Development of Psychological Innovations to Promote Literacy Through Parential Involvement in a Participatory Action Research Process

Abstract

The purposes of this research were 1) to study the in-depth problem of illiteracy among preschoolers and primary students in Huay Krot Subdistrict Sankhaburi District Chainat Province, 2) to develop psychological innovations to promote literacy through parental involvement in a participatory action research process, and 3) to study the effects of using psychological innovations to promote literacy. The population used in the research were 23 school personnel including school administrators, preschool teachers, primary school teachers, and 221 parents. The samples participated in the in-depth investigation were 13 school administrators, preschool teachers and primary school teachers, 10 parents of Preschoolers and primary school students with literacy problems. The samples participated in the innovation experiment were 10 parents whose children had literacy problems. The tool used to collect the data were including interview form, the Parent's Reading Competency Assessment Form, and the parent’s guidelines to promote literacy among preschoolers and primary school students. The statistics used were mean, standard deviation and t–test (dependent samples)

The research findings were as follows: 1) literacy problems among preschoolers and primary school students were involve children’s lack of training, and parent parents’ inability to motivate students to read and to use reinforcement, and communication methods with students. Also, parents appeared not to realize the importance of their role in contributing to the development of literacy of their children. 2) Ppsychological innovations to promote literacy through parental involvement in a participatory action research process comprised of 3 components: education; modeling and reinforcement. 3) The results of using psychological innovations to promote literacy through parental involvement in a participatory action research process showed that after the experiment, the ability to promote literacy of the parents who participated in the experiment increased significantly at the .05 level.