The Future of Education

Recent years, some researchers have noted the importance of parental participation in their children’s learning. If parents help out with homework, for example, improved test results and overall performance often result. The authors believe that science education ought to begin at home, reinforcing parents’ knowledge as well as helping the children to learn. To date, however, relatively little work has been done on this topic in Taiwan. The present paper describes the first two years of the project which was involved parents to design hands-on science activities to enhance parents’ involving in their children’s learning. The project began in September 2011. A parental science learning group was set up in the first year of the project, targeting the family member (usually a parent) who participated in the group. 12 volunteer parents of first, second, and third graders took part in this study. From 2011 to July 2013, study group meetings of 2 hours’ duration were arranged biweekly. Participants learned about science learning, inquiry and how to be involved in their children’s learning. And then, they were asked to read and discuss different kinds of science books for kids and asked to develop a science activity for their kids by themselves. The purpose of this study was to investigate 1) the process of development of hands-on science activities by parents, 2) parents’ opinion about what makes a good science activity for kids, and 3) the parents’ view toward working together at home with hands-on science activities. The results revealed that parents would more appreciated the importance of hands-on learning in science and understood the importance of family involvement in children’s science learning after participating activity development. Most parents were willing to learn from hands-on science activities with their children at home, they also would revise the activities for their children’s need. Moreover, through parents’ participation, they would find that they are capable of assisting their children in learning science. Parents would enhance their confidence and their attitude and knowledge of science at the same time.