Parent training and parent involvement in middle school mathematics education and their impact on students' achievement

The purpose of the study is to reveal the change between students' achievement and attitudes getting support from their parents and the students studying individually. To this aim, parents were involved in mathematics seminars in which they were informed about the topics that their children learned at class and the conceptual and pedagogical issues about how to help childrenin mathematics at home. The study is a mixed method study. It involves the control and the experiment group students. It is experimental and quantitative in terms of comparing the achievements and attitudes of control group students and the experiment group students. On the other hand, the study is thought as qualitative in terms of the qualities of instruments. In 2015-2016 spring semester, the sample of the study involves 8 (eight) 5 (fifth) grade students and their parents as the experiment group, and the 8 (eight) students as the control group from randomly chosen 3 (three) middle schools in a rural city in Middle Anatolia, Turkey. In 2016-2017 fall semester, the sample of the study involves 13 (thirteen) 6 (sixth) grade students and their parents as the experiment group, and the 13 (thirteen) students as the control group from randomly chosen 4 (four) middle schools in a rural city in Middle Anatolia, Turkey. The instruments used in the study are; students achievement tests, unit evaluation exams, attitudes scales applied to both students and the parents, parents written reflections, parents journals and the face-face mettings. The study were carried out in 2015-2016 spring semester and 2016-2017 fall semester. During the study, mathematics seminars were carried out with the parents for eight weeks. Each seminar was lasted 2 hours. In these seminars, the mathematics topics, concepts that the students learned at school were shared with parents at the level of their understanding. Additionally, the parents were also informed about how they support their children at home in terms of mathematical issues. In the first semester, several textbooks and prepared materials were used as the seminar material, and in the second semester, parent handbook draft prepared by the researcher was used as the seminar material. In this material, the objectives placed in the 5th and the 6th grade mathematics curriculum, the mathemacal concepts explained basically and a few examples helping the application of the explained concepts were prepared. During the first semester studies, parents' written reflections were gathered from the parents in the middle and at the end of the semester. During the second semester of the study, the parents were asked to write a journal about the study and face to face meeting was carried out at the end of the study. The quantitative data gathered from the study was analyzed by using the SPSS 15 statistic program. The qualitative data was analyzed through descriptive and content analysis. Based on the research findings, there was not a meaningful difference between the control and the experiment group students' mathematics achievement statistically. However, the avarage points of the achievements of experiment group students were found higher than the control group students' avarage points. In the second semester studies, there was a meaningful difference between the control and the experiment group students' mathematics achievement statiscally. Thus, experiment group students were found more well-performing than the control group students in terms of their avarage points. On the other hand, there was not any meaning difference found in terms of control and experiment group students' attitudes towards mathematics statistically. However, the avarage points of the attitudes of experiment group students were found higher than the control group students' avarage points of attitudes. Also, the parents involved in the study were found satisfied with the seminars and the whole study. They stated that they were able to come in useful for their children and also for themselves in terms of mathematical knowledge and mathematical necessities. Key Words: middle school, mathematics, education, instruction, parent involvement