The Relationship among Type Of Education, Creative Thinking and Social Competence of children: A Cost-Effectiveness Analysis for Homeschooling in Israel.

• In Event: Cost effectiveness analysis for sustainable education policy

Proposal

Abstract
The Relationship among Type Of Education, Creative Thinking and Social Competence of children: A Cost-Effectiveness Analysis for Homeschooling in Israel.
Michal Ungar Madar
Bar Ilan University, Israel
Homeschooling, also known as home education, is a method in which children of various ages schooled at home, usually by their parents. There are two approaches to homeschooling. First, learning based on curiosity and intuitiveness. Second, structured and organized pedagogical learning (Ray, 2018; Murphy, 2012; Kula, 2018; Guterman & Neuman, 2016).
Of the 48.8 million school-aged children in the United States (K-12), two million are homeschooled (Ray, 2018). Some 0.05% of all schoolchildren enrolled in public education (NHERI, 2014; United States Census Bureau, 2010). In Israel 1.25 million students attend the Hebrew-speaking schools and solely 908 are homeschooled, representing 0.0008% of all children enrolled in Israeli public education settings.
In the contemporary knowledge based era education is more focused on developing creative thinking. Studies show that creative thinking assists students develop critical thinking and serves as a means for solving problems (Ritter& Mostert, 2017; Deming, 2017). In addition,, the development of social skills is also part of the new educational agenda. Social skills enable an individual to develop mutual relations with others in diverse situations and in ways acceptable to society and that benefit both the individual and others. Social skills are related to emotional intelligence (Monnier, 2015).
This research examines the relationship between the type of education (homeschooling or public) and the students' level of creative thinking, and the level of students' social skills, in Israel. These relationships are examined while statistically controlling for student's background characteristics (e.g., gender, age, country of birth, and parental education and residence). In addition, this research evaluates the program of teaching and learning cost effectiveness of home schooling and public schools in Israel, regards creative thinking and social skills. Because the cost-effectiveness model is not commonly used in Israel, the analysis required major adjustments so that it would be compatible with the official statistics, based on official data such as the Central Bureau of Statistics and more.

The research questions engage in relationship between the background variables and the type of education and the degree of success in the teaching and learning program in home education and public education, with regard to creative thinking and social skills. In addition, the study examines what is the cost-effectiveness ratio of homeschooling teaching and learning program compared to that of public education with respect to measures of creative thinking and social skills?
The research tools comprised of two questionnaires. The first questionnaire, Test for Creative Thinking Drawing Production (TCT-DP), measures creative thinking (Urban & Jellen, 2010). The second questionnaire, Social Skills Rating System (SSRS), measures social skills (Gresham & Elliott 2008).
The research participants included 549 children aged 8-12 and their parents. Of these, 269 were enrolled in public education and 280 were homeschooled. The research population was sampled identically according to the Ministry of Education districts: North, Haifa, Center, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and South, approximately 44-49 participants from each residence. Access to school participants took place through a "friend brings friend" snowball method. The access to participants in public school is approved by the Ministry of Education.The main research results are as follows. Logistic regression analysis of the relations between students' background characteristics and education type shows that the likelihood of homeschooling is higher among students whose parents have a higher level of education (more than 12 years of schooling) (β=1.01***). That is, the chances that a child whose parents have a higher level of education will be homeschooled are three times higher compared with his peers whose parents have a lower level of education.
Bidirectional hierarchical regression analysis of the relations between education type and the level of creative thinking, while controlling for background characteristics indicate that student age (β =0.79*) and homeschooling (β =0.00***) significantly predict level of creative thinking, corroborating the research hypothesis .
Bidirectional hierarchical regression analysis of the relations between type of education and social skills while controlling for background variables indicated that number of siblings (β =0.78*) and homeschooling (β =0.39***) significantly predict extent of social skills.
Cost-effectiveness analysis of the components of the homeschooling program for teaching and learning at home indicated that the cost is 323.7 ILS per student per year, compared to an annual cost of 14,918 ILS per student in elementary public education. Moreover, the average score for homeschooled children on the TCT-DP questionnaire assessing creative thinking is 32.67 (SD=10.4), compared to an average score of 21.36 (SD=13.0) for children enrolled in public education (see Table 17). Furthermore, the average score for homeschooled children on the SSRS questionnaire assessing social skills is 70 (SD=7.6), compared to an average score of 62 (SD=9.5) for children enrolled in public education. It should be noted that the costs of teaching and learning program in home education were calculated for all participants (calculation of all components of the program: the costs of the facilities, services, equipment, and the cost of human capital), even though the learners are independent and do not necessarily study together or share any resources. These figures demonstrating that the effectiveness of homeschooling is greater than that of public education.
This research has both theoretical and practical contribution. From the theoretical perspective, this study shows that the effectiveness of homeschooling is greater than that of public education. Moreover, to the best of our knowledge this study is the first to use the cost-effectiveness model to assess homeschooling in Israel.
From the practical contributions of the study are dual. The first is practical implications for decision-makers and policymakers on differential budgeting that will enable home-schooling children to receive a living stipend. The second, Due to the fact that home schooling presents optimal effectiveness over public education, it is recommended to examine the tools and methods of learning which come from home education and adapt them to public education to enhance and improve teaching and learning.

Author

• Michal Unger madar, Bar Ilan University, Israel