Why parents can’t always get
what they (think they) want
Tim Jay, Jo Rose, Ben Simmons
Graduate School of Education,
University of Bristol
Background
• Previous project – “Children’s economic
activity and mathematics learning”
– Investigated children’s (8, 11, 14 years old) out-ofschool economic activity through combination of
activities
– Explored the mathematical thinking in these
activities – in focus groups and then, in
subsequent studies, in classroom activity
Moving forward
• Children engage in a great variety of economic
activity, providing a valuable resource for
mathematical thinking
• The extent to which this resource is
understood as such by children varies
• We agree, to some extent, with Hughes et al.
– that schools may struggle to incorporate the
diversity of out-of-school learning in
classroom activity
Related work
• What do we know about parents and their
children’s maths learning?
– Home maths talk appears to be important in
various ways – e.g. Bloom & Wynn, 1992; Chang,
Sandhofer & Brown, 2011; Melhuish et al. 2008
– But much of this kind of research is with preschool
children and early number concepts
Related work
• Existing literature often focuses on parents’
abilities to help with classroom tasks
– Evidence on homework is mixed (Patall, Cooper &
Robinson, 2008)
– Cultural capital (e.g. Chiu & Xihua, 2008) and
engagement with extra-curricular activities (Fan &
Williams, 2009) are predictors of maths selfefficacy and achievement
Engagement with maths
• Concerns about adult numeracy in UK; e.g.
Houtkoop & Jones, 1999, reporting on OECD
survey (and more recent publication of latest
OECD survey)
• Skills for Life survey (BIS, 2012) found that
approximately half of adults aged 16-65 had
numeracy abilities below the average 11 year-old
• Few recent large-scale assessments of attitudes,
but picture is generally negative (e.g. Williams,
2008)
Engagement with schools
• Schools often good at engaging parents in school
life, but more difficult to engage parents in pupil
learning (Harris & Goodall, 2008)
• Evidence for a lack of confidence, resulting from
misunderstandings of what children do, and
differences with parents’ experiences (e.g. Peters
et al., 2008)
• ‘Hard-to-reach’ parents v. ‘hard-to-reach’ schools
(Crozier & Davies, 2007)
Our project
• Parent-centred, not school- or curriculumcentred
• ‘Empowering parents to support their
children’s maths learning’
2 overall aims:
• Support parents in exploring the mathematics
that is involved in their everyday lives
• Support parents in exploring ways to share
this mathematical thinking with their children
Focus groups
• We don’t want to start telling parents what they
should be doing without a clear idea of how these
parents currently think & feel about maths and
about their children’s maths learning
• Part of the (challenging) recruitment process –
building familiarity & trust
• Exploring diversity – to what extent are concerns,
resources & practices similar or different across
our population?
Focus groups
• 20 Bristol primary schools (out of approx 100)
• Wide variety of settings (markers including
achievement, % EAL, % FSM, geographical
location, size)
• Some schools look similar according to the
stats, but are very different
Recruitment
•
•
•
•
•
Initial survey
Letters to all parents via children
Posters where parents drop-off/pick-up
Translations where relevant
Researcher visits to playground, parent evenings, other
school events
• Support from teachers, admin staff, parent governors
• 1 or 2 focus groups in each school depending on size –
target 6-10 parents per group. Interviews with parents
in playground to supplement low attendance
Content
• Feelings about children’s maths learning
• Attitudes to maths
• Engagement with children’s school maths
learning
• Experience of ‘out-of-school’ maths with
children
Main findings
• Parents think maths is important
– Greater opportunity & options following school
– “Maths is life” – maths is part of so many activities that it is
important for quality of life
• Large range of levels of confidence & perceived ability
– Avoidance of maths
– Returning to maths for a particular career (e.g. nursing)
– Enrolment in maths programmes in order to be able to
support children
• Maths at home
– Very similar to what we saw in previous project – money,
cooking, time
Main findings
Engagement with school maths
• “I know the answer, it’s very simple… I can’t see
this explanation of how you’ve got to work it
out… how on earth does that work?”
• New “tricks” for “cheating”
• “embarrassed”, “confused”, “frustrated”, “left
behind”, “lost control over what he’s really
learning”
• Differences in home countries – emphasis on
solution (e.g. Somalia) v. method
Main findings
“It’s very hard when you’re faced with a child that’s
literally just going, ‘I do not understand what you are
talking about’ and it is the only subject that we come
to blows over and she will get up, ‘I cannot do this!’
and walk out and I’m like, ‘well I can’t teach you!’”
“It does put me off because I sit down, I think, ‘Oh I just
can’t wait to get this over and done with… I’m sorry,
I’ve got lines and numbers, they’re everywhere,
where’s my answer?’ That’s what puts me off”
Main findings
• What do parents think would help?
– More information from school
– Timetable for each day’s lessons
– Descriptions of what maths is being taught and
how
– Teaching techniques that can be used at home
• Problems?
– Parents think they want to be teachers?
Moving forward
• Some general questions about parental
engagement, e.g. what kind of parental
engagement do schools want?
• Evidence to suggest that a school-centred
approach has some serious shortcomings – e.g.
language of curriculum discourages parents; fear
of doing the wrong thing
• To what extent can we separate ‘maths’ from
‘school-maths’?
• Are there other factors that differentiate preschool from primary activity?
Questions?
tim.jay@bristol.ac.uk
https://www.facebook.com/everydaymathsbristol
@Everyday_Maths
References
Bloom, P, & Wynn, K. (1997). Linguistic cues in the acquisition of number words. Journal of Child Language, 24(3), 511–533.
Chang, A., Sandhofer, C. M., & Brown, C. S. (2011). Gender biases in early number exposure to preschool-aged
children. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 30(4), 440-450.
Chiu, M. M., & Xihua, Z. (2008). Family and motivation effects on mathematics achievement: Analyses of students in 41
countries. Learning and Instruction,18(4), 321-336.
Cooper, H., Robinson, J. C., & Patall, E. A. (2006). Does homework improve academic achievement? A synthesis of research,
1987–2003. Review of educational research, 76(1), 1-62.
Crozier, G., & Davies, J. (2007). Hard to reach parents or hard to reach schools? A discussion of home–school relations, with
particular reference to Bangladeshi and Pakistani parents. British Educational Research Journal,33(3), 295-313.
Fan, W., & Williams, C. M. (2010). The effects of parental involvement on students’ academic self‐efficacy, engagement and
intrinsic motivation. Educational Psychology, 30(1), 53-74.
Harris, A., & Goodall, J. (2008). Do parents know they matter? Engaging all parents in learning. Educational Research, 50(3),
277-289.
Houtkoop, W., & Jones, S. (1999). Adult numeracy: An international comparison. In Mathematics as Part of Lifelong Learning:
Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference of Adults Learning Maths–A Research Forum, ALM-5, London: Goldsmiths
College, University of London in association with ALM (pp. 32-40).
Melhuish, E. C., Sylva, K., Sammons, P., Siraj-Blatchford, I., Taggart, B., Phan, M., & Malin, A. (2008). Preschool influences on
mathematics achievement. Science, 321(5893), 1161-1162.
Williams, P. (2008). Independent review of mathematics teaching in early years settings and primary schools: Final report.
London: DCSF (available at http://dera.ioe.ac.uk/8365/1/Williams%20Mathematics.pdf)