International Journal of Education and Pedagogy (IJEAP) eISSN: 2682-8464 | Vol. 4 No. 3 [September 2022]
Journal website: http://myjms.mohe.gov.my/index.php/ijeap
PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT IN CHILDREN’S ACADEMIC DURING COVID-19: EXPLORING THE ROLES OF PARENTS
IN HOME-BASED TEACHING AND LEARNING (PDPR)
Rafidah Abdul Razak1*, Norlis Ismail2 and Muliyati Mat Alim3
1 2 3 Faculty of Arts and Social Science, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Kampar, MALAYSIA
*Corresponding author: [email protected]
Article Information:
Article history:
Received date : 16 September 2022 Revised date : 28 September 2022 Accepted date : 29 September 2022 Published date : 30 September 2022
To cite this document:
Abdul Razak, R.,Ismail, N., & Mat Alim, M. (2022).PARENTAL
INVOLVEMENT IN CHILDREN’S ACADEMIC DURING COVID-19:
EXPLORING THE ROLES OF PARENTS IN HOME-BASED
TEACHING AND LEARNING (PDPR).
International Journal of Education and Pedagogy, 4(3), 291-299.
Abstract: The struck of Covid-19 as a global pandemic in the year 2020 had significantly altered the way people used to operate their lives. During the period of lockdown, the reliance towards the Internet increases as people were restricted from engaging in physical and face-to-face activities that they had before the pandemic. Just like adults who were told to work from home, school children were instructed to attend online classes and submit homework via online applications such as WhatsApp and Telegram. The new method identified as home-based teaching and learning (PdPR) was introduced by the ministry of education (MoE) as an alternative method to replace the physical school sessions. This study was conducted to understand the roles of parents during the PdPR period and the extent they involved in their children’s e-learning process. Therefore, a total of 21 parents with primary school-aged children from Perak localities were interviewed via online meeting applications including Zoom and WhatsApp Video Call. The data was analysed using thematic analysis and findings shown that while letting their children to learn independently, most parents engaged in monitoring their children’s homework and ensuring that the technical requirements are fulfilled.
Keywords: Covid-19, home-based teaching and learning (PdPR), e-learning, role of parents, primary schools.
1. Introduction
Discovered in 2019, coronavirus disease or its popular term Covid-19 is an infectious respiratory disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) (World Health Organization, 2021; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2021). The outbreak was first centered in the city of Wuhan in Hubei province, China before it began to spread to other countries.
The escalated infectious rate across the globe had forced WHO to declare Covid-19 as a global health emergency on 30 January 2020 (Fauci, Lane & Redfield, 2020; Velavan & Meyer, 2020). After two years, Covid-19 continued to exist and many scientists predicted that the virus would turn into endemic, which means that it will stay but with vaccination, the public will gain immune protection that will help reduce hospitalization and death (Feldscher, 2021).
To control the spread of Covid-19, the Malaysian government had implemented series of lockdown or movement control orders (MCOs) that put restrictions onto the people’s daily activities and routines. The MCOs ruled out that only one person from each family or the head of families can leave their home to buy essentials or medical items (Povera, 2021) and employees from both public and private sectors were ordered to continue their work from home in order to lessen the individuals having face to face contact to curb the Covid-19 infection (Mohamed Basyir, 2021). As Covid-19 cases spiked, the schools nationwide were also closed and the physical learning was replaced by PdPR, a method that involves teaching and learning at home or community centre or any suitable location. It can operate via online or offline or both and meant to replace the physical classes during the pandemic time (Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia, 2021).
In a press release dated 27 March 2020, the Ministry of Education (MoE) had responded to the concerns raised by parents about the effects of Covid-19 on their children’s academic progress, through which the ministry confirmed its full commitment towards ensuring all children’s need for education during the pandemic and to achieve that, a guideline that specifies the responsibilities of administrators, teachers, parents and pupils was set (Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia, 2020).
The study has one main objective, which is to explore the roles of parents in PdPR that takes place during the Covid-19 period. The parents chosen are those who have children going for primary education as the study assumes that bigger responsibilities await these parents, given the fact that e- learning is new for most schools in Malaysia. Overall, this study hopes to be able to provide insight on PdPR from the perspectives of parents that will be useful for improvement of e-learning in the future.
2. Literature Review
According to Singh et al. (2020), compared to adult pupils, the younger ones need more attention from their parents when it comes to e-learning. It is common to expect parents to be with their kids and to participate in more indoor activities together. Furthermore, the restrictions from having outdoor activities and face-to-face interaction with classmates and friends during Covid-19 have brought dullness into the children’s lives. Therefore, to keep them motivated to continue with their e-learning, parental support is crucial (McCann, 2021).
Lubis and Lubis (2020) conducted a study on parents’ perceptions on e-learning during Covid-19 pandemic in Indonesia that was participated by 257 respondents. Results indicated that the respondents overall dissatisfied with the implementation of e-leaning due to barriers such as poor information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure and lack of technological skills, while at the same time considered the traditional and physical learning as the preferred method.
Meanwhile, based on a survey by Amanor-Mfoafo, Akrofi, Edonu and Dowuona (2020) that was responded by 113 Ghanaian parents, it was reported that parents with high socio-economic status were more prepared to assist children with e-learning during Covid-19 compared to parents with low socio-economic status.
E-learning system is also adopted by Abu Dhabi schools due to the rapid growth in modern technology and knowledge. Asma Khaleel Abdallah (2018), through his study found out that parents generally perceived e-learning could improve the quality of students’ learning by providing them with wide variety accessibility of e-learning materials, and children are not restricted in any manner regarding course materials, availability of faculty members, accessibility, and time related issues. The study aims at investigating parents’ understanding and perceptions of supporting, encouraging and adopting e-learning initiative.
2.1 Problem Statement
On September 2021, MoE concluded that the effectiveness of PdPR method among school students is at moderate level. This conclusion was made based on a study that was conducted to assess the effectiveness of PdPR implementation based on aspects such as the covering approaches, methods, strategies, applications and tools used, besides the PdPR scheduling, restructuring of Annual Lesson Plans (RPT) and assessments involving 13,156 school administrators, 39,967 teachers, 52,413 students and 59,624 parents/guardians (Bernama, 2021).
There are numerous issues that the ministry needs to address and consider if the implementation of PdPR were to be effective, one of it is on the existence of digital divide between kids living in urban and rural areas, which as the president of National Parent-Teacher Association (PIBGN), Associate Professor Datuk Dr Mohamad Ali Hasan said that the Internet access should be improved to ensure students receive faster and stable connection, also the distribution of 150,000 devices to those who are from lower-income families should be made sooner (Arumugan & Kamal, 2021).
Another issue was related to the involvement of parents in PdPR, whereby it is in fact not easy for every parent to handle their children’s education at home. There are a variety of factors to consider for examples the parent’s level of education, their work and other commitments, and also their ability to provide necessary support in terms of learning facilities and tools. Zainudin (2021) highlighted balancing responsibilities, work and time management as one of the issues that many working parents had to face during the PdPR time.
Meanwhile, lack of digital skills among teachers is another problem that needs attention and improvement. According to Rashid, Haron & Haron, 2021), “to get through a new norm in teaching during this pandemic, the teachers must have high level of efficacy in using technology tools to conduct the online teaching” (p.651).
Therefore, this study believes that besides teachers and schools, parents play significant roles in ensuring the effectiveness of PdPR, which as Ali Salman (2022) wrote that ust like in traditional learning environment, their roles in e-learning are crucial in ensuring the success of the students.
3. Method
To collect the data, a qualitative method was chosen and in-depth interviews were conducted on 21 parents from Perak localities including Ipoh, Tapah and Kampar. The interview sessions took place via online meeting or chat platforms, mainly Zoom and WhatsApp video, at different days and times.
These parents were first approached via WhatsApp, whereby they were required to fill a short demographic survey form to identify if they fulfil the main criterion set for the research, including living in Perak and have children attending primary education at either public or private school.
The research team then communicated with the selected parents about their preferred time, day, and interview platform. As a precaution from Covid-19, the interviews were conducted using online medium, and each session was recorded for data analysis purpose afterwards. The biggest challenge in data collection was to obtain participants for the study as many parents refused to be interviewed due to commitments like work and family. This situation resulted into the extension of overall research completion.
During the interview, the parents have shared about their experiences in handling their children’s PdPR, including the challenges they faced throughout the process. Thematic analysis was the analysis method applied in this research, where the data was first transcribed, followed by the development of codes and categorisation of codes into themes, and all of these processes of data analysis was performed using a qualitative software, Atlas.ti.
4. Results and Discussion 4.1 Results
The study had discovered four main roles that parents play in PdPR, discussed as below:
Supervisor
In this case, parents act as supervisor who engaged in monitoring and reminding their children’s e- learning about homework and assist them in completing it. Parent 3, for example, said that no matter how late, she will make sure that her child does his homework and submit it on the same day. In her words,
“I will make sure my child completes his homework on the same day, even though he had to go to bed late because I had to go to work in the morning. No matter how late, I will make sure the homework is done and submitted to the teacher (by the end of the day)”.
Meanwhile, parent 5 told that she will sit together with her children when they are doing their homework,
“I will (sit) with my children when they do their homework. If not, I will be pressured and (might) lost control (because they did not do it)”.
This shows that children, especially the younger ones, need their parents’ supervision not only in completing their homework, but also in reminding them about it every day.
Parent 10, however, considered this role as a challenge because she had to go to work too. To deal with this problem, she said timetable is crucial. According to her,
“The issue is, parents had to monitor their children’s PdPR and at the same time, had to go to work.
To ease this, timetable is crucial. It is important to monitor their homework, otherwise they will just ignore (and not doing it). When we monitor them, they can learn better”
Supporter
Another important role of parents in e-learning is to support, which as this study discovered, include both technical and emotional support that importantly bring encouragement to the children to continue their e-learning.
Parent 19 mentioned that her children never missed a PdPR session because of their interest to learn and the fear to be left behind if e-learning was skipped. This situation is also contributed by the technical support she managed to provide for her children, which she said,
“For me, PdPR is not an issue because all my children own a tablet or a gadget that enable them to join e-learning from anywhere”.
Meanwhile, parent 14 stated during the interview that at times she needed to provide emotional support to her children especially when everyone is stressed out with their own tasks and jobs.
Motivator
Some parents discovered that their younger children need to be motivated to join PdPR sessions.
Parent 18 said,
“The older children (Year 4 and Year 6) have no problem participating in all PdPR sessions. (But) the younger one missed many of the early morning sessions since he is not motivated”.
She continued to elaborate the problem saying that,
“The older children have no problem adjusting to PdPR and I would say that they have no problem catching up to the lessons. The younger one is not doing well since he can’t really concentrate in front of a gadget for a long period of time”.
Similar issue was faced by Parent 17 who told that her Standard One child kept missing his PdPR classes as he was not motivated to join them. She told the interviewer,
“My Year One child kept missing his PdPR classes and often I had to console him so that he is motivated to join (the classes)”.
Teacher
The absence of teachers physically during PdPR sessions had forced parents to take over the role and position of a teacher at home. Many parents considered this as a challenge particularly when they are less familiar with the subjects and the syllabus, hence needed to do their own research beforehand.
Parent 13 told that,
“The biggest challenge I face when sometimes my child does not understand a learning and it requires me to make references and searches to explain the learning that the child does not understand. For example, the calculation of a mathematical work is different from my understanding, and I need to find a calculation that is in line with the current syllabus”.
Parent 10 described her experience in her children’s PdPR as more important than the teachers themselves,
“Teachers from my children’s school mostly used the printed module and short videos instead of conducting online classes. Because of that, parents have more significant responsibilities than the teachers since we need to teach the children. And this method is (quite) a burden for parents”.
4.2 Discussion
Besides teachers and schools, parents did play significant roles in their children’s e-learning and academic progress during Covid-19. This study discovered four roles that parents are accountable for in e-learning, which are supervisor, supporter, motivator and teacher. Panaoura (2020) confirmed that especially in the case of primary education, parents needed to facilitate and support their children to get through e-learning process. Described as committed teacher, parents of children in grades 1-3 shown high parental involvement in teaching compared to parents of children in higher grades, whereby they significantly involved in assisting – for examples explaining difficult or new topics and motivating their children to learn, as well as in logistics – for examples technical assistance related to equipment and checking the school tasks (Knopik, BlaszczK, Maksymiuk & Oszwa, 2021).
Findings also shown that some parents were complaining about the challenges they faced, and it was supported by another study by Husain, Kofia, Basri and Mahmud (2020) where the parents considered e-learning as bringing disadvantages to them particularly when they had to take over the roles of teachers at home and mathematics being one of the most difficult subjects to teach by online means.
Working parents in a study by Tajuddin, Nazam and Abu Bakar (2022) reported that e-learning affect their work commitment and to overcome the problem, adjustment of their own time was needed.
The contribution of parents in PdPR or e-learning hence must not be ignored. However, to encourage parental involvement, government’s support is crucial especially for lower income families who could not provide learning tools and equipment for their children to go through e-learning. Insufficient support from the government may cause both parents and children unmotivated to take part in e- learning and disregard its importance.
5. Conclusion
In conclusion, this study provides insights on the topic of PdPR and e-learning at the school level from the perspective of parents. Based on the findings, it is clear that the implementation of e-learning during the pandemic had created hassles to many people especially at its beginning. Now, even though things are back to normal and kids are returning to schools, the findings of the study may benefit the government when drafting policies related to e-learning in the future.
The main limitation of the study is the difficulty in obtaining participants due to reasons like not interested and not available for interview. This problem may also occur because of the criterion of respondent set that was based on their locations. Future studies on similar topic may use quantitative method that allows for data collection from larger number of respondents and from other states as well. It is also recommended to conduct comparative research that examines the issue of digital divide between students from rural and urban areas and how it affects their e-learning experiences.
6. Acknowledgement
Firstly, the research team would like to extend our appreciation to Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) for funding our research project under UTAR Research Fund (UTARRF). Secondly, we are truly grateful to the parents who agreed to participate in this research despite their hectic schedules and routines. We understand that without their willingness to participate, this research project would not be a reality.
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