Fostering Classroom Communities

Title of Dissertation: Analyzing parental involvement dimensions in early childhood education

Author: Zeynep Kurtulmus


Kurtulums(2016) Believed that parent involvement with their children’s education also helped with their social skills. There has been a wide spread of research that supports his beliefs. Studies have shown positive effects on a child’s development as well as their academic achievement. Research was done to show the positive side of parent involvement versus no parent involvement. With the research it is able to show why it is important for parents to be involved with their children’s education. Kurtumuls study focused on two parts parents involvement  and parents education. It also involves home visits and school based activities.  The focus of the study was how to increase parent involvement and its quality, For this, dimensions of involvement needs to be known, and parents’ behavior in these dimensions needs to be analyzed ( Kurtulums, 2016).  The dimensions are development based dimension, activity based dimension and involvement based dimension.





The study was conducted in a Turkish early childhood program, about 300 parents with 5 year old’s. Fathers were excluded due to not contributing. The children picked for the study were from independent preschools and public kindergarten. Each parent was given a letter explaining the study One part of the study parents were given a study to obtain their parental involvement. Other parents were interviewed with questions pertaining to activities they do at home and school with their child. After compiling the data it was sent off to be reviewed and the results were given back to the researchers. The data revealed parents scored high when they closely follow what their children learn in school. Praising children when they accomplish a good job was second, followed by talking to their children about their interests. The lowest involvement involved redirecting school based activities to do at home. Parents also scored highest when encouraging children to change an activity when they lost interest. Study showed that while parental involvement was moderate for all three dimensions, the highest involvement was observed for the involvement based dimension ( Kurtulums, 2016). When it involves activity based behaviors parents involvement declines, this is where parents may need assistance on how to remain involved with their children’s activities.



After the readings of this week lesson, it is important that parents are involved with their children’s development and education. During this study it showed that in some areas parents aren’t that involved and suggests developing more research to help parents remain involved in all aspects of their child’s learning process. In my classroom now I make sure to have open communication about what their child is learning in my class. Monthly I do newsletters for the families so they can see what were doing in class and encourage them to do the same at home with their child. By doing this the parents have a blueprint on what their child is learning and encouraging them to continue with the learning and development process.



Reference

Kurtulmus, Z. (2016). Analyzing Parental Involvement Dimensions in Early Childhood Education. Educational Research and Reviews, 11(12), 1149–1153. Retrieved from https://ezp.waldenulibrary.org/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ1104563&site=eds-live&scope=site