Helene JantzenStimmt die ‘Chemie‘ im Elternhaus?

About this book deutschenglish

Knowledge and education play a vital part in today’s world and for the future life of every child. However, empirical research – for example results of the PISA- or TIMS-Studies – indicates that there is a significant influence of family environment on children’s intellectual growth. Not only the socio-economic background of the families is related to child performance, but also parental values, attitudes and behaviour may have an impact on their children’s development.

There are also clues that parental characteristics – like their attitude towards science – may have an effect on children’s science learning (cf. PISA 2009). Especially children’s interests and therefore their activity choices are greatly influenced by their parents (cf. Upmeier zu Belzen et al., 2002). For that reason enhancing parental involvement in science education may be a way to increase the interest of children in science. This approach might provide a great opportunity, in particular for subjects like chemistry or physics which are often disliked by students.

The main goal of the presented study was to find out if and how parental attitudes towards chemistry can influence the learning and motivation of their children. Furthermore an intervention to stimulate chemical activities in the family environment was to be explored. The empirical investigation focused on three research issues:

• Which attitudes do parents have towards chemistry?
• How do their subject-related attitudes influence the activities and parent-child-interactions at home?
• Does an experimental course encourage parents to carry out chemical activities with their children?