ABSTRACT
This study analyzed the level of parental involvement and its impact of academic performance among senior high school student of Tanza National Trade School. Participants of the study are Grade 11 and Grade 12 students during the school years 2019-2020.
The descriptive method of research was utilized. Subjects of this study will be two sections from senior high school. Whereas, each participant was asked to complete a questionnaire booklet that contained self-report measures of parental involvement and self-reported academic motivation.
Findings that effect of academic parental involvement on students’ academic motivation. Results demonstrated statistically significant mean differences, F=1.040, p>0.05, an indication of a not significant effect of Academic Parental Involvement on the observed mean differences in Academic Motivation of the students. Furthermore, the effect of extracurricular parental involvement on students’ academic motivation. Results demonstrated statistically significant mean differences, F=.732, 1.988, and 1.025 respectively, p>0.05, an indication of a no significant effect of Extracurricular Parental Involvement on the observed mean differences in Academic Motivation of the students.
KEYWORDS
Parental Involvement, Academic Performance, and Senior High School
Introduction and Rationale
Parental involvement is an effective strategy to ensure student success (Barnard, 2004). It may happen at dissimilar levels, ranging from basic tasks such as motivating children, being positive about school, or assisting children with their homework to more complicated and skill demanding tasks such as assisting educators or the official management of schools, which demands higher skill levels (Khan, 1996). Participation in activities such as fund raising, assisting educators with academic or extramural activities and motivating children to perform well in the school depends on the extent to which the school and the principal encourage such involvements.
Traditional forms of parent involvement include participating in school activities (e.g., Parent Teacher Associations [PTA]), back-to-school nights, open houses, parent-teacher conferences, or volunteering at the school. According Bower and Griffin (2011), “Parental involvement through activities such as providing nurturance to their children, instilling cultural values, and talking with their children, do not align with traditional forms of parental involvement as defined by school”
Parental involvement has many positive effects on students other than academics, including increased motivation, self-esteem, and self-reliance, which may lead to academic success regardless of economic background. Conversely, research affirms that inadequate or no parental involvement contributes to low student achievement and engagement (Bower & Griffin, 2011). In essence, parents, siblings, and other significant relatives can create rich learning environments to enhance children’s academic development.
Edwards and Redfern (1988) reported that parental has a positive influence on the children but also the parent’s knowledge base is enhanced. Keynes (1981) showed how children felt confident about going to school in light of their parent’s involvement at school. Parents tended to see themselves as having an integral role, together with the school, in educating children. As they construed it, their parental roles involved active monitoring or “keeping on top of” children’s progress, they also saw themselves as responsible for intervening in school decisions (Lareau, 1987, 1989).
Research supports the belief that parent variables help to facilitate the development of a young person’s motivation. Findings also emphasize the importance of investigating separate types of parental involvement because not all types help to facilitate motivation (Ginsburg and Bornstein, 1993). According to Gonzalez-DeHass, Williems and Holbein (2005): “When parents show an interest and enthusiasm for what their children are learning, they provide a support system at home that buttresses the child’s academic learning and reinforces the value of schooling. By providing such emotional support, parents establish a foundation for socializing children’s motivation to learn” (Austin, 2012)
Motivation in academics is important throughout a young person’s life and therefore adolescent academic motivation is essential to understand. It is reasonable to assume that part of what keeps adolescents interested in their education is how well they are able to perform. Level of performance is largely the result of a student’s desire to accomplish goals within their school and classrooms (Fraser- Thomas & Deakin, 2007). Without motivation it would be particularly difficult to raise the level of performance, to develop interest, and to find enjoyment (Martin, 2010). Therefore, understanding and enhancing student motivation is an important factor of academic success (Hoang, 2007). The degree to which parents involve themselves in their adolescent’s life could be a factor effecting motivation to achieve academically in adolescence.
Literature Review
Academic Achievement
Parent involvement and children's academic skills is mixed (Fan & Chen, 2001). Some studies have found no significant association between parent involvement and academic achievement ( Okpala, & Smith, 2001) and a few have even detected negative associations (Milne, Myers, Rosenthal, & Ginsburg, 1986; Sui-Chu & Willms, 1996). Yet, positive associations between parent involvement and academic achievement have been demonstrated repeatedly in the literature. Fan and Chen (2001) finds moderate associations between parent involvement and an array of learning-related or academic skills, such as achievement motivation, task persistence, and receptive vocabulary, during preschool and kindergarten. With a predominant research focus on parent involvement and achievement in either preschool and kindergarten or high school, the potentially supportive role of parent involvement during middle childhood remains understudied.
Past nonexperimental research on parent involvement commonly investigates contemporaneous associations between parent involvement and academic achievement. These studies typically examine within-grade associations of parent involvement and academic skills (Fantuzzo, McWayne, & Perry, 2004. Other work incorporates contemporaneous research in the early grades with longitudinal follow-up data later in elementary school or beyond (Englund et al., 2004). For example, Miedel and Reynolds (1999) detected positive associations between parent involvement in preschool and kindergarten and reading achievement in kindergarten and in eighth grade. Izzo et al. (1999) also found significant positive associations between average parent involvement in early elementary school and socioemotional development and achievement in later elementary school. Such studies reflect the common practice of considering parent involvement as a static predictor of concurrent achievement or educational outcomes in later school years. A notable exception is a study by Dearing et al. (2006) that employed longitudinal data on parent involvement and reading achievement to examine within- and between-family associations of parent involvement and literacy across elementary school. Findings suggested that differences in levels of parent involvement between families and changes in parent involve ment within families were both predictive of children's literacy skills, and increasing parent involvement during elementary school improved literacy growth Gonzalez-DeHass et al. (2005) argued that when parents are involved in their children’s schools, academic motivation and achievement increase. Students’ interest in learning, competence, and understanding of a subject area, improves and promotes student achievement. Haas and Reiley also found that not all students knew how to fill out the homework planners accurately, and the increased communication with parents served to improve these students’ organizational skills and increase homework completion rates.
Hara and Burke (1998) investigated whether inner city third grade students experienced significant and sustained academic growth when their parents were more directly involved with the school. They conducted an assessment to determine what the elementary school needed to do to ensure an effective parent involvement program. The process included research, planning, implementation, and program evaluation. The researchers used Epstein’s framework for building parental partnerships as the model best suited for setting program goals and conditions. The five-step implementation process included: (a) create an action, (b) obtain funds, (c) identify a starting point, (d) develop a 3-year plan, and (e) continue planning to improve the program. Parents and the community were made aware of the program, and the researchers administered a needs assessment survey to parents and third grade students.
Bower and Griffin (2011) used the Epstein model as a strategy to study parental involvement in a high poverty, high minority elementary school. The study involved a student body of 347 students of multiethnic backgrounds. Five teachers and two members of the administrative team were interviewed for this study. The researchers used a digital voice recorder and transcribed responses to the questions verbatim. Collected data also consisted of field notes based on observations of formal parental involvement activities within the school environment. Communication and home learning consisted of weekly reports sent to parents and personal calls made by teachers and the administrator to invite parents to school events.
Bower and Griffin (2011) found low parent attendance despite efforts by the school to include them in activities. Engagement was not apparent in the study, and the researchers observed a lack of communication between parents and teachers. The researchers determined that schools and teachers did not build effective relationships with parents. Further, Bower and Griffin noted that the Epstein model does not fully capture the essence of how parents want to participate in their children’s school activities. They suggested additional studies to provide information on improving communication and encouraging involvement among parents.
Georgiou and Tourva (2007) examined the relationship between parents’ perceptions of their children’s academic achievement, their beliefs of being involved, and their actual involvement. Participants included 313 Greek Cypriot parents of children attending elementary through high school. The majority of parents were female (66.13%), and the average age was 36.7 years. The sample encompassed 145 parents with children in elementary school (fifth or sixth grade) and 168 parents with children in high school (ninth or tenth grade). The average age of elementary students was 11.2 years and that of high school students was 15.6 years. Parents held at least a university degree, a professional or semi-professional job, and family income ranked above average compared to local standards.
Parents have the distinct advantage over anyone else in that they can provide a more stable and continuously positive influence that could enhance and complement what the school fosters on their children. In this regard, parental involvement is undeniably critical (Mji & Makgato, 2006). However, with regard to the content of what children learn, many fall short because in general they do not possess the necessary education and therefore find it difficult to determine and understand what was done at school (Mji & Mbinda, 2005). This is a point also raised by a learner in a related study, “... my parents don't know maths and physics so how can they be involved...?” (Mji & Makgato, 2006, p.259).
Parental involvement, defined as motivated parental attitudes and behaviours intended to influence children’s educational well-being. It is a multidimensional and bidirectional construct (Christenson, 2004; Fantuzzo, Tighe, & Childs, 2000) that has been shown to have clear links with social and academic outcomes for children (Dearing, McCartney, Weiss, Kreider, & Simpkins, 2004; El Nokali, Bachman, & Votruba-Drzal, 2010). Traditionally parental involvement has been defined as engaging parents in school- based activities and events related to their child’s education (Epstein, 2001). However, a more comprehensive view of parental involvement envisaged in this study goes beyond just parent activities in school settings but in subject- oriented participations. This comprehensive view of parental involvement is grounded in the understanding that children’s success in mathematics is influenced by multiple contexts (e.g., home, school, and community) in a dynamic and bidirectional manner (Vukovic, Roberts & Wright, 2013). Parenting involvement is one factor that has been consistently related to a child's increased academic performance (Topor, 2010; Kgosidialwa, 2010). While this relationship between parent involvement and a child's academic performance is well established, studies have yet to examine how parent involvement increases a child's academic performance. The goal of the present study was to test three variables that may mediate, or explain how, parent involvement is related to a child's academic performance. Parent involvement was defined as the teacher's perception of “the positive attitude parents have towards their child's education, teacher, and school” (Topor, Susan & Keane, 2010).
Levels of Parent Involvement
Gordon suggests five levels of parent involvement in the school's program that summarize the developments that have occurred: (1) audience; bystander- observer, (2) teacher (1) audience; bystander- observer, (2) teacher of the child, (3) volunteer, (4) trained worker, and (5) participants in decision-making, especially through advisory board membership (Gordon, 1970, pp. 27-28). Most attempts at parent involvement have historically been at level one. We shall briefly examine levels two through five and then take a look at one specific Follow Through program that attempts to involve parents at all of the levels.
Influence of Parental Involvement in Extracurricular Activities
A study conducted by Hawkins and Mulkey (2005) offer evidence that athletic participation of eighth graders can and often does have a positive impact on student motivation and engagement. Therefore it is possible that if parental involvement is present in extracurricular activity but not academia, we may still see benefits for academic motivation. O’Bryan et al. (2007) state that student athletic participation may both directly and indirectly create positive academic outcomes through increased parental involvement.
Another study conducted by Gonzalez-Peinda, Carlos-Nunez, and Gonzalez- Pumariega (2002), which looked at the relationship of different aspects of parental involvement and student motivation, found a positive relationship between involvement in athletic events and adolescent motivation outcomes. If the above findings can be generalized to all extracurricular activities with all students, it can be recommended to parents, that, they find an aspect of their child’s life that they can be involved in as a means to increase academic motivation. This is especially significant for parents of lower social economic status (SES), lower educational attainment, and visual minority populations who may find it more difficult to become involved in schools (Harold & O’Donnell, 2008). In the case of extracurricular activities, particularly school-based extracurricular activities, parents who become involved may inevitably become more involved with academia (O’Bryan et al., 2007) and therefore help further increase student motivation.
Impact of Parental Style and Parental Involvement on Adolescent
Academic Motivation
Perhaps the most closely related study, Hoang (2007), looked specifically at the relationships between parenting and adolescent motivation. The purpose of the study was to establish how different types of parenting practices impact motivational outcomes for adolescents. In particular Hoang looked at parental style and parental involvement impact on student motivation (Hoang, 2007). Hoang selected 140 California public high school students to conduct the study upon. Participants ranged in age from 14 to 17 years old and were all registered in an Algebra I course. Questionnaires of perceived parental style, perceived parental involvement, goal orientation, and autonomy were used for measurements.
In consideration of motivation, Hoang (2007) took a theoretical approach by considering goal theories of orientation and autonomy. The results of Hoang’s (2007) study indicated that parents who were perceived to be more authoritative, had the tendency to adopt a mastery goal orientation. Results also showed that parents, who were perceived to be more authoritarian or permissive, tended to have adolescents who adopted a greater performance approach orientation (Hoang, 2007). Furthermore, parental involvement was correlated with a performance orientation as well as a performance avoidance orientation.
The differences between a mastery approach, performance goal approach, and a performance avoidance approach, have to do with their purpose and how they affect motivation. A student who is mastery goal oriented wants to learn for the sake of learning, and become proficient in a topic to the best of their ability. (Ames, 1992). This orientation effects and helps to increase intrinsic motivation. A student who is performance goal oriented is more concerned about outcome then about learning retention. They are likely to become preoccupied with the external indicators of success such as grades (Ames, 1992). Performance avoidant orientation describes those who achieve only out of fear of consequence such as making parents upset or appearing unintelligent amongst peers. Both performance goal and performance avoidant orientations have two effects on intrinsic motivation; if a student performs well, intrinsic motivation Using a goal orientation model, Hoang’s (2007) results do not necessarily indicate that one type of parenting style is superior to another in relation to level of academic motivation. Goal theory suggests that although the potential for decreased motivation exists for performance orientation, both performance and mastery goal orientations can increase intrinsic motivation. Therefore, an argument cannot be made that indicates authoritative parenting will produce superiorly motivated students. Hoang’s study just suggests that students will be motivated in alternative ways, and that a mastery orientation is generally preferred to a performance orientation as there is less risk of reduced motivation and errors being attributed to failure (Gonzalaz-Dehass, et al, 2005). That being said, these results could still be considered a motivational advantage for students with authoritative parenting which is consistent with the majority of the current literature (Steinburg et al., 1992; Izzo et al., 1999; Gonzalez-Dehass et al., 2005). Again, Hoang’s study provides evidence for the hypothesis of the current study in that there is at least a motivational advantage for adolescents with authoritative or moderately involved parenting.
Hoang’s (2007) results suggest that students reporting more personally involved parents also reported a more mastery goal orientation. However, taking the three aspects of parental involvement that Hoang (2007) measured (cognitive, personal, and behavioural parental involvement) together; results also indicate that increased levels of parental involvement are associated with performance approach and avoidant goal orientations. This finding suggests that the more parents involve themselves, the more students will try to achieve out of fear of obtaining a poor grade, achieve because they do not want to disappoint their parents, achieve as they desire a good grade, or achieve because they do not want to feel inadequate (Ames, 1992). Although, this result would initially seem to contradict the current research, which suggests that a moderate level of involvement provides the best influence for adolescent academic motivation, it actually provides support. In Hoang’s (2007) study, no attempt was made to distinguish parental involvement characteristics associated with each of the styles of parenting. Instead, the study examined parental involvement as an independent factor from parental style.
Research Questions:
The study aimed to analyze the relationship of respondent and the barriers to parental involvement and academic performance among senior high school students of Tanza National Trade School.
Specifically, it seeks to find answer to the following question.
1. Does level of parental academic involvement affect student academic motivation for grade 11 and 12 students?
2. Does level of parental extracurricular involvement affect student academic motivation for grade 11 and 12 students?
3. Can parental academic involvement and parental extracurricular involvement be used to predict level of student motivation? If so do they significantly account for variation over and above what is accounted for by demographic variables that significantly correlated with student academic motivation; such as student grade level, gender, and amount of time spent on homework?
4. What are the proposed intervention program can be formulated?
Scope and Limitation of the Study
The study will be analyzing the barriers to parental involvement and its impact to the academic performance among senior high school students of Tanza National Trade School, subject of the study will be the parents of Grade 11 and Grade 12 students of TNTS . The Study was conducted during the school years 2019-2020.
V. Research Methodology
A. Sampling
The subjects of this study will be two sections from senior high school, one from G11 and another one section from G12 and their parents which belong to heterogeneous group from Tanza National Trade School, Paradahan I, Tanza, Cavite for the school year 2019 - 2020.
B. Data Collection Procedures
Teacher observation - The researcher will create and utilize a teacher observation form throughout the course of this study.
Class reports - The researcher will examine students’ marks via class
reports for both the first and second term.
Surveys - Students will complete a pre-survey at the onset of the study and a post survey at the conclusion of the study. The survey will elicit information regarding student’s feelings about parental involvement and its effects on student’s achievement.
The students will complete these survey anonymously. The researcher will also administer a parent pre survey at the onset of the study and post survey at the conclusion of the study. These survey will prompt parents to indicate how involve they are in school. Parents will complete these survey anonymously.
see PDF attachment for more information