Home factor as major psycho-social variable affecting students' academic performance

ABSRACT

The study examined home factor as major determinant affecting students’ academic performance on the basis of the rostrum that the home is the first institution that is saddled with the responsibility of inculcating training in children in preparation for life challenges in order to produce courage, boldness, distinction and competency in children.

INTRODUCTION

            Apart from the notion that the home is a place of habitat for a family, the home is equally a place of learning or a learning center. It is a spot where ideas are invented, found and develop. A venue where basic life values are first unfolded and learned. It serves the purposes of developing children’s concept of work and leisure, training of young persons and adults for life challenges. To this effect, this paper appropriated the roles of a home in relation to parent attitude to their child accomplishment and interaction between various individual that constitute a home as catalyst towards obtaining the best vis-à-vis students’ achievement.

HOME FACTOR AND STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC PREFORMANCE.

            The home is the most important social institution of the society for two major reasons. First, it is the institution of procreation which enables society to maintain human continuity. Second, it is the institution that provides the individuals early socializing experiences which are build in later years.

            Thus, family discipline could be authoritarians, democratic or permissive. An authoritarian home produces a child that is complaint, insecure, uninquisitive and lacking in initiative. These traits affect negatively his school and his level of anxiety in academic achievement. While the democratic or permissive home may produce more positive students.

            It is therefore important to note at this junction, that class stratification in the society can affect students performance in school base on socio- economic status of the parent as revealed by Taiwo (1998) while citing swift (1965). Findings have therefore shown that socio-economic background of parent can determine the degree to which they value education. Such value in turn influences the level of school achievement of their children. The children of parent with working class values therefore do less well than the children of parents with middle class values that foster certain attitude considered conducive to successful school performance such as reading books.

            In the same vein, Fraser (1959) opines that parental education and reading habit, income and occupation all play significant role on school performance. He further buttresses that parental attitude toward school works could spur good performance while a family with abnormality was found to be important variable resulting in poor performance.

            Parents’ effects on children’s reading achievement are among the most consistently documented findings in educational research. This is obtainable in Taiwo’s (1998) study while quoting Hess and Holloway (1994) where five major kinds of influences where pin-pointed; press for academics performances availabilility in the home, amount of time parent spend reading with the children and children opportunity for verbal interaction in the home.

Goldenberg (1987) unfolded how some parents of children at risk for reading failure engage certain activities with their children or they provide certain home learning opportunities that resulted in better-than-expected achievement for the children.

It is therefore important to note that children especially boys do very much better at school if their parents are interested in their progress. According to Adelusi (1984) the lower class home is laced by lots of noise, overcrowding and support for under achievement which depress or hinder the cognitive and intellectual development.

Tomori (1963) and Adelusi ( 1978) have observed that WASSCE English students from high socio-economic statue home perform better than those from lower socio-economic homes and that more students from high social-economics homes have higher grades in English languages than those from lower socio-economic homes.

However, it should be noted that in some instances, the fact that a child comes from a higher socio-economic background in which his father earns a better pay secure income or in which his home contains a greater number of modern possession, does not necessary mean that a child will secure better on a test of academic achievement.

CONCLUSION

It is glaring and obvious from the above discussion that home is an important factor which should not be neglected when determinants of performance are been considered. This may be the reason while the research evidence of Arnold (1976) suggested that factors related to family background may be more fundamental and powerful than other variables like class size and so on.

RECOMENDATION

1. Objects and materials that could stimulate learning should be provided in the home for children.


2. Aside the fact that parents’ attitude to their children academic success should be positive, they should also inspire the children and make the home a place of invention and discovery of ideas for children.

REFERENCES

Adelusi, O.I (1984) The learners’ socio-economic background and English language. In PAI Obayan (ed) curriculum in theory and practice. Paper in memory of Okorotifa , Educational research and study group. Nigeria, Ibadan, University press of Ibadan.

Arnold, R.D (1976) class size and reading development in Merit, J.E (ed) New Horizon in reading. England, Newark, international reading association.

Fraser, E. (1986) Home environment in the school, London, Unversity of London press.

Goldenberg, C (1987) Low income Hispanic parents’ contribution to their first grade childrens’ word recognition skill. U.S.A, U.K. Anthropological and educational quarterly.

Taiwo, S.A. (1988) some psyco-socio and linguistic variables as determinants of performances in English in selected secondary schools in Kwara State, Nigeria. PhD thesis (unpublish).

Tomori, S.K.O (1967) A study in the syntactic structures of writing English of British and Nigeria Grammar School Pupils. PhD  thesis, London, England, University of London.

Source by olanipekun sunday shola

Home factor as major psycho-social variable affecting students' academic performance