Effects of Parental Earlier Educational Involvement on Students' Math Achievement at Fourth Grade: An International Perspective

• In Event: Discussions on STEM Assessment Within an International Context

Abstract

The current study employed the secondary data from TIMSS2015 survey to investigate whether parental educational involvement in the earlier childhood and their attitude toward STEM can enhance children’s mathematics achievement at 4th grade via influencing children’s learning interests and self-concept. Given the similar cultural backgrounds and outstanding mathematical achievements in TIMSS, we selected Singapore and Hong Kong to investigate whether the hypothesized model fit the real data. It was found that after controlling for gender, immigration, and family learning resources variables, both parental involvement in learning activities and parental attitude toward STEM had positive significant effects on children’s mathematics achievement at 4th grade. However, the variation was also identified in terms of the influences of parental attitudes in two samples.

Authors

• Yiran Cui, Shandong University

• Frederick K.S. Leung, The University of Hong Kong

• Danhui Zhang, Beijing Normal University