Paper ID #6181

Do Attitudes and Behaviors Towards Homework and Studying Change Be-tween High School and Engineering Classes

Nora Honken, University of Louisville

Nora Honken is a doctoral candidate in Educational Leadership and Organizational Development at theUniversity of Louisville. She has a B.S. in M.S. in Industrial Engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Insti-tute and State University and Arizona State University, respectively. She has extensive professional expe-rience in engineering and management. Her research focuses around student performance and retention.Her teaching interest revolves around integrating opportunities to develop non-disciplinary workplacerelated skills into college classes.

Dr. Patricia A Ralston, University of Louisville

Patricia A. S. Ralston is Professor and Chair of the Department of Engineering Fundamentals at the Uni-versity of Louisville where she also received her B.S., MEng, and Ph.D. degrees in chemical engineering.Her educational research interests include the use of technology in engineering education, incorporationof critical thinking in engineering education, and ways to improve retention. Her other interests includeprocess modeling, simulation, and process control.

c©American Society for Engineering Education, 2013

Page 23.440.1

Do Attitudes and Behaviors Toward Homework and Studying Change

Between High School and Engineering Classes?

Introduction

Engineering has long been thought of as a demanding curriculum. Results from The National

Survey of Student Engagement show seniors in engineering on average spend four hours a week

more preparing for class than do business or social science majors. The percentage of

engineering seniors who spend over 20 hours a week preparing for class (42%) is greater than in

physical sciences (36%), biological sciences (34%) arts and humanities (31%), education (26%),

social sciences (23%) and business (19%).1

Due to the heightened curriculum demands, it is important that engineering students are ready

and willing to spend time preparing for class by reviewing material, completing assignments and

studying. The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of behaviors and attitudes

toward homework and studying that students developed in high school and whether those

behaviors and attitudes changed when students were faced with more challenging classes and the

increased distractions college brings.

The motivation for this study came from the results of a preliminary study that analyzed data

from the Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) Freshman Survey taken by a cohort

of engineering students in 2010 at the J. B. Speed School of Engineering at University of

Louisville (information about the CIRP Freshman survey can be found at

http://heri.ucla.edu/cirpoverview.php). Those results showed students who more frequently

studied with others in high school (3 point scale) and students who more frequently completed

their homework in high school (3 point scale) were more likely to stay in engineering.2 The

study raised questions about students’ views toward homework and patterns of completing

homework they bring with them from high school and whether students keep those same patterns

and views of the usefulness of homework during their first semester in college. This led to the

following research questions.

1. What were students’ views toward homework and patterns of completing homework

while in high school?

2. How much time did students study for tests in high school?

3. Do students change their views on the value of homework and the amount of time they

are willing to study and work on homework when they come to engineering school?

4. Do their reasons and motivations for doing or not doing homework change?

5. Are there differences in responses to the above questions between males and females?

Background

The importance of homework

Opinions on homework in the K-12 system vary as to what type, how much, how frequently, at

what age and for what purpose homework should be assigned, as well as how much homework

should count toward students’ grades. The predominant opinion on homework has changed over

time as the challenges facing the country have changed.3 While some have proclaimed that

Page 23.440.2

homework is a means to disadvantage the disadvantaged,4 others have found positive benefits to

homework.5 After reviewing research on homework in the K-12 system, Cooper summarized the

benefits and disadvantages of homework (see Table 1). After researching homework benefits by

grade level within K-12, he concluded that homework makes the largest impact on performance

at the high school level.5

Ramdass and Zimmerman studied the role of homework in developing self-regulation in both K-

12 and college students. Their study concluded that completing homework had a positive

relationship with a range of self-regulation skills in middle, high school and college students.6

According to Crede and Kuncel’s research, homework habits and attitudes are the strongest non-

cognitive factors in predicting academic performance in college.7 What is lacking in the

literature is how attitudes and behaviors about homework and studying formed in high school

change and affect performance once a student advances to college, particularly in engineering.

Table 1. Positive and Negative Effects of Homework5

______________________________________________________________________________

Positive Effects Negative Effects

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Immediate achievement and learning

Better retention of factual

knowledge

Increased understanding

Better critical thinking, concept

formation, information processes

Curriculum enrichment

Long-term academic effects

Willingness to learn during leisure

time

Improving attitude toward school

Better study habits and skills

Nonacademic effects

Greater self-direction

Greater self-discipline

Better time organization

More inquisitiveness

More independent problem solving

Greater parental appreciation of and

involvement in schooling

Satisfaction

Loss of interest in academic

material

Physical and emotional fatigue

Denial of access to leisure-time and

community activities

Parental interference

Pressure to complete assignments

and perform well

Confusion of instructional

techniques

Cheating

Copying from other students

Helping beyond tutoring

Increased differences between high and low

achievers

______________________________________________________________________________

Page 23.440.3

National trends on time high school seniors spend studying and doing homework and average

grades earned

According to longitudinal data from the CIRP Freshman survey administered annually by the

Higher Education Research Institute to the general population of college freshman at hundreds of

institutions of higher learning, the amount of time high school seniors who attend college are

spending on homework and studying has been trending down since 1987.8 Figure 1 shows that

in 2006 21% of the males and 11% of the females typically spent less than one hour per week on

homework and studying their senior year in high school. Figure 2 shows an overall shift to lower

categories of the hours spent on homework and studying from 1987 to 2006. The mode for both

years is 3-5 hours. All the categories under the mode (0, less than 1, 1-2 hrs.) had a higher

percentage in 2006 and all the categories above the mode (6-10, 11-15, 15-20 hrs.) had a higher

percentages in 1987.

Figure 1. Trend in Percent of College Freshman Reporting Spending Less Than an Hour in a

Typical Week Studying or Doing Homework in Their Senior Year in High School. Graph

constructed with data from Pryor, et al.8

0

5

10

15

20

25

Pe

rce

nt

of

Stu

de

nts

Sp

en

din

g Le

ss T

han

1

Ho

ur

a W

ee

k o

n H

om

ew

ork

an

d

Stu

dyi

ng

in H

igh

Sch

oo

l

Males

Females

Page 23.440.4

Figure 2. Hours College Freshman Reported Spending on Studying and Homework in Their

Senior Year in High School in 1987 and 2006. Graph constructed with data from Pryor, et al.8

Meanwhile, the grades that students have received have trended up since a survey question

asking for the average grade in high school was introduced into the CIRP Freshman Survey in

1966. Figure 3 shows that in 2006 51% of the females and 40% of the males reported an A-, A,

or A+ average grade in high school. Looking at the two graphs, one can conclude that, on

average the general population of college students is arriving at college having worked less and

gotten better grades than a generation ago.

Figure 3. Trend in Percent of College Freshman Reporting Having an A-, A or A+ Average

Grade in High School. Graph constructed with data from Pryor, et al.8

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

0 lessthan 1

1-2 3-5 6-10 11-15 16-20 >20

Pe

rce

nt

of

Re

spo

nd

ants

Hours Spent on Studying or Homework Per Week

1987

2006

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

19

66

19

69

19

72

19

75

19

78

19

81

19

84

19

87

19

90

19

93

19

96

19

99

20

02

20

05

Pe

rce

nt

of

Stu

de

nts

wit

h A

-,A

or

A+

Ave

rage

in H

igh

Sch

oo

l

males

females

Page 23.440.5

Participants

The participants for this study were all from the 2012 freshman cohort at The J. B. Speed School

of Engineering at the University of Louisville, an ABET accredited engineering college in a

large, public, research institution. The average high school GPA for the cohort sampled was

3.81, 37% had a weighted GPA of 4.0 or above, and the average ACT composite and math

scores were 28.3 and 29.1 respectively.

Of the 434 students in the freshman class, 386 took the first survey (89% response rate). The

participants were predominately Caucasian (84%), and less than 5% were Asian, Hispanic,

African American, two or more races, or American Indian. Twenty-two percent were female and

78% male. Three hundred twenty eight students completed the second survey (85% response

rate). Eighty-four percent of the students who did not take the second survey were male, which

was slightly higher than the percentage of males in the population. Three hundred twenty one

students completed both surveys (83% of the freshman cohort).

Method

Two surveys used in this study were administered at The J. B. Speed School of Engineering

during fall semester 2012 to all sections of an introductory engineering course required for all

first year engineering students. Taking the surveys was optional, no rewards were given, but the

students were given class time to complete the survey. The surveys were used to gather

information on many topics, some of which were unrelated to this study.

The first survey was administered during the first week of class and focused on behaviors and

attitudes in high school. The second survey was administered during the 13th

week of the

semester, and focused on student behaviors and attitudes in college. In both studies, students

were asked to answer some general questions as well as questions about a specific math or

science class.

The data were scanned for reasonability and entries (not complete records) were eliminated if

they did not seem reasonable. For example, five entries for the maximum and minimum hours

studied were eliminated because the minimum was higher than the maximum.

The data were analyzed in SPSS 20 using descriptive statistics to quantify the results and gain an

overall understanding of students’ attitudes and behaviors toward homework and studying in

high school and in college. Inferential statistics were used to determine if differences existed

between males and females and if significant changes were made between high school and

college.

Page 23.440.6

The Survey

In the first survey, students were asked to select a math or science class they took during their

last year in high school and to answer a series of questions with respect to that class. The

decision was made to have students focus on one class that had a high chance of being similar to

classes taken in engineering because it was felt this would lead to more accurate responses and a

better comparison. Fifty-six percent of the students chose some level of calculus, 12%

precalculus, 11% physics, 9% chemistry, 5% biology, 3% statistics and 4% other. Many of the

classes were Advance Placement (AP) or international baccalaureate (IB) classes. To gain an

understanding of the amount homework counted and the worth high school teachers placed on it,

the students were asked how much homework counted toward their grade in this class (the

response could be any whole number up to 100).

The students were then asked the percent of time they completed their homework on time, late or

not at all. These answers were forced to add to 100. To gain an understanding of the students’

attitudes toward the worth of homework, they were asked how often they thought their

homework contributed to learning (response categories were < 25%, 25% - 49%, 50% - 74%,

75% - 94% and 95% - 100%). To determine why students did not complete their homework,

they were given 16 options and asked how often each applied to them using a 5 point Likert

scale ranging from 1 = Never to 5 = Always. Next they were given 11 motivations for

completing homework and asked to rate them using the same scale. The reasons listed were

influenced by Xu’s work on homework9.

Results

Perceived value of homework

High School

The first question of interest asked “Approximately what percent of your final grade in this class

was based on your homework grade?” The most frequent (25% of responses) response was 16-

20%, next was 6-10% (16%) and 21-25% (15%). Five percent selected More than 40% and 6%

selected None and Less than 5%.

To establish the student’s perceived value of homework they arrived with from high school, they

were asked “How often did you think completing homework would help you learn the subject

matter?” The results are displayed in Figure 4. Thirty five percent of the students thought that

95% or more of the homework contributed to their learning, while 17% of the students thought

homework contributed to their learning the subject matter less than half the time.

Page 23.440.7

Figure 4. Percent of Time Homework Contributed to Learning in High School and College

College

Figure 3 shows a slight shift toward an increase in the belief that homework more frequently

helps in understanding the subject matter. Seventy-four percent of the students responded

between plus or minus one category of their answer for high school homework. Eighteen percent

increased by at least two categories and 8% decreased by at least two categories.

Homework completion rate

High School

Twenty-two percent of the students completed their homework 100% of the time and another

32% reported completing their homework between 95% and 99% of the time. At the other end

of the spectrum, 7% reported completing their homework less than 60% of the time. Females (M

= 92%, SD = 11.4) were more likely (p = .001) than males (M = 86%, SD = 19.26) to complete

their homework. There was more variability in the percent of homework completed by males.

There was a small but significant correlation (r = .137, p = .008) between the percent of

homework turned in on time and the maximum number of hours spent studying for a test. There

was a significant correlation between a student’s attitude toward homework being valuable and

the percent of time the student turned their homework in on time (r = .386, p < .001). There was

also a significant relationship between the percent homework counted toward a final grade and

the percent of homework not turned in (r = -.165, p = .002), but it was not as strong as the

relationship between perceived value and completing homework on time. There was no

significant correlation between the perceived value of homework and the percent it counted

toward a grade (r = -.010, p = .848).

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

50%

Less than25%

25%-49% 50%-74% 75%-94% 95%-100%

Pe

rce

nt

of

Stu

de

nts

Percent of Time Homework Contributed to Learning

HS

College

Page 23.440.8

College

In a study of a past cohort, students who did not take the second survey were found to differ from

students who completed the second survey. This was true with the homework completion rate in

high school. The average percent of homework completed on time in high school by students

who completed the second survey (88.6%, SD = 17.5) was significantly higher (p = .03) than the

students who did not take the second survey (83.2%, SD = 19.8).

For students who took both surveys the average increase in homework completion rate from high

school to college was 4.2% which was significant (p = .001). The average percent of homework

males indicated they completed in college increased to 92.2% which was 6% higher than in high

school. Meanwhile, the average percent for females (92.6%) remained relatively unchanged.

There was no significant difference in the average percent of homework completed in college

between males and females who took the second survey.

Sixty-five of the students reported their homework completion rate in college as plus or minus

5% of the rate they reported in high school; 24% of the students reported an increase of 10% or

more, and 10% reported a decrease of 10% or more. Four students reported completing their

homework 30% more in college than in high school. Figure 5 shows the scatter plot of

homework completion rate in high school versus college.

Figure 5. Homework Completion Rate High School Versus in College

Reasons why students did not do homework

High School

Students were asked “When you did not complete homework in this class, how frequently was it

for one of the reasons listed below?” Fifteen reasons were listed. The options were Never (1) , A

few times (2) , Sometimes (3) , Often (4) and Always (5). The three reasons that were selected the

most frequently as 2, 3, 4 or 5 (by students who indicated that there were times they did not turn

in their homework) were I forgot to do it, I did not have time due to extracurricular activities

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

0 20 40 60 80 100

Co

llege

High School

Page 23.440.9

including sports, and I did not feel like doing it. These three reasons also had the highest

average, indicating that the frequency of these reasons were higher than the others. Not in the

habit and I did not feel like it had the most responses of Always. The average values for males

for Not in the habit (p =.001), Already knew it (p < .001) and Teacher did not care (p = .04) were

significantly higher than the responses for females. Table 2 shows cumulative results for the

question for all students who had percent of homework not turned in > 0. The last column was

calculated by dividing the number of students who responded something other than Never by the

total number of students who took the survey. For example 39% of all students said that at some

time they did not turn in their homework because they forgot.

Table 2. Response to Why Student Did Not Do Their Homework in High School

______________________________________________________________________________

Never

(1)

A Few

Times

(2)

Sometimes

(3)

Often

(4)

Always

(5)

Percent of All

Students Who

Indicated This Was

a Reason They Did

Not do HW

____________________________________________________________________________________

I forgot 35 57 55 33 4 39%

Extra activities 54 55 40 31 4 34%

I did not feel like it 61 41 50 23 9 32%

I did not know content 69 57 38 19 1 30%

I did not know what I

was supposed to do

83

55

33

12

1 26%

Family issues 87 56 29 11 0 25%

I was not in the habit 89 38 27 20 10 25%

Sick 92 57 27 7 1 24%

Already knew material 91 33 29 23 6 24%

Job for pay 103 27 28 22 4 21%

It did not count 110 31 24 13 6 19%

Teacher did not care 116 25 26 11 6 18%

No one did HW 118 32 20 10 4 17%

Did not get any feedback 125 25 22 9 2 15%

Other 90 20 13 4 3 10%

My parents did not care 154 10 15 3 2 8%

College

I forgot to do it remained a major reason cited for not completing homework in college. Two

new primary reasons in college were I did not know the content and Family issues. It was a

surprise to see Family issues in the top responses since the overwhelming majority of the

Page 23.440.10

students were directly out of high school. Data on the distance these students lived away from

family were not available, but data from the 2010 cohort showed 17% of students at this college

of engineering considered home within 10 miles of campus and 78% were from within 100 miles

of campus.

The response with the most Always were Did not know the content, I forgot to do it and Not in

the habit of doing it. I forgot to do it and Not in the habit of doing it were very highly correlated

(.780). Forty three percent of the students who chose Always on the first survey or Not in the

habit of doing it and 37% of the students who chose Always or Often for I did not feel like it did

not take the second survey. The summary of the results is in Table 3.

Table 3. Response to Why Student Did Not Do Their Homework in College

Never

(1)

A Few

Times

(2)

Sometimes

(3)

Often

(4)

Always

(5)

Percent of All

Students Who

Indicated This

Was a Reason

They Did Not

Do HW

I forgot 48 49 32 19 6 32%

I did not know content 60 37 34 13 7 28%

Family issues 74 40 28 7 2 24%

I did not know what I was

supposed to do 86 27 26 9 3 20%

I did not feel like it 89 25 24 12 3 20%

Sick 92 37 17 5 2 19%

I was not in the habit 94 24 20 9 6 18%

Extra activities 96 29 19 6 1 17%

Other 97 23 17 8 4 16%

Already knew material 110 20 14 6 3 13%

Job for pay 110 12 18 12 0 13%

Did not get any feedback 116 19 12 1 5 11%

It did not count 117 18 12 4 2 11%

Teacher did not care 121 18 11 2 1 10%

My parents did not care 135 8 6 4 0 6%

No one did HW 136 9 7 1 0 5%

Why students did homework

High School

Students were given a choice of 11 options that influenced their decision to do their homework.

Each student averaged 2.0 Very strong influence, 2.5 Strong influence, 2.3 Medium influence, 1.4

Weak influence and 1.8 No influence. The top four influences students listed for doing

homework were: It counted towards my grade (94% said it was an influence with 37% saying it

Page 23.440.11

was a very strong influence), To do better on tests (96% said an influence, 36% said very strong

influence), I always did what was assigned (95% said an influence, 27% very strong influence)

and To gain a better understanding (95% an influence, 27% strong influence). Not by much, but

more people chose a Teacher expected me to (83%) than A parent expected me to (78%). Eighty

percent said Enjoying homework had an influence and 62% said Consequences from their

parents was an influence. Females’ scores were on average significantly higher than males’

scores for the following responses: Enjoyed homework (p = .026), Teacher expected it (p = .020),

Always did what was assigned (p < .001) and To understand the subject matter (p = .008).

College

The top reasons for completing homework remained the same in college as in high school.

Many of the responses in this section were highly correlated. The correlation between To gain a

better understanding and Do well on test was .876 and the correlation between Teacher expected

me to do it and Parents expected me to do it was .689.

Hours students studied for tests in a specified class

High School

The following results are related to the specific math or science class the student selected. For

the maximum amount of hours studied for a test, 1 hour and 2 hours were each chosen by

approximately 26% of the students. Another 4% choose 0. Only one in four students had

studied longer than three hours for a test in the selected class. The average number of hours was

3.03 (SD = 3.0) overall, 2.88 (SD = 2.871) for males and 3.66 (SD = 3.421) for females. The

maximum number of hours spent studying for a test reported was 25.

When asked the minimum hours they had studied for a test in the selected class, 59% reported 0.

Another 36% reported the minimum they had studied was 1 hour. Only 5% of the students had a

minimum amount of time of more than 1 hour studying for a test in the specified class. The

overall average minimum was .51, mode was 0 and the standard deviation was .793. The

average minimum for males was .47 (SD = .692) and .65 (SD = 1.076) for females.

College

In the second survey students were instructed to input the math class they were taking and to

answer questions based on that class. Thirty seven percent of the students indicated they had

taken a test in the math class and had studied 0 hours. An additional 38% indicated the

minimum they had studied for a test in the selected class was 1 hour. The mean was 1.23 (SD =

1.563).

The average maximum amount of hours spent studying for a test was 4.96 (SD = 3.556). The

mode was 4 (57 responses), but very close was 5 with 56 responses. The medium was 4. Three

students (.9%) responded the maximum they had studied for a test was 0, another 4.7%

responded 1. Six percent responded over 10 hours, with a maximum of 24 hours. Since the

survey was given before the final exam, this data do not include time studying for the final exam.

The average maximum and minimum study time increased between high school and college for

both males and females (see Table 4). The 1.81 hours increase in maximum study time and .64

Page 23.440.12

hour increase in minimum study time were both significantly different from 0 (p < .001). On

average females reported maximum and minimum number of hours spent studying for tests in

the specified class that were higher in both high school and college, but only the values in

college were significantly higher (p = .008 for maximum and p = .007 for minimum).

Table 4. Average Maximum and Minimum Study Time in High School and College for Males

and Females

______________________________________________________________________________

Males Females

______________________________________________________________________________

High School

Avg.

(SD, n)

College

Avg.

(SD, n)

High School

Avg.

(SD, n)

College

Avg.

(SD, n)

______________________________________________________

Maximum study for test 2.88

(2.871, 298)

4.65

(3.542, 243)

3.60

(3.421, 83)

5.89

(3.494, 74)

Minimum study for test .47

(.692, 298)

1.05

(1.451, 242)

.65

(1.076, 83)

1.58

(1.424, 74)

Table 5. Comparison of the maximum and Minimum Hours Studied for Students Who Did and

Did Not Take the Second Survey

__________________________________________________________________________

Minimum Hours Studied

__________________________________________________________________________

n Average SD Mode Max _______________________________________________________

Did not take 2nd

survey 65 .35 .598 0 3

Did take 2nd

survey 316 .54 .825 0 8

___________________________________________________

Maximum Hours Studied

Did not take 2nd

survey 65 2.49 2.137 1 10

Did take 2nd

survey 316 3.15 3.151 2 25

__________________________________________________________________________

Page 23.440.13

Although not significant, the average maximum (p = .111) and minimum (p = .083) hours

studied in the selected class in high school was lower for the students who did not take the

second survey. The statistics are shown in Table 5.

Students realize they need to change

The last question on the first survey was open response, and students were encouraged to type

any comments they had related to the any question in the survey. It was obvious from some of

the comments that taking the survey made the students think about their homework and study

behaviors in high school and the need to change them in college. Below are a few comments

from the first survey.

I'm going to study harder.

Studying is the hardest thing for me, I must be more disciplined.

Don't judge me.

HW was not a priority to me in high school but college requires discipline and good study

habits.

My study habits are completely different than high school.

I probably need to study more now that I am in college.

Forcing myself to study more than usual will be the hardest thing for me to adapt to

engineering school.

I plan to improve my study/homework habits in college.

I’m a pretty lazy person when it comes to homework, but I do it if I need to.

I am well aware that my studying habits are going to have to change in order to be

successful in engineering.

In high school I did not study much and still made good grades. I understand that in

college I will need to study more and apply myself more.

I understand that I will appear lazy after completing this survey, but I'm fully committed

to the engineering program. If the classes can capture my interest, I will do the work and

I will get good grades.

I did not study because the content came easily to me, therefore studying was

unnecessary. I will study when I do not understand the material.

Average number of hours preparing for all classes

In the second survey the students were also asked for the average number of hours per week they

spent on preparing for all their classes. The overall average was 14 hours (SD = 9.41). Females

(M = 17.59, SD = 9.56) reported significantly (p < .001) more time hours than males (M = 13.06,

SD = 9.41). Figure 6 shows the distribution for both males and females.

Page 23.440.14

Figure 6. Distribution of Average Hours per Week Spent Prepping for Classes in College

Study alone or with friends

High School

The final area the survey investigated was whether students tended to study with friends or by

themselves. As mentioned earlier, an analysis performed using responses to CIRP Freshman

survey from the 2010 freshman cohort showed students who more frequently studied together in

high school were more likely to stay in engineering (86% retention for students who frequently

studied together and 67% for students who never studied together)2.

Students were split on whether they preferred to study alone (48%) or with classmates (52%).

Twenty one percent of the students had never studied with someone else; while 4.4% indicated

that they always studied with other students. The option selected the most frequently (42.2%)

was Less than half of the time, but more than once.

College

At the beginning of the introductory engineering class, students were encouraged to study and

work on homework with classmates. The data shown in Table 6 include only the students who

completed both surveys. It shows a slight shift toward more collaboration.

0.0%

5.0%

10.0%

15.0%

20.0%

25.0%

30.0%

35.0%

< 5 6 to10

11to15

16to20

21to25

26to30

31to35

36to40

41to45

46to50

51to55

56to60

Pe

rce

nt

of

Stu

de

nts

Average Hours Spent Per Week on Class Preparation (All Classes)

Males

Females

Page 23.440.15

Table 6. Comparison of Frequency of Studying for Test with Others Between High School and

College

_____________________________________________________________

High School College Shift

______________________________

Never 21 13 -7

More than once, but less than half 42 40 -2

About one half 23 22 -1

More than half, but not all 10 16 +6

Always 4 9 +5

_____________________________________________________________

Table 7. Collaboration in College Index and Percent of Students at Each level

Percent of

Students

Collaboration Level Definition of Collaboration Level

______________________________________________________________________________

7% No collaboration Never studied or did homework with another student

11% Very low collaboration Either studied or did homework together at least once,

but did not do both

46% Medium collaboration At least once studied and at least once did homework

together, but did not do both half the time or more

20% High collaboration Half the time either studied and half the time or more did

homework together, or half the time did homework

together and half the time or more studied together

14% Very collaborative Over half of the time did homework and over half the

time studied with others

__________________________________________________________________________

On the second survey, the students were also asked how often they worked on homework with

classmates. Using a combination of the frequency of studying together and doing homework

together, a collaboration score was calculated. Table 7 shows the definition for each level of

collaboration and the percentage of students that fell in each category. Seven percent of the

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students had no collaboration with other students and 14% were very collaborative (frequently

both studied and did homework with classmates).

Discussion

Although this group of students received high grades in high school, there was variability in their

perceived value of homework and the percent of homework they completed. Seventeen percent

of the students thought homework in high school contributed to their learning less than 50% of

the time. Only 22% of the students completed all their assigned homework in the selected math

or science class they took their senior year. Four percent of the students said they never studied

for a test in the selected class and 55% never studied over two hours for a test in the selected

class. Over half of the students did not study before taking at least one test.

Students realized they needed to change and some of them did. The average maximum and

minimum time studying for a test in a specified math class in college was significantly higher as

was the completion rate of homework.

The reasons for doing homework remained the same between high school and college, but the

reasons for not doing homework changed slightly. Forgetting to do homework was the only

response that was in the top three for both high school and college. In high school,

extracurricular activities interfered with homework completion, while in college, not knowing

the content well enough and family issues interfered with homework completion. One might

think that with all the free tutoring and help sessions available for the calculus classes that

students should be able to get adequate help if they do not understand the subject content. The

following comments from a focus group held at the University of Louisville in fall of 2012 with

a group of second year engineering students might help explain why some students do not get

help: “I think a bigger adjustment from high school to college is being able to suck up your pride

and ask for help when you need to … and just admitting that you don't know everything”

(female, second year student) and “I considered my embarrassment over needing help a

personality flaw, but I don't think it's an uncommon one” (male second year student).10

Between high school and college there was a shift to more collaboration between students.

Seven percent of the students never studied or did homework with another student, while 14% of

the students were very collaborative. The largest number of students (46%) was in the group that

had at least once studied and at least once worked on homework with another student, but had

done so less than half of the time. Much has been written about academic engagement and its

relationship to retention11

. If will be interesting to follow these students and determine if

studying and working on homework together is related to retention.

There were some differences found between males and females. In high school, females had

higher homework completion rates than males; but, the males raised their completion rate in

college to virtually equal to the females. The maximum and minimum amount of hours studied

by females in college was significantly higher than males and there were some differences in

why males and females did or did not complete their homework.

Limitations

The study investigated one cohort of students from one university in which 84% of the students

were Caucasian. A more diverse group of students might have different results. The

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overwhelming majority of the students in the study attended high school within the state of the

university. It is not clear if the results would be the same in a state with a different K-12

education system.

As with all studies based on self-reported survey data there is a potential for misrepresentation.

Also the questions are retrospective in nature which can be biased by more recent events. Since

students were asked to focus on one class in high school and one in college, it is not known if the

effort put into these classes was representative of other classes.

This study is limited by the inability to gather data from non-responders. The students who did

not complete the second survey had a lower homework completion rate in high school and might

represent students who did not change their habits between high school and college.

Conclusion

Longitudinal data shows a disturbing trend of college students who report spending less time on

school work and receiving higher grades in high school. Meanwhile studies have shown the

importance of homework in college success7. The purpose of this study was to gain a better

understanding of one cohort of engineering students and the attitudes and behaviors they brought

with them from high school and whether they changed during their first semester in engineering

school. We learned that although this cohort received high grades in high school, they were not

ideal students. Some had low perceptions of the value of homework and only 22% completed

100% of their homework in the math or science class they took their senior year in high school.

Many students took tests without studying. Overall students more frequently completed their

homework and studied longer for tests in college, but some students did not.

Based on this study, professors should not operate under the assumption that all their students

have been trained to study or have the discipline to complete homework. Instead, professors

should keep expressing the expectation that students complete their work and study for tests.

Since the top reason for not doing homework in college was I forgot, it might be helpful to

encourage students to enter assignments into an app that sends them an email reminder 24 hours

before the assignment is due. Another potential solution is for students to request notifications

when assignments are due through course management software, such as Blackboard.

Further research should investigate students’ attitudes and behaviors developed in high school

towards homework and studying and their relationship to performance and retention in

engineering school. If a relationship is found it would be worthwhile to further investigate if

changing emphasis on homework in high school has an impact on retention and performance in

engineering.

Page 23.440.18

References

[1] National Society of Student Engagement. (2011). Fostering student engagement campuswide-annual results

2011. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Center for Postseconday Research.

[2] Honken, & Ralston (2012). Freshman engineering retention: A holistic look (manuscript accepted for

publication in Journal of STEM Education in 2013).

[3] Cooper, H. (2007). The battle over homework (Vol. 3). Thousand Oaks, Ca: Corwin Press.

[4] Kralovec, E., & Buell, J. (2000). The end of homework: How homework disrupts families, overburdens children,

and limits learning. Boston: Beacon Press.

[5] Cooper, H. (1989). Synthesis of research on homework. Educational Leadership, 47(3), 85-91.

[6] Ramdass, D., & Zimmerman, B. J. (2011). Developing self-regulation skills: The important role of homework.

Journal of Advanced Academics, 22(2), 194-218.

[7] Crede, M., & Kuncel, N. R. (2008). Study habits, skills and attitudes: The third pillar supporting collegiate

academic performance. Perceptives on Psychological Science, 3(6), 425-453. doi: 10.1111/j.1745-

6924.2008.00089.x

[8] Pryor, J. H., Hurtado, S., Saenz, V. B., Santos, J. L., & Korn, W. S. (2007). The American freshman: Forty year

trends, 1966 - 2006. Los Angeles, CA: University of California.

[9] Xu, J. (2011). Homework completion at the secondary school level: A multilevel analysis. Journal of

Educational Research, 104(3), 171-182. doi: 10.1080/00220671003636752

[10] Honken, N. B. & Hart, B. (2012). Focus group with second year engineering students: What gpa means to you

and integration into engineering and university life. Unpublished focus group.

[11] Tinto, V. (2006-2007). Research and pratice of student retention: What next? Journal of Student Retention:

Research, Theory and Pratice, 8(1), 1-19.

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