Effect of Parental Care on the Academic Performance of Primary School Pupils
Chapter One
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The following are the objectives of this study:
- To examine the effect of parental care on the academic performance of primary school pupils.
- To examine the rudiments of parental care.
- To determine the factors that can influence the academic performance of primary school pupils.
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
INTRODUCTION
This chapter gives an insight into various studies conducted by outstanding researchers, as well as explained terminologies with regards to effect of parental care on academic performance of primary school pupils in Nigeria Nursery schools.
The chapter also gives a resume of the history and present status of the problem delineated by a concise review of previous studies into closely related problems.
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
The Theoretical framework that serves as a basis for this study is a research-based framework developed by Epstein (1995). The framework summarizes the theory of overlapping spheres of influence to explain the shared responsibilities of home, school, and community for children’s learning and development. The framework contains six important factors with regard to parental involvement. The six factors are parenting, communicating, volunteering, learning at home, decision-making and collaborating with the community. However this study is going to be limited to parenting, communicating and learning at home since these are applicable at subject level while the whole spectrum applies to school-family partnerships.
Parenting pertains to helping all families to understand the development of both the child and the adolescent. The basic obligations of parents include responsibilities of families to ensure children’s health and safety; to the parenting and child-rearing skills needed to prepare children for school; to the continual need to supervise, discipline, and guide children at each age level; and to the need to build positive home conditions that support school learning and behavior appropriate for each grade level. It also helps establishing a supportive home environment for children as students.
Communicating involves designing and establishing two-way communication channels between school and home that are effective and reliable. Communication channels between the mathematics teacher and parents about the children’s progress must be in place so that the learner benefits from the support from the two parties.
Learning at home pertains to providing ideas and information to parents about how they can best assist their children with homework and curricular related decisions and activities. Parent involvement in learning activities at home among others refers to parent-initiated activities or child-initiated requests for help, and ideas or instructions from teachers for parents to monitor or assist their own children at home on learning activities that are coordinated with the children’s classwork. The framework helps educators develop more comprehensive programs of school and family partnerships.
These three types of involvement can guide the development of a balanced, comprehensive program of partnerships, including opportunities for family involvement at school and at home, with potentially important results for students, parents, and teachers. The results for students, parents, and teachers will depend on the particular types of involvement that are implemented, as well as on the quality of the implementation.
THE CONCEPT OF PARENTAL CARE
Parental Care is parental investment provided by a male animal to his own offspring. Parental Care may provided in concert with the mother (bi-parental care) or, more rarely, by the male alone. Human cultures and societies vary widely in the expression of Parental Care. Some cultures recognize Parental Care via celebration of Father’s Day. According to Gray (2010), human Parental Care is a derived characteristic (evolved in humans or our recent ancestors) and one of the defining characteristics of Homo sapiens. Different aspects of human Parental Care (direct, indirect, fostering social or moral development) may have evolved at different points in our history, and together they form a unique suite of behaviors as compared with the great apes. One study of humans has found evidence suggesting a possible evolutionary trade-off between mating success and parenting involvement; specifically, fathers with smaller testes tend to be more involved in care of their children.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
INTRODUCTION
This chapter covers the description and discussion on the various techniques and procedures used in the study to collect and analyze the data as it is deemed appropriate.
It is organized under the following sub-headings:
RESEARCH DESIGN
According to Asika (2009), research designs are often referred to as the structuring of investigation aimed at identifying variables and their relationships to one another. In this study, questionnaire serves as useful guide to the effort of generating data for this study. The survey research design through the administration of questionnaires was used for the study.
AREA OF THE STUDY
The study will be conducted in Lagos State, Nigeria. Lagos is the most populous city in Nigeria, the second fastest-growing city in Africa and the seventh in the world. The population of Lagos urban area, according to the Lagos State Government is 17.5 million, a number disputed by the Nigerian Government and judged unreliable by the National Population Commission of Nigeria. Lagos was reported in 2014 to have a metropolitan population of 21 million, making Lagos
POPULATION OF THE STUDY
The population of study consists of pupils of Grace Nursery and Primary School, Ikeja, Lagos State.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA PRESENTATION, DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
This chapter is devoted to the presentation, analysis and interpretation of the data gathered in the course of this study. The data are based on the number of copies of the questionnaire completed and returned by the respondents. The data are presented in tables and the analysis is done using the chi-square test.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUNNARY CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
The following are the objectives of this study:
- To examine the effect of parental care on the academic performance of primary school pupils.
- To examine the rudiments of parental care.
- To determine the factors that can influence the academic performance of primary school pupils.
FINDINGS
From the responses of the respondents we were able to find out that:
- good parental care help to reduce presure on student from their academic enviroment
- The academic performance of student improves with the care received from the parents
- good parental care has significant effect on the level of morality of students
- good parental care has significant effect on the level of peer group association among students.
CONCLUSION
From the responses of the respondents and the result of the data analysis, we conlude that parental care influences the academic performance of primary school pupils.
RECOMMENDATION
We therefore recommend that:
- Parents should always encourage their childern by making them believe in the importance of education.
- Parent should always show care by helping their children out in their assignment.
- the kind of peer groups kept by children should be monitored by the parents.
REFERENCES
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- Anthony, G. & Walshaw, M. (2009). Characteristics of Effective Teaching of Mathematics: A View from the West. Journal of Mathematics Education, 2(2): 147-164.
- Barbarin, O & Aikens, N. L. (2008). Socioeconomic differences in reading trajectories: The contribution of family, neighborhood, and school contexts. Journal of Educational Psychology, 100(2):235-251.
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- Bicer, A., Capraro, R. M., & Cetin, S. C. (2012). Parental involvement effects on students’ mathematics achievement. Paper presented at the annual conference of Southwest Educational Research Association (SERA), New Orleans, LA.
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- Chowa, G., Masa, R., & Tucker, J. (2013). The effects of parental involvement on academic performance of Ghanaian youth: Testing measurement and relationship using structural equation modeling. Children and Youth Services Review, 35(12), 2020-2030.
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