Scaffolding approaches of parents of secondary school students about fractions

The purpose of the study is to investigate parents' approaches to help fraction homework in the context of scaffolding with their children in 5th and 6th grade. The research was designed as a multi-case study. Four parents and their children participated in study. The data of the research were collected through video and audio recordings, diaries of researcher and student documents. The within-case analysis and the cross-case analysis were used in the analysis of data. For the within-case analysis, data were gathered from parents and analysed in each case separately. Then cross-case analysis was employed in order to reveal the similarities and differences across the cases. Then content analysis was applied in coding process. Finally, all cases were analysed together and parents' scaffolding approaches were determined with regard to diagnosis-intervention strategies, fading and transfer of responsibility. The study revealed that parents use quite different strategies and their scaffolding process occurs superficially. However, parental scaffolding was carried out in a similar way at all stages of scaffolding with different intervention strategies. The results of the study indicate that parents with different educational background and career have different scaffolding approaches in homework.