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Connection Collection

Annotation from the Connection Collection

You are viewing a record from the Connection Collection, a searchable annotated bibliography database. It links you with research-based information that you can use to connect schools, families, and communities.

Title:Teacher communications, child achievement, and parent traits in parent involvement models
Author:Watkins, T. J.
Year:1997
Resource Type:Journal Article
Publication
Information:
Journal of Educational Research, 91(1)

pp. 5-14
Connection:School-Family
Education Level:Elementary
Literature type:Research and Evaluation

Annotation:
In this study, the researcher investigates parent involvement patterns by examining parents' achievement goal orientation in terms of achievement motivation theory based on prior studies by this researcher and others. Watkins contributes to the existing knowledge on parent involvement and the child-achievement relationship by testing a model representing ways child achievement and other key factors can directly and indirectly influence parent involvement. The findings suggest that parents were more involved when their children displayed low achievement, and that teacher communications can increase many forms of parent involvement. In an elementary school in a Mid-western city, one parent of each child in grades 2-5 was surveyed during the third quarter of the year, along with the child's teacher. The questions on the survey included questions related to mastery and performance orientation, parent involvement, parent-perceived amount of teacher communications, and parents' sense of efficacy in involvement. Although the author does not make suggestions for practitioners, the information about teacher communications and perceived teacher communications and their effect on parent involvement are incentives as they work with students and parents to raise student achievement. The researcher's creation of a new theoretical model of parent involvement pathways makes this comprehensive study useful.

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