Learning in the Family Parental Engagement in Children’s Learning with Technology Intuitive Media Research Services Sponsored by Becta Learning in the Family Learning in the Family Parental Engagement in Chil- dren’s Learning with Technology By Intuitive Media Sponsored by Becta November 2008 Version 1.6 A report on research by Intuitive Media Re- search Services with children, aged 6-13, who are members of the SuperClubsPLUS and GoldStarCafe Protected Learning Com- munities. First Published: November 2008 ISBN: 978-1-906171-03-2 Published by Intuitive Media Research Services. Research Director: Robert Hart. Intuitive Media Research Services Rutland Mill, Coombs Road, Bakewell, Derbyshire, DE45 1AQ, UK. Tel.: +44 (0) 1 629 814 936 “I help him searching on Fax: +44 (0) 1 298 871 685 Google, we will search Email: [email protected] together. www.intuitivemedia.com www.superclubsplus.com I will be with him when he www.goldstarcafe.net is doing his homework in the same room and ask Intuitive Media asserts its moral rights as source of the data and author of this report him all the time what he is and requires that if you presents or dissemi- doing. nate any part of the report in any format, you will give Intuitive Media appropriate and He generally knows where prominent credit as source. he can and can’t go. IM makes no warranty for the currency, ac- curacy or completeness of this report and is We play the games to- not in any way responsible for any decisions gether, but apart from or actions you may take as a result of using that he knows how to the report. work it better than me. - Mother of Joe, Year 5 © Copyright 2008 Intuitive Media Research Services Intuitive Media © Copyright 2007 Intuitive Media Research Services Research Services 1 Learning in the Family Contents Foreword 2 The Children 3 Key Findings 4 Family Profiles 7 Meet Jack 7 Meet Lauren 9 Research Methods 11 Learning at Home - Children Speaking 13 Children using technology at home 13 Internet access at home 15 Children’s Internet activities 17 How the Internet fits into children’s lives 19 Schooldays 19 Weekends and holidays 23 Learning in the Family 28 Family supervision 28 Family involvement in children’s learning 32 Learning with Parents - Children Speaking 37 With what do parents help? 37 How do parents get involved? 42 When do parents get involved? 45 Help from mother and father 46 What do children learn with parents? 53 Better parental involvement 63 Parents Speaking - Family Interviews 65 Mother knows best 66 Do parents think it’s important to help? 67 How much do parents help? 68 What stops parents helping? 69 Do parents expect to help more of less in future? 69 What support do parents need? 70 Where can parents turn for support? 72 IM Research Services 75 © Copyright 2008 Intuitive Media Research Services 1 Learning in the Family Foreword The Children’s Plan suggests the next steps for improving children’s lives in the UK must be taken in partnership with parents and children and this is manifested in the Government’s £300m Home Access pro- ject which provides computers and internet access to families to en- hance learning at home. This research takes a timely look at how 4600 children currently learn with technology in the context of their families. Children Using Technology Parents Collaborate Intuitive Media has a rare degree of access Parents were also encouraged to collaborate to a large population of authenticated UK with their children: school children aged 6-14 – members of IM’s Safe Social Learning Networks, Super- “84% parents said that use of ClubsPLUS and GoldStarCafe. They are SCP encouraged parents to willing and able research participants, highly collaborate with their children motivated and they generally take time to on school work.” give thoughtful, reliable responses. So we can research the thinking and behaviour of This study looks more closely at the nature children, who regularly use ICT in their learn- of this collaboration between parents and ing at home and at school. children, and we ask: How do parents engage with children Children Take Learning Home learning with new technology at Technology enables children to take their home? learning home. 60% of activity in IM’s learn- How can fathers and mothers better ing communities happens at home. In April support their children’s learning? 2007, LTScotland commissioned independ- ent research on children, teachers and par- We conducted two online surveys, the first ents in SuperClubsPLUS (SCP). They found with a sample of 4606 children aged 6 to 14, and the second, going into more depth with “The majority of parents said a further 2535 children drawn from a rigor- their children used SCP at ously authenticated population of 150,000 home. 56% said SCP was used children across the UK. To understand more daily. 44% said it was used sev- about how the family became involved with eral times a week.” children’s learning, we then interviewed twelve families. So, if we want to understand how learning with technology happens in the context of A word about using this book. If you just the family, these children can help. want the headlines in 5 minutes, read the Key Findings. If you have 10 minutes and Parents Value Children’s Involvement want an overview of how the Internet fits in children’s daily lives and how they get in- We also know from the LTScotland research volved in learning in the family, read the two that parents value their children’s involve- Family Profiles. If you want the full and de- ment with the online community: tailed story, then read about the three sur- “Parents saw improvement in veys and the detailed results. ICT skills and independent We hope you will find this insight into learn- working as a result of using ing in the family as fascinating as we did. Be SCP. Most parents believed us- prepared for surprises! ing the community had im- Robert Hart proved children’s interest in Director of Research Intuitive Media Research Services learning. 84% said it had raised their child’s attainment” Intuitive Media Research Services © Copyright 2008 Intuitive Media Research Services 2 The Children the Internet to learn, create, communicate The Children and collaborate with friends and teachers online – so in that respect they are a genera- Intuitive Media conducted this research with tion of “digital natives”. the membership base of IM’s Protected Learning Communities, which provide for Authenticity over 150,000 UK children aged 6 – 14 years, and over 16,000 of their teachers. Intuitive Media’s Safe Social Learning Net- works offer a unique opportunity to effec- IM aims to give children a say in their lives tively reach and research an audience of and to give decision makers access to the authenticated children and teachers. We authentic voices of (otherwise hard-to-reach) know with the highest degree of certainty young people. This means that young peo- that they are real children of the stated age ple’s views are seriously considered and and gender. children can influence contemporary, educa- tional, social and economic policy making. Children in both communities are rigorously authenticated. They are recruited and vali- This project was supported through a re- dated through their schools. First their search grant by Becta. teachers are individually authenticated be- fore they join the community, and then they nominate their pupils to membership, sup- plying the children’s names, age and gender to Intuitive Media. This ensures our surveys and the data they generate are of the highest authenticity and validity and is derived from significantly large samples. www.SuperClubsPLUS.com www.GoldStarCafe.net The children, who participate in the research are members of www.SuperClubsPLUS.com (for primary) and www.GoldStarCafe.net (for secondary children). Previous research with Ipsos Mori examined their collective demog- raphy and found that this maps broadly to current UK norms of ethnicity, religion and location. They are therefore broadly repre- sentative of their generation. Their day-to-day activity in the online learn- ing communities, however, gives these chil- dren significant experience of using ICT and © Copyright 2008 Intuitive Media Research Services 3 Key Findings Key Findings It is clear from this research that many children use the Internet at home with their parents. Their mothers are particularly engaged with their homework and formal learning and take an interest in their online safety. Fathers join in to a lesser extent but encourage children with the fun aspects and help them with their hobbies. Access to technology at home 20% of children used their mo- Almost all children had access to a computer bile phones to get online, 17% and the Internet at home. used their games console and 92% of children said they used 15% used a hand held gaming a computer or laptop at home. device. This corresponds to the findings of Becta’s Boys are twice as likely to use their games Harnessing Technology Review 2008, where console to access the Internet. 92% of parents of school aged children said they had Internet access at home. Accessing the internet via the The majority had access to handheld de- games console was twice as vices, games consoles and mobile phones. high among boys than girls 65% used a handheld device (23% boys; 12% girls). such as a Sony Playstation Internet use at home Portable (PSP), Apple iPod or Overall children spend most of their Internet Nintendo DS and the same time for socializing, play and their own re- number used a games console search rather than for formal learning and such as the Sony Playstation 2 homework.