Research Example: Effects of Homeschool on Students’ Learning and Achievement

Effects of Homeschool on Students’ Learning and Achievement

Introduction

Traditional schooling also called as institutional school has been common around the world for several generations now, where children are sent to institutes with teachers and administrators formally trained in the subjects they deliver and in educational leadership and management. However, homeschooling still exists where parents provide most of the academic, social, and emotional instruction and training at home without sending their children to formal school.

Academicians, researchers, educational administrators, policy makers, parents are often concerned about the quality of learning of these children who are being educated by ordinary parents without formal teacher-trainings and certifications. Since these children may join colleges and universities after having their initial education at home, researchers are concerned with their achievement in comparison with other students educated in formal or traditional schools. There are several independent variables like parents’ educational level and quality, their socio-economic conditions, ethnicity, number of years spent in homeschooling and number of years spent in formal schooling, which may affect the academic performance or achievement of homeschool students.

The purpose of this research is to find the impact of homeschooling on students’ academic achievement. Since in homeschooling, the parent without any formal training or certification and that parents’ level of education, socio-economic status, do all the training and teaching and ethnic factors may influence the process of learning of their children at home. Hence, this research will review literature to find relationships of several variables like parents’ education, earning level, ethnic background with homeschooled children’s learning and academic achievement.

Major questions that this literature review will try to answer are the following:

1. What is the relationship between parents’ educational level and homeschooled children’s academic achievement?
2. What is the relationship between parents’ economic status/earning level and their homeschooled children’s academic achievement?

• What is the relationship between ethnic background of homeschooled students and their academic achievement

1. What are the overall effects of homeschooling on students’ academic achievement and learning?

Independent Variables

            Independent variables in this study are parents’ educational level, their economic status or earning level, and their ethnic background. Homeschooling is also an independent variable.

Dependent Variables

Students’ academic achievement is a dependent variable in this study, which depends upon the above listed independent variables.

This research will carry out a literature review to analyze the dependency of academic achievement of homeschool children in relation to the independent variables of earning level, educational level, and ethnic background of their parents.