There were approximately two million home-schooled students in the United States in 2006, according to statistics that were gathered by the Christian Home Educators Association of California, and emerging home-school education trends help to ensure the continued growth of the homeschooling community as a whole.
Unofficially, “home school education” refers to primary and secondary schooling that takes place outside of public or private schools. This definition includes both public and private schooling. It is sometimes difficult to get an accurate count of home-schooled kids from one year to the next because the rules for the registration of home-schooled pupils differ from state to state.
Nevertheless, the organization has significant community and grassroots support, which enables it to have a sufficient voice with state lawmakers.
The Following Are the Top 5 Trends in Home-School Education:
1. Incorporation of Community Sponsored Programs
Advocates for education believe that the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (collectively referred to as STEM) are so vitally important that they have built bridges between the worlds of academia, industry, and government agencies to inspire students to excel in these fields. All school-aged students have access to STEM programs funded by the government and held in their respective towns.
In addition, parents who choose to educate their children at home are seizing opportunities presented by industry-led programs that aim to provide an equal opportunity for children of all ages to acquire knowledge in STEM disciplines and get recognition for their academic accomplishments.
Students may earn digital badges for studying STEM ideas, for instance, via organizations like the Mozilla Foundation and the Microsoft Foundation. Students who have been educated at home and are interested in constructing college admissions portfolios will find that the badges give evidence of learning that is not connected to any specific institutions.
2. Cooperative Blended Learning Environments
People who choose to educate their children at home are often reminded that they do not stand alone in their pursuit of educational opportunities of sufficient quality. Cooperating with other home-schooling groups to take part in cooperative educational activities is becoming an increasingly common practice within the home-school education community.
The internet and numerous online applications for collaborative learning have made it far less difficult for groups of homeschoolers to get together to study and talk about a variety of academic topics. The majority of home-school education programs now include a combination of traditional classroom instruction and online learning platforms, while children in public schools are only beginning to be exposed to cyber classrooms.
3. An Expanded Range of Students Attending Homeschooling Participants
Back in the day, the majority of parents who home-school education their children did so because they were religiously or politically motivated to keep their children away from the educational system that was affected by the government. Although the demographics of this group have changed, a significant number of home educators in today’s world continue to uphold these ideals. Both traditional society and the group of those who educate their children at home have grown increasingly ethnically diverse.
Within the realm of home-school education, black families make up the ethnic group with the quickest rate of expansion. They are followed closely by members of other racial and ethnic minorities, such as Latinos and Asians. Regrettably, a significant number of these pupils are receiving their education at home since the public schools in their communities are unable to effectively combat racial harassment and intimidation.
Their parents want to make sure that their kids go to school in a place where they won’t have to worry about being bullied or harassed for them to be able to acquire academic ideas, develop their critical thinking skills, and improve their ability to Other parents who have decided to educate their children at home did so because they believe that they can provide their children with a better education than what is available in their local public schools.
These parents are aware of the shortcomings in the curriculum offered by their public school systems. These parents come from a diverse range of socioeconomic backgrounds and occupations, including those held by physicians, former teachers, attorneys, and business owners, among others.
4. An Increase in the Number of Opportunities for Experiential Learning
Because of the convenience and flexibility it offers, a lot of parents choose to educate their kids at home. Home-school education parents can adapt their children’s educational plans to better suit their children’s learning styles. Because of this flexibility, homeschoolers can easily add learning projects that involve experiential learning into their curriculum.
Community members who are knowledgeable in fields such as the performing arts, culinary arts, technology, and business often lead hands-on initiatives. Students who take part in these kinds of educational programs are allowed to earn experience that is applicable in the real world and to interact with significant mentors who may be of assistance to them throughout their professional life.
5. The Implementation of Digital Resources Into the Instructional Setting
These days, most home-school education teachers put their pupils through a series of quizzes and exercises using adaptive learning software to ensure that they are retaining the information they are being taught in their courses. Reading comprehension and mathematics are two examples of topics that may be taught using software that not only tests students’ knowledge but also provides them with more difficult tasks to solve after they have a firm grasp on the subject’s fundamentals.
Conclusion
A growing number of parents are investigating the possibility of teaching their children at home for a variety of compelling reasons. These parents come from all areas of life. The rising popularity of home-school education may be attributed to both progress made in technology and people’s overall understanding of various instructional methods.
Also Read: 7 Advantages of Home-schooling
