Parents’/Guardians’-Students’ Academic Discussions and Students’ Academic Performance in Twelve Years Basic Education Schools in Rwanda

Abstract

The current study investigates parent-student academic discussions and student’s academic performance in twelve years basic education schools in Rwanda, a case of Gasabo district. Objectives of this study comprise the following: to ascertain parent/guardian-student academic discussion practices in twelve years of basic education, to investigate the effect of parents/guardians-students' academic discussion on students' performance in twelve years of basic education and to examine the relationship between parent-student academic discussion and students' academic performance in twelve years basic education in Gasabo district. The study was conducted after a careful review of related literature and an understanding of the research area in connection with the research topic under investigation. In this study, the research used a descriptive survey design employing a mixed research approach. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected from the target population of 150 parents, 360 students, 25 teachers, 12 deans of studies (DOS) and 8 head teachers. The researcher adopted purposive simple random sampling techniques and used Slovin’s formula to determine the sample size of 233 participants. The Statistical Product and Service Solutions was used to code, edit, process and analyze the collected raw data through descriptive statistics. The findings from objective one indicate that 65.5 % disagreed that they share the daily learning experience at home with their parents. In contrast, those from objective two revealed that 61.9% and 23.8% of parents who participated in the study strongly agreed and agreed that their style of academic discussion of career aspirations with students enhances students' interest and motivation, which determines students' effort to achieve good grades/scores, and finally, the findings from objective three showed a mean performance of 37.7460, a standard deviation of 1.75028 and a significant Pearson’s correlation (r = .515) between parent/guardians-students' academic discussion and students' academic performance. In contrast, the mean of 36.9365 and standard deviation of 2.18406 without academic discussion were obtained. This implies that academic discussions enhance students' learning and academic performance. The findings of this research encourage parents to discuss academic matters with students since academic discussions enhance students' academic performance.