Homework Expectancy Value Scale for high school students: Measurement invariance and latent mean differences across gender and grade level

Homework Expectancy Value Cost Scale for Middle School Students: A Validation Study

We investigated the psychometric properties of the Homework Expectancy Value Cost Scale (HEVCS), using 1,072 Chinese students in Grades 7–8. Results from confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) indicated that the HEVCS included three factors: Homework Expectancy, Homework Value, and Homework Cost. Additionally, no latent mean differences were found across gender and grade level. Furthermore, the HEVCS had adequate to very good reliability estimates. Finally, congruent with theoretical predictions, Homework Expectancy and Homework Value were related positively to homework effort, completion, and mathematics achievement, and negatively to homework procrastination. Homework Cost was related negatively to homework effort, completion, and mathematics achievement, and positively to homework procrastination. Our investigation provides compelling evidence that the HEVCS is a valid scale for assessing homework motivational beliefs.

Homework Approach Scale for Middle School Students

Abstract. This investigation assessed the psychometric properties of the Homework Approach Scale (HAS) using 1,072 students in Grades 7 and 8. Having randomly divided the sample ( n = 1,072) into two subsamples, we conducted exploratory factor analysis (EFA) on subsample 1 and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) on subsample 2. Factorial results indicated that the HAS contained two factors: Deep Approach and Surface Approach. Provided with sufficient measurement invariance, the factor means were tested across gender and grade levels. Males scored significantly lower in Deep Approach yet higher in the Surface Approach. There were nonsignificant differences in Deep Approach and Surface Approach across the grade level. Congruent with theoretical predictions, homework completion and mathematics achievement were related positively to Deep Approach and negatively to Surface Approach. This investigation offers robust evidence that the HAS is a valid measure for assessing students’ approaches to homework.

Effects of homework creativity on academic achievement and creativity disposition: Evidence from comparisons with homework time and completion based on two independent Chinese samples

During the past several decades, the previous studies have been focusing on the related theoretical issues and measuring tool of homework behaviors (mainly including homework time, completion, and homework creativity). However, the effects of these homework behaviors on general creativity remain unknown. Employing a number of questionnaires, this study investigated two samples from middle schools of Mainland China. The results showed that (1) the eight-item version of Homework Creativity Behaviors Scale had acceptable validity and reliability; (2) compared with homework completion and homework time, homework creativity explained less variety of academic achievement (3.7% for homework creativity; 5.4% for completion and time); (3) homework creativity explained more variance of general creativity than that of homework completion and homework time accounted (7.0% for homework creativity; 1.3% for completion and time); and (4) homework creativity was negatively associated with grade level. Contrary to the popular beliefs, homework completion and homework creativity have positive effects on the students' general creativity. Several issues that need further studies were also discussed.

Cognitive and Affective-Motivational Factors as Predictors of Students' Home Learning During the School Lockdown

During the COVID-19 pandemic, students were facing great challenges. Learning was shifted from the classroom to the home of the students. This implied that students had to complete their tasks in a more autonomous way than during regular lessons. As students' ability to handle such challenges might depend on certain cognitive and motivational prerequisites as well as individual learning conditions, the present study investigates students' cognitive competencies as well as affective-motivational factors as possible predictors of coping with this new learning situation at home. The study uses data of Starting Cohort 2 of the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS). Data of two measurement points are analyzed: Predictors were assessed at the earlier time point, when students (N=1,452; M _age=12years, 8months; 53.4% female) mostly attended seventh grade of a secondary school. They completed competence tests in reading as well as mathematics and rated affective-motivational aspects in terms of willingness to exert effort, learning enjoyment, and intrinsic motivation. One and a half years later - during the COVID-19 pandemic and the first period of school closures - the second measurement point took place. Students' parents rated the situation of learning at home with respect to students' coping with the new situation and parents' difficulties to motivate them. Regression analyses controlling for school track, students' gender, and parents' educational level and parental stress revealed that students' reading competencies and their willingness to exert effort were significant predictors of their coping with the new learning situation at home. Moreover, parents reported that boys were more difficult to motivate to learn during this time as compared to girls. Other predictors (e.g., learning enjoyment) turned out to be non-significant when entered simultaneously in the regression analyses. The results point to the importance of children's prerequisites for autonomous learning situations without structuring elements by teachers within the school context.

Empirically derived profiles of homework purposes in eleventh grade students: a latent profile analysis

Informed by expectation-value theory and related literature, the goal of the current investigation was to identify profiles of students drawn from three purposes of homework (academic, self-regulatory, and approval-seeking). Participants were 750 eleventh-grade students in China. Results from latent profile analysis (LPA) revealed identified four different profiles of students: Very Low Profile (very low in all purposes; 5.73%), Low Profile (low in all purposes; 30.40%), Moderate Profile (moderate in all purposes; 54.40%), and High Profile (high in all purposes; 9.47%). Results further revealed that student gender was associated with profile membership. Finally, profile membership was significantly related to homework effort and completion (with a medium effect size) in that, in general, the higher the homework purposes, the higher the homework effort and homework completion.

Investigating Factors that Influence Math Homework Expectancy: A Multilevel Approach

The present study investigated several clusters of variables influencing students’ math homework expectancy based on 3018 students in grade 8 in China. Results revealed that math homework expectancy was positively associated with homework quality at both the individual and class level. At the individual level, math homework expectancy was positively associated with prior math knowledge, parent education, homework interest, homework favorability, parent autonomy support, mastery-approach, and homework value. Meanwhile, math homework expectancy was negatively associated with homework time, parent help quantity, and performance-approach. Finally, compared with females, males tended to have higher math homework expectancy.

Individual Precursors of Student Homework Behavioral Engagement: The Role of Intrinsic Motivation, Perceived Homework Utility and Homework Attitude

Currently, the concept of engagement is crucial in the field of learning and school achievement. It is a multidimensional concept (e.g., behavioral, emotional, and cognitive dimensions) that has been widely used as a theoretical framework to explain the processes of school engagement and dropout. However, this conceptual framework has been scarcely used in the field of homework. The aim of the present study was to analyze the role of intrinsic motivation, perceived homework utility, and personal homework attitude as precursors of student homework engagement (behavioral engagement) and, at the same time, how such engagement is the precursor of academic achievement. Seven hundred and thirty students of Compulsory Secondary Education (CSE) (7th to 10th grade) from fourteen schools northern Spain participated. A structural equation model was elaborated on which intrinsic motivation, perceived utility and attitude were observed variables, and student engagement (time spent on homework, time management, and amount of teacher-assigned homework done) and academic achievement (Mathematics, Spanish Language, English Language, and Social Science) were latent variables. The results reveal that (i) intrinsic motivation is a powerful precursor of student behavioral engagement (also perceived utility and attitude, although to a lesser extent), and (ii) academic achievement is closely linked to the level of student engagement, qualifying the results of many of the previous studies conducted from a task-centered perspective (as opposed to a person-centered perspective).

Reciprocal Effects Among Parental Homework Support, Effort, and Achievement? An Empirical Investigation

The present study investigates reciprocal influences of parental homework support, effort, and math achievement, using two waves of data from 336 9th-graders. Results revealed that higher prior autonomy-oriented support and homework effort resulted in higher subsequent achievement. Higher prior content-oriented support led to higher subsequent effort, but lower subsequent achievement. Additionally, higher prior effort led to higher subsequent autonomy-oriented support. Furthermore, our results supported the structural path invariance over gender. The current investigation advances extant research, by differentiating two forms of parental homework support (autonomy- and content-oriented support), and by showing their respective influences on subsequent homework effort and math achievement.