Effects of a homework implementation method (MITCA) on school engagement

Abstract

MITCA (homework implementation method) was born with the purpose of turning homework into an educational resource capable of improving the self-regulation of learning and the school engagement of students. In this article, following the current theoretical framework, we evaluate the impact of the MITCA method on school engagement in students in the 5th and 6th years of Primary Education. While the control group of students who did not participate in the 12 weeks of MITCA (N = 431; 61% of 5th grade) worsened significantly in emotional, behavioral, and cognitive engagement, these pre-post differences do not reach significance for the group that has participated in MITCA, even observing a tendency to improve. After the intervention, the students who participated in MITCA (N = 533; 50.6% of 5th grade) reported greater emotional and behavioral engagement than the students in the control group. MITCA students showed positive emotions, were happier in school and were more interested in the classroom, paid more attention in class, and were more attentive to school rules. The conditions of the tasks’ prescription proposed by MITCA would not only restrain the lack of engagement but would also improve students’ emotional and behavioral engagement in school found in the last years of Primary Education. In the light of the results, a series of educational strategies related to the characteristics of these tasks, such as the frequency of prescription and the type of correction are proposed.