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Informal science, technology, engineering and math learning conditions to increase parent involvement with young children experiencing poverty

Broadening participation in early science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) learning outside of school is important for families experiencing poverty. We evaluated variations of the Teaching Together STEM pre-kindergarten program for increasing parent involvement in STEM learning. This inform...

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Autores principales: Zucker, Tricia A., Maldonado, Gloria Yeomans, Assel, Michael, McCallum, Cheryl, Elias, Cindy, Swint, John M., Lal, Lincy
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9683104/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36438349
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1015590
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author Zucker, Tricia A.
Maldonado, Gloria Yeomans
Assel, Michael
McCallum, Cheryl
Elias, Cindy
Swint, John M.
Lal, Lincy
author_facet Zucker, Tricia A.
Maldonado, Gloria Yeomans
Assel, Michael
McCallum, Cheryl
Elias, Cindy
Swint, John M.
Lal, Lincy
author_sort Zucker, Tricia A.
collection PubMed
description Broadening participation in early science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) learning outside of school is important for families experiencing poverty. We evaluated variations of the Teaching Together STEM pre-kindergarten program for increasing parent involvement in STEM learning. This informal STEM, family engagement program was offered in 20 schools where 92% of students received free/reduced lunch. The core treatment included a series of family education workshops, text messages, and family museum passes. The workshops were delivered at school sites by museum outreach educators. We randomly assigned schools to business-as-usual control or one of three additive treatment groups. Using an additive treatment design, we provided the core program in Treatment A, we added take-home STEM materials in Treatment B, and added materials + parent monetary rewards in Treatment C. The primary outcome was parent involvement in STEM (n = 123). There were no significant impacts of any treatment on parent involvement; however, the groups that added take-home materials had larger effect sizes on parent involvement at posttest (ES = −0.08 to 0.18) and later, kindergarten follow-up (ES = −0.01 to 0.34). Adding parent monetary rewards only produced short-term improvements in parent involvement that faded at follow-up. We discuss implications for other community-sponsored family engagement programs focused on informal STEM learning, including considering characteristics of families who were more versus less likely to attend. These null findings suggest that alternatives to in-person family education workshops should be considered when parents are experiencing poverty and have competing demands on their time.
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spelling pubmed-96831042022-11-24 Informal science, technology, engineering and math learning conditions to increase parent involvement with young children experiencing poverty Zucker, Tricia A. Maldonado, Gloria Yeomans Assel, Michael McCallum, Cheryl Elias, Cindy Swint, John M. Lal, Lincy Front Psychol Psychology Broadening participation in early science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) learning outside of school is important for families experiencing poverty. We evaluated variations of the Teaching Together STEM pre-kindergarten program for increasing parent involvement in STEM learning. This informal STEM, family engagement program was offered in 20 schools where 92% of students received free/reduced lunch. The core treatment included a series of family education workshops, text messages, and family museum passes. The workshops were delivered at school sites by museum outreach educators. We randomly assigned schools to business-as-usual control or one of three additive treatment groups. Using an additive treatment design, we provided the core program in Treatment A, we added take-home STEM materials in Treatment B, and added materials + parent monetary rewards in Treatment C. The primary outcome was parent involvement in STEM (n = 123). There were no significant impacts of any treatment on parent involvement; however, the groups that added take-home materials had larger effect sizes on parent involvement at posttest (ES = −0.08 to 0.18) and later, kindergarten follow-up (ES = −0.01 to 0.34). Adding parent monetary rewards only produced short-term improvements in parent involvement that faded at follow-up. We discuss implications for other community-sponsored family engagement programs focused on informal STEM learning, including considering characteristics of families who were more versus less likely to attend. These null findings suggest that alternatives to in-person family education workshops should be considered when parents are experiencing poverty and have competing demands on their time. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-11-01 /pmc/articles/PMC9683104/ /pubmed/36438349 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1015590 Text en Copyright © 2022 Zucker, Maldonado, Assel, McCallum, Elias, Swint and Lal. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Zucker, Tricia A.
Maldonado, Gloria Yeomans
Assel, Michael
McCallum, Cheryl
Elias, Cindy
Swint, John M.
Lal, Lincy
Informal science, technology, engineering and math learning conditions to increase parent involvement with young children experiencing poverty
title Informal science, technology, engineering and math learning conditions to increase parent involvement with young children experiencing poverty
title_full Informal science, technology, engineering and math learning conditions to increase parent involvement with young children experiencing poverty
title_fullStr Informal science, technology, engineering and math learning conditions to increase parent involvement with young children experiencing poverty
title_full_unstemmed Informal science, technology, engineering and math learning conditions to increase parent involvement with young children experiencing poverty
title_short Informal science, technology, engineering and math learning conditions to increase parent involvement with young children experiencing poverty
title_sort informal science, technology, engineering and math learning conditions to increase parent involvement with young children experiencing poverty
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9683104/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36438349
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1015590
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