The contribution of homework and other variables to 7th and 8th graders' mathematics achievement in Awassa
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2004-06
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Addis Ababa Universty
Abstract
The major purpose of this study is to investigate the contribution of homework and
other va riables to students' mathematics achievement. The subjects were 240
randomly selected yth graders (n=1 20) and 8th graders (n=1 20) from Awassa Tabor
Elementary School in 1996 Eth.C. Each grade students were assigned into
experimental and control groups, and the former were taught with assignment of
homework and the latter learned without assignment of homework for eight weeks.
Achievement tests and questionnai re were instruments for data collection. Initia lly,
these instruments were administered on a pilot sample and improved through item
analysis. The data analysis was carried out using ANOVA, F-test, t-test, the Tukey
Method and omega squared (w2
) . Results ind icated that there is significant
difference in mathematics achievement between students in experimental and
control groups within achievement levels of each grade. Specifically, the effect of
homework accounted 19.2% , 17.2% and 22.6% of the va riances in mathematics
achievement of yth grade high achievers, average achievers and low achievers,
respectively. With rega rd to grade 8 students, its effect accounted 21.1 % of the
variance in high achievers' mathematics achievement, 19.7% of the variance in
average achievers' mathematics achievement, and there was no significant
difference observed between low achievers in homework and no homework groups
at alpha 0.05 level. The results also revealed that there wasn't stati stically
sign ificant difference in attitudes toward homework between students in both
groups within achievement levels of each grade during the cou rse of the study.
Description
Keywords
Education