April 2012

Where are the parents?

Someone asked me about the impact of parental involvement
and I thought it would be a good idea to post a blog entry on this interesting
and important issue.

By and large, there is a lot of research and information to
be found on the positive impact of parental involvement in education. A study
conducted by the American Southwest Educational Development Laboratory (2004)
found that, regardless of family income or background, students with involved
parents are more likely to:

-receive higher grades/test scores and enrol in higher-level
programmes;

-pass their classes

-attend school regularly;

-have better social skills, show improved behaviour and adapt
well to school; and

-matriculate and go on to tertiary education

Singh, Mbokodi and Msila (2004) in their article in the South African Journal of Education, have
shown that parents who played little or no role in their children’s homework
and study programmes contributed to the poor performance of their children.

So if parents play an important role in impacting on their
children’s progress in school, research has also shown that schools have significant
part to play in determining levels of parent involvement. Vuzi Mncube, a
lecturer at Stellenbosch University and researcher, explored South African
parents perceptions of their role in the democratic governance of school and found
that parents are not fully on board and that there is not enough parental
participation in school activities (2009)

So more effort must be made by schools, government and corporate
institutions to include parents in decision-making at schools and to encourage
parental involvement with their children.

I happened upon an article that appeared in New Therapist (31, 2004) on how parental
involvement also boosts health. People with ample parental support during childhood
are likely to have relatively good health (including physical and
psychological) throughout adulthood, whereas people with inadequate parental
support while growing up are more likely to have poorer health as adults,
including depressive symptoms, hypertension, arthritis, and urinary problems.

With such results, the importance of parental of involvement
is clear. Linked to this, educators, psychologists, school governors and even the
corporate world can play a supportive role in pushing for more parental
involvement, but at the end of the day, the onus is lies with the parents. Will
they come on board?

 

Journals/websites used for this entry:

New Therapist

South African Journal of Education

www.edweek.org

9 Comments

Filed under Psychology

9 Responses to April 2012

  1. heard of something like this for the first time. thanks for sharing it.http://www.divulgaemail.com

  2. I simply wanted to compose a quick remark so as to say thanks to you for these stunning guidelines you are giving on this site. My extended internet look up has finally been honored with incredibly good suggestions to exchange with my pals. I ‘d point out that we website visitors are unquestionably endowed to be in a magnificent network with many awesome people with great advice. I feel really privileged to have discovered your entire website and look forward to plenty of more amazing times reading here. Thanks a lot once again for all the details.

    • Posted on incredible, that was a very good read. In cooisulcnn, someone who actually thinks and understands what they are blogging about. Quite difficult to find of late, especially on the web . I bookmarked your web blog and will make sure to keep coming back here if this is how you always write. thank you, keep it up! .

  3. Spot on with this write-up, I really assume this web site needs rather more consideration. I’ll in all probability be again to read much more, thanks for that info.

  4. Hi! I’m at work browsing your blog from my new iphone! Just wanted to say I love reading your blog and look forward to all your posts! Keep up the fantastic work!

    • kassa Posted on I would very much like to do my masters in early chihdlood Education because I love to kkow more about how childresn learn, and I want contribute by preparing the right materials .

  5. Heya i’m for the first time here. I found this board and I find It truly useful & it helped me out much. I hope to give something back and help others like you helped me.

  6. Thanks a lot for providing individuals with an extraordinarily pleasant possiblity to read in detail from this blog. It’s always very enjoyable and as well , packed with a lot of fun for me personally and my office mates to search your web site at least thrice every week to find out the latest items you have got. And of course, I am at all times astounded concerning the spectacular points you give. Selected two tips in this posting are truly the most suitable I’ve ever had.

Leave a Reply to Celia Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>