THE INFLUENCE OF A CHILD’S HOME ENVIRONMENT ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
THE STUDY’S BACKGROUND
Any child’s academic performance cannot be separated from the home environment in which the child grows up. A healthy home environment provides a child with emotional security.
Schools cannot simply provide a continuation of the home environment, but they can play an invaluable role in laying the groundwork for the child to learn to read and write; however, this influence is characterized by a variety of factors such as the parents’ home background learning facilities, levels of parental educational attainment, and other sociocultural issues.
The rate of poor performance in various school examinations, such as the senior secondary school examination, has steadily increased over the years in the society (S.S.C.E). According to educator comments, the blame for poor performance stems from students’ and parents’ neglect and carefree attitude toward academic work.
Against this backdrop, the researcher has decided to investigate a child’s academic performance.
As previously stated, there are numerous factors that influence a child’s academic performance.
It goes without saying that a child’s academic performance is directly related to his or her environment, including learning facilities and other sociocultural issues. Every child is born with the same intellectual ability, but a good and conducive environment with adequate learning facilities will aid in the development of the child’s intellectual and academic capabilities.
Parents from good learning environments will always have positive attitudes toward education and will provide learning materials such as television, instructional video tracts, books and journals, and so on that will aid in the learning process. In fact, these can give a child an advantage over his or her peers in a learning environment with limited resources.
Educated parents will always believe that it is important to help a child with his or her homework and to review the schoolwork that the child has completed, but a child from a poor home environment is often deprived of such opportunities, and thus struggles to serve the teaching and learning process.
As a result, a student in this category lacks confidence and consistency. As a result, he or she observes how academic performance thus, the motivation of any intelligent child towards learning is accelerated by the positive influence of his or her environment, whereas others are negatively affected as a result of their poor home environment.
PROBLEM STATEMENT
The value of education in a person’s life cannot be overstated. Education has a long-term impact on people’s lives. For example, the acquisition of knowledge and skills, as well as all other worthwhile things that are transmitted to a person through formal and informal education, determines his or her future potential.
Essentially, we believe that the home is a child’s first school, where he or she is taught the fundamental norms and values by the parents before the child enters formal education. Contrary to popular belief. Learning and reading start in school, but the child’s foundation starts at home. [Binkley, 1998]
Based on those facts, the purpose of this research is to answer the following questions about why student home environment affects student performance in school.
A child’s academic performance suffers when he or she is exposed to an unfavorable learning environment.
Can illiterate parents’ attitudes influence their children’s performance?
Can the attitudes of illiterate parents influence their child’s performance?
STUDY PURPOSE
The goal of this study is to thoroughly investigate the relationship between a child’s home environment, parental educational attainment, learning materials, and academic performance in school. In other words, the study wants to know how variations in the aforementioned factors in a child’s home affect his or her academic performance, and then it wants to suggest possible solutions to these problems.
THE IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY
Individuals and society as a whole benefit greatly from education. Educators have long assumed that an individual’s progress in a learning situation is heavily influenced by his or her home environment. As a result, this study will highlight the significant differences in various home environments.
The study will enable educators and curriculum planners to plan for individual differences among children in any teaching/learning environment. It will also assist teachers in catering to different classes of school children in the classroom.
Furthermore, it will enable the teacher to adopt new dimensional approaches while teaching. Finally, regardless of educational qualification, parents should encourage the child at home and provide maximum stimulation at all times.
QUESTIONS FOR RESEARCH
The following research questions provide the focus of the study in terms of the study’s purpose.
I Does a child’s home environment affect his or her academic performance?
ii) Does a child’s academic performance depend on his or her parents’ academic achievement?
iii) Does the academic achievement of the parents have any bearing on academic performance?
iv) Does a child’s sociocultural background influence his or her academic performance?
STUDY OBJECTIVES
This study is primarily concerned with the impact of a child’s home environment on academic performance. However, the researcher is limited to a few selected secondary schools in Edo state’s Egor local government area.
TERMS DEFINITION
I ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE: This is defined as a child’s or individual’s score in a test or examination based on his or her learning experiences.
ii) HOME ENVIRONMENT: In this context, the home environment simply refers to a child’s immediate surroundings and the first institution where he or she is taught the fundamental norms and values by his or her parents before proceeding to formal education.
iii) SOCIO STATUS: This is an individual’s overall state based on differences in occupation, level of education, and other societal issues.
iv) SOCIO-CULTURAL BACKGROUND: This is an individual’s social and cultural makeup in relation to his or her environment.
v) EDUCATION: the formal instruction or training that a child receives in school.
vi) PARENT: any person (male or female) who has legal custody of a child
vii) EDUCATED PARENTS: possessors of a female or male child who has received formal education in addition to informal education.
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THE INFLUENCE OF A CHILD’S HOME ENVIRONMENT ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE