Investigation of the causal link between the quality/regularity of homework completion and academic achievement in the "speech practice" bachelor course
Determining the presence of a causal relationship between regular and thorough preparation for homework and the results of training students of the 2nd and 3rd year of study at the Faculty of Foreign Languages of the Higher School of Economi
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Federal state autonomous educational institution for higher professional education
National research university higher school of economics
Investigation of the causal link between the quality/regularity of homework completion and academic achievement in the "speech practice" bachelor course
Eugenia Voronova
Moscow, 2019
Table of contents
Introduction
1. Theoretical Part
2. Empirical Part
3. Discussion
4. Conclusions
Bibliography
Appendix
Abstract
This paper aims to determine the existence of the causal link between regular and thorough homework preparation and educational results of students of 2nd and 3rd year of study at the Department of Foreign Languages of Higher School of Economics in the context of the Speech Practice course. The research is especially relevant to today's educational system, where the idea that students at universities should be encouraged to study more autonomously and thus do more homework is getting more and more accepted. Moreover, this work is of high importance for both students and professors to demonstrate the results of regular and thorough homework completion. The methods used in the research were observation, where the researcher watched the students' participation in class and the level of homework completion for two months in a row; then the researcher distributed a survey, in which students were asked to answer several questions on the related topic of the impact of homework completion on their academic performance; and finally, the analysis of the results from these two sources was accomplished. The result of this research is a proven correlation between homework preparation and academic performance of the students. This study is restricted to the tertiary context and language classes within this context.
Keywords: homework, academic performance, university students, Speech Practice student foreign training
Introduction
It is widely believed that doing homework on a regular basis will have a considerable effect on the improvement of a student's marks and help him/her to understand the material presented deeper and to remember it better. However, many students feel extremely reluctant to do their homework for a wide variety of reasons. Those reasons can be found in many academic works on the topic (for example, Cooper, Robinson, & Patall, 2006; Torrecilla, M., Javier, F., & Martнnez-Garrido, C., 2013; Bembenutty, H., & Zimmerman, B. J., 2003; Ramdass, D., & Zimmerman, B. J., 2011), as well as in social media, press and even day-to-day discussions.
Nevertheless, none of the studies conducted can be generalized and their conclusions can be applied neither to Russian students (no cultural variables were included in the studies), nor to students of universities (most studies were carried out on schoolchildren). Moreover, there has been found no reliable sources of research on students whose major is languages. Therefore, it is of paramount importance to incorporate these aspects into the study of the causal link between homework completion and academic performance that this study will discuss.
1. Research hypothesis
The researchers state as their hypothesis the following idea: there is a positive and strong correlation between students' regular and qualitative homework completion and their academic performance in the course of Speech Practice. In other words, if a university student of a linguistic department, enrolled in the course of Speech Practice, succeeds in completing their homework qualitatively and regularly, then he will most likely get excellent academic results both at the end and in the process of completing the course of Speech Practice.
By "qualitatively", we suggest agreeing that a student should complete at least 80% of homework tasks; and by "regularly", we suggest agreeing that a student should complete their homework in at least 80% of cases.
2. Aim of the research
Taking into consideration the hypothesis stated above, this research thus aims to prove the existence of a causal link between students' regular and qualitative homework completion and their academic performance in the course of Speech Practice.
3. Research objectives
The research objectives can be divided into the following:
1) Hypothesize that there exists a direct correlation between regularity and quality of homework completion and overall academic performance of the students in the Speech Practice course;
2) Observe two observed groups for one module (2 months), how the students do their homework, how active they are in class and what marks they get as a result for this study period, with the purpose of tracing the correlation between students' homework completion and classroom participation, on the one hand, and their module test results, on the other;
3) Create a self-evaluation survey for the students to assess their homework completion and its quality, their in-class participation and its correlation with the graded they get, as well as their opinion on the homework-marks correlation;
4) Conduct the survey both in observed groups and on other students (that were not a part of the observation);
5) Analyze the results of the survey and their correlation with the results of the observation;
6) State that the hypothesis is proven or not proven.
4. Object of the research
The object of the following research is the educational methodology for the "Speech Practice" course in the Department of Foreign Languages of National Research University Higher School of Economics for the students of 1-3 years of study for bachelor degree.
In particular, we plan to focus on:
1) students' homework prepared for each class of Speech Practice (both its presence and quality);
2) students' in-class performance and activity in correlation with homework completion;
3) students' academic achievements during the observed period of study (1 academic module or two calendar months), as well as after the end of the observed period (i.e. their final marks for this module).
5. Subject of the research
Given that the object of the research is as it was described above, the subject of the research is thus the causal link between the quality and regularity of homework completion and academic achievement in the "Speech Practice" bachelor course itself. Special attention will be paid to proving the existence of this causal link as a positive correlation between the given variables.
6. Design of the research
The study was conducted in two major steps.
Firstly, two observed groups of students were being observed for two months. The homework completion, in-class participation and academic results of the students assigned to these observed groups were of research interest.
One group of students was on their second year of study in the university, and the other was on their third year of university study. The observation was being held for the period of one academic module or two calendar months (2nd module: from the beginning of November 2018 till the end of December 2018).
The second step was to have the students (both of observed groups and other students on this course) surveyed with questions focusing on the same points as was the observation: their homework completion, in-class participation and academic results namely. They were asked five questions. Four out of five of these questions were with stated options to choose from (they needed to choose only one option, which is the most applicable to them), and one required the students surveyed to write a number - their average mark for the course of Speech Practice in particular (see Appendix 1. Example of a survey questionnaire).
A sample of 100 students (not including the students from those two observed groups) were surveyed, half (50 students) of them were students of their second year of study, and the other half (other 50 students) were students of their third year of study. The survey was anonymous.
The students of the two observed groups were also surveyed with the same set of questions. The only difference was that these students were asked to sign their answer sheets. This way the researchers could then compare the results of the survey (i.e. the students' subjective opinion) with the results of the observation (i.e. the researchers' subjective opinion) and then compare them to the actual objective academic results, that those students received both during the observed period and after it.
At the next step, the results from both sources (observation and survey) were brought together, combined and analyzed. After that all possible conclusions were stated.
7. Relevance of the research
This work is thus exceptionally relevant to today's issues in education, as it provides scientific proof to the positive correlation between homework completion and better academic performance on a language course.
It is also relevant to the current way of looking at the concept of homework, as it is focused primarily on university students, that are generally characterized with a greater level of autonomy than school students, for example. Moreover, some of the students show a substantial knowledge of the subject at the beginning of the course, which can cause difficulties for the teachers and professors to adjust the material and tasks according to the students' level of expertise.
8. Practical value of the research
The practical value of this research lies in two ways.
Firstly, the research can be of use for the professors who work on the Speech Practice course's development and performance. This way they will be able not only to motivate students to complete their homework, but also to forecast a student's academic result. Moreover, the professors and teachers will be able to adjust materials for this student specifically.
Secondly, the research can be found applicable for students themselves to objectivize their academic performance. More than that, the students will have an opportunity to relate to the reasons for their success or failure in this course.
1. Theoretical Part
1. Terminology
Homework
According to Oxford Online Dictionary, homework is defined as "work or study done in preparation for an event or situation" Oxford Online Dictionary [URL: https://en.oxforddictionaries.com], date of revision 13.04.2019. The Cambridge Dictionary provides a similar explanation for the concept of homework, describing it as "work that teachers give their students to do at home"Cambridge Dictionary [URL: https://dictionary.cambridge.org], date of revision 13.04.2019.
Both definitions highlight the concept of doing the work in advance, beforehand, prior to the day the completed work would be required or used in any other way to produce something more complex on the basis of the knowledge and skills acquired during that homework preparation.
Other definitions of homework can also be found in academic sources. Homework is defined there as "academic tasks assigned by teachers to be done by students outside of the instructional time" (Cooper, Steenbergen-Hu, & Dent, 2012). Moreover, Kitsantas and Zimmerman (2009) in their study suggested that homework is a process that in itself is an encouragement for students to engage in a learning process that is self-initiated, independent and self-directed (Kitsantas and Zimmerman, 2009).
Academic Performance
The concept of academic performance is, most certainly, a more complex idea to explain in a way where no ambiguity can be found. For example, Sophie von Stumm, Benedikt Hell and Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic in their research "The Hungry Mind: Intellectual Curiosity Is the Third Pillar of Academic Performance" give the following definition for the term of academic performance, stating that it is both "accurate proxy for aptitude" and a "core determinant of career paths and status attainment". They also point out that it is key to understanding intelligence tests, that are well-known for being one of psychology's most prominent "tools" (von Stumm, Hell & Chamorro-Premuzic, 2011).
Thus, academic performance is viewed as final quantitative results of a student's overall activity during a course on a given scale (in the case of the present research it is a scale from 0 to 10, with 0 being the lowest mark, and 10 being the highest).
In this research we stick to the given definition of academic performance and make no difference between this term and the one of the academic achievement, as we consider both terms to be of almost (if not totally) same meaning and importance for academic discourse.
Academic Achievement
As was mentioned before, the term of academic achievement is in this research equal to the term of academic performance, that was described earlier. Thus, academic achievement is a mark from 0 to 10 that reflects a student's progress in the given course for a given period of time (in the case of the present research the time span was one academic module, or two calendar months).
Homework Completion
In the present study homework completion is limited to completing all the tasks that were given by a teacher (professor) for one class, most likely the following class, that students had to prepare in advance and be ready to present their work on the seminar that homework was assigned for. No extracurriculum activities were taken into consideration at any stage of the research.
In order to objectivize and concretize the understanding of this concept, two more characteristics of homework completion were in focus: the regularity of homework completion and the quality of homework completion namely.
Regularity of Homework Completion
To define regularity of homework completion more objectively, the researchers came up with a scale from 1 to 5, where a student could measure how regularly he completes his/her homework.
The scale itself is as follows:
5 - complete homework every time (for every class)
4 - complete homework almost always (miss 1-2 in module)
3 - complete homework from time to time (50/50)
2 - complete homework almost never (less than 80% not done)
1 - never complete homework
Quality of Homework Completion
The same approach was implemented to tackle the abstract character of the term quality. The researchers also came up with a scale from 1 to 5, where a student could measure how qualitatively he completes his/her homework.
The scale itself is provided below:
5 - thoroughly prepare all the tasks
4 - thoroughly prepare 80% or more of the tasks
3 - do half of tasks thoroughly and half just look through and/or do not do at all
2 - thoroughly prepare 20% or less of the tasks
1 - just look through the tasks and/or do not do them at all
Having defined the basic terms, it seems relevant to study current research on the problem.
2. Literature Review
Homework, its necessity, degree of obligation (meaning the level on which homework should be compulsory for a student's results afterwards) in completing all the tasks, difficulty and role in academic performance have been topics for heated debates among researchers from all over the world for more than 30 years, if not more.
Cooper, Robinson and Patall, for example, in their article summarized research conducted in the United States since 1987 until 2003. For obvious reasons, they didn't include all the articles and research published on the topic for these years, they took only those studies that examined students in kindergarten through 12th grade, and, moreover, the studies conducted exclusively in the USA. Summarizing dozens of studies, the researchers came to some conclusions and noticed some patterns, such as:
1) All studies had design flaws;
2) There was generally consistent evidence that homework completion has positive influence on academic performance;
3) Nevertheless, no strong evidence was found for an association between the homework-achievement link and the outcome measure or the subject matter (Cooper, Robinson, & Patall, 2006).
A similar study was conducted even earlier, in 1984 by American scholars Paschal, Weinstein, and Walberg. They prepared more statistically precise data, and came to similar conclusions, the most important of which lie in the following way:
1) About 85% of the effect seizes favored the homework groups;
2) Homework that was graded or contained teacher's comments produced stronger effects. (Paschal, Weinstein, & Walberg, 1984)
Another study conducted in 2013 by Spanish scholars was focused on the analysis of the impact of homework on academic performance (in language and mathematics) of students in 3rd year of primary education in Iberoamerica. The researchers succeeded to conclude that school performance improves if at least one of the following factors is present:
a) teachers handle homework;
b) the tasks are reviewed and corrected in the classroom (so the students know well, that if they fail to complete the tasks and do it correctly, most likely they will get some kind of punishment for that behavior);
c) the students with lower performance have homework adapted to their needs, and the same might be applied for the students with higher level of knowledge (Torrecilla, M., Javier, F., & Martнnez-Garrido, C., 2013).
Thus, it implicitly states, that homework on its own contributes to better academic results and performance, emphasizing its highest influence when it has some type of observed (it is checked by teacher or students in some way) and adaptation of the tasks to individual needs of students.
Studies regarding the impact of homework on personal development of students, irrespective of the academic performance can be found as well.
For instance, the two studies (that can be regarded as a series of studies) Bembenutty, H., & Zimmerman, B. J. (2003) and Ramdass, D., & Zimmerman, B. J. (2011) both conclude similar results:
1) Self-regulation and homework are related and self-regulatory behaviors develop gradually over time with repeated practice;
2) Students' self-regulation skills and motivational beliefs correlate positively with homework activities;
3) Students who engage in self-regulation are better able to delay personal rewards and complete their homework more frequently (Bembenutty, H., & Zimmerman, B. J., 2003; Ramdass, D., & Zimmerman, B. J., 2011).
Moreover, numerous studies manage to identify the key variables of academic performance of the students of different age groups and levels of knowledge.
Von Stumm, S., Hell, B., & Chamorro-Premuzic, T. in their study "The Hungry Mind: Intellectual Curiosity Is the Third Pillar of Academic Performance" proposed an idea to expand traditional set of the key variables of better academic performance (being intelligence and effort) and add to them intellectual curiosity. The results of their research were the following:
1) Intelligence is the greatest and most important predictor of academic performance of a student;
2) A student's personality traits do not affect the influence of intelligence on academic performance of a student;
3) There exist three direct and correlated predictors of academic performance, they are: intelligence, conscientiousness and typical intellectual engagement (von Stumm, S., Hell, B., & Chamorro-Premuzic, T., 2011)
As can be seen, a number of studies have been conducted on this topic, however, most of them didn't provide any research focusing neither on Russian students of any age (because of the cultural background, that can influence the results), nor for higher education students majoring in linguistics (as age can contribute to results alternations as well). Moreover, according to the limitations stated cannot be generalized to any of the study groups mentioned above.
3. Speech Practice course in the Department of Foreign Languages in Higher school of economics
The course of Speech Practice in the Department of Foreign Languages is aimed at leading students to the C2 proficiency level of English according to CEFR in all skills. The course covers a wide range of topics and aspects so that the students develop both their receptive and productive skills. Students are also involved in a variety of activities (individual, group, pair or project work), that add to the development of social and academic competences as well.
According to the program of the course Syllabus of Speech Practice course, [URL: https://www.hse.ru/data/2019/02/04/1150123902/program-2014115011-cCd2pmdxqz.pdf], date of revision 12.05.2019, the most important learning objective is to form foreign language communicative competences at the C1+ - C2 level, including sub-competences.
Learning outcomes, course plan, reading list, grading system and guidelines for knowledge assessment are also enlisted in the course program, along with the methods of instruction used and necessary equipment and software support to conduct classes.
2. Empirical Part
1. Methods employed
To objectivize the research, it was decided to combine two different methods, which makes the present study mixed-method research, and then to analyze their results first separately and then to analyze them together in order to reach more comprehensive conclusions.
Observation part
In order to gain more insight and dig a little deeper into the process of homework completion it was decided to conduct observations.
As Marshall and Rossman (1989) define it, observation is a "systematic description of events, behaviors and artifacts in a social setting chosen for study" (p.79). Observation is also described as the primary method that is used by anthropologists doing fieldwork, which in turn is described as a process that involves "active looking, improving memory, informal interviewing, writing detailed field notes, and perhaps most importantly, patience" (DeWalt & DeWalt, 2002, p. vii). DeWalt & DeWalt also mention, that observation may as well give context and ideas for development of interview guides and sampling guidelines (DeWalt & DeWalt, 2002).
However, the use of observation as the only method is likely to cause imbalance, subjectivity and bias. DeWalt, DeWalt and Wayland (1998) point out, that unless other methods are used in a research, it is likely that observers will fail to note any negative aspects about the members. This is one of the main reasons for implementing a survey after the observation part was finished.
Survey part
In order to establish better balance in the research results and conclusions as well as to bypass any possible bias and misunderstandings or subjectivity that could have grown out of the limited number of students in two observed groups, the method of survey was also implemented in the present research.
Surveying, according to Fowler Jr. (2013), is a method where the main way of collecting information is by asking people questions; their answers constitute the data to be analyzed. The main aim of a survey is to produce statistics, that is, quantitative or numerical descriptions about some aspects of the study population. Most commonly, the information is collected about only a fraction of the population, that is, a sample, rather than from every member of this population (Fowler Jr, F. J. 2013, p. 1).
2. Stages of research
Observation stage
In the present research there were two observed groups, one of the second year of study in the bachelor program "Foreign languages and cross-cultural communication" of the Department of Foreign Languages Higher School of Economics, and the other of the third year of study of the same program. The group of the second year of study consisted of eleven students, while the group of the third year of study consisted of fourteen students.
The observation took part in the second study module in Higher School of Economics, which was from the beginning of November till the end of December, which indicates that the observation lasted for two months.
During the observation stage the researchers attended classes of both of the observed groups and each time noted the following:
· Attendance;
· In-class participation;
· Homework completion;
· Academic performance.
Attendance was checked by the end of each class, which means that even those students who were late for the class could take part in the research.
In-class participation was measured on a binary scale: 1 point was given if a student participated in class, answered the professor's questions, etc. while 0 points were given to those students who were just sitting silently during the whole class and showed neither any interest nor action regarding the study process.
Homework completion was measured on a binary scale as well. 1 point was given to a student who did the homework for the class as fully and thoroughly as was necessary to answer all the professor's questions during the class.
Regarding the academic performance, as part of the observation stage of the research, final marks of the students for this module were taken into consideration (not test marks?) as well as were the marks they have received during the whole observation period. The aim of this was to take into consideration the objective result of the students' work during the whole module.
Survey stage
In the present research the survey was conducted on the sample of 100 students of the same bachelor program of "Foreign Languages and Cross-cultural communication" of the Department of Foreign Languages of Higher School of Economics. The students from the sample group were also from the second and third year of study: 50 students of each year of study.
For the survey, as well as for the whole research, we intentionally did not choose the students of first or fourth year of study as participants for a number of reasons.
Firstly, the students of the first year of study do not yet possess the necessary experience of study in the university environment, where it is absolutely on them to schedule there time and priorities according to their needs. Thus, we believe, they would not be objective participants of the present research. Secondly, we did not choose the students of the fourth year of study, because they, on the contrary, have too much experience on how to study in a university environment, they know the professors, they know their groupmates, they know precisely where they can perform worse but that would not affect dramatically their academic results, etc. Moreover, on the fourth year of study, the students finish the course of Speech Practice and have more of the revision during their classes, than gain some purely new information.
The survey conducted was anonymous, written and without any open questions to write any deep thoughts and concerns: only statistics.
The survey was deliberately not conveyed through any automatic platform, for example, Google Forms. Even given the fact that this platform provides immense amount of help for the researchers (it is automatic, it's easier to track and follow, it combines data itself, etc.), there were several obstacles, so that researchers were generally in favor of paper-based surveying. The two major reasons were the following:
1. If it was distributed through emails on group accounts of different study groups, there was risk of shift in sample, because most likely only "volunteers" would actually come and fill in the forms. These "volunteers" would generally be either students with excellent marks, or, on the contrary, students that failed to succeed in the course of Speech Practice and driven by emotions would want to spoil the results;
2. As Google Forms combine the data itself, we would not be able to differentiate or combine it in any other way that would be of more use for the purpose of the present research.
In the survey there were 5 questions total. The first question inquired about the student's average mark for the course of Speech Practice. The second question referred to the regularity of the homework completion. The third question regarded the quality of the homework completion of each student. The fourth question targeted at the student's personal opinion on the existence of the link between homework completion and academic performance. The fifth question was on the evaluation of time spent to prepare the homework for the class of Speech Practice.
The example version of the survey can also be found at the end of this work, in Appendix 1.
The same set of questions was also given to the students of both of the observed groups after the observation stage was finished. In this case the students were asked to sign their answer sheets. The purpose of that was the following: the researchers wanted to find a correlation also between what students think about homework completion (how much time it takes them, how regularly and thoroughly they complete their homework, etc.) and how it actually correlates with their academic achievements and final results for the observed period of this course.
It is also worth noting that there might be a moderate inaccuracy due to the fact that the questions might have been interpreted a bit differently by different students. However, it is of paramount importance that the researchers did accustom the questions and answer variants so that they would be as clear and straightforward as possible.
3. Discussion
1. Observation part and results
Observed group of the second year students
In this group there were 11 students, 8-9 of which were constantly present at all classes. For ethical reasons it was decided to refer to them as Student 2.1, Student 2.2, Student 2.3, etc. rather than to provide their actual names. The first number in their names refer to the year of study (so that they are not mixed up with the students of the third year of study), while the second number, after a dot, refers to the list in which they were all stated organized by the researchers.
For the purpose of ease and simplicity it was decided to name those "constantly present" students as Student 2.1 - Student 2.9, while two others were named Student 2.10 and Student 2.11 respectively.
Interestingly enough, all the first group of nine students during the whole observation period continuously appeared fully prepared for each class, all of them (but for some occasional times of being inactive) were steadily active during each class, they were interested in the topic of each lesson, they were encouraged to answer the professor's questions and to complete all the professor's tasks, etc.
This way it was not surprising to find that both marks for activities during the study period (the module), as well as final marks for the same time period were excellent (8, 9 and 10) for all those nine "constant" students:
· 5 students received "8" as the final mark;
· 3 students received "9" as the final mark;
· 1 student received "10" as their final mark.
A similar pattern of academic results could be also traced for those two other students, that generally did not attend most of the classes, and even for those classes, on which they were present, they did not prepare any homework and, consequently, did not take any active part in class activities:
· 1 student received "5" as their final mark, and
· 1 student received "3" as their final mark, i.e. he/she did not pass the course and needed to re-take the exam for the second time.
Observed group of the third year of study
In this group there were 14 students, the majority of which did not participate actively in most of the class. More than that, most of the students deliberately produced an impression that they neither liked the course even for a little bit, nor did they value it and their time and abilities to succeed in this course of Speech Practice.
For the same ethical reasons as with the observed group of the second year of study, all the students in the present research will be given names as: Student 3.1, Student 3.2, Student 3.3, etc. Where the first three students would be those who showed at least some moderate interest in the course and respect for the professor, while other students (Student 3.4 - Student 3.14) would be those who took almost no active part in the absolute majority of the classes during the observed academic period of one module.
In this case, it was as well not surprising that the students' academic performance reflected completely on their presence in class, their participation in classroom activities and, most importantly, their homework completion:
· 1 student got an excellent mark of "9";
· 2 students got "7" as their final marks, that stand for "good";
· 2 students got "6" as their final marks, that also stand for "good";
· 3 students got "5" as their final marks;
· 3 students got "4" as their final marks;
· 1 student got "3" as their final marks (i.e. did not complete the course);
· 1 student got "2" as their final marks (i.e. did not complete the course);
· 1 student got "1" as their final marks (i.e. did not complete the course).
Average results of both of the observed groups
As we can see from the Table 1below, most of the average results from the observation stage turn to be stating true the hypothesis of the present research. All of the students, who got 0,6 (more than a half) or more for at least one of the points to measure (either homework completion or in-class participation) got 6 (lowest border of "good") or more for their final module grade. The data described is marked in bold in the table below.
Table 1
|
Student |
Average h/w completion |
Average participation |
Test grade |
Module grade |
|
|
S2.1 |
1 |
0,8 |
8 |
8 |
|
|
S2.2 |
1 |
0,8 |
9 |
8 |
|
|
S2.3 |
1 |
1 |
8 |
9 |
|
|
S2.4 |
1 |
1 |
8 |
9 |
|
|
S2.5 |
1 |
1 |
10 |
10 |
|
|
S2.6 |
1 |
1 |
9 |
9 |
|
|
S2.7 |
1 |
0,8 |
8 |
8 |
|
|
S2.8 |
0,6 |
0,6 |
8 |
7 |
|
|
S2.9 |
1 |
1 |
8 |
8 |
|
|
S2.10 |
0,4 |
0,4 |
10 |
5 |
|
|
S2.11 |
0,4 |
0,4 |
4 |
3 |
|
|
S3.1 |
0,8 |
0,9 |
7 |
7 |
|
|
S3.2 |
1 |
0,8 |
5 |
6 |
|
|
S3.3 |
0,6 |
0,6 |
9 |
9 |
|
|
S3.4 |
0,5 |
0,5 |
2 |
4 |
|
|
S3.5 |
0,4 |
0,2 |
8 |
5 |
|
|
S3.6 |
0,2 |
0,2 |
5 |
3 |
|
|
S3.7 |
0,5 |
0,5 |
4 |
4 |
|
|
S3.8 |
0,4 |
0,4 |
0 |
2 |
|
|
S3.9 |
0,7 |
0,7 |
7 |
7 |
|
|
S3.10 |
0,6 |
0,5 |
6 |
6 |
|
|
S3.11 |
0,5 |
0,5 |
7 |
5 |
|
|
S3.12 |
0,5 |
0,5 |
7 |
5 |
|
|
S3.13 |
0,2 |
0,2 |
3 |
1 |
|
|
S3.14 |
0,6 |
0,2 |
8 |
4 |
2. Analysis of the results of the observation
At the end of the observation period the researchers came to several conclusions:
1. The method of observation proved to be both effective and prone to subjectivity. The effectiveness of the observation method lies, first of all, in gathering all the necessary information with relevant ease and without any unnecessary interference into the process which the researchers were observing. However, there appeared serious concerns about the objectivity matter of the observation, due to the fact that the researchers were still humans and no matter how hard they tried, they could have accidently caused bias and misconceptions both from themselves towards the students they were observing, as well as vice versa - from the students to the researchers, that in turn could affect the results of the observation.
2. In both observed groups the results of the observation in terms of in-class participation, presence, homework completion corresponded with the marks that the students received during the observed period, as well as at the end of it at the final test for the academic module.
3. Being present at the classes of the course of Speech Practice has also benefited the researchers in a more subtle way. Most of the students, having learned about main ideas of the research, expressed their opinions to the researchers about the hypothesis of the study and the research design.
3. Survey part and results
For better representation and clearer understanding of the material and data it was decided to go through all the survey questions step by step.
Survey of the second year of study students
Question 1. Please write your average mark for the course of Speech Practice.
As there were 50 students surveyed anonymously, it is pure coincidence that vast majority of them stated to have excellent marks "10", "9" and "8" as their average marks for the course of Speech Practice. There were two students with absolute maximum marks of "10", 16 students with "9" out of 10, and 23 students to get "8" as their average mark for this course.
There also were 7 students who got their marks as "good", or "7" and "6" out of 10 points: 4 and 3 students respectively.
Only one student stated to have lower, but still "passing" mark of "5" out of 10, while there was no one with the mark "4" that stands as the lowest border for passing and completing the course.
However, one student stated to have "3" as their average mark for the course of Speech Practice, which can only mean that he will re-take the exam or quit Higher School of Economics, as it is forbidden to study with academic debt.
Question 2. Please evaluate how regularly you do your Practice of Speech homework on the scale from 1 to 5.
In the diagram above the distribution of the degree of regularity of homework completion among the students of the second year of study can be seen.
A vast majority of students being 80%, reported to have their homework done completely or almost always, which we can qualify as "regularly" according to the definition given in the present study.
8 other students stated that they generally prepare their homework for half of the classes, while 2 students answered to do their homework almost never.
Question 3. Please evaluate the quality of your Practice of Speech homework on the scale from 1 to 5.
In this diagram the results of the question 3 look almost the same as for the previous question about regularity of homework completion.
In this case, 36 students, or 72 % stated to prepare at least 80% of tasks thoroughly, which means that all those students actually do prepare their homework thoroughly as it was defined in the present research above. It is worth noting though, that this share is less than the one of the regularity of homework completion, which implies that not all students who regularly prepare their homework do that thoroughly enough.
Also quite a big share of students (12 people or 24 %, almost a quarter) stated to do thoroughly only half of the tasks, while 2 other students responded to complete less than 20 % of the homework thoroughly.
Question 4. Please evaluate the correlation of how well and often you do homework and your academic achievement at the Speech Practice course on the scale from 1 to 3.
The results of this question turned out to be quite surprising, because a vast majority of students - 48 out of 50, which is 96 % of responders stated that they see at least some correlation between homework completion and their academic performance. While 28 students (more than a half, 56 % to be exact) stated to see only vague correlation, other 20 students reported to observe quite clear and strong correlation between how qualitatively and regularly they complete their homework for the course of Speech Practice and their academic results for the same course.
Only 2 students reported to see no correlation between those variables at all.
Question 5. How much time does it take you to do your Speech Practice homework on average?
For this question most of the students (41 student, 82 % of responders) stated to spend more than 30 minutes regularly to complete their homework for the course of Speech Practice.
Half of the students, 25 people, stated to spend regular 30 minutes - 1 hour each time to prepare for the class of Speech Practice. 10 other students (20 %) responded to spend 1 - 2 hours on homework preparation on average, while six more students reported to spend very much time (from 2 hours and more) for preparing homework.
On the other hand, 16 % of students, 8 people stated to spend 30 minutes maximum and 1 student confessed to spend no time at all, most likely due to his / her general refusal to prepare homework for the course of Speech Practice.
Survey of the third year of study students
Question 1. Please write your average mark for the course of Speech Practice.
Out of fifty anonymous respondents the greatest number of respondents (19) stated that they have an "8", which is regarded as the lowest mark in the set of "excellent" marks.
The second biggest group is of those students who have a "9" as their average mark for the course of Speech Practice - 12 respondents.
Then there were two groups with the same number of respondents. 6 students got "7" as their average marks and 6 more students, surprisingly enough, stated "3" as their average mark for the same course of Speech Practice. We can suppose that those students (who received "3") most likely stated their marks before the re-take of their final exam, because otherwise they would not have an opportunity to study in Higher School of Economics according to its rules.
3 more students stated "6" as their average mark. This mark is the lowest border of "good".
2 students stated that they have "5" for the course of Speech Practice on average.
Curiously, none of the students from the sample of 50 people responded to have "4" as their average, while "4" is the lowest mark to have a state of "accomplished".
Finally, only 2 more people responded to have the highest mark on the scale "10" as their average for the course of Speech Practice, which implies that they have received this mark at least half of the study period in Higher School of Economics.
Question 2. Please evaluate how regularly you do your Practice of Speech homework on the scale from 1 to 5.
In the second question about the regularity of homework completion most of the students (72% in total) stated that they do their homework "always" or "almost always", which most of them could have also selected for possible slips and emergency situations.
8 students responded to do half of the homework, which means they cannot be registered as those who does their homework on a regular basis.
5 more students answered that they tend not to do their homework, not more than in 20% of cases when they have any homework for the course of Speech Practice.
Finally, one student chose the variant that he/she absolutely never does any homework.
Question 3. Please evaluate the quality of your Practice of Speech homework on the scale from 1 to 5.
Here the results were especially surprising if we remember that 33 students responded to have excellent average marks for the course of Speech Practice. In this question, if we combine the results for "4" and "5", that in the terms of the present research can be stated as "thorough homework completion", we will get only 31 result. It will most likely mean that some students with excellent marks do not do their homework thoroughly.
Considering other groups' result: 16 students stated to do half of the tasks thoroughly, 2 students generally do not prepare their homework very thoroughly (less than 20% of the tasks) and 1 student answered to have never done the homework at all.
Question 4. Please evaluate the correlation of how well and often you do homework and your academic achievement at the Speech Practice course on the scale from 1 to 3.
Proving the curve of normal distribution, as well as the psychological tendency of the responders to stick to the middle answers, in this question we still have a vast majority of students who admit that there is at least some type of correlation between homework completion and their academic performance.
31 students responded that the correlation they see is quite vague, which means that it is not present all the time, but it still exists, while 12 students answered that they observe clear correlation between how regularly and thoroughly they prepare their homework and their academic results for the course of Speech Practice.
However, seven students cannot state to see the correlation at all.
Question 5. How much time does it take you to do your Speech Practice homework on average?
The results for this question can be summed up to the idea that most of the students of the third year of study need considerable time to prepare their homework for the course of Speech Practice, starting from 30 mins - 1 hour (23 students), which is regular time; continuing with quite a lot of time of 1 - 2 hours (20 students); and finally coming to very much time expenditure on homework completion of more than 2 hours (6 students).
Average results of the students of both years of study combined
Table 2
|
Average from the second year of study students |
Average from the third year of study students |
||
|
Question 1 |
8,04 |
7,36 |
|
|
Question 2 |
4,22 |
3,94 |
|
|
Question 3 |
3,98 |
3,58 |
|
|
Question 4 |
2,36 |
2,1 |
|
|
Question 5 |
3,24 |
3,62 |
As can be seen from the table above, an average second year student would have an 8 for his/her Speech Practice course and would almost always do his homework. Moreover, he/she would prepare thoroughly at least 80% of the tasks and spend on the preparation from 30 minutes to 1 hour on average. This average second year student would see a vague correlation between regular and thorough homework completion and academic achievement for the course.
An average third year student, however, would display different characteristics. He/she would have a 7 for his/her Speech Practice course but would still do his homework almost always, not always doing the homework though. The results are quite peculiar, because they state 3,58 for regularity of homework completion (3 stands for 50% of homework and 4 for 80% or more), however, the time spent on homework completion would still be larger than the one of the second year of study students - 1-2 hours on average. Nevertheless, an average third year student would also see a vague correlation between regular and thorough homework completion and academic achievement for the course.
Survey of the observed groups
Both of the observed groups generally provided similar results to those that have just been discussed above.
In the results of a survey among the observed group of the second year of study, most of the students, 9 out of 11, demonstrated excellent marks both during the observation period and after it on final exam for the module.
On the contrary, the academic results of the observed group of the third year of study turned out to be worse than on average for the marks during the observation period, as well as after it on the final exam for the module.
Below you can see a summary diagram for both observed groups.
Moving to the regularity and quality of homework completion, the results turned out to be almost identical to what the observer noticed during the observation period, it correlated clearly not only with the students' marks, but also with their general subjective opinions about themselves. The data proving that is provided below as well.
The most peculiar results appeared in the answers to the question 4, about whether the students themselves see the correlation between regular and thorough homework completion and their academic performance or not. As a result, all students agreed to that there is some type of a link between those variables, however the degree of certainty about that statement was different. It is presented below.
Also, similar results did the students demonstrate in answering the last question concerning the time spent on average to prepare homework for a class of the course of Speech Practice. The results for both observed groups are demonstrated below as well:
To sum up, it can be concluded that the results of the survey of observed groups have nothing exceptional that would distinguish them from the results of the sample of the same year of study. Nor is there any discrepancy with the marks that the students got both at the end of the observed period and during it.
Survey results of students from both years of study combined with survey results of the observed groups
As can be seen from the Table 3, most results of the observed groups are relatively the same as the results of the sample groups of second and third years of study.
Table 3
|
Question |
Average for observed group 2nd year |
Average for random sample 2nd year |
Average for observed group 3rd year |
Average for random sample 3rd year |
|
|
Question 1 |
8,09 |
8,04 |
6,21 |
7,36 |
|
|
Question 2 |
4,55 |
4,22 |
3,71 |
3,94 |
|
|
Question 3 |
4,21 |
3,98 |
3,34 |
3,58 |
|
|
Question 4 |
2,5 |
2,36 |
2,5 |
2,1 |
|
|
Question 5 |
3,15 |
3,24 |
3,42 |
3,62 |
It turned out that most of the results of the observed group of the second year students are a bit higher than the results from a general sample except for the last question about time expenditure for homework preparation, however the difference is not so crucial.
On the contrary, the results of the observed group of the third year students are lower, compared to the results of a general sample, the only exception is that the students from the observed group stated to see stronger correlation between homework completion and academic performance.
4. Analysis of the survey
By completing the second stage of the study the researchers have come up with some insightful conclusions and observations:
1. The survey as a method of gaining information indeed proved to have brought balance into the present research. That tool had brought more objectivity into the research as it could not have been influenced "from the outside", i.e. by no means could the researchers intervene into the opinions the students had concerning these matters. However, at the same time the survey increased the objectivity of the research in terms of giving the students freedom to express their real opinions anonymously.
2. The researchers also gained more proof for the existence of that positive correlation between the regular and qualitative homework completion and the students' academic performance, as the students expressed their opinion on the matter in the corresponding question.
3. Students of the third year of study generally seemed to feel more reluctant to take any active part in classes for the course of Speech Practice, which was reflected in the answers for the survey:
a. Generally, the marks they have stated were not as good as those in the survey results of the students of the second year of study;
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