How too much math homework help from parents can backfire

Key takeaways for caregivers

• Before children enter formal schooling, a good way for parents to help children learn math is through activities such as playing games that involve numbers.
• Once children enter formal schooling and have homework, these activities wilt less frequent. Unfortunately, parents often have increasingly negative feelings (e.g., frustration and irritation) when they are involved in their children’s math homework than when they are involved in activities, and this can undermine children’s math learning.
• It is weightier for parents to let children conquer their math homework on their own or to seek information on what children are learning and how to weightier help so parents finger efficacious in helping.

How can parents help children learn math?

Before children enter formal schooling, many parents engage their offspring in informal math activities, such as measuring while cooking and playing games that involve numbers. These kinds of activities can help children learn key math concepts and wilt interested, as well as confident, in math. However, with children’s entry into formal schooling, activities of this type may occur less commonly as children have prescribed homework to complete.

Unfortunately, parents often have increasingly negative feelings (e.g., frustration and irritation) when they are involved in their children’s math homework than when they are involved in activities.

To largest understand how parents can protract to help their children learn math once they enter formal schooling, we studied two primary questions:

• Is it useful for parents to get involved in their children’s math homework?
• Is math homework just as good an opportunity as math activities for parents to help children learn math?

Measuring parents’ involvement and children’s motivation and victory in math

Our study included 483 parents of first- and second-graders in the midwestern United States. Most parents were White (67%), 17% were Black, 8% were Asian, 5% were Latinx, and 4% were flipside ethnicity or increasingly than one ethnicity. Parents’ highest level of educational attainment ranged from less than a higher stratum (29%) to an wide graduate stratum (38%).

We asked the parents to well-constructed a survey every day for 10 days. The parents reported on whether children had math homework and if they were engaged in math activities such as math workbench games or workbooks. Parents then reported on qualitative aspects of their involvement in their children’s math homework and activities – such as whether they had negative (e.g., irritated) or positive (e.g., happy) feelings.

Photo: Jessica Lewis. Unsplash.

To understand how parents’ involvement in their children’s math homework contributes to children’s math learning, we moreover measured children’s math motivation and victory at two times – when we measured parents’ involvement in their children’s math learning and one year later. Children indicated how much they liked math, chose between easy and difficult math problems in making a worksheet for themselves, and took a math victory test.

Parents’ involvement in math homework was less helpful than their involvement in math activities

We found that parents’ involvement in their children’s math homework was less constructive than their involvement in math activities: Parents tended to have increasingly negative and less positive feelings when working on homework than they did when engaged with activities. In addition, the lower parents’ self-efficacy (e.g., having lower conviction in their worthiness to help with math), the increasingly negative and less positive their emotions were when they were involved in both math activities and homework, but this was particularly true for homework.

One reason for these findings may be that some parents might finger like they do not know how to help children learn math when it comes to math homework, which may be increasingly difficult than math activities. Children often wilt frustrated with homework, which may lead some parents to wilt frustrated as they finger out of their element in helping children. This may be particularly true in math since the Common Core curriculum used in most U.S. classrooms today often relies on variegated methods than parents learned as children.

Unfortunately, the increasingly parents’ involvement in their children’s math homework was characterized by negative emotions, the increasingly children disliked math, avoided difficult math problems in making their worksheet, and had poor math victory a year later. Moreover, parents were increasingly involved in math homework and less involved in math activities with older than younger children.

Together, these findings suggest that parents wilt less constructively involved in children’s math learning as children get older considering increasingly time is spent on math homework and less time is spent on math activities.

Photo: Monstera. Pexels.

How can parents help children learn math once they enter formal schooling?

Perhaps the weightier translating for parents is to refrain as much as possible from stuff involved with their children’s math homework. Instead, parents should stay on the sidelines, vicarial as cheerleaders and providing a sounding board. Parents can be encouraging when children hit a stumbling block, supporting their frustration and offering a hint to help them get on the right track.

Perhaps the weightier translating for parents is to refrain as much as possible from stuff involved with their children’s math homework.

If that is not effective, parents can suggest that children ask their teacher the next day well-nigh how to do the work. During elementary school, children usually do not have to turn in mistake-free homework. If parents finger they need to step in, it might be helpful to seek out translating – for example, from the teacher – well-nigh what their children are learning in math and how weightier to help.

Recommendations for math teachers working with parents and children

Teachers might think well-nigh how they can steer parents yonder from stuff involved in children’s math homework (for example, by communicating that mistakes on homework are part of the learning process, so parents do not need to be as closely involved) or squire parents in feeling efficacious in helping. In the early years of schooling, this may be as simple as telling parents they do not need to know a lot well-nigh math and giving them information on what children are learning withal with a few tips on helping their children.

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