews with each of the twelve parents and observation was employed as the secondary data collection method. The researcher approached twelve individuals and they were identified as the sample population of the study . . The main implications of these findings could be summed up this way: • For the grade eleven students to prosper and be goal directed, parent-teacher relationship need to be enhanced. • There is a need for the parents to involve parents in the education of their children. • In conclusion, parents must play a meaningful role in the education of children.

Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Education in the Department of Educational Psychology and Special Education Faculty of Education University of Zululand, South Africa, 1996. / The aim of this investigation was to establish black parents' perceptions regarding their educational responsibility in a changing educational dispensation. From the literature study it became clear that rapid change represents one of the most dynamic features of modern society and the traditional black family is not left untouched by this. The influence of permissiveness, materialism and the mass-media forces parents to educate their children under circumstances quite different to those under which they themselves were reared. Industrialization, urbanization, politicization and the norm crisis are the most dominant characteristics of modern society which gave rise to numerous problems regarding the adequate functioning of the family. In the historical overview of black education in South Africa it was revealed that during the nineteenth century the education of black children in South Africa was funded and controlled by different churches. Between 1904 and 1953 the administration of Black Education was jointly performed by the churches and provinces and during these years the policy of segregation and inequalities in education are well-known and well-documented. After the National Party's accession in 1948 and the passing of the Bantu Education Act in 1953, separation in black education became formalised through legislation and was vigorously implemented. Since the early 1950s apartheid education was vociferously opposed by black students and teachers. The sporadic protests and boycotts of the 1950s and 1960s culminated in the student riots of 1976 which signalled an end to apartheid education. Changes in society had remarkable and adverse effects on the educational responsibility of black parents. The traditional practice, where children learned from their parents and eiders, changed to a Western system where professionals teach children with the aid of textbooks. Parents should, however, have no uncertainties as to their educational responsibility as parents. As the child's primary educators, parents are responsible for the child's adequate education at home, which serves as a basis for school education. They should be fully aware of their role, purpose and task, as well as the possibilities and limitations of their activities as regard the education of their children. The purpose of the child's education is not only adequate support and guidance towards adulthood, but also optima! realization of the child's unique potential. Responsible education can only be adequately realised if the educational relationship between parent and child is based on trust, understanding and authority. For the purpose of the empirical investigation a self-structured questionnaire was utilised. An analysis was done of 150 questionnaires completed by the parents of standard 8 pupils in Umlazi schools. The data thus obtained was processed and interpreted by means of descriptive and inferential statistics. The hypothesis, namely that the relationship of trust, understanding and authority between parent and child has no relation with the gender or age of the parents or the number of school-going children in the family, has to be accepted. In conclusion, a summary and certain finding emanating from the literature study and the empirical investigation were presented. Based on these findings, the following recommendations were made: Cultural leaders must re-establish and meaningfully foster the efficient functioning of the nuclear family. Parent guidance and parent involvement programmes must be established at schools.

This thesis explores Parental involvement in children's education in selected / Thesis (M.Ed.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2006.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of parental involvement in the reading program at home, while controlling the effects of teacher instruction and curriculum content within the school reading program. A major difference between this study and others reviewed herein is that comparisons of reading gains were made within class groups for children who were involved in a home reading program and children who were not involved in a home reading program, thus controlIing teacher and school curriculum variables. The study addressed two questions: (1) Would children who regularly read to their parents at home and received coaching demonstrate better achievement on a standardized reading test than children who did not? (2) Can the relationship between intelligence and reading achievement be used to explain the gains in reading achievement which may be registered by children involved in a home reading program? Eight class groups representing grades two to seven and consisting of a total of 190 students were used in the research. The students in each class group were arranged in order of performance using pre-treatment scores from a Gates-MacGinitie Reading Test (1965). Then students in each class group were assigned to either the experimental (home reading) group or the control (non home reading) group, using a method of controlled alternate assignment. The Otis-Lennon Mental Ability Test (1967) was also administered, with parental permission, to the students in the eight class groups so that the results could be used as a covariate measure with post-treatment reading scores obtained from another administration of the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Test (1965). Pre-testing of reading ability was carried out in February of 1985. Students were assigned as described above to experimental or control groups and the Otis-Lennon Test of Mental Ability (1967) was administered in September of 1985. Experimental intervention began, with experimental group children reading to parents at home, in October of 1985 and continued until February of 1986. Control group children were involved in math and spelling tasks at home during this period. Post-testing of reading ability was carried out at the end of February 1986. Analyses of data followed. The experimental treatment had made a difference. This was indicated by the following observations: 1. Question one was answered by the fact that the difference in mean T-scores of the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Tests (1965) for the experimental and control groups was greater after the experimental treatment had been applied than before; 2.92 T-scale points difference after treatment compared to 1.27 T-scale points difference before treatment. 2. Question one was also addressed by the analysis of covariance which was conducted using Gates MacGinitie and Otis-Lennon test scores to answer question two of this research. An examination of tables 4 and 5 wl11 show that a significant difference existed between Gates-MacGinitie scores for the experimental and control groups on the post-test measure which had not existed between the groups on the pre-test measure . (P <0.05) 3. An analysis of covariance was conducted using Gates-MacGinitie and Otis-Lennon test scores. As expected there was a highly significant relationship between reading pre-test/post-test scores and Otis-Lennon scores. (Pearson's r = .6145) Question two was answered in the affirmative by the fact that when the effects of I.Q. were statistically controlled a significant difference existed between post-test experimental and control group reading scores (p < 0.05) which had not existed at the beginning of the study. The results of this study led to the conclusions that involving parents at home in listening to their children read and giving them support and encouragement does make a difference in the student's reading ability. This study supports the conclusion of similar earlier studies that I.Q. differences amongst subjects cannot explain differences in reading achievement gains that result from such a home reading program. Another important conclusion to be drawn from this study is that teacher and curriculum variables within the school cannot be used to explain differences in reading performance gains for experimental group subjects. The results of this study also generated some recommendations for parental involvement in reading programs and some suggestions for further research. Educators who are interested in the teaching of reading may wish to pursue these recommendations and suggestions further. / Education, Faculty of / Language and Literacy Education (LLED), Department of / Graduate

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