An article published in Frontiers in Psychology examines how maths homework effort among middle school pupils is influenced by adult support from family and school. The authors hypothesised that support from parents and teachers could promote the autonomous motivation of pupils by providing a sense of having free choice, and by generating interest.

A questionnaire was distributed to 666 grade 7 and 8 (Year 8 and 9) pupils from three schools in the Hubei Province of China. The questionnaire sought information about pupils’ maths homework effort, autonomous motivation, maths teacher support and parental autonomy support. The results were as follows:

• Pupils perceived that parental autonomy support and maths teachers’ support facilitated pupils’ autonomous motivation, which in turn enhanced their effort in homework.
• Furthermore, pupils perceived that parental autonomy support directly promoted their maths homework effort.

The authors concluded that parents and teachers should provide more support for middle school pupils’ maths learning. Specifically, they provided three practical strategies to parents, namely: “Try to understand children’s perspective when communicating homework and school life, offer meaningful reasons why homework is important, and allow children to arrange their homework time”.