Effects of Environmental Process Variables on the educational achievement of home-schooled children

Patrick Barry Murphy, Purdue University

Abstract

This research study examined the effects of Environmental Process Variables on the educational achievement of home schooled children. A survey questionnaire measured six environmental process variables. The Wide Range Achievement Test-Revised measured the academic achievement of the students in Reading, Spelling, and Arithmetic. The subjects which included 52 children from 39 families were selected from five geographic regions of Indiana. Three major hypotheses were tested using MANOVAS, ANOVAS, multiple regression, and correlational analyses. Each hypothesis was further examined by gender and the subscales of the W.R.A.T.-R. Three major findings emerged from this study. First, there was no significant relationship between the Environmental Process Variables and the academic achievement scores when these two sets of variables were treated as single entities. Second, there were significant differences in the levels of Environmental Process Variables and the academic achievement scores when the individual variables in each category were treated separately for the total and subsets of the research sample. Analysis of the entire group indicated that the amount of Intellectuality in the Home and Achievement Press in the home had a significant effect on all three academic skills. The only significant interaction for females occurred with Language Usage and Spelling. The analysis for male subjects generated three significant relationships; (1) Intellectuality in the Home, Activeness of the Family, and Achievement Press with Spelling; (2) Intellectuality in the Home and Achievement Press with Reading; and (3) Activeness of the Family and Achievement Press with Arithmetic. The third finding of this investigation indicated that there was a significant difference in the achievement levels of females and males. However, this occurred only in Spelling. Several recommendations for further study were suggested; (1) examining how males and females are treated differently in home schooling environments; (2) extending the research to include more than one state; (3) diversifying the sample to include subjects from different ethnic groups and cultural backgrounds; and (4) comparing home with site schooled students.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Gay, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Curricula|Teaching

COinS