Martine van der Pluijm

130 Chapter 5 The present study This research is a summative evaluation of the AHL design, with multiple cases (Yin, 2018). AHL was developed as a result of two preparatory studies. First, we conducted a review of previous studies directed at strategies and activities suited for the target group of lower- educated parents supporting their children’s oral language development (Van der Pluijm et al., 2019). Second, we carried out a design study to customize design principles derived from the literature to teachers’ and parents’ needs in the context of the classroom (Van der Pluijm et al., in preparation). Based on the results of the design study we adjusted the design principles. The present study consists of two parts and investigates the results of the customized AHL program on lower-educated parents’ perceptions of the SFP and their HLE (study 1), and their enactment during the interaction with their child (study 2). This study aims to contribute to the needed knowledge of how lower-educated can be supported to stimulate their children’s language development, adapted to the abilities and resources of families. This summative evaluation reviews the overall impact of AHL on parental perceptions and behavior in classrooms (i.e., cases) where the program was implemented. Study 1 investigates parent perceptions of their partnerships with teachers, their self-efficacy during language promotion at home, and their reports of the quantity of language activities conducted at home. This study is based on interviews with parents in fourteen classrooms at seven primary schools (preschool, kindergarten, and grade 1). Study 2 investigates parent-child interactions during their activities provided in eight classrooms at four schools applying the AHL steps. For both studies, we formed two groups of lower-educated parents: one including the lowest educated parents (no education to at most primary education), and one including other lower-educated parents (secondary education up to 15 years of age). Teachers play a decisive role in the transfer of program principles to parents (De la Rie et al., 2016; Powell & Carey, 2012). For this reason, we examined teachers’ abilities to reliably convey the content of the program as intended in a separate study (see Chapter 4). In the presented research, we control for the quality of teacher delivery that was established by this previous research. The research questions are: Study 1: 1. Does the AHL program improve parents’appreciation of the program, parental self-efficacy, and the frequency of language activities conducted at home? 2. Are there differences in the above-mentioned outcomes that can be attributed to differences in the quality of delivery in the classrooms? 3. Are there differences in the above-mentioned outcomes for the lowest educated parents compared to low, middle, and higher-educated parents?