The name is absent

Proximal family processes

learning through engaging in as well as by valuing such activities. Hence, cognitive
stimulation and the provision of learning experiences in the home will be positively
related to children’s academic intrinsic motivation. However, these assessments of
home environment are as related to the responsiveness of the child to cognitive
stimulation as are the educational behaviours discussed in the previous sub-section.
Therefore, one must worry again about the potential over-estimation of pure causal
effects in econometric terms. Nonetheless the patterns of association are interesting
and informative.

Using longitudinal data Gottfried et al. (1998) showed that children whose homes
were higher in cognitive stimulation (measured at age 8) had higher academic
intrinsic motivation from ages nine through thirteen controlling for SES. The authors
argue that these results strongly suggest that the effect of home environment is
continuous as cognitively stimulating home environment predicts subsequent
motivation through earlier motivation. However, alternative interpretations of these
findings are possible and so we cannot infer causality.

In a recent study, Hubbs-Tait et al. (2002) examined more specifically the influence
of parental language during teaching strategies on child development, arguing that the
support and guidance used by parents during problem solving tasks are markers for
children’s cognitive performance. They state that in general, the more parents make
use of statements that challenge children to use representational thought, i.e. evaluate
their own competence (“Are you ready for the third step?”) or assess their own
performance (“Well, what do you think?”), the better the child’s cognitive
understanding and performance. In contrast, greater parental use of statements
requiring only referential thought, i.e. requiring more simple statements of labelling or
observation or including no challenge for thinking, the lower the children’s cognitive
performance.

Parental involvement is also considered an important component in children’s
educational and cognitive development (Reynolds, 1992). Feinstein (Feinstein &
Symons, 1999) finds strong associations between teachers’ assessments of their
pupils’ parents’ interest in learning and the attainment of children. In this longitudinal
design the change in attainment between eleven and sixteen years is related to the
parents’ interest predicted by the child’s teacher when the child was age seven. It
seems likely, therefore, that this is not just a misreport by the teacher who sees a pupil
doing well and infers parental interest falsely. However, this variable does not refer to
parental involvement explicitly and may pick up the effect of parent cognitions
(aspirations and expectations) rather than parental behaviours.

Desforges (Desforges & Abouchaar, 2003) summarises evidence that highlights the
specific importance of only ‘at home’ parental involvement as having positive effects
on pupil achievement and adjustment. He states that there is no private or public
benefit from other forms of parental involvement. Home involvement is separated into
two types, that associated with discussing school activities (home discussion) and that
associated with monitoring the child’s out of school activities (home supervision).

32

<<   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   >>

More intriguing information