Enhancing Parental Involvement through Reward System

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

The Department of Education stresses the importance of parental involvement and community partnership. The school, as an institution for learning, appreciates the support provided by the community members. The teachers who develop the young minds and hearts of the children to become assets of society also perceive the significance of parental involvement. The parents need to know their children's class standing so that they themselves can help their children either sustain or improve the current academic status. During the last two school years, the researcher observed that only a few parents are actively engaged in school activities. The record shows that less than 50% of the expected number of parents attend Homeroom PTA meetings. This is exactly the reason why the researcher conducted this action research. The main goal of this action research is to enhance parental involvement through an intervention in the form of the reward system. She conducted this action research to prove that through the reward system the parental involvement will be increased.

METHODS

The researcher employed extrinsic motivation among parents by means of giving them groceries every time she calls for HPTA meetings. However, it is explained to the parents that the reward system is not to mislead them that they only should have to attend the meetings because of the items being given to them. The researcher explained to them briefly that the main advantage of attending the HPTA meeting is not merely having these materials but rather to exhibit constant support for their children. This extrinsic motivation led to intrinsic motivation eventually. Parents who did not attend the meeting were given areply slip from which they will write the reason for not attending the meeting. And by means of the reply slip, the researcher consolidated the main reason why parents did not attend the conferences.

RESULTS

Results show that the percentage of the number of parents who participated in the three Brigada Eskwela increased at 35.29%, 58.82% and 88.24%. It was also shown in this study that the number of parents who attended the four HPTA meetings also increased at 41.18%, 47.06%, 73.53%, and 82.35%.

DISCUSSIONS

This action research exhibits that the intervention (reward system) used by the researcher to improve parental involvement was effective. This action research was funded byDepartment of Education under the Basic Education Research Fund.