Introduction:
The importance of parental participation in their children’s academic lives to their academic achievement is well accepted. Primary schools in the United Kingdom greatly emphasise parental or guardian engagement in a child’s education. There needs to be more information on the extent of parental engagement in primary schools and how it impacts students’ academic achievement. This study explores the relationship between parental engagement and children’s academic achievement in UK primary schools. A correlational research approach will be employed to collect data from parents of children in elementary school using an online survey. Educators, legislators and parents may find the findings of this valuable study to promote parental involvement in primary schools and raise children’s academic achievement (Epstein, 2010).
Context for the research:
Parental engagement is essential for children to achieve academic achievement, especially in elementary schools. There is evidence from studies that parental participation improves children’s academic outcomes, such as grades, motivation, and self-esteem (Henderson, 2014). The level of parental participation and its effects on kids’ academic performance has yet to be thoroughly investigated. This study intends to explore parental participation’s impact on primary school students’ academic attainment in the UK.
Growing interest has been shown in recent years in parents’ contributions to children’s education, particularly in primary schools. Parental engagement can take many forms, such as tutoring children, attending school functions, assisting with homework, and maintaining open lines of communication with educators.
According to research, parental engagement is favourably correlated with kids’ academic success, and this correlation is particularly significant during the first few years of elementary school. The grades, attendance, and motivation of children whose parents are engaged in their education tend to be higher.
Nevertheless, parental participation levels can vary greatly, and not all parental engagement is equally productive. For example, assisting with coursework and consistently speaking with educators might have a more grounded influence than attending class occasions. Different elements, including the kid’s age, orientation, and financial circumstance, could impact the aftereffects of parental investment.
Considering these issues, further exploration is expected to decide how parental commitment might impact children’s academic improvement in elementary schools. This review plans to add to this body of knowledge by looking at the connection between parental contribution and academic performance in a UK elementary school setting.
Research objectives and research questions:
This study critically examines the relationship between parental engagement and children’s academic achievement in UK primary schools.
Understanding how parental engagement influences children’s academic achievement in UK primary schools is the principal objective of this study. This study aims to determine how much parental participation there is in their children’s academic activities in primary school, including how often and what kind of involvement there is. The study also aims to pinpoint the elements—such as socio-economic status and cultural distinctions—affecting parents’ academic participation. This study can offer insights into how schools and educators can better involve parents in their children’s academics, ultimately resulting in improved academic performance for primary school students by identifying the barriers to parental engagement (Castro, 2015).
The research questions are:
- What is the extent of parental participation in the academic activities of primary school children?
- What is the impact of parental engagement on children’s academic achievement in primary schools?
- How does the extent of parental engagement vary across different socio-economic backgrounds?
- What are the hassles of parental participation in the academic activities of primary school children?
Hypothesis:
H1: Parental participation positively affects kids’ academic performance in elementary school.
H2: The level of parental involvement and kids’ academic success in primary schools are positively correlated.
H3: Different socio-economic groups have varying levels of parental participation.
Research methods:
Design:
Because it enables us to explore the relationship between parental participation and children’s academic achievement in primary schools in the UK, the correlational research design is suitable for this study. Thanks to this design, we can assess how much parental participation affects children’s academic success (Boonk, 2018).
Participants:
Custodial mothers or fathers of children in UK elementary schools will participate in this study. The convenience sampling method will be used to choose the participants. In educational research, convenience sampling is a non-probability sampling strategy that involves choosing participants based on their availability and willingness to participate. The sample size will be chosen using power analysis to guarantee that the study is sufficiently powered to identify the significant impacts of parental participation on children’s academic progress.
The demographic that will be studied for this study will be parents of kids enrolled in primary schools in the UK. For the study, participants will be chosen using the convenience sampling technique, which entails choosing people based on their accessibility and desire to participate (Wilder, 2014). The sample will be chosen from a group of parents whose kids attend primary schools throughout the United Kingdom. The parents will be made aware of the study through their child’s school and invited to participate.
A power analysis will be done to ensure the study is sufficiently powered to identify the effects of parental engagement on their kids’ academic performance. The sample size will be determined using the G*Power software, which considers variables including effect size, alpha level, power level, and the number of predictors. Ninety participants are the minimum advised sample size for a correlation study with a medium effect size (r =.30), an alpha level of.05, and a power level of.80. Although the bare minimum sample size is ninety participants, for the study, approximately 120 participants will be considered to rationalise prospective data gaps and attrition.
The study’s eligibility criteria require participants or parents to have children enrolled in any primary school in the United Kingdom and willingly fill out an online survey. They were based on the study’s design, limiting variables such as age, socio-economic status, gender and race or not significant. However, to examine the potential impact of parental engagement on children’s academic performance, data on socio-economic status will be gathered for the study. Throughout the study procedure, participants informed consent and confidentiality remain a priority.
Materials:
For the study, self-administered online questionnaires will be used in collecting data. The data collected will include parental engagement in educational activities, socio-economic status and the child’s educational performance. To get a complete picture of parental participation and kids’ academic success, the questionnaire will be made to collect both quantitative and qualitative data.
The online questionnaires will follow a simple form designed to be short and precise, facilitate easy understanding and consume a reasonable amount of time. It will consist of three major sections:
The first section covers the level and frequency of parental engagement in a child’s academic performance. Such parental engagement includes; participating in a child’s extra-curricular ventures, actively attending parent-teacher conferences and assisting children in their schoolwork or assignments. The questions included in this questionnaire section are designed to gauge parental engagement based on their participation’s quality and quantity.
Socio-economic status: This part of the questionnaire will gather data on the socio-economic status of the parents. This includes parents’ household income, employment history and educational background. The data collected in this section of the questionnaires will be used to analyse how socio-economic status impacts parental engagement rate in their child’s educational performance (Benner, Boyle & Sadler, 2016, pp. 1053-1064).
The child’s academic success: The youngster’s scholarly presentation, including grades and test scores, will be remembered for this part of the survey. In light of the youngster’s academic progress, the inquiries are planned to accumulate factual and objective scholastic achievement information.
The poll will be pretested on a little example of guardians qualified for the review to ensure it is easy to finish, clear, and succinct. Upon culmination, the planned surveys will be emailed to member guardians of kids in grade schools in the United Kingdom. The members will be expected to fill out and finish the polls and submit them online. The internet platform’s anonymity/obscurity and security conventions will guarantee that information gathered stays classified and just opened by approved faculty.
Procedure:
The questionnaire will be emailed to UK parents of elementary school children. The email will outline the study’s objectives, assure participants that their answers will be kept private, and ask them to complete the questionnaire and submit it online. The survey will be given out in English, the UK’s official language. To maintain data accuracy, illiterate participants will be excluded from the study during data collection.
To guarantee the dependability and accuracy of the data gathered, the questionnaires used in the study will be pretested before the participants are distributed. Using a small sample of parents or participants, the comprehension and readability of the questionnaires will also be assessed. The readability, comprehension and time taken to complete the questionnaires will be measured and assessed using a pilot research procedure. Given the pretested feedback results, the designed questionnaires will be appropriately adjusted for a more accurate study.
At the point when the sample questionnaires have been at last endorsed, the specialist will ask the different school organisations for the email locations of the members, that is to say, the parents of primary school children. The email with the questionnaires will likewise incorporate; the review’s objectives, methodology, parents’ intentional interest, and parents’ more right than wrong to pull out their understanding whenever. The email likewise contains a connection to the online review and an extraordinary ID number that respondents will use to ensure the namelessness of their reactions.
The term of data gathering will associate with about a month. After fourteen days, members will get updated emails to encourage them to finish or complete the online reviews. After getting the finished questionnaires from the members, the data accumulated or downloaded from the online poll website will be put away on a PC with certain conventions, such as approved admittance utilising a secret phrase. To further guarantee the participants’ confidentiality, the data sets will exclude all personal identification information from participants.
Analysis:
Using descriptive statistics will ensure the characterisation and summarisation of the data collected from the participants. The average and standard deviation used in the study is two metrics of variability and central tendency. The mean, described as the average score of the data, is a typical measurement of the standard deviation, a measurement of data deviation from the mean. These descriptive statistics allow us to sum up the level of parental participation and academic accomplishment among the sampled children.
Nonetheless, inferential statistical data ensures that the researchers will extrapolate information from the sample to generalise the population. Correlation analysis is a statistical technique for examining the link between two variables. The study will use correlation analysis to assess the magnitude and relationship level between parental engagement and children’s educational progress.
Regression analysis used to assess the degree of parental participation and its impact on children’s academic performance and success is another statistical tool utilised in the study. Using regression analysis, we can determine from the study the relationship between parental participation and the numerous differences in children’s academic performance or achievements (Wang, 2016).
Inversely, the statistical analysis does establish causality rather than determining the relationship between different variables used in a study. As a result, it will be vital to carefully assess the data and consider any other variables that may influence children’s academic success.
The degree of parental engagement in connection to a child’s academic progress will be established using descriptive statistical metrics like the standard deviation and mean. On the other hand, inferential statistical measures such as regression and correlation analysis will be used to evaluate the connection between parental engagement and a child’s academic achievement.
The descriptive statistics will address data variability, central tendency and distribution. The mean will be used to compute the average level of parental engagement and the child’s academic success. The standard deviation will indicate the variability of data around the mean.
Using inferential statistics, the relationship between parental engagement and children’s educational success will be investigated and examined. Using the correlation analysis, the strength and magnitude of parental engagement will be determined. Lastly, regression analysis will determine how much parental engagement predicts a child’s academic growth.
Tables
Table 1: Demographic Characteristics of Participants
Variable | Frequency
|
Percentage |
Gender (Male/Female) | ||
Age | ||
Education | ||
Occupation | ||
Income |
Table 2: Parental Involvement in Academic Activities
variable | frequency | percentage |
Helping with homework | ||
Checking homework | ||
Attending parent-teacher conferences | ||
Attending school events | ||
Volunteering at school | ||
Supporting extra-curricular activities |
Table 3: Children’s Academic Achievement
variable | frequency | percentage |
Grades in English | ||
Grades in Maths | ||
Grades in Science | ||
Overall academic performance |
Table 4: Barriers to Parental Involvement in Academic Activities
Barrier | frequency | percentage |
Lack of time | ||
Lack of understanding of the subject |
Research skills:
I can conduct the necessary research to finalise this project, including designing the study, selecting relevant research methodology, gathering data, and conducting data analysis. It is also significant to become proficient with statistical analysis software like SPSS.
The process of planning a research project includes the development of research objectives, suitable research design, research hypothesis and questions and appropriate research methodology. Conducting the research study also calls for a thorough understanding of research ethics to ensure that research is conducted in ethical procedures.
Competency in the research study determines the appropriate research methodologies to address the research questions and achieve the research objectives. In this case, the researcher uses a correlational research design and a self-administered internet questionnaire as their study techniques (Allison, 2016).
Data collection: Using the proper techniques, this skill entails gathering precise and trustworthy data. A self-administered online questionnaire will be utilised in this study to collect data, which is a standard strategy in educational research.
Data analysis: Competency involves analysing the collected data using statistical techniques. The researcher intends to evaluate the data in this study using descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and regression analysis.
Employing statistical analysis software: Social science research frequently uses the statistical analysis program SPSS. It is employed to produce statistical reports and analyse data. In order to perform the data analysis for this study, the researcher will need to become proficient with this program.
Ethical considerations:
The British Educational Research Association’s ethical principles will be followed in this study (BERA). During the data collection and analysis process, participants’ information will remain anonymous and confidential, and participants will be required to give informed consent to the researchers. Every participant participating in the study will have a choice to discontinue their participation at any given time.
Firstly, the study will ensure that participants are fully informed of the research goals and objectives, the data to collect, and the intended purposes. To achieve this, participants will get a straightforward participants’ information sheet before they acquiesce to the study.
Second, the participant’s identity and privacy will be protected during the study. The questionnaire will not be used to collect any personal identification data, such as participant names and addresses. The data collected will be input into securely password-protected computers only accessible to authorised academics working on the study project.
Thirdly, the research will ensure that no participants are at risk. There will be no dangers to participants’ physical or psychological health because the questionnaire’s questions are non-intrusive.
Last but not least, the study will ensure that participants can choose to discontinue their participation at any given time. The participants will be informed of their choice to end their participation on the participant’s page and informed that withdrawal from the study holds no adverse consequences.
Impact of research:
The findings of the study will significantly impact parents, legislators and educators. It will clarify the extent of parental engagement and how this impacts children’s academic achievement in primary schools in the United Kingdom. The study’s findings will also recommend ways to enhance parental participation and remove obstacles in elementary schools. The study will contribute to the corpus of information based on the level of parental engagement, such as helping children with assignments and actively participating in teacher-parent conferences and their children’s success in primary schools, which serves as a model for further research in this area (Goodall, J. 2014).
The implications of this research could be enormous for different stakeholders, including legislators, educators, and parents. Policymakers can utilise the study’s findings to establish standards for parental engagement in elementary schools. The study’s evidence of the positive impact of parental participation on children’s academic achievement may result in policies encouraging parental engagement in elementary schools. To address the strenuous factors preventing parental engagement in primary schools, such as lack of knowledge and language barriers concerning supporting children’s educational growth, policymakers should apply the study’s findings and recommendations (Uriii & Bunijevac, 2017).
Educators, conversely, can utilise the study’s findings to develop strategies for encouraging parental engagement levels in elementary schools. The study’s recommendations might serve as a blueprint for training sessions, conferences, workshops and seminars for parents in pursuit of support for their children’s academic performance. Educators could use the study results to persuade parents to participate more in their kids’ academic pursuits and to acknowledge the beneficial effects of parental participation on academic performance.
Parents could benefit from the study’s findings by learning about the favourable influence of their involvement in their children’s academic pursuits. The parent’s commitment to their children’s scholarly undertakings could rise, which could work on the children’s grades. The review reasoned that parents might assist their youngsters with accomplishing scholarly accomplishments by encouraging a positive learning climate and giving instances of compelling review strategies.
The impacts of the review could go past the domain of grade schools. The review’s discoveries might affect the strategies and systems administering parental cooperation in different instructive settings, including optional schools and post-auxiliary organisations. The findings could serve as a springboard for more research on the link between parental participation and kids’ academic achievement. Besides, the findings of this review give knowledge into parental support rates and what they mean for kids’ scholarly accomplishment in grade schools, which might have enormous ramifications for lawmakers, teachers, and parents.
Conclusion
The degree of parental engagement and its impact on children’s academic achievement in the United Kingdom’s primary schools will be considered in the study. Parents with children in primary schools in the United Kingdom are eligible for the study, and data will be collected using self-administered online questionnaires.
The study’s findings will significantly impact parents, educators and legislators. Summarily, the study provides insightful details on familial engagement and its impact on children’s academic achievement and recommendations for enhancing parental engagement and reducing barriers in elementary schools. This study will also assist in future research by expanding the available research body on parental engagement and children’s academic achievement in primary schools.
In terms of ethical considerations, this study will comply with the ethical criteria of the British Educational Research Association (BERA), assuring informed consent, confidentiality, and anonymity for all participants.
In general, this research will raise the calibre of policies in primary schools and boost parental engagement in the educational advancement of their children. The results of this study may help develop effective educational strategies and policies and positively impact the lives of kids and families.
References
Allison, B., Hilton, A., O’Sullivan, T., Owen, A., & Rothwell, A. (2016). Research skills for students. Routledge.
Baquedano-López, P., Alexander, R. A., & Hernández, S. J. (2013). Equity issues in parental and community involvement in schools: What teacher educators need to know. Review of research in education, 37(1), 149-182.
Benner, A. D., Boyle, A. E., & Sadler, S. (2016). Parental involvement and adolescents’ educational success: The roles of prior achievement and socio-economic status. Journal of youth and adolescence, 45, 1053-1064.
Boonk, L., Gijselaers, H. J., Ritzen, H., & Brand-Gruwel, S. (2018). A review of the relationship between parental involvement indicators and academic achievement. Educational Research Review, 24, 10-30.
Booth, A., & Dunn, J. F. (2013). Family-school links: How do they affect educational outcomes? Routledge.
Castro, M., Expósito-Casas, E., López-Martín, E., Lizasoain, L., Navarro-Asencio, E., & Gaviria, J. L. (2015). Parental involvement on student academic achievement: A meta-analysis. Educational research review, 14, 33-46.
Epstein, J. L. (2010). School, family, and community partnerships: Preparing educators and improving schools. Westview Press.
Fan, X., & Chen, M. (2001). Parental involvement and students’ academic achievement: A meta-analysis. Educational Psychology Review, 13(1), 1-22.
Goodall, J., & Montgomery, C. (2014). Parental involvement to parental engagement: A continuum. Educational review, 66(4), 399-410.
Henderson, A. T., & Mapp, K. L. (2002). A new wave of evidence
Wilder, S. (2014). Effects of parental involvement on academic achievement: a meta-synthesis. Educational Review, 66(3), 377-397.
Wang, M. T., & Sheikh‐Khalil, S. (2014). Does parental involvement matter for student achievement and mental health in high school? Child development, 85(2), 610-625.
Đurišić, M., & Bunijevac, M. (2017). Parental involvement as an essential factor for successful education. Center for Educational Policy Studies Journal, 7(3), 137-153.