Home learning environments

Chapter 10: Evaluating Family Learning

‘We look forward to the sessions and it has encouraged me to read more and more books too!'

Parent comment in a home learning journal

Chapter Overview

This chapter focuses on evaluation of family learning initiatives. In the context of a strong ethical framework for collaborative evaluation, the chapter defines the term and considers approaches from a large-scale, funded randomised control trial, to a teacher’s journal. Case studies highlight evaluative questions, eliciting parents’ and children’s views, and how change can be evidenced.



Chapter Objectives:

  • To define ‘evaluation’.

  • To consider the ethics of evaluation.

  • To provide examples of effective evaluation approaches.

Further Reading

Hannon, P., Nutbrown, C. and Morgan, A. (2020): Effects of extending disadvantaged families’ teaching of emergent literacy, Research Papers in Education, 35:3, 310-336, DOI: 10.1080/02671522.2019.1568531
This free to download article details the Randomised Control Trial of the REAL family literacy programme including measures of children’s literacy, and how take-up, participation and drop out were evaluated.


Nutbrown, C., Bishop, J., and Wheeler, H. (2015) Co-production of family literacy projects to enhance early literacy development Journal of Children’s Services 10 (3) 265-279. DOI 10.1108/JCS-02-2015-0011
This free to download article describes small-scale co-produced projects developed and evaluated by practitioners.


Hannon, P. (1995). Literacy, Home and School: Research and practice in teaching literacy with parents. London: Falmer Press
Peter Hannon’s opening section on evaluation is taken further in Chapters 8, 9 and 10.