Parental involvement in curriculum matters: parents, teachers and children working together

Abstract

This is a first report of a research project concerning the involvement of parents in the curriculum of the reception classes in four infant schools in Outer London. Parents from a wide variety of ethnic and social backgrounds met to talk with teachers each week and practical suggestions were made about simple activities which children and parents could enjoy at home. A programme of extra adult inputs involving sharing skills by parents or adult friends was arranged for the children (e.g. ‘Stages of making a garment’, ‘Cooking a well‐known dish demonstrated’, ‘Woodwork and tools discussed’, ‘How to wear a sari’ and ‘Typing and printing explained'), and it was suggested that the children should have a book or folder entitled ‘All about Me’ which could go between home and school and contain relevant information ‐ e.g. family photographs; pictures of food and clothes family members like, the child's important times (e.g. bedtime, breakfast‐time, school‐time); games and local outings s/he enjoys; observations of birds which come to the garden; traffic on the street nearby; etc. A random sample of children drawn from those experiencing the programme was given a series of tests and assessments before the programme began and again after it was completed. A matched control group, without parental involvement, in the same schools, was also given the same series of tests and assessments at the beginning and end of the same time period. Of course, no two groups of children can be exactly ‘matched’, but both groups were the same age, had the same sex distribution, came from a similar variety of cultural backgrounds, had similar distributions of family circumstances, pre‐school education, housing conditions and, of course, both groups attended the same schools. The results showed that the groups experiencing the parental involvement programme showed significantly increased gains on 22 of the 44 areas tested and assessed, while the control group gained on just three areas, the others showing no difference. The investigation had to take place in a short period of three months, including some holiday period, so the results highlight the important influence of parental involvement in the early stages of education. They also give evidence of the effects on children of the increasingly warm, friendly and knowledgeable relationships developed between children, teachers and parents during the programme.