A Methodological Critique of Research on Parent-Initiated Mathematics Activities and Young Children's Attainment

Autor/inn/en	Andrews, Paul; Petersson, Jöran; Sayers, Judy
Titel	A Methodological Critique of Research on Parent-Initiated Mathematics Activities and Young Children's Attainment
Quelle	In: Educational Studies in Mathematics, 109 (2022) 1, S.23-40 (18 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Andrews, Paul)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0013-1954
DOI	10.1007/s10649-021-10080-x
Schlagwörter	Parent Participation; Parent Influence; Mathematics Activities; Young Children; Research Methodology; Research Problems; Achievement + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Elternmitwirkung; Frühe Kindheit; Research method; Forschungsmethode; Forschungskritik; Performance; Leistung
Abstract	In this paper, motivated by the desire to understand which forms of parent-initiated activity are productively implicated in young children's mathematics learning, we present a methodological critique of recent research. Many such studies, based on assumptions that parent-initiated activities can be categorised as formal or informal, direct or indirect, or advanced or basic, exploit surveys to elicit how frequently parents engage their children in various predetermined activities. While such survey data have the potential to yield important insights, the analytical procedures typically employed prevent them. Studies involving factor analyses yield uninterpretable factors, which are then used to create summative variables based on the scores of individual activities. Other studies, drawing on untested preconceptions, simply create summative variables. In all cases, these summative variables are based on such a wide range of qualitatively different activities that labels like formal or informal become arbitrary and the potential of individual activities to support learning gets lost beneath colleagues' desires for statistical significance. In closing, we ask colleagues, albeit somewhat rhetorically, what is the purpose of such research? Is it to identify those activities that support learning or to offer statistically robust factors, which, due to the diversity of activities embedded within them, offer few useful insights? (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01