How does the home learning environment contribute to private tutoring attendance? A study among Grade 8 students in Germany

ABSTRACT

This study investigated whether various aspects of the home learning environment – that is, learning-related processes, parental perceptions of their child, and structural characteristics – predicted private tutoring attendance in Grade 8. We used the data of 7393 students from the German National Educational Panel Study. Seventeen percent of eighth-graders took private tutoring. Logistic regression analyses revealed that parental perceptions of their children’s learning enjoyment and independence in Grade 7, and socio-economic status, a structural characteristic of the home learning environment, were positively associated with private tutoring attendance in Grade 8. However, neither the quantity (homework assistance) nor the quality of learning-related parent–child interactions in Grade 7 played a role. Besides replicating previous results on the role of socio-economic background, the study indicates that the decision to take private tutoring is not a simple reaction to poor achievement, but is adjusted to the child’s learning experience and parent-perceived need for support.

KEYWORDS:

• Private tutoring
• shadow education
• homelearning environment
• homework assistance

Acknowledgements

This paper uses data from the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS): Starting Cohort Grade 5, http://dx.doi.org/10.5157/NEPS:SC3:11.0.1. From 2008 to 2013, NEPS data was collected as part of the Framework Program for the Promotion of Empirical Educational Research funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). As of 2014, NEPS is carried out by the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi) at the University of Bamberg in cooperation with a nationwide network.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Authors’ contributions

Conceptualisation: Anna Hawrot, Lena Nusser; Data curation: Anna Hawrot; Formal analysis: Anna Hawrot; Methodology: Anna Hawrot, Lena Nusser; Writing – original draft: Anna Hawrot, Lena Nusser; Writing – review & editing: Anna Hawrot, Lena Nusser.

Availability of data and material

The data that supports the findings of this study is available from the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (https://www.neps-data.de/Data-Center/Data-Access). Restrictions apply to the availability of this data, which is the reason why it cannot be provided by the authors of the study. Survey questionnaires are available on the NEPS study website (https://www.neps-data.de/Data-Center/Data-and-Documentation).

Ethics approval

Written informed consent was obtained from all participants of age and from legal guardians of underage participants prior to study enrolment. All participants could withdraw from the study at any time. The NEPS study is conducted under the supervision of the German Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (BfDI) and in coordination with the German Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs (KMK) and – in the case of surveys at schools – the Educational Ministries of the respective Federal States. All data collection procedures, instruments, and documents were checked by the data protection unit of the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi). The necessary steps are taken to protect participants’ confidentiality according to national and international data security regulations. All the analyses are secondary analyses of data published previously.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung.