Researches give contradictory results on the usefulness of mama and dad’s help and their intervention can generate conflicts. Too high expectations can compromise learning
With the resumption of school activities, as every year, that of the usefulness or otherwise of the s is proposed againcarrying out homework, their impact on the level of learning and potentially also their influence on some variables of children’s health. And then there is the question ofwhether or not parents are involved in carrying out the tasks. A study published in the Journal of Research in Childhood Education concluded that parental involvement in following the homework of elementary school children it would not seem to have any effect on the level of achievement at school, both as regards the field of reading and as regards that of mathematics. The research was carried out retrospectively, using US national data from 1997 to 2011, and in the data analysis took into account variables such as the socioeconomic status of the family and the cultural level of the parents. Its results appear contradict common sense, given that intuitively the help of parents at home should represent a kind of reinforcement of what is done at school by the teacher. But according to the authors of this research, coordinated by Katerina Bodovski of Pennsylvania State University’s Educational Policy Studies, it is possible to hypothesize some explanations for what has been observed.
Conflicts
For example, doing homework together could be source of conflicts in the family and therefore ultimately does not lead to those positive results that might be expected; or likely that parents end up doing their homework themselves in order to have more free time for everyone, instead of trying to stimulate the child to try to go it alone. Or there are cases in which parents can put all their good will into play but without having the teaching skills necessary for the new generations to study.
Expectations
Not to mention that mothers and fathers with too high expectations they can generate in children negative reactions to the whole learning process. This survey is actually part of a long chain of research that preceded it to try to understand whether or not homework is useful for achieving better grades and more effective study paths, and if the involvement of parents is desirable. or not. Says Cathy Vatterott, Emeritus Professor of Education at the University of Missouri in St. Louis, author of the book Rethinking Homework: Best Practices That Support Diverse Needs (ASCD, 2018): Do Homework Improve School Outcomes? Attempts by researchers to answer this basic question have led to inconsistent or even contradictory conclusions. For almost every specific result there is another study that contradicts it. Homework has generated enough searches that it is always possible to find one that supports any position. Both sides of the debate on the issue, those in favor and those against, may cite isolated data that support their positions.
Approach
As regards the specific problem of parental involvement in homework, reviews have also been carried out ways who can assume of this involvement: only organization of the work to be done, general supervision of tasks once they have been done, correction, doing homework together, checking understanding of what has been done, etc. These are very different modalities, which makes an overall assessment of the usefulness or otherwise of parental involvement in this field even more difficult. A meta-analysis coordinated by Rubn Fernndez-Alonso of the Universidad de Oviedo, Spain, which concluded that homework help even seems to interfere negatively with academic success and that the right way to provide this help is more important than the amount of time it takes. There are two different explanations for this negative effect the authors of the meta-analysis specify. The first suggests that frequent seeking help with homework is the consequence, rather than the cause, of poor results. In other words, learning difficulties increase the likelihood that children or teachers will ask for more parental involvement in the execution of assigned tasks. Conversely, more self-regulating children tend to perform better and naturally keep parents out of the room when they are busy with homework. The second possible explanation, the authors point out that the use of a excessive controlinterference or punitive relational styles can have negative repercussions on school results.
Training
But what do the parents involved themselves think? Research published in the journal Psicothema directly explored the opinion of a group of parents of elementary school children. Although with the limitations due to the smallness of the sample examined, the conviction on the part of the parents prevailed that their involvement could have positive effects. To this end, it would be desirable to launch specific training opportunities dedicated to them, always in the context of direct collaboration with teachers.
September 18, 2022 (change September 18, 2022 | 08:28)
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