FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND HUMANITIES

ESSB 3143 RESEARCH METHODS FOR SOCIAL SCIENCE/

BUSINESS RESEARCH METHODS

RESEARCH PROPOSAL

TIMOTHY JOSHUA ZARSADIAS

MC1406BC6808

LECTURER:

MUHAMAD HAFIZ BIN ISMAIL

 Homework: The Correlation Between Attitude, Time And Motivation
in The Malaysian Classroom

Introduction
Studies have shown that many school students do not complete their homework.
Many reasons given include students’ negative attitude towards it (Collom, 2008), and the
motivation factors which largely indicated influence from parents (Williams, 2008).
However one aspect which I noticed were often not taken into consideration is the factor of
time students expect to spend on their homework in relation to its completion rate.
Background
The research will be done in Sekolah Menengah Seksyen 19, a public school
located in Shah Alam, Selangor. The school has 9 Form 1 classes which are streamed
according to their abilities. I will be conducting this research on the middle-proficiency
class of 30 students for their English Language subject over the span of 2 weeks.
Literature Review
Opinions for and against homework has been debated since the 20th century.
(Marzano & Pickering, 2007). However, a research done by Cooper, Lindsay, Nye and
Greathouse (1998) showed that students in a class which completed homework on a
regular basis, achieved better results than 75% of students in a class which did not do
homework. In Malaysia, little research has been done to clarify these findings as we have
a different total amount of schooling hours compared to western countries and a different
curriculum altogether. The same notion goes towards increasing the completion rate of
homework here. A question which is not asked in many of the researches related to my
study is the correlation between the amount of time students expect to spend on their
homework and its completion rate. I hope this study will be able to shed some light on this
issue.
Research Questions
The questions this research will try to answer are, 1) Do students think homework
play an important role in better academic achievement? 2) Does individual encouragement
from teachers affect the amount of homework completed by students compared to
students who do not receive encouragement? 3) Does the amount of time that students
expect to spend on homework affect its completion rate?
Methodology
The usual English teacher will record homework completion data 2 weeks prior to
the experiment to establish a baseline for the students’ homework patterns. Homework is
given every day ranging from an expected completion time (which students will be
informed of) ranging from 10 - 15 minutes, 16 - 30 minutes, and 31 - 45 minutes. In the
first week of the experiment, students will hand in their homework without any comments
from the teacher. In the second week, the teacher will go to each desk to collect their
homework and offer each student some words of encouragement and praise for
completing their homework.
Data Collection
Data from three groups will be collected: students (with the consent of parents),
teachers and parents using surveys and interviews. A survey (Appendix A) will be used to
collect data from the students in the experimental class, 3 times a week (on random days),
5 random students. The responses for the survey uses the Likert Scale which includes:
Strongly Disagree = 1, Disagree = 2, Neither Agree Nor Disagree = 3, Agree = 4, and
Strongly Agree = 5. This survey is aimed to answer the first and third research questions.
At the end of the experiment, students will also be given a questionnaire to complete.
(Appendix B) To collect data from the teachers, 3 English teachers from the school will
complete a questionnaire (Appendix C). As for the parents, 10 parents will be chosen
randomly from the Experimental Class to answer a questionnaire as well (Appendix D).
Data Analysis
In the span of 2 weeks and at the rate of 5 students, 3 times a week, each student
would have had the chance to answer the survey. Results from the Likert scale will be
calculated and tabulated into a graph. For the questionnaires, answers will be placed into
categories where similar answers will be placed into their respective category.
Possible Result and Conclusions
For first question, ‘Do students think homework play an important role in better
academic achievement?’, I expect that the results may be unpredictable as findings by
Landing-Corretjer (2009), has shown that students think that homework is boring although
they know that homework can help them get better grade. What is contradictory, is that a
study by Barclay (2010) has shown that students did not think that completing homework
was important and that it did not affect their grades. For the second question, ‘Does
individual encouragement from teachers affect the amount of homework completed by
students compared to students who do not receive encouragement?’, based on a similar
study done by Williams (2008), I expect students after receiving individual encouragement,
would have completed more homework compared to the time they did not receive the
individual encouragement. To answer the third question, ‘Does the amount of time
students expect to spend on homework affect its completion rate?’, based on my personal
experience and findings by Barclay (2010) which does not really answer the question but
is related, showed that a majority of students felt that completing homework took up too
much of their free time. I predict that students would answer that the amount of time they
expect to spend on the homework would affect their completion rate. I hope to conclude
from this study that the factor of time expected for students to complete their homework
would give an indication for teachers to design homework which would get an optimum
completion rate.
Primary References:
1. Barclay, P., (2010). Homework Completion Among Middle School Students: A Project
Study to Increase Motivation. Retrieved From ProQuest Digital Dissertations.
3408072.
2. Collom, Z.H., (2008). Homework: Negative Perceptions And Their Effect On Motivation.
Retrieved From ProQuest Digital Dissertations. 1471465.
3. Williams, L.A., (2008). The Effect of Motivational Strategies On The Homework
Completion Rate of High School Students. Retrieved From ProQuest Digital
Dissertations. 3307575.
4. Landing-Corretjer, G. (2009). Listen to Me. An Exploration Of The Students’ Voice
Regarding Homework. Retrieved From ProQuest Digital Dissertations. 3379874.

Secondary References:
1. Cooper, H., Lindsay, J., Nye, B., & Greathouse, S. (1998). Relationships among
attitudes about homework, amount of homework assigned and completed, and
student achievement. Journal of Educational Psychology, 90, 70-83.
2. Marzano, R., & Pickering, D. (2007) The case for and against homework. Educational
Leadership, 64(6), 74-79.
Appendix A

Strongly Agree Neither Agree Disagree Strongly

Agree Nor Disagree Disagree

I complete my homework because it helps

me get more practice to what I learned in
school.

Completing my homework affects my grades.

Completing my homework will help me to

understand what I learned at school.

I complete my homework because it will

make a difference to my future.

I complete my homework to please my

parents.

I complete my homework because it will help

me get the type of job I want.

I complete my homework to please my

teacher.

I did not complete my homework because I

forgot about it.

I did not complete my homework because I

did not know how to do it.

I did not complete my homework because I

wasn’t aware that there was any.

I did not complete my homework because I

was busy doing other homework.

I did not complete my homework because I

did not have enough time.
Appendix B

1. On average, how much total time do you spend on homework (excluding revision) in a
day?
2. On average, how much time do you think is sufficient for students to spend on
homework in a day?
3. Does the amount of time that you would expect to spend on a homework assignment
affect your decision to either complete or do not complete the homework?
Appendix C

1. How much of homework, in terms of the time they are expected to spend on them, do
you give to your students in a day?
2. Do you think the amount of time your students spend doing your homework
assignments is sufficient?
3. How much time in a day do you think that students should spend doing homework
(excluding revision)?
4. Do you think completing homework is a contributing factor to your students’
achievement?
Appendix D

1. How much time do you think your child spends completing homework in a day?
2. Do you think the amount of time your children spend doing homework assignments is
sufficient?
3. How much time in a day do you think that your children should spend doing homework
(excluding revision)?
4. Do you think completing homework is a contributing factor to your children(s)
achievement?