Abstract
This thesis presents the findings of a project which investigated the impact of a parent numeracy education programme on parent understanding of, confidence in, and attitude towards numeracy. Eighteen parents of a year’s intake of new entrant children from a rural primary school were participants in the project. Each parent met with the researcher four times over a twenty week period. There were three main aspects to the project. Firstly, parents were provided with information about children’s development of number understanding. Secondly, using their child’s assessment information, a parent numeracy education programme was implemented. This was aimed at increasing parents’ knowledge of children’s number understanding and providing them with activities and resources to support their child’s learning at home. Lastly, the link between parents’ attitude towards mathematics and their confidence towards helping their children in mathematics was explored. Parent evaluation of the effectiveness of the education programme was a major component of the research.
This research gives evidence of the importance of informing parents of the programmes that are implemented in our schools and the value of parent involvement in their child’s education. It also highlights the impact of negative experiences on parental attitudes towards learning and achievement, and the confidence that parents have in helping their own children.
There are implications for both school leaders and classroom teachers from this research. It challenges the school sector to explore ways in which they involve and inform parents about the mathematics programmes that are in place in their school, and to review the mathematics achievement information parents receive. Research findings suggest that when parents are provided with learning outcomes linked to home-based activities which are specific to their children, there are benefits for the children, the parents and the school.