Degree of Parental Involvement in Children’s Education in the New Normal

I. Context and Rationale

Each child is vulnerable and can either be molded to be successful or made to

fail in life. According to the Child and Youth Welfare Code of the Philippines, the child is

one of the most important assets of the nation, the promotion and enhancement of the

child's life and welfare is also anchored on the moral supervision and support given by

his parents or guardians.

Thus, Home serves as the first learning environment of each children. The home

learning environment is a combination of everything that a certain child learns from their

parents and siblings as well which provides access to their development and learning.

This includes the opportunities a child has to play and interact with different objects

including books, and everyday experiences to help them make sense of the world

where they belong.

In order for a child to succeed, parents exert a lot of influence on their child's

cognitive development in the early years and thus, the contact between home and

school should be maintained, especially during the primary school years. Although

family background appears to be a powerful determinant of parental involvement, most

parents, if duly encouraged, are able to devote extra time and effort to assisting with

their children’s education, both in the home and school settings (Ho, 2009).

Moreover, the most important feature of the first learning environment are the

interactions with people who provide the love, security, encouragement, conversation

and positive role models that will be of great contributory factor for the child’s well-being.
 Presently, as part of the “new normal” adaptation in education, the Department of

Education (DepEd) underscores the important role of parents and guardians in making

sure that the learning of their children will continue amid expected disruptions.

As discussed by the DepEd Undersecretary, she noted that the agency has

come up with a Learning Continuity Plan (CLP) as a response to changes in the basic

education sector amid the public health emergency. On the other hand, it is significant

to say that LCP provides a framework on learning continuity of students but the

cooperation and support of parents is very important as the entire basic education

system braces for the so-called “new normal”.

With this, it is noteworthy to mention that parents play a great role in the

education of their children under the current status of the society due to pandemic

brought upon by Covid-19.

As discussed by Bayocot (2020), it is expected that parents will be supportive of

the delivery of education in the new normal since their role is very important. It may be

in the form of providing gadgets and the internet for online education if they can, or

guiding. Giving guidance does not require parents to know the lessons bit by bit. As a

matter of fact, parents are the experts on their children. Whereas teachers change

annually, parents accumulate a wealth of knowledge about their children as learners.

Moreover, they are uniquely positioned to read with their kids in a one-on-one setting.

There is no smaller classroom than a family’s living room, and there is no better way to

personalize instruction than through a parent.

 Teachers, on the other hand, are the experts on instruction. They know what

their students need to make progress, yet the classroom setting makes it difficult to

individually support every child. Parents and teachers thus have complementary skill

sets and a common purpose: to help kids learn and be successful. This is the basis for

a powerful, sustainable collaboration!

With the elucidated facts mentioned above, the researcher through this study

wants to address the Degree of Parental Involvement in Children’s Education in the

New Normal anchored on the notion that the existence of quality education is an

equivalency of cooperation and coordination among Teachers and Parents most

especially during this time of pandemic.

II. Brief Review of Literature

Parental involvement takes many forms including good parenting in the home,

including the provision of a secure and stable environment, intellectual stimulation,

parent-child discussion, good models of constructive social and educational values and

high aspirations relating to personal fulfilment and good citizenship; contact with schools

to share information; participation in school events; participation in the work of the

school; and participation in school governance.

Many learning and academic institution involve parents in school-based or school

related activities which constitutes parental involvement rather than parental

engagement. As discussed by Harris and Goodall (2007), parental involvement can

encompass a whole range of activities with or within the school while parents view
parental engagement as offering support to students while teachers tend to view it as a

means to improved behavior.

On the other hand, Peters (2012) noted that “when schools have reputations for

being successful, they generally have lots of engagement from parents”. Mwai Kimu

(2012) concludes in his qualitative study on Parent Involvement in Public Primary

Schools in Kenya that a society needs to increase its level of educational involvement

and that starts with the support by the parents. He claims that parent-school linkages

can be enhanced through the teacher/parent relationship because teachers are the

main linkage of parents to the school, the teacher/parent relationship is critical to pupils’

success and parent involvement.

According to Hornby and Lafaele (2011) parental involvement is a significant

element in education and can also be achieved through home-based parental

involvement like listening to the child as they read, helping them in completing their

homework as well as school-based activities, which include attending parents meeting

and education workshops. Parents should also be involved in children’s sports activities,

as this would improve achievements and serve as motivation.

Moreover, parental involvement is a way of providing opportunity both to

Teachers and Parents of having a versatile and collaborative interaction that leads to

children’s learning which serves as one of the many benefits of parental involvement in

education.

Parent-teacher partnership makes tremendous impact on children's education.

According to Llamas and Tuazon (2016) parents become comfortable when the
education system requires their involvement in school activities. The strong

collaboration of parents with school authorities can lead to increased improvement in

both physical and academic performance of the school. Hence, school administrators

have to encourage parents to get involved and make contribution towards helping the

school achieve its missions and goals (Sapungan & Sapungan, 2014).

Parental involvement in education is a way of improving academic performance

of children thus making it a good thing in Teaching-Learning Process. As discussed

learners become more focused in their school work (Kwatubana & Makhalemele, 2015).

This motivates learners not to give up easily when they do not understand a particular

topic and will not bunk classes because they know that their parents are always

monitoring their school attendance (Lemmer, 2007). Learners whose parents are

involved, are active and ready to learn, they learn to be punctual from young age, they

learn to be persistent as the parents would be continuously enquiring about their

progress and they would not want to disappoint them. Taking responsibility becomes a

part of the nature of such children as they plan ahead and are able to do their work

according to their schedule, which is the quality of being organized (Sapungan &

Sapungan, 2014). Through this parents can be able to make sure that their children

succeed in school (Hornby & Lafaele, 2011).

However, recognizing the benefits of parental involvement, it is equally to say

that there also exist a variety of challenges.

Singh, Mbokodi & Msila (2004) dicusses that one of the challenges that hampers

effective parental involvement is low income that some receive per month, which leads

them to working more jobs and not to spend enough time at home helping their children
with their school work which may cause burden to the teachers because they are

expected to produce good results yet they are no receiving any support from parents.

Additionally, the difficulty of parents to be involved is the fact that schools

sometimes fail to create strong links between homes and schools or an environment

where parents do not feel welcomed in schools more especially low income earners.

This situation is made worse by the fact that some parents are unable to read and write

and they can only communicate in their mother tongue, which makes it difficult for them

to assist their children with their homework (Lemmer, 2007).

Despite these challenges, it is noteworthy to conclude that Parental involvement

is associated with a wide range of positive child outcomes in primary and high schools,

such as good academic skills, positive attitudes and social competence (Lau, Li & Rao,

2011). Parental involvement in learning acts as a gel that helps to make learning for

children pleasant and encourages them to work even more as they seek to make those

closest to them proud.

III. Scope and Limitation

This undertaking aims to explore the Degree of Parental Involvement in

Children’s Education in the New Normal. The respondents of this undertaking were the

forty (40) parents or guardians of the Grade 6 pupils of Doña Tiburcia Carpio Malvar

Elementary School, Sto Tomas City, Batangas.

Specifically this will explore the importance of parental involvement in education

during the new normal and how may the strategies applied by teachers be described in

several aspects which includes learning activities, parental involvement, stakeholders

and support together with the challenges being encountered by the teachers regarding

parents’ involvement in the learning aspects of their children.

This study is limited only to the answers to the questions posed in the problem.

This may not include any involvement of other respondents and will not tackle any other

issues concerning the parental involvement in education during the new normal.

IV. Significance of the Study

This study deals with the Degree of Parental Involvement in Children’s Education

in the New Normal which aims to provide enhancement activities for parents’

involvement towards their children’s education during this new normal teaching-learning

process brought upon by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The result of this study will be of great value to the people in the academe.

Specifically this will be significant to the following;

DepEd Sto Tomas North District. This will provide them an additional platform

having a district systems that will enrich parent to teachers’ relationship that will lead to

development of a resilient and sustainable educational goals and objectives during this

time of pandemic.

Doña Tiburcia Carpio Malvar Elementary School Institution. The result of the

study will provide them a baseline data to enrich programs regarding parental

involvement.

Principal, School Head and Master Teacher. This study will enable the school

head or principal and master teacher appraise the existing programs in terms of
parental involvement, parent needs as well as the needs of their pupil during the new

normal in education.

Miguel Aranda Elementary School Teachers. The result of this study may

serve as an eye opener to create and innovates ways and means of building a strong

relationship with the pupils parents and guardian thus increasing and improving parental

involvement during the new normal in education.

Parents. Who are directly concerned with the education of their children will also

subsidy from this undertaking as it will allow them of partaking knowledge and

information with regards to developing their involvement in their children’s education.

The Researcher. This study will give her deeper knowledge on the concept of

Parental Involvement and will be able to provide developmental activities to enrich

parent-teacher relationship.

V. Research Questions

The study attempts to determine the Degree of Parental Involvement in

Children’s Education in the New Normal.

Specifically, this will seek answer to the following questions:

1. How important is parental involvement in Education in this new normal?

2. How may the strategies applied by teachers be described as to:

2.1 Learning Activities

2.2 Parental Involvement

 2.3 Stakeholders

2.4 Support

3. What challenges are encountered by the teachers regarding parent’s involvement in

the learning aspects of their children?

4. What activities maybe proposed to enhance parents’ involvement towards their

children’s education?

VI. Methodology

This part of the action research deals with the discussions of research design,

subject of the study, data gathering instrument and data gathering procedure which will

provide a clear view of this undertaking.

Research Design

The descriptive survey method of research will be used in this study; this refers

to a type of research that is fact- finding study with adequate and accurate interpretation

of the findings. It describes the “what is” with the emphasis of what actually exist such

as current conditions, practices, situation, or phenomena. Its purpose is to get the

classified, generalized and interpreted data for the guidance and practice in the future

(Receno et al, 2009). As the researcher use this method, they believe that the

descriptive method is the best suited method in conducting this undertaking in order to

determine and describe the challenges encountered by instructional leaders in different

learning modalities employed by the respondents.

 The researcher chose this method because in survey method research,

participants answer questions to be administered through questionnaires. This will be

use for the presentation of information, analysis and interpretation to be gathered from

the teacher respondents of Miguel Aranda Elementary School.

The researcher will use the Input – Process – Output illustration to showcase the

design and the flow of this action research. The relationship illustrated on the paradigm

shown in Figure 1 on the following page was based on the notion that the perceived

challenges encountered by instructional leaders in different learning modality plays a

crucial role in developing leadership strategies compendium which will be very helpful

for delivering quality instructions during the new normal.

INPUT PROCESS OUTPUT

1. Challenges
encountered by the
instructional
leaders on the
utilization of the
different learning
modalities.
2. The extent of the
instructional
leaders'
background when
it comes to the
Collection and
utilization of the
retrieval of data
different learning
from the
modalities relative
respondents.
to;
2.1 Module Development of
preparation Leadership
2.2 Module Analysis of the STrategies
distribution given data based Compendium.
from the result of
2.3 Module
the survey
assessment
questionnaire.
 3. Learning
strategies used by
the instructional
leaders be
describes as to;
3.1 Content
3.2 Class adviser
3.3 Assessment
Tasks
3.4 Module
Checking

FEEDBACK

Figure 1. The Graphic representation of the significant concepts

in this study.
The researchers used the Input, Process, Output model to describe the flow of

the study. The first box indicates the input of the study; this contains the perceived

student’s academic performance profile, common learning activities in Mathematics and

Science and common difficulties in Mathematics and Science. A directional arrow

pointing to the next box connects the input to the process. The process utilized by the

researchers is an analysis between the input of the study. The third box contains the

output of the study; proposed supplementary activities for the enhancement of grade 9

student’s academic performance profile.

Subject of the Study

 This study focuses on the Instructional Leaders of Miguel Aranda Elementary

Schools who are the regular-permanent Public Elementary School Teachers. The total

population of respondents is 13 Teachers. No sampling method will be use to determine

the size of the population.

Data Gathering Instrument

Data Gathering Procedure

The researcher will prepare a letter for the Miguel Aranda Elementary School

Principal and to Malvar District Supervisor to ask permission of having a conduct of

Action Research data gathering for the School Year 2020-2021.

After asking the necessary permission from the different concerned school

officials, the questionnaire will then be distributed to the respondents through the use of

Google Survey Form to be forwarded electronically.

In distributing the questionnaire, the researcher will explained the importance of

the study and on how they are going to answer every item honestly through messenger,

e-mails or text messages. After the respondents had finished answering the

questionnaire, the researcher will then collect the data using the same platform which

will be the Google Survey Form. The researcher will compute the result and keep it for

the interpretation on the latter chapter of this action research.

Data Analysis Plan

This action research will employ the use of quantitative data analysis. This will

help the researcher in structuring the findings from the 13 Teacher respondents which in
turn will provide a meaningful base of critical decisions in developing leadership

strategies compendium. It will also provide Data Interpretation which aims to explain the

trends, patterns and relationship that will emerge in the data analysis.

VII. Results and Discussion

VIII. Conclusions and recommendation