Abstract
Whereas it is often a challenge to keep students motivated and interested in academic tasks, it is more of a challenge to have students stay motivated and interested in academic tasks outside school during nonschool hours—homework. Prior research, however, has largely overlooked the reasons or purposes students have for doing homework and their interest in homework. Informed by achievement goal theory and interest theory, along with cultural differences pertaining to these theories, the present study uses reciprocal models to study longitudinal relationships among homework goal orientation, interest, and math achievement. Participants were 1450 Chinese students in grade 8. Results found reciprocal influences of mastery-approach and math achievement. Additionally, prior mastery-approach had a positive effect on subsequent performance-approach. Furthermore, prior interest had a positive effect on subsequent mastery-approach. Meanwhile, prior performance-approach negatively influenced subsequent achievement. Taken together, the present study points to the complex interplay among mastery-approach, performance-approach, homework interest, and math achievement over time. These findings hold important practical implications (e.g., to promote mastery-approach and math achievement simultaneously and to help students focus on developing competencies through math homework, not how well they have done compared with their peers).
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Current themes of research
Teaching and learning in the school, home, and online settings, in home-school relationships, and in partnerships with families from diverse cultural backgrounds.
Most relevant publications in the field of Psychology of Education
Fan, H., Xu, J., Cai, Z., He, J., & Fan, X. (2017). Homework and students’ achievement in math and science: A 30-year meta-analysis, 1986–2015. Educational Research Review, 20, 35–54. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2016.11.003.
Sun, M., Du, J., Xu, J., & Liu, F. (2019). Homework Goal Orientation Scale: Measurement invariance and latent mean differences across gender and grade level. Psychology in the Schools, 56, 465–477. https://doi.org/10.1002/pits.22206.
Xu, J. (2008). Models of secondary students’ interest in homework: A multilevel analysis. American Educational Research Journal, 45, 1180–1205. https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831208323276.
Xu, J. (2015). Investigating factors that influence conventional distraction and tech-related distraction in math homework. Computers & Education, 81, 304–314. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2014.10.024.
Xu, J. (2018). Reciprocal effects of homework self-concept, interest, effort, and math achievement. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 55, 42–52. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2018.09.002.
Xu, J., Yuan, R., Xu, B., & Xu, M. (2014). Modeling students’ time management in math homework. Learning and Individual Differences, 34, 33–42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2014.05.011.
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Xu, J. Homework goal orientation, interest, and achievement: testing models of reciprocal effects. Eur J Psychol Educ 36, 359–378 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10212-020-00472-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10212-020-00472-7