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The Effects of Homework on University Students’ Learning Outcomes
Ooi Jin Yon & Ooi Shu Tao & Lim Qiao Xuan & Lim Yee Ching
Sunway College
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Introduction
Background of Study
Nowadays, university students are responsible for performing well academically
as a head start in pursuing their future employment in today's competitive environment
where an excellent education is important to success. Therefore, homework is used as
a learning resource for classroom activities (Songsirisak.P & Jitpranee.J, 2019). It is
because homework is a powerful tool for improving students' academic performance
(Chaya & Heba 2021). Besides that, homework can also help in developing strong study
habits (Cooper, Steenbergen-Hu, & Dent, 2012, as cited in Doctoroff, G. L., & Arnold,
D. H, 2017).
Past research states that homework can help in students learning, it can help them
to get a higher academic achievement, which can lead them to success (Cooper, 2019).
Besides that, homework also gives the opportunity for students to develop their nonacademic skills such as time management skills and make them become more
independent. (Songsirisak.P & Jitpranee.J, 2019). It is because students need to manage
their time well to finish the homework assigned by the teachers. Moreover, Ramdass
and Zimmerman (2019) point out that homework improves students' self-regulation,
which in turn fosters their motivation, cognitive, and metacognitive abilities when
learning a language. This makes the students motivated in their learning and achieve
learning goals.
However, there are a lot of people who claim that homework will harm the students,
especially in America. in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, there was a significant
"anti-homework" campaign in America (Eren & Henderson, 2011 & Minke, 2017). The
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Cold War's historical occurrences and the 1980s' worldwide competition with Japan
accelerated the transition in education towards higher standards and more homework
for students (Cooper, Robinson, & Patall, 2006; Eren & Henderson, 2011 & Minke
2017). Homework is still a contentious and divisive subject of debate among school
districts in America (Minke, 2017).
According to the findings done by CHAYA and Heba (2021), overloading
homework can be harmful, ineffective, and affect test scores. It is because students may
tend to delay their homework or assignments, leading to a consistent pattern of
unsuccessful completion of their homework. (İşbulan, O., Emre, Ç. A. M., & BAĞCI,
H. ,2023). Moreover, it will also affect the students’ attitudes towards school which will
lead to dislike of school. Furthermore, homework may cause cheating between students,
which is copying the answers from their peers who have done the homework. Therefore,
the impacts of homework in academic achievement are an age-old debate that has
swung (Walberg et al., 1985, 1986; Barber, 1986, as cited in Fernández-Alonso R et al.,
2017).
Problem Statement
As many past studies have revealed how homework have positive effect on
university students’ academic achievement only, this shows the necessity for student to
identify how homework as a tool to improve their learning. However, today’s standard
of education is if the teacher gives an appropriate amount of homework, it will have a
positive impact on the university students. But if the amount of homework given by the
teacher is too much for the students to bear, it will have a negative impact on university
students’ learning. In fact, in students’ process of doing homework, how matters more
than how much (Fernández-Alonso et al., 2016; Rosário et al., 2018). Therefore, this
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research aims to examine the effect of homework on university student’s learning whilst
seeking for do the positive impacts outweigh the negative ones.
Significance of Study
Primarily, the findings of this research would be essential for all university
students as the study aims to know how homework affects university students’ learning.
If students know that homework will bring positive effects on them, they will put effort
into doing homework. Thus, it will become a powerful tool to help them. Moreover,
they will be more understanding of what they have learned by doing homework.
Therefore, university students are strongly recommended to know the advantages of
homework.
Other than that, this study also recommended any university institution to find how
can maximize the advantages of homework on university students' learning. The teacher
can give proper homework and enough time for students to finish their homework
which can prevent any negative effects on students. Therefore, they can maximize their
ability to improve their performance. Students merit further instruction or tutoring.
Hence, this study thus emphasizes the urgent necessity to take action to ascertain if
homework has an unfavourable effect on university students.
Research Question
1) What are the effects of homework on university students’ learning outcome?
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Literature Review
Time spent on homework and students’ learning
Every student almost spends half of their time on schools. However, they also need
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to spend a lot of time on their homework after they go back to home. Thus, Songsirisak,
P. and Jitpranee, J. (2019) who have conducted research to identify the impacts on
student by finding out the perceptions of students towards homework. In this study,
there are 103 female and 37 males from Thai University majoring in two separate areas
of English as their participants. They needed to answer the questionnaire that had
prepared. Besides that, they also need to attend an interview about 30 to 60 minutes to
answer questions about the impacts of homework to student. There are more than half
students state that they do not have enough time to finish the homework because it is
too much for them. Therefore, homework has made them stress which make them lose
on academic interest.
Besides that, Sing Chen. Yeo. et al. (2020) wants to explore the relationship
between adolescents' time spent on homework or studying and their need for nighttime
sleep and depressive symptoms in a setting of intense academic competition. There is
a total of 1225 teenagers from 8 Singaporean schools were chosen to participate in a
cross-sectional, private survey about their sleep patterns, school experiences, and
general health. Multiple regression models were used to test covariation of time spent
on homework with other activities, and associations of homework duration with
depression symptoms. After that, they found out that teenagers who spent more time on
homework associated with later bedtimes and less nocturnal sleep will cause them to
have academic stress. It is likely that students who devote more time for sleep can work
more productively and do not need to spend as much time on homework or studying,
even though lengthy hours spent on homework or studying may reduce time in bed for
sleep.
Based on the two research above, we found that there is a negative effect between
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homework and bad learning behaviour. Based on Songsirisak, P. and Jitpranee, J. (2019)
study. The time limitation cause students do not have enough time to finish their
homework and cause academic stress and loss in academic interest. Besides that,
research from Sing Chen, Yeo et al. (2020) found that length of homework hours may
cause them to have not enough time to sleep, where lead to a bad learning behaviour
and cannot gain any benefits.
Homework and self-regulation
Self-regulation is a good habit for every student, and they can arrange their time
properly every day. In these cases, people believe that homework and self-regulation
may bring a significant effect on their learning, Therefore, Ayaka, K. (2016) aim to
explore how homework can affect Japanese college students who are having academic
difficulties in terms of self-regulated learning. There are 33 participants where 30 males
and 3 females' college students who majoring in Engineering who were assigned to a
lower-level English class based on the result of their placement tests. They were
assigned 2 of 3 types of homework. After that, they need to answer a questionnaire
which contained 20 items from self-regulated learning strategy scale and the English
self-efficacy scale. They found out regular homework completion enhance the
development of self-regulation. They also become better at managing their effort even
they fail to complete their assignments on occasion.
Besides that, there are also another research that conducted from Ahmad, S. et al.
(2022) are focusing on relationship between homework and the academic achievement
of the student in private schools. The information was gathered using stratified random
sampling methods and there are 159 students in the district of Nowshera. They used
structured questionnaires to gather data from the concerned schools. After they done
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collecting their data, they found that homework can helps students in finishing their
assignments on time, fostering independence, which means that homework can enhance
students’ self-regulation.
Based on these studies, there are a positive relationship between homework and
student self-regulation. The study from Ayaka, K. (2016) found out homework
completion can enhance their self-regulation. Meanwhile the research from Ahmad, S.
et al. (2022) also found that student become more self-regulating when they do their
homework.
Influence of homework on the final grade
Most students learn from their homework, and that helps them score well on the final
exam. Therefore, the homework process may be a factor in affecting their final grade.
One of the studies by Nichole Young et al. (2016) wants to identify the impacts of the
homework process on students' final grades. Over a five-year period, data was collected
from three quantitative courses taught by the same teacher using a problem-solving
technique. They success in finding a significant association between home grade and
final course grade demonstrates that graded homework significantly affects a student’s
final course mark. And a low homework grade can have a bad impact on the final grade.
The second research was conducted by Harrold, J. W. and Sandland, J. G. (2018).
They want to test whether the immediate feedback provided in homework influenced
the final exam scores of students or not. They use a lot of question types in 3.032x,
which are either "Numeric Response" questions (81%), in which students must come
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up with a numerical solution to a problem and enter it into the scoring box. Besides that,
"Formula Response" questions (11%) will require students to input a formula that they
have deducted into the scoring box. And the remaining is the course’s question, which
is multiple choice and always follows up on a set of questions. They found that 77.5%
of students prefer the immediate feedback approach either somewhat or strongly, they
demonstrate a significant preference for it.
Both of studies have proof that homework may bring good effect on student's final
grade. The first study from Nichole Young et al. (2016) have found that there is a
significant effect when student can do their homework properly. The second study from
Harrold, J. W. and Sandland, J. G. (2018) show that students are preferring to
immediately homework feedback where they can have better preparation for their
coming examinations.
Homework and Learning Outcome
In recent times, students receive a greater amount of homework compared to in
the past. Consequently, it raises the question of whether homework contributes to
students' learning outcomes. According to Rawson, K. et al. (2017), there is a positive
correlation between the amount of homework activity and academic learning outcomes.
The study involved a total of 328 undergraduate engineering students at the University
of California, Riverside. Students in these courses completed their homework
assignments using the smartpens, thus producing records of the work in the form of
timestamped digitized pen strokes. The findings revealed that students who wrote more,
particularly in terms of total pen strokes, equation strokes, diagram strokes, and overall
writing length, learnt more and tended to achieve higher grades in the course.
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Similarly, another study conducted by Kuo, S. (2022). discovered that homework
can contribute to improving student learning outcomes. The study involved 299
undergraduate participants enrolled in a large upper-level economics course during the
academic year 2017-2018 at a highly selective private university. Exam performance
served as the measure for student learning outcomes. While standardized assessments
for economics existed, this study specifically focused on finance-specific content.
Demographic data were collected to account for differences in student populations
across semesters. Therefore, the examination results can provide valuable insights into
how homework aids students in enhancing their learning. The findings revealed that
repeating the most challenging homework questions on the subsequent assignment,
with minor modifications, led to improvements in student exam performance and
learning. Although the impact was modest, with a 2% increase in the final exam score
and a 0.6% improvement in the overall course score, it is significant that even a smallscale intervention yielded statistically significant results.
In conclusion, both studies have demonstrated that completion of homework can
improve student learning outcomes. The first study by Rawson, K. et al. (2017), has
revealed that students who wrote more homework, particularly in terms of total pen
strokes, equation strokes, diagram strokes, and overall writing length, can learn more
and tended to achieve higher grades. The second study by Kuo, S. (2022) has shown
that repeating the most challenging homework questions on the subsequent assignment,
with minor modifications, led to improvements in student learning and exam
performance.
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Current Study
Most literatures perceived that total amount of homework and the total time spent
on it as a detrimental factor that affected university students’ academic performance.
Based on our last studies, homework not only brings positive effects to university
students but also will harm the students if lecturer gives too much homework to students.
In order to know whether homework benefit to students, it is significant to investigate
the impacts of homework through the viewpoint of different impacts: self-regulation,
final grade and student earning outcome. Besides that, we also find out the time of
students spending on homework to investigate the negative effect of homework on
university students’ learning.
Past findings likely focused on specific homework especially mathematics and
sciences, while studying the impacts of homework on university students’ learning.
There was a limited number of past studies based on university and college students’
learning and homework. Hence, our current study would like to find out how homework
can affect university students’ learning in different aspects.
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Methodology
Participants
There are 50 students as participants to get results for this research. All survey
responses from them will be included in the results analysis.
Table 1 – Characteristics of participants
Items
Frequency
Percentage (%)
Male
14
28
Female
36
72
4
8
19
33
66
20
7
14
Above 20
6
12
50
100
Gender
Age
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Total
There are total of 50 university students with 14 (28%) males and 36 (72%)
females as our sample in this study. All of them were around 20 years old. A total of 4
(8%) participants ages is 18 years old. Meanwhile, there were 33 (66%) participants
ages is 19 years old. After that, the majority ages, 20 years old with a total of 7 (14%)
participants, and a sum of 6 (12%) participants above 20 years old.
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Measures
A quantitative research design was used to examine the research questions. It was
conducted through an online survey questionnaire created using Google Forms. The
survey was divided into six sections with a total of seventeen questions. The type of
questions includes linear scales and multiple choices. The first part of the survey
enquired about participants’ basic demographic information. Moving on with the
second section, participants were required to rate their perceptions towards homework
on a five-point rating scale from ‘strongly disagree’ to ‘strongly agree’. The third part
of the survey enquired about the students spend their time on homework. Next, the
fourth part of the survey required participants to rate their self-regulation towards
homework on a five-point rating scale from ‘very poor’ to ‘excellent’. Come to the fifth
part, participants were required to provide their current Cumulative Grade Point
Average (CGPA) and rate the influence of homework on final grade on a five-point
rating scale from ‘strongly disagree’ to ‘strongly agree’. The last part of the survey
enquired about the severity and influence of homework on learning outcome based on
individual experiences.
Results obtained in section two will be critically analysed using the aid of
mathematical tools to discover the relationship between effects of homework and
university students’ learning outcome. On the other hand, data from section three to six
which questions about the severity of four major effects will be compared with students’
learning to present a precise answer on the correlation based on individual homework
effect. Lastly, enquiries about the influence of four homework effects would reveal the
effects of homework on students’ learning outcome.
The question asked in survey are presented as below.
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Section 1: Demographic Information
No.
Questions
i. What is your gender?
ii. What is your age？
Section 2: Students’ Perceptions Towards Homework
No.
Questions
i. I know that homework is important and necessary to me.
ii. I know that homework is a part of my grade score.
Section 3: Time Spent on Homework and Students’ Learning
No.
Questions
i. On average, what is the total amount of time you spend on finishing
homework per day?
ii. Do you agree that the more time used for homework can help to improve your
learning?
iii. Why do you need more time to complete your homework?
iv. Does too much time needed to complete homework affect the quality of your
sleep?
Section 4: Homework and self-regulation
No.
Questions
i. Rate your self-regulation on a scale 1 to 5.
ii. How disciplined are you in avoiding distractions and staying focused on your
homework without procrastinating?
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iii. Do you agree that homework improve your self-regulation and help to focus
on your learning?
Section 5: Influence of Homework on Final Grade
No.
Questions
i. Do you agree that homework help to improve your exam result?
ii. Completing homework regularly prepares me well for assessments and
exams.
iii. What is your current CGPA?
Section 6: Homework and learning outcomes
No.
Questions
i. Completing homework assignments regularly improves your understanding
of the subject.
ii. Homework allows me to explore additional resources and deepen my
knowledge.
iii. How much do you feel that homework provides valuable feedback and helps
you identify areas where you need improvement?
Procedure
The online survey questionnaire was distributed to university students in various
educational institutions using social media platform. Participants were informed about
the purpose of the study and assured confidentially before they proceed with the
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research questions. It takes approximately three minutes for the participants to complete
the survey.
Results of survey will be evaluated using descriptive statistics such as percentages
and frequencies. The relationship between homework and university students’ learning
outcome would be revealed using these tools only. All sections are statically illustrated
in table formats, bar graphs or pie charts to provide an overview of the results. This
would help in determining the effects of homework on university students’ learning
outcomes.
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Findings & Discussion
Overview
The main purpose of this research is to conduct a detailed study on relationship
between homework and students’ learning. Result of survey questionnaire with
participation of 50 university students were explicitly analysed to answer the stated
research questions:
1) What are the effects of homework on university students’ learning outcome?
Results
Diagram 1 – Is homework necessary and important to me?
The diagram shows the perspectives of 50 participants on homework's necessity
and importance. 12 participants P4%) strongly agree that homework is crucial to their
studies, while 26 participants (52%) agree with its importance. 10 participants (20%)
remain neutral, and only 2 participants (4%) disagree. No participants strongly disagree.
Overall, 38 (76%) participants agree that homework is necessary and important to their
studies. Hence, homework is necessary and important toward student studies.
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Diagram 2 – Is homework a type of my grade score?
The diagram above shows the perspective of students on the importance of
homework for final scores. There are 13 (26%) participants who strongly agree that
homework is important to grade scores. Meanwhile, 31 (62%) participants agree that
homework is a type of grade score, and 3 (6%) participants remain neutral on this
question. However, there are 2 (4%) participants who state that homework is not a type
of grade score. Lastly, there are 1 (2%) of participants strongly disagrees that homework
is important to final grade scores.
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Time Spent on Learning and Student Learning
Diagram 3 – On average, what is the total amount of time you spend on finishing
homework per day?
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The diagram above summarises the participant’s time spent on finishing
homework per day. There are 6 (12%) participants who spent less than 1 hour per day
to finish their homework. Meanwhile, there is 18 (36%) participants spent about 1 to 2
hours per day, and 15 (30%) participants spent about 2 to 3 hours per day finishing their
homework. In addition, there is 8 (16%) participants finish their homework between 3
to 4 hours. Lastly, there is 3 (6%) participants spent more than 4 hours on their
homework.
Diagram 4 – Do you agree that the more time used for homework can help to improve
your learning?
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Based on the diagram above, there are majority of participants (25 or 50%) agree
that more time given to finish their homework would improve their learning. There are
also 11 participants (22%) who strongly agree about this statement. Furthermore, there
are 12 participants (24%) remain neutral on neutral on this question. However, there is
1 participant (2%) disagrees and 1 participant (2%) strongly disagrees that more time
is given to finish their homework able to improve their learning.
Diagram 5 – Why do you need more time to complete your homework?
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The diagram above shows why participants need more time to complete their
homework. Most of the participants (38%) are procrastinating on completing their
homework. Besides that, 12 participants (24%) responded that there was too much
homework given. Furthermore, 9 participants (18%) had difficulty doing their
homework. Moreover, 5 participants (10%) need to attend their club activities. Thus,
they need more time for homework. Lastly, another 5 participants (10%) need to help
their parents with chores.
Diagram 6 – Does too much time needed to complete homework affect the quality of
your sleep?
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Diagram 6 above shows the impact of the amount of time needed to complete
homework on the quality of sleep for a total of 50 participants. 8 participants (16%)
always experience a negative impact on the quality of their sleep due to homework.
Additionally, 5 participants (10%) have reported that they are often facing sleep
difficulties. The majority, 34 participants (68%), indicated that they do not often
experience a negative impact on their sleep quality due to homework. Lastly, 3
participants (6%) reported that they have never experienced any negative impact on
their sleep quality because of homework.
In Short, data from diagram 3 revealed that most of the students do not spend a lot
of time doing homework. Meanwhile, diagram 4 shows that there are more than half of
the students agree that more time spent on homework can improve their learning. Next,
diagram 5 has revealed that procrastination and too much homework cause them to need
more time to finish their homework. Lastly, diagram 6 shows that most of the students
do not often experience sleep difficulties due to homework, which means that
homework may not affect the student’s learning outcomes because they are able to pay
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attention in class. Hence, there is a positive relationship between time spent on
homework and students’ learning outcomes.
ii.
Homework and self-regulation
Diagram 7 – Rate your self-regulation abilities on a scale of 1 to 5.
The diagram above shows the participant’s self-regulation ability. There are about
half the participants (28 or 56%) who rate themselves at an average level for selfregulation. The following 13 participants (26%) rate themselves at a good level for selfregulation. In addition, an equal number of participants (3 for each or 6% for each)
separately rate themselves at a very poor, poor, or excellent level of self-regulation.
Diagram 8 – How disciplined are you in avoiding distractions and staying focused on
your homework without procrastinating?
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Diagram 8 shows how disciplined participants are in avoiding distractions and
staying focused on their homework without procrastinating. First, 2 participants (4%)
are very poor at avoiding distractions and cause them to procrastinate on their
homework. Besides that, 10 participants (20%) poor to avoid distractions to focus on
their homework. Moreover, half of the participants (50%) have an average level in
avoiding distractions and stayed focused on their homework. In addition, 10
participants (20%) are good at it and 3 participants (6%) are excellent at avoiding
distractions and staying focused on their homework.
Diagram 9 – Do you agree that homework improve your self-regulation and help to
focus on your learning?
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The diagram above shows the result of doing homework improving their selfregulation and helping them focus on their learning. There are approximately half of
the participants (29, or 58%) who agree that homework improves their self-regulation
and helps them focus on learning. In addition, 11 participants remain neutral on this
question. Moreover, 7 participants strongly agree that homework improves selfregulation and helps them focus on learning. Lastly, only 3 participants (6%) disagree
on this, and no participants strongly disagree on this question.
In short, diagram 7 shows that the majority of university students rate their own selfregulation abilities on an average level. On the other hand, diagram 8 shows most
university students are not good at avoiding distractions and stay focused on their
homework. From diagram 9, the majority of university students agree that homework
can improve their self-regulation and help to improve their learning. Hence, the findings
have cleared the doubt of the past studies by confirming that homework can improve
student self- regulation.
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iii.
Influence of Homework on Final Grade
Diagram 10 – Do you agree that homework help to improve your exam result?
Diagram 10 shows the relationship between homework and improvement on exam
results. There are 12 participants (24%) strongly agree that homework help them
improve their exam results. Besides that, 28 participants (56%) agree homework help
to improve their exam grade. Moreover, 10 participants (20%) do not make a stand for
these questions. Lastly, no disagreement has given by 50 participants.
Diagram 11 – Completing homework regularly prepares students well for assessment
and exams.
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The diagram above shows the opinion from participants about effect of completing
homework and well prepared for exam. There are 15 (30%) strongly agree and 31
participants (62%) that they feel well prepared when they finish their homework. At the
same time, 4 out of 50 participants (8%) remain neutral about this question where they
do not really agree or disagree above that.
Diagram 12 – Current CGPA of participants
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Diagram 12 shows 50 participant’s current Cumulative Grade Point Average
(CGPA). There are 22 participants (44%) who have their current CGPA between 3.50
to 4.00 at this moment. Besides that, another 22 participants (44%) have their CGPA on
range between 3.00 to 3.49 for now. In addition, 5 participants (10%) currently have
their CGPA between 2.50 to 2.99. Lastly, 1 participant (2%) has current CGPA below
2.50.
In conclusion, data from diagram 10 show that a consensus among most of the
participants that completing homework assig nments can positively impacts their exam
results. Besides, diagram 11 show that the majority of the participants agree that
homework can help them to prepare well before their examinations. Meanwhile, from
the data of diagram 12, almost half of the participants have a great result at their studies
which above 3.5 CGPA. Hence, the findings have cleared the doubt of the past studies
by confirming that present of homework can help student to improve their final exam
result.
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iv.
Homework and Learning Outcomes
Diagram 13 – Completing homework assignments regularly improves your
understanding of the subject.
The diagram above illustrates about the relationship between completing
homework assignments regularly and improving understanding of the subject, based on
a total of 50 participants. 18 participants (36%) strongly agree, while 29 participants
(58%) agree that homework completion can enhances subject understanding. 2 (4%)
participants remain neutral, and only 1 participant (2%) disagrees, with no strong
disagreement expressed.
Diagram 14 – Homework allows me to explore additional resources and deepen my
knowledge.
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The Diagram 14 show the relationship between homework and its ability for
students to explore additional resources and deepen knowledge. It reveals that 9 out of
50 participants (18%) strongly agree, while 33 participants (66%) agree with this notion.
Additionally, 7 participants (14%) remain neutral, and 1 participant (2%) strongly
disagrees it.
Diagram 15 – How much do you feel that homework provides valuable feedback and
helps you identify area where you need improvement?
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Diagram 15 above illustrates that out of a total of 50 participants, 9 participates
(18%) strongly feel that homework provides valuable feedback, while 37 participates
(74%) believe that homework somewhat provides valuable feedback and helps identify
areas where they need improvement. On the other hand, 3 participants (6%) of the
participants feel that homework does not provide very much valuable feedback, and
only 1 participant (2%) believe that homework does not provide any valuable feedback
at all.
In conclusion, data from diagram 13 show that a consensus among most of the
participants that completing homework assignments regularly positively impacts their
understanding of the subject. Besides, diagram 14 the majority of the participants (84%),
expressed agreement with the idea that homework facilitates exploration of additional
resources and knowledge deepening. Meanwhile, from the data of diagram 15, almost
all participants recognize the benefits of homework in terms of providing valuable
feedback and identifying areas for improvement. Hence, the findings have cleared the
doubt of the past studies by confirming that homework can improve student learning
outcomes.