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Home Environment and Parental Involvement as Determinants of Preschoolers’ Readiness for Primary School Education in Osun State, Nigeria

B. A. Adeyemi*, I. N.Adebanjo

Institute Of Education, Faculty of Education, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria

Abstract: The study assessed the home environment of preschoolers. It determined the level of involvement of parents. It further determined the interaction effect of home environment and parental involvement on preschoolers’ readiness for primary school education. These were with a view to providing information on the factors that could influence readiness in preschoolers. The study adopted the descriptive research design. Parents of preschoolers in Osun State constituted the population for the study. The sample consisted of 300 parents from twelve schools. The samples were selected using multistage sampling procedure. Six Local Government Areas were selected from the three Senatorial Districts in Osun State using simple random sampling technique. From each Local Government, two private schools were selected using simple random sampling technique. From each of the 12 nursery schools, 25 parents were selected using purposive sampling technique. An instrument titled: Questionnaire on Home Environment, Parental Involvement and Preschoolers’ Readiness (QHEPIPR) was used to elicit information from the respondents. Percentages, frequency counts, t-test and ANOVA were employed to analyse the data. The results of the study showed that high percentage (71%) of preschoolers have homes that stimulate them for education by provision of educational materials, conducive reading atmosphere, good habits, monitored hours of television viewing, learning something new daily, deliberate conversations daily, planned time-out with the children, and punishment for misbehaviours. 14.0%, 70%, and 16% of the respondents have low, moderate and high level of parental involvement in preschoolers’ education. Also, the results showed that the home environment and parental involvement would significantly determine preschoolers’ readiness for primary school education (N=300, t=-59.996, p < 0.05) and (N=300,t = 21.483, p < 0.05) respectively while the interaction effect of home environment and parental involvement would also significantly determine preschoolers’ readiness for primary school education (N=300,F = 689.479, p = 0.000).The study concluded that home environment and parental involvement significantly determined preschoolers’ readiness for primary school education.

Keywords: preschooler readiness, home environment, parental involvement

Citation: B. A. Adeyemi, I. N.Adebanjo, Home Environment and Parental Involvement as Determinants of Preschoolers’ Readiness for Primary School Education in Osun State, Nigeria. American Journal of Educational Research, 6 (6). 673-680. January 2018. doi:10.12691/education-6-6-14

1. Introduction

Parents are a child’s first educator. A child’s family and home environment has a strong impact on a child. This impact is stronger during the child’s early years but continues throughout their school years. Many background variables affect the impact of the family and home environment (such as socio-economic status, level of parental education, family size, etc.) but parental attitudes and behaviour, especially parents’ involvement in home learning activities, can be crucial to children’s achievement and can overcome the influences of other factors.

Readiness is a stage in a child’s development when the child can learn easily, effectively and without emotional disturbance. It cannot be defined as a point in development, because growth is a continuous process, but as a condition, or state indicating that the child is ready to learn. Learning is complex; it begins at birth and continues throughout life. Parents are the first teachers and role models for their children, and therefore have a strong influence on their learning. Yet, studies continue to show that many parents are not aware of the importance they play in their child’s education and have a limited understanding of their role in their children’s learning [1].

School readiness means each child enters school fully prepared to engage in and benefit from early learning experiences that best promote the child’s success. School readiness is a measure of how prepared a child is to succeed in school, cognitively, socially and academically. Just as there is an achievement gap in school performance, there is a school readiness gap that separates disadvantaged children from their more affluent peers.

Each child is unique, with an individual set of characteristics, and an individual developmental pattern which is influenced by both genetic and environmental conditions. Developmental milestones in all areas of development (physical, cognitive, language, social and emotional) are attained at different rates and times for each child. The concept of “school readiness” has concerned early childhood educators at both preschool and primary school levels for several years. Children who have commenced school without developing vital readiness skills have been identified as “at risk” for their future academic, social and occupational success.

Parents and early childhood educators have in-depth knowledge of their children in their care, based on their expertise, their understanding of each child’s developmental milestones, their environment, and their personal experiences. On occasions, parents, in partnership with the early childhood teacher, form a strong believe that a child is ready or not quite ready for school, that his or her development in one or more of the developmental milestones is adequate or inadequate as the case may be [1].

Socially, children who have well developed “school readiness” show concern for other children, and comfort other children who are upset. They show affection for other children, and like to invite other children to join in their games. In return, they are accepted and liked by their friends. Social interaction is an important indicator of school readiness. Children who have developed maturity in this area like to play with several different children, but can also work and play independently when required. They make friends easily, adapt well to different environments, and are able to separate from their parents easily. They can stand up for their rights by using their language skills to negotiate an outcome. They are confident in social situations and relate well to their teachers and other adults.

Children who are ready for school have well developed language skills. They would use words rather than body language to express a feeling or a need, communicate well with their peers, and speak clearly enough to be understood by others. Their vocabulary is well developed, and they use language creatively to describe what they are doing.

Children who are ready for school like to participate in classroom discussions, enjoy singing songs and saying little rhymes. They love to listen to stories and to look at picture books. They become aware of the link between language and print, and may start to recognize their own name and symbols in the environment. They are confident to ask for help from adults when needed and to seek for comfort from an adult when hurt. Parents can provide a range of wonderful experiences and positive reinforcement to help their children develop these skills. For a number of children, however, a further year of maturity, experience and guidance at preschool may be required to enable their language skills, emotional skills and their social interaction skills to mature and develop sufficiently to allow them deal with the complex social demands of the school environment.

Meisels [2] suggested four perspectives indicating children’s readiness for school: nativist, environmentalist, social constructivist and interactionist. The nativist view suggests that different children will possess skills and knowledge that are prerequisites for school success at different time because of their different biological timetable and therefore, they should not be pushed to receive formal schooling until they are developmentally ready [3]. In this perspective, the process of becoming ready for school is endogenously determined, with the environment playing only a minor role. In contrast, the environmentalist view of readiness focuses on the external evidence of children’s learning. According to this view, children’s readiness is thought to be determined by what has been taught in their social and cultural world, such as identifying different colours and shapes [2].

A third perspective on children’s readiness for school is the social constructivist view, which focuses on the values and expectations of the community, rather than on the child [2]. Social constructivists believed that there is no absolute definition of children’s readiness for school and its conceptualization is the shared meanings shaped by the people within the same context. The final perspective of children’s readiness for school is the interactionist view and its focus is on the child and the environment as well as the ongoing interaction between them. This perspective focuses on helping all children learn through the reciprocal relationship between the environment and the child [2].

The National Education Goals Panel has identified three specific components of readiness for school to guide research, practices, and policy making in promoting children’s readiness for school [4]. The conceptualization of ready child focuses on the readiness of the individual child and stresses the need to think about children’s readiness for school as a multi-faceted construct that includes different dimensions of readiness in children. Also, the concept of “ready family and community” reflects the resources available in the family and community to support children’s development of readiness for school.

The conceptualizations discussed above provided important theoretical understanding of readiness for school and have guided the present study. The “ready child” concept can be assessed by the different aspects of children’s readiness for school, namely children’s overall readiness for school, cognitive skills and early literacy development. Finally, the conceptualization of “ready family” and “community” was utilized to guide the design of the present study to examine the influence of home environment [as; television viewing and availability of learning tools (educational toys and hobbies), home educational tools, computers, number of children's books, frequency of new book acquisition, and library] and parental involvement [as; parental skills and knowledge, parents ’communication with teacher, volunteering of parents at school, support children learning at home, involvement in decision making and collaborating with the community], on children’s readiness for primary school.

For socio-emotional development, researchers have found that early peer rejection was related to higher levels of school avoidance, lower levels of academic performance as well as less favourable school perception [5,6]. In contrast, children with higher levels of cooperative play in preschool tended to become better liked by peers, while children who are able to manage their emotions and behaviours are more likely to perform better in school and have higher educational attainment [7].

As discussed above, children’s readiness for school influences their later academic achievement and developmental outcomes. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the factors influencing children’s readiness for school. Particularly, most existing studies examining the antecedents of children’s readiness for school have focused on exploring the influence of family and school factors on children’s readiness development.

Children need time and space to produce work of quality and depth [8]. Work on a project should not be limited and can extend over days or weeks (depending on the nature of the project and the child’s abilities, strengths and interests). Imagination, creativity and all kinds of symbolic behavior (reading, writing, drawing, dancing, music, mathematics, role playing, and talking) develop and emerge when conditions are favorable [9]. Thus a stimulating home environment is required to complement and enhance learning and readiness for school in a child. According to Ball [8], children learn most effectively through actions, rather than from instruction and when they are interested. Play and conversation are the main ways by which young children learn, a good stimulating home environment should therefore be provided for the child. The interactions and experiences that children have in the home and family setting provide a framework for how the child will interpret his or her world and give meaning to culturally-framed events. Even the degree to which children are prepared to benefit from later schooling is predicated in part on what transpires before they enter the school door.

1.1. Statement of the Problem

Studies have shown that preschoolers display varying degree of readiness in their transition to primary school education and this has the capacity to determine how well adjusted they are to primary school education. It is possible that such factors as exposure on the part of parents and preschoolers, home environment, socio-economic status, parental involvement and a host of other factors could be responsible for the varying degree of readiness displayed by pre-schoolers. There is little empirical evidence to justify this claim. It is therefore important to determine how well home environment and parental involvement can predict preschoolers’ readiness for primary school education. Hence, this study.

1.2. Research Objectives

The specific objectives of the study are to:

1. investigate the condition of home environment for preschoolers readiness;

2. assess the influence of home environment on preschoolers readiness;

3. determine the level of parental involvement in preschoolers’ education transition; and

4. determine the interaction effect of home environment and parental involvement on preschoolers’ readiness for primary school education.

1.3. Research Questions

The following research questions guided the study:

1. What is the condition of the home environment of preschoolers?

2. What is the level of parental involvement in preschoolers’ transition for primary education?

1.4. Hypotheses

The following null hypotheses were formulated for the purpose of this study:

H₀₁: There is no significant influence of home environment on preschoolers’ readiness for primary school education.

H₀₂: There is no significant influence of parental involvement on preschoolers’ readiness for primary school education.

H₀₃: There is no significant interaction effect of home environment and parental involvement on preschoolers’ readiness for primary school education.

2. Method

This study adopted the descriptive survey research design which entails the process of gathering information from a representative sample of a population. The descriptive survey design studies characteristics and opinions of relatively small samples of a population, through which it sought to determine the incidence and distribution of such a characteristic and opinion in the population. This study adopted this design because it sought to ascertain the influence of home environment and parental involvement on the readiness of preschoolers in Osun State. The population for the study comprised parents of pupils transiting into primary schools in Osun State. The sample size consisted of 300 hundred parents of kindergarten and lower primary school pupils in Osun State using multistage sampling technique. Six Local Government Areas were selected from the three Senatorial Districts in Osun State using simple random sampling technique. From each local government, two private schools were selected using simple random sampling technique. From each of the 12 nursery schools, twenty-five parents were selected using purposive sampling technique.

The research instrument used to elicit information from respondents for this study was a Questionnaire on Home Environment, Parental Involvement and Preschoolers’ Readiness (QHEPIPR). This instrument was adapted from the previous works of different researchers. (QHEPIPR) was administered on parents. Questionnaire on Home Environment, Parental Involvement and Preschoolers’ Readiness (QHEPIPR) was made up of four sections. The first section was made up of demographic variables. It consisted of items that were related to parents’ personal data, which included sex, age, ethnicity, educational qualification, employment status, religion and marital status. The second section of Questionnaire on Home Environment, Parental Involvement and Preschoolers’ Readiness (QHEPIPR) comprised 15 items on the home environment for preschoolers. The section was designed to gather information on availability of stimulating home environment for preschoolers. The respondents were to supply information on availability of educational tools such as toys, computers, availability of books, availability of well labelled drawings in the home, availability of child size furniture for study, availability of an outside environment safe for play, availability of an interior safe area for play, monitored hours for television watching, monitored hours for rest and nap, deliberate conversation with the child on a daily basis, planned out time to visit the zoo or museum, permission to make choice of food menu by the child, physical punishment for misbehaviours of the child. The statements were rated on a four-point Likert rating scale of “Strongly Agree”, “Agree”, “Disagree” and “ Strongly Disagree ” which were coded 4, 3, 2, and 1 respectively.

The third section of the instrument comprised of items on parental involvement. The section was designed to gather information on parents’ involvement behaviours. This section sought to know the extent of parents’ participation in home-school or parent-child activities organized by the kindergarten, participation in kindergarten related administrative events, giving comments or feedback to the kindergarten teacher, talking with a child about the primary school that he/she is going to, teaching a child to share with other, teaching a child how to solve problems between his/her peers. Others are instructing a child to self-feed at home, instructing a child to self-clean after using the toilet, instructing a child to take off and put on his/her clothes by him/herself, instructing a child to pack his/her schoolbag by him/herself, arranging time for a child’s exercise, keeping a regular morning and bedtime routine for child daily, preparing healthy meals for child daily, checking a child’s homework and schoolbag every day. These also include instructing and assisting a child to complete homework every day, giving safety knowledge to a child, reading stories to child at home, allowing a child read stories, bringing a child to the library to borrow or read books, fostering a child’s curiosity and desire for knowledge. Furthermore, they involve fostering a child’s proper attitude towards learning, fostering a child’s spirit of exploration and encouraging him/her to observe and ask questions, taking a child to museums, exhibition halls, zoos or other places to visit and learn, playing cognitively stimulating games with a child, such as chess and card games.

The fourth section of the instrument comprised items on school readiness. The section was designed to gather information on parents’ observation of preschoolers readiness and skills displayed by children. This section sought to know the degree to which the child often shows fatigue, is able to use scissors to cut paper into different patterns, is able to use a spoon properly, is able to fasten buttons and zippers properly, can run and jump with ease during free activities, is able to pay attention to his/her and others’ safety during activities, is able to share toys with other children, is full of confidence and curiosity, is able to forgive other children for the mistakes that they have made, is able to accept the criticism of the teacher or parent, likes making friends, respects the teacher or parent, is able to follow the instructions, is able to solve problems by his/herself during conflict with peers, is emotionally stable; does not cry or get excited easily, knows to maintain personal hygiene and wash hands thoroughly after using the toilet, is able to put on and take off clothes as well as to tie shoelaces by him/herself, is able to feed his/herself, is willing to learn and take initiative, shows curiosity for surrounding things, is able to arrange and manage time to complete learning tasks, does not give up easily during difficulties in learning.

The validity of the instrument was carried out through consultations of experts in Early Childhood and Test and Measurement for expert validation using the Lawshe’ Content Validity Criterion. The experts were able to review in terms of relevance to the subject matter, coverage of the contents areas, appropriateness of language usage and clarity of purpose. The experts’ judgments revealed that the items had adequate content validity. The reliability of the research instrument was gotten as 0.67 using Cronbach Alpha.

The instrument for the study was administered on the respondents by the researcher with the assistance of the class teacher of respective pre-schoolers. The researchers were able to meet some parents personally while some were given to some parents through their children accompanied with a note for their participation in the research process. Parents helped fill and return the questionnaire the following day.

The data obtained from the respondents were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics to answer the research questions and test the hypotheses. Specifically, frequency counts and simple percentages were used to answer the research questions while the hypotheses were tested using t-test and ANOVA.

3. Results

Two research questions and three hypotheses were generated for the study. All the questions were answered using the statistical computations of frequency, percentages, t-test and ANOVA. The results of the study based on the research questions generated are presented below.

Table 1 shows the Socio-demographic information of the respondents used for the study. The findings of the study revealed that 38.0% of the respondents are males while the remaining 62.0% are females. The study further showed that 35.0% of the respondents are between 31-40 years of age. Also, the study showed that 83.0% of the respondents are Yorubas. The study further showed that 42.0% of parents have B.Sc. degree, 52.0% of parents are employed, 87.0% are Christians and 87.0% are married.

Research Question One: What is the condition of home environment for preschoolers’ readiness?

Table 2 showed the condition of home environment for preschoolers’ readiness. The study showed that 84.0% of respondents’ homes have educational materials like toys and computers at home, 77.0% of the respondents have at least 10 children books at home, 78.0% of the respondents have well labelled drawings in the house to teach numbers and letters, 65.0% of the respondents have reading corner or room with child-size furniture for learning and study at home, 81.0% of the respondents have an outside play environment that is safe for the child, 78.0% of the respondents have an interior area safe for play for the child, 81.0% of the respondents have monitored hours for television watching, 82.0% of the respondents’ children observes monitored hours for rest and nap.

Table 1. Socio-Demographic Information of Respondents

Table 2. The Condition of Home Environment for Preschoolers’ Readiness

Also, the study further showed that 88.0% of the respondents’ children are ensured to learn something new daily, 74.0% of the respondents’ children are encouraged to put away toys without assistance, 90.0% of the respondents have deliberate conversations with their child daily, 55.0% of the respondents have a planned time-out to visit zoo or museum, 57.0% of the respondents permits their child to have choice in breakfast or lunch menu, 86.0% of the respondents eats a meal per day with either or both parents, and 87.0% of the respondents give physical punishment for misbehaviours of the child.

It can therefore be concluded that the high percentage of parents create a home that stimulates their children for education by providing educational materials, conducive reading atmosphere, good habits, monitored hours of television viewing, learning something new daily, daily deliberate conversations, planned time-out with the children, and punishment for misbehaviours.

Research Question Two: What is the level of parental involvement in preschoolers’ transition for primary education?

In order to answer this research question, items on Parental Involvement in Preschoolers’ Readiness were scored such that “Strongly Agree” response was allotted 4, “Agree” response 3, “Disagree” response 2, and “Strongly Disagree” response 1. Individual responses to each item were computed and the mean and standard deviation values were 74.45 and 12.19 respectively. The minimum and maximum scores obtainable in this inventory were 23 and 92 respectively. Students whose scores were below the group mean score minus 1 SD (i.e. 23-62) were adjudged as having low level of Parental Involvement in Preschoolers’ Readiness, those whose scores are between the mean score minus 1 SD and plus 1 SD (i.e. 63-86) were adjudged as having moderate level of Parental Involvement in Preschoolers’ Readiness while those above the mean score plus 1 SD (i.e. 87-92) were adjudged as having high level of Parental Involvement in Preschoolers’ Readiness. The result is presented in Table 3 which represents the level of Parental Involvement in Preschoolers’ Readiness.

Table 3. Level of Parental Involvement in Preschoolers’ Readiness

The results in Table 3 shows that 14.0% of the respondents have low level of Parental Involvement in Preschoolers’ Readiness, 70.0% of them have moderate level of Parental Involvement in Preschoolers’ Readiness while 16.0% of the students have high level of Parental Involvement in Preschoolers’ Readiness. From the results gathered, there is an indication that majority of the respondents have moderately high level of Parental Involvement in Preschoolers’ Readiness.

4. Hypotheses

Hypothesis One: There is no significant influence of Home Environment on Preschoolers’ readiness.

In order to test this hypothesis, the items in “Home Environment for Preschoolers”, and “Parental Observations of Preschoolers Readiness Skills” were scored such that “Strongly Agree” response was allotted 4, “Agree” response 3, “Disagree” response 2 and “Strongly Disagree” response was allotted 1. The mean, Standard Deviation, minimum and maximum scores were computed. The outcome was then subjected to paired samples t-test. The result is presented in Table 4.

Table 4 shows the influence of home environment on preschoolers’ readiness. As shown in Table 4, the t-value between home environment and preschoolers’ readiness is -54.996. This value is found to be significant at 0.05 probability level. This suggests that there is a direct and significant influence of home environment on preschoolers readiness (N=300, t=-54.996, p<0.05). Since p value is less than 0.05, the stated null hypothesis is therefore rejected. This result concludes that there is a significant positive influence of home environment on preschoolers’ readiness.

Hypothesis Two: There is no significant influence of Parental Involvement on Preschoolers’ readiness.

In order to test this hypothesis, the items in “Parental Involvement for Preschoolers”, and “Parental Observations of Preschoolers Readiness Skills” were scored such that “Strongly Agree” response was allotted 4, “Agree” response 3, “Disagree” response 2 and “Strongly Disagree” response was allotted 1. The mean, Standard Deviation, minimum and maximum scores were computed. The outcome was then subjected to paired samples t-test. The result is presented in Table 5.

Table 5 shows the influence of parental involvement on preschoolers’ readiness. As shown in Table 5, the t-value between parental involvement and preschoolers’ readiness is 21.483. This value is found to be significant at 0.05 probability level. This suggests that there is a direct and significant influence of parental involvement on preschoolers’ readiness (N=300, t= 21.483, p<0.05). Since p value is less than 0.05, the stated null hypothesis is therefore rejected. This result concludes that there is a significant positive influence of parental involvement on preschoolers’ readiness.

Hypothesis three: There is no significant interaction effect between home environment and parental involvement on preschoolers’ readiness for primary school education.

In order to test this hypothesis, the items in “Home Environment for Preschoolers”, “Parental Involvement in Preschoolers Readiness”, and “Parental Observations of Preschoolers Readiness Skills” were scored such that “Strongly Agree” response was allotted 4, “Agree” response 3, “Disagree” response 2 and “Strongly Disagree” response was allotted 1. The mean, Standard Deviation, minimum and maximum scores were computed. The outcome was then subjected to two-way ANOVA. The result is presented in Table 6.

Table 4. Influence of Home Environment on Preschoolers’ Readiness

Table 5. Influence of Parental Involvement on Preschoolers’ Readiness

Table 6. Interaction Effect of Home Environment and Parental Involvement on Preschoolers’ Readiness

Table 6 shows the ANOVA table of the interaction effect between home environment and parental involvement in preschoolers’ readiness for primary school education. The findings of the study showed that the interaction effect between Home environment and parental involvement in preschoolers’ readiness for primary school education revealed a p-value of 0.000 which is less than 0.05. Hence, the null hypothesis is rejected. Therefore, there is a significant interaction effect between Home environment and parental involvement in preschoolers’ readiness for primary school education (N=300, F = 689.479, p = 0.000).

5. Discussion of Findings

The primary goal of this study was to determine if home environment and parental involvement could determine preschoolers’ readiness for primary school education.

Frequency distributions indicated that majority of the preschoolers’ parents were married and a little percentage were unemployed. Most parents had a level of education, the area comprised of mostly Yorubas. Over one third of the parents were less than 50 years of age.

The results of the first research question indicated that most parents had invested in providing a good, stimulating and loving environment safe for learning, growth, safety and development of the child. This was in preparation for primary school education by providing educational materials, conducive reading atmosphere, good habits, monitored hours of television viewing, learning something new daily, daily deliberate conversations, planned time-out with the children, and punishment for misbehaviours. Survey results indicated that television remains an integral part of the home environment with parents reporting that their children watched television under their supervision.

Educational materials and toys were also available in most homes according to parents’ report. Some respondents indicated that educational play took place seldomly; this could be as a result of busy schedules of these parents as most of them are workers. Most homes indicated the availability of books and parents reported having a home computer, labelled drawings for learning in the home, a safe interior and exterior suitable for child to play. Availability of toys, children’s books, and deliberate conversation with the child, were important component of the family environment with report of at least 10 books in the home and a large percentage of the parents had daily deliberate conversation with the child. These findings supported earlier research findings that pinpointed the importance of a home environment characterized by a warm accepting atmosphere with shared reading and open conversation [10,11].

The result on the second research question showed that the level of Parental Involvement in Preschoolers’ Readiness is moderate. The researcher discovered factors that may likely be responsible for the moderate level of parental involvement. Some of such factors are: busy schedules at work, availability of helpers/servants at home or home teachers, less information on what is required of parents by school or teachers, educational experience of parents, to mention a few. These factors which could hinder a high level of parental involvement in preschoolers’ readiness for primary school education agrees with Fuller and Olsen [12] who opined that parents’ reason for not participating in school-related activities included minimal opportunities for involvement, negative school experiences, lack of time, transportation, limited educational background and socio-economic disadvantages. Horny [13] opined that the work schedule and commitment of working parents may make it difficult for them to have a high level of involvement in their children’s education.

Furthermore, this research discovered that parents are more involved in home-based involvement such as instructing, helping with homework, packing and unpacking bags, reading to child, teaching the child. They often avoid school-based involvement such as volunteering in school activities, participation in clad-related administrative events, involvement in decision making. This is in agreement with Ho [14] who opined that school participation is an active form of involvement where parents volunteer in the school or participate in school governance.

This research found that there is significant influence of the home environment on preschoolers’ readiness for primary school education. Also, parental involvement will significantly influence preschoolers’ readiness for primary school education. Another finding of this study is that there is a significant interaction effect between home environment and parental involvement in preschoolers’ readiness for primary school education. It can be deduced from this that it is of importance that the home environment and parents be fully involved in preparing or making the preschoolers ready for the next phase of learning. What the child sees in his or her environment in one way or the other forms a part of the learning. This is in line with Froebel’s opinion of creating a garden of learning and a garden for learning in order to promote easy development of the child. This means that if the home environment (availability of educational materials, books, toys, well labelled drawings in the home, availability of interior and exterior safe play area for play, child size reading area, monitored hours of television watching), and parental involvement (volunteering in school, participation in school activities, supporting child learning at home), the readiness skills displayed by preschoolers would change from low to high. The results from this study showed that the two independent variables were found to have a positive influence on the dependent variable.

6. Conclusion

The present study established the fact that a large percentage of preschoolers’ home were stimulating for learning as adequate materials were provided by their parents. The study concluded that involvement of parents was moderate. The study also concluded that home environment and parental involvement significantly determined preschoolers’ readiness for primary school education.

7. Recommendations

Arising from the findings and conclusion of the study, various recommendations were proposed to further enhance the participation of parents that will enhance the readiness of preschoolers for primary school education. Therefore, this study should be applied in various educational and counselling settings. These recommendations are given subsequently.

1. It is recommended that educators consider more thoroughly the home environment of the students and possible early intervention strategies. More time and money should be allocated to educating parents about the importance of the home environment and school readiness.

2. Educators should encourage parents to invest more time of reading on their children and share educational activities with them. An abundance of reading materials should be made available to a child throughout his or her life. If parents are not able to financially afford a variety of books, educators should strongly promote use of the community library. Educators should also strongly encourage parents to monitor the amount of time children spend on watching television.

3. Schools should make every effort to engage parents in an educational partnership by providing various opportunities for parent involvement. This can be done even prior to official school entry through community-oriented activities, recognizing that not all parents have regular working hours. Hence, activity days and times should be flexible.

4. With the acknowledgment that family ethos is constantly changing and that specific family and home characteristics are closely aligned with school readiness and later school achievement, it is recommended that educators should continue to acquire and update knowledge in this area.

5. Creative solutions for engaging parents in their children's learning are needed to stimulate educational involvement and support at home. For instance, practitioners may examine the content of home-based learning activities and search for more effective ways for parents to be more involved at home.

6. In order to provide information to parents for helping students with homework and other curriculum-related matters, teachers could also use typical guidance (e.g., direct guidance during parent-teacher conferences and parent seminars) on parents. Teachers could consider the use of online platforms to facilitate the parent–teacher communication outside the school. The establishment of the online platform could also provide parents with opportunities.

References

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[13]   | Hornby, G. (2000). Improving parental improvement. London: Cassell.
[14]   | Ho, S. C. (1995). Parent Involvement: A comparison of different definitions and explanations. Education Journal, 23, 39-68.
[15]   | Snow, C. E., Burns, M. S., & Griffin, P. (Eds.). (1998). Preventing reading difficulties in young children. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.