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The current investigation examined models of homework interest according to the data from middle school students in China. Homework interest was positively related to homework favorability, feedback quality, deep approach, monitoring motivation, peer interest, self-concept, teacher control, and family homework help. Additionally, homework interest was negatively associated with the surface approach. At the class level, homework interest was related positively to feedback quality, yet negatively to parent education. Thus, the current study extended prior research on homework, by indicating that student interest in homework was further associated with peer interest and homework approaches. Implications for further investigation and practice are discussed based on these findings.

The major objectives of our study were (a) to identify student profiles according to five homework characteristics (homework time, frequency, quality, interest, and favorability) and (b) to examine their relationship with three critical variables in the homework process--homework effort, completion, and math achievement. Latent profile analysis (LPA) was used to examine a data set with 3018 8th graders in China. Based on these characteristics, five distinct profiles were identified: Profile 1 ("Low"), Profile 2 ("Moderate Time/High with Others"), Profile 3 ("Low Frequency/Moderate with Others"), Profile 4 ("Moderate Time/High Frequency/Low with Others"), and Profile 5 ("High Time and Frequency/Moderate with Others"). Parent education was positively associated with the two healthiest profiles (Profile 2 and Profile 5). Finally, profile membership was a significant predictor of homework effort, completion, and math achievement. Specifically, our study suggests that students can work about 30 min on math homework and achieve the same results, if they work often, with high quality, fueled by interest and favorability (compared with students who spend about 110 min on math homework). Taken together, our study provided novel insights into the combination of homework characteristics that could have significant implications for homework practice and research.

The purpose of this study was to investigate metacognitive self-regulated learning (SRL) differences in computer- and paper-based reading assignments across elementary students. Students in two after-school programs in a southeastern U.S. public school district were recruited. The final sample consisted of 48 students in Grades 2--5 who participated in two counterbalanced conditions involving a computer- and a paper-based reading assignment. The study employed a 2 x 4 (condition-by-grade) mixed-model analysis of variance (ANOVA) and follow-up tests to examine metacognitive SRL differences between conditions and grades. The results indicate that elementary students used various metacognitive SRL skills across both conditions. The mixed-model ANOVA results show a significant interaction in control processes in paper-based reading for students in fifth grade, a significant main effect of condition in evaluation practices in computer-based reading for all grades, and a significant main effect of condition in conditional knowledge in the paper reading assignment for all grades. The results suggest that students can benefit from focused instruction to apply metacognitive SRL skills between the two reading formats.

The present study investigated the predictive effects of clusters of variables on homework environment management based on the data from 3018 students in Grade 8. These clusters included: background variables, homework characteristics, adult support and monitoring, homework purposes, goal orientations, and contextual control. At the individual level, management of homework environment was significantly related to at least one variable from each of the six clusters. Specifically, it was associated negatively with time spent watching TV, and positively with prior achievement, homework interest, homework quality, family help, teacher feedback, academic purpose, self-regulatory purpose, mastery-approach, and help seeking. Additionally, males managed homework environment less frequently than females. Finally, management of homework environment was positively related to homework quality at the class level., Author(s): Jianzhong Xu [sup.1] [sup.2] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.260120.7, 0000 0001 0816 8287, Department of Counseling, Educational Psychology, and Foundations, Mississippi State University, , P.O. Box 9727, 39762, Mississippi State, [...]

This exploratory qualitative case study investigates how graduate students in education experience, attribute, and combat academic boredom. Three areas of concern are addressed: (a) the contributing factors to boredom, (b) how attributional style (internal vs. external) relates to coping with boredom, and (c) the differences between combating class-related boredom and learning-related boredom. Results showed that the onset of boredom was mostly influenced by a lack of interest, lack of utility value, and autonomy frustration. This study extended the existing literature by discovering an interaction between students' attributional style and their coping strategies for boredom during classroom instruction. Specifically, students who argued that the instructor should hold more responsibility for boredom in class tended to take avoidance coping as their primary strategy (e.g., doodling). By comparison, students who opted to approach the problem positively (e.g., taking notes) are prone to attribute internally. Attribution does not appear to have a mediating effect on the relationship between experience of boredom and coping strategies for learning-related boredom. Implications for graduate and adult education and findings in the context of recent theoretical frameworks are discussed.

Informed by two theoretical models of homework effects, we extended a model of homework on mathematics achievement in a large sample of Chinese eighth graders. Our model incorporated six clusters of homework variables -- student background factors, homework characteristics, teacher variables, parent variables, student motivation, and homework behavior. Results indicated that mathematics achievement was related to at least one variable for each of the six clusters at the individual level. At the class level, mathematics achievement was associated positively with homework time, frequency, and interest, but negatively with teacher control. Finally, the combination of prior grades in mathematics and homework completion together influenced mathematics achievement. The study highlights the utility of our extended theoretical model for understanding predictive effects on achievement in a non-Western sample. The different norms and practices around homework in China are discussed, as are implications for future research.

The main drive gearbox of the coke dry quenching (CDQ) elevator in a steel plant has experienced serious failure after serving a period of time in service. The process of maintenance shows that the pinion shaft and the bearing of the final stage are most severely damaged. For further research of damage causes, this study will calculate the capacity and life of the bearing by KISSsoft software, and meanwhile build a 3D model of the CDQ elevator gearbox for the finite element analysis (FEA) by using software Inventor Nastran. As a result, the weakness of the structure about the gearbox is identified and the optimization is implemented contrapuntally. According to the comparison before and after maintenance, the improvement effect is obvious.

Informed by expectation-value theory and related literature, the goal of the current investigation was to identify profiles of students drawn from three purposes of homework (academic, self-regulatory, and approval-seeking). Participants were 750 eleventh-grade students in China. Results from latent profile analysis (LPA) revealed identified four different profiles of students: Very Low Profile (very low in all purposes; 5.73%), Low Profile (low in all purposes; 30.40%), Moderate Profile (moderate in all purposes; 54.40%), and High Profile (high in all purposes; 9.47%). Results further revealed that student gender was associated with profile membership. Finally, profile membership was significantly related to homework effort and completion (with a medium effect size) in that, in general, the higher the homework purposes, the higher the homework effort and homework completion., Author(s): Jianzhong Xu [sup.1] [sup.2] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.260120.7, 0000 0001 0816 8287, Department of Counseling, Educational Psychology, and Foundations, Mississippi State University, , P.O. Box 9727, 39762, Mississippi State, [...]

Research in the field of homework has confirmed the significant association between students' perceptions of their parents' involvement and their motivation and engagement with these tasks. In this study we analyzed the possible mediating role of self-handicapping strategies in the relationship between perceptions of parental support (content-oriented and autonomy-oriented support) when doing homework and the students' behavioral engagement (time spent, effort made, amount of homework done, level of procrastination). The participants were 643 students in compulsory secondary education (between 7th and 10th grade). The results showed that the lower the perceptions of support from parents when doing homework, the greater the students' use of self-handicapping strategies and the worse their behavioral engagement (less effort, less amount of homework done, more procrastination) and vice versa. These findings seem to indicate that self-handicapping is a motivational strategy that would partially explain students' poor behavioral engagement with homework in the absence of parental support., Author(s): José Carlos Núñez [sup.1] , Carlos Freire [sup.2] , María del Mar Ferradás [sup.2] , Antonio Valle [sup.2] , Jianzhong Xu [sup.3] [sup.4] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.10863.3c, 0000 0001 [...]

The aim of our investigation is to identify teacher motivation profiles towards information technology, according to achievement goal and expectancy-value theories. Latent profile analysis (LPA) was applied to examine if homogenous latent profiles exist within a sample of 866 teachers in China. Four distinct profiles of teachers were identified: "Very Low Goal Orientation," "High Goal Orientation," "High Mastery-Approach and Expectancy/Very Low Work-Avoidance," and "Low Mastery- and Performance-Approach." Furthermore, profile membership was related to monitoring motivation, effort, help seeking, and future intention. Finally, we found the added benefits of integrating achievement goal and expectancy-value theories when forming teacher motivation profiles. These results, taken together, suggest that support for teacher motivation to use information technology ought to be differentiated.