Homework and learning achievements: how much homework is enough?

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among homework time, homework frequency, and learning achievements of Taiwanese students. Applying a 2-level hierarchical linear modeling on the TIMSS 2007 and 2011 data, our findings were as follows: (1) Within the context of TIMSS 2007 and 2011 students, the frequency of mathematics homework positively predicted mathematics learning achievements; (2) Within the context of TIMSS 2007 students, the amount of time spent doing mathematics homework positively predicted mathematics learning achievements. (3) Among TIMSS 2011 students, homework time in mathematics of 1 to 15 minutes, 16 to 30 minutes, 31 to 60 minutes, and 61 to 90 minutes all could positively predict mathematics learning achievements of Taiwanese 8th-grade students, except for homework time more than 90 minutes. It revealed that in relation to mathematics homework time, too much homework might be as bad as not enough.

KEYWORDS:

• Homework time
• homework frequency
• learning achievements
• multiple imputation
• plausible values

Highlights

• Apply a 2-level hierarchical linear model (HLM)

• Collect trustable data of 8088 Taiwanese students from International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2007 and 2011

• Apply multiple imputation to impute missing values

• Meaningful finding: it revealed that in relation to student-level mathematics homework time, too much might be as bad as not enough.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Joseph Meng-Chun Chin

Dr. Joseph Meng-Chun Chin has been dean of and a distinguished professor in the College of Education at the National Chengchi University, Taiwan. As an active researcher, a writer, and an editor, he has published numerous books and SSCI journal papers in the area of educational administration. His primary professional interests are theory in educational administration, educational leadership, and educational evaluation.

Hsin-Chih Lin

Dr. Hsin-Chih Lin is an associate researcher of the National Academy for Educational Research in Taiwan. He used to be a director of the student affair room in a junior high school, and a deputy editor of the National Institute for Compilation and Translation. His research fields and interests are educational leadership, leadership for student learning, educational system and policy, school management and evaluation.

Chun-Wei Chen

Dr. Chun-Wei Chen is an assistant professor of the National Taiwan University of Sport in Taiwan. He used to be a junior high school classroom teacher for twelve years. His research fields and interests are teacher self-efficacy, cram schooling, homework and secondary database analysis.