Isabel Piñeiro

Academic Goals, Student Homework Engagement, and Academic Achievement in Elementary School

There seems to be a general consensus in the literature that doing homework is beneficial for students. Thus, the current challenge is to examine the process of doing homework to find which variables may help students to complete the homework assigned. To address this goal, a path analysis model was fit. The model hypothesized that the way students engage in homework is explained by the type of academic goals set, and it explains the amount of time spend on homework, the homework time management, and the amount of homework done. Lastly, the amount of homework done is positively related to academic achievement. The model was fit using a sample of 535 Spanish students from the last three courses of elementary school (aged 9 to 13). Findings show that: (a) academic achievement was positively associated with the amount of homework completed, (b) the amount of homework completed was related to the homework time management, (c) homework time management was associated with the approach to homework, (d) and the approach to homework, like the rest of the variables of the model (except for the time spent on homework), was related to the students academic motivation (i.e., academic goals).

Homework Involvement and Academic Achievement of Native and Immigrant Students

Homework is a debated issue in society and its relationship with academic achievement has been deeply studied in the last years. Nowadays, schools are multicultural stages in which students from different cultures and ethnicities work together. In this sense, the present study aims to compare homework involvement and academic achievement in a sample of native and immigrant students, as well as to study immigrant students’ relationship between homework involvement and Math achievement. The sample included 1328 students, 10–16 years old from Spanish families (85.6%) or immigrant students or students of immigrant origin (14.4%) from South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. The study was developed considering three informants: elementary and secondary students, their parents and their teachers. Results showed higher involvement in homework in native students than in immigrant. Between immigrants students, those who are more involved in homework have better academic achievement in Math at secondary grades. There weren’t found gender differences on homework involvement, but age differences were reported. Immigrant students are less involved in homework at secondary grades that students in elementary grades. The study highlights the relevance of homework involvement in academic achievement in immigrant students.

Actitudes hacia las matemáticas en estudiantes de Educación Primaria: Diferencias en función del curso y del género

Within the teaching-learning process, intervention in the classroom is without doubt one of the most difficult and complex to design and carry out in search of achieving greater possible degree of learning by students. Due to the importance of this construct, the objective of this study was the development and validation (sample of 1401 students aged between 10 and 17 years) of a motivational assessment questionnaire of the learning process. The results offer an instrument consisting of 33 items, which provides information on intrinsic motivation, extrinsic and comprehensive Cronbachs α of .83, .93, and .93 respectively. The costs of interpretation of the questionnaire for each type of motivation are divided by gender and age, thus providing comparisons between peer groups reliably.

Motivational profiles in high school students: Differences in behavioural and emotional homework engagement and academic achievement: MOTIVATIONAL PROFILES AND HOMEWORK

This work examined whether combinations of academic and non-academic goals generated different motivational profiles in high school students. Besides, differences in homework behavioural engagement (i.e. amount of homework, time spent in homework, homework time management), homework emotional engagement (i.e. homework anxiety) and academic achievement were analysed. Participants were 714 high school students (43.4% boys and 56.6% girls). The study of potential motivational profiles was conducted by latent profile analysis, and the differences between the motivational profiles regarding homework variables and academic achievement were analysed using multivariate analysis. The results indicate the existence of five groups of motivational profiles: a group of students with multiple goals, a group of unmotivated students, two groups of students with a predominance of learning goals and, finally, a group comprising students with a high fear of failure. Both the group with multiple goals and the learning goals-oriented groups reported to do more homework, spending more time on homework, making better use of that time and having a higher academic achievement than counterparts. The avoidance-failure group and the group with multiple goals showed higher levels of homework anxiety. Globally, these results provide support for a person-centred approach.

Estrategias de self-handicapping en estudiantes universitarios. Diferencias entre cursos

This paper analyzes possible statistical differences in behavioural and claimed self-handicapping strategies related to course factor. Cross-section ex post factum simple prospective study was used. The sample comprised a total of 691 students (86% women; Mage = 21.35; SD = 3.75) from University of A Coruna enrolled in first (54.8%) and third course (45.2%) of Educational Sciences (68.9%) and Health Sciences (31.1%). Results show that both behavioural and claimed self-handicapping strategies are significantly more used by students enrolled in third course of Educational Sciences and Health Sciences. Possible factors linked to learning environment that might promote self-handicapping are discussed. Moreover, psychological and educational guidance aimed at preventing academic self-handicapping is proposed.