At Home With Numeracy: Empowering Parents to be Active Participants in their Child’s Numeracy Development

This paper reports on the nature and results of a pilot study conducted with the parents of a Grade 1/2 class. The study investigated the mathematical perceptions of a selected number of parents and used an intervention program designed to encourage them to engage in numeracy activities with their child. Preliminary results indicated that the parents were keen to support contemporary classroom practices and were able to describe and evaluate their children’s mathematical understandings. The findings add to the limited research available on the role that parents can play in their child’s numeracy development. Background According to Merttens (2005), the single biggest factor in children’s educational success is their parents, with their attitudes to learning, to mathematics and to study in general formed in the context of the home. Research has shown that parental involvement affects student achievement (Sheldon & Epstein, 2005) and that students ’ learning is maximised when strong educational partnerships between school, community, and home are developed (Groves, Mousley & Forgasz, 2006; Vincent, Stephens & Steinle, 2005). Unfortunately, mathematics as a subject has a negative reputation in society and bein