Student Research Report: Does Spending Time on Homework Really Increase GPA?
In Fall 2021, students in Dr. Emily Stark’s Research Methods and Design course completed multiple hands-on data collection projects. They were also assigned a blog paper where they discussed one of the topics they chose to research and explained their findings to a general audience. The goal of this assignment was to give students an opportunity to explore a different form of writing from APA-style research papers. Some of these blog papers will be featured here throughout the spring to showcase the students’ findings. Please feel free to contact Dr. Stark through the contact form on this site for additional information about this course or the assignments used.
By Hailey Saniti
As sophomore in college, I’ve always wondered if the hard work that I put into my schoolwork and studies makes a difference in my overall Grade Point Average (GPA). I spend so much time doing homework each week and wanted to know if it was truly making an impact. Many other college students put in so much time and effort to earn the grades we desired, but would it even matter? Was our hard working making a difference in our GPAs? This led me to think that I should do some research of my own. I went online to begin my research by reading previous studies surrounding my topic.
In a study by Balkis et al. (2017), they determined through a survey that procrastination and academic satisfaction had a huge impact on academic success, such as GPA, but varied by gender. This study showed that a significant factor in their results was gender (male or female). This allowed me to believe that the gender of person could influence GPA. Therefore, I moved the course of my study to focus more on gender differences. In an article by Muñoz (2018), she stated that “there was an average of .17 GPA difference with girls surpassing boys in all course subjects tested” (p. 1). The statistic shows that on average females have a better GPA than males. Differences between males and females do exist in GPA, thus bringing more details to light on whether spending time on homework makes a difference in GPA between genders.
Next, I began conducting my study by putting together a survey with my college psychology research methods and design class. In this course students learn how to run various experiments and analyze the data in order to determine the results on studies. A lot of helpful psychology terminology is also learned throughout the duration of this course. Everyone enrolled in this course was able to add their own questions relating to their topic to the survey. The survey was directed for college students and was live for about two weeks. When survey closed, I chose to conduct the focus of my research around the following three questions “How many hours do you spend studying each week?”, “What is your cumulative GPA?”, and “What is your gender?”. With these questions, I started gathering data on each of these questions and finding the differences and significances between them.
My hypothesis was that women will spend more time on homework therefore obtaining a higher GPA than men. It was my goal to find a correlation between the number of hours you spend studying each week and GPA amongst gender. After analyzing the data, I quickly realized there was a big difference between the number of genders that chose participate in the survey. Out of 214 participants, there were 23 males and 131 females. Regardless, I continued to work on my study and discovered a significant positive correlation between GPA and the amount of hours spent on homework each week in college students. This was great new as it was reaching further towards the truth of my goal and hypothesis. All that was left to include in my study was add in the variable about gender.
Finally, I ran a t-test with my variables, and it revealed that on average male college students spend less hours on homework each week, thus allowing for a more likely chance at a lower GPA than female college students. Therefore, my hypothesis that women will spend more time on homework therefore obtaining a higher GPA than men was supported and truthful based on this study. This study showed a significant correlation between how the number of hours spent on homework and GPA are related and its notable impact on gender. A significant correlation is determined by the p-value. When the p-value is below 0.05, also known as the alpha cut off, it tells us that there is a significant finding or correlation. However, there were potential validity concerns within my study. The accuracy of the statistics has a possibility of being incorrect even if its an incredibly low chance. In this study, the distribution between the genders is what is most concerning with the data. This is because the number of men who participated in this study was extremely low in comparison to number of females. Since the male population was underrepresented in the study it could have skewed the data. Nonetheless, my study was complete and successful, the results I received elaborated on my goal and hypothesis wonderfully. In conclusion, spending time on homework does truly make a difference in GPA between genders.
Overall, no one is perfect at running or analyzing data, so if you are ever curious about topic that is researchable, go for it. Learning how to properly conduct research can be a lot easier than you would think. Research is the best way to determine the answers to the questions we have about society. Even if you’re curious about something as simple as GPA and spending time on homework between genders like me and want to uncover the truth about a situation, do research. Learn about the background of a topic you’re interested in and conduct a study. The study could be in very depth, or it could be as short as simply asking research questions to a group of friends and analyzing the responses with a short conclusion of the results for your study. Anything is possible if you put your mind to it, go out and experiment with conducting research.
References
Balkis, M., & Duru, E. (2017). Gender differences in the relationship between academic procrastination, satisfaction with academic life and academic performance. Electronic Journal of Research in Educational Psychology, 15(1), 105-125. http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.mnsu.edu/10.14204/ejrep.41.16042
Muñoz, M. (2018). Gender versus GPA. The Journal Rewired. Retrieved November 8, 2021, from https://thejournalrewired.com/13995/opinion/gender-versus-gpa/ .