Title: Parental involvement in traditional and online education

Authors: Cheng-Sian Chang; Hsi-Mei Chen

Addresses: Department of Information and Learning Technology, National University of Tainan, Tainan 700, Taiwan ' Department of Information Management, Kun Shan University, Tainan 710, Taiwan.

Abstract: While parental involvement benefits the learning performance of elementary students and the internet changes the learning environment, few studies have examined how parents are involved in the virtual world. This two-year project analysed the effects of parental involvement at home, in school and on internet use. The first stage of our research proposes an e-Homebook System, which provides a communication interface through internet for teachers, students and parents. The second stage analysed 13 classes in five different elementary schools to observe parental involvement in the e-Homebook System. At the same time, a questionnaire survey was used to collect data for parental involvement at home and school. The associations among parental background, parental involvement and student learning performance (evaluated as curricula performance, GPA) were then analysed. The analytical results indicated that parental involvement is significantly associated with student learning performance. The background of parents influenced involvement behaviour. Recommendations are suggested for the government, school and parents.

Keywords: student learning performance; parents; parenting; parental involvement; e-learning; electronic learning; online learning; internet; world wide web; traditional education; online education; elementary students; virtual worlds; elementary schools; e-Homebook; electronic Homebook; communication interfaces; teachers; parental backgrounds; curricula performance; curriculum; GPA; grade point average; involvement behaviour; Tainan; Kaohsiung; Taiwan; change.

DOI: 10.1504/IJLC.2011.044188

International Journal of Learning and Change, 2011 Vol.5 No.2, pp.158 - 177

Received: 23 Apr 2011
Accepted: 25 Sep 2011
Published online: 12 Dec 2011 *

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