Teacher Involvement and Self-Regulation in Homework: Impact on Secondary School Students’ Homework Behavior

Abstract

This study aimed to examine the relationships between teachers’ involvement in homework (homework quality), students’ use of homework management strategies (self-regulation skills), and homework behaviour. Teacher involvement in homework included homework quality, amount of feedback, quality of feedback, and autonomy support. Homework management included arranging the environment, time management, monitoring motivation, controlling emotions, focusing attention, and self-regulation skills. Homework behaviour included homework completion and going to school without homework. The moderating effect of gender and grade on the interaction between the variables was also analysed in the study. The study was conducted on 525 secondary school students in grades 5–8. The study found that teacher efforts to improve the quality of homework had a strong interaction with students’ use of homework management skills. Students who used homework management skills at a high level were more likely to complete their homework. The interaction between teacher homework involvement and homework behaviour was positive both directly and indirectly through the use of homework management skills. The interaction between the two variables was mostly mediated by homework management skills. Female students and students in grades 7 and 8 used homework management skills more effectively as a means of achieving success.