How long do pupils work at home for school? Analyses in "Gymnasium" and "Grundschule"

The present studies are part of the project "Working at Home for School". The studies focused on (1) the evaluation of an edict of the Viennese School Board in which the maximum amount of time "Gymnasium" students work weekly at home for school was defined. In addition, it was the intention of the studies (2) to explain variability in ther reported amount of work. To obtain information about the working time at home students used a diary. During one week students noted the amount of time invested in work for school, In the first four studies data collection was done in 10(th) grade "Gymnasium" pupils. For analyses completed data from 236 subjects could be used. Results showed that pupils on average worked more than I I hours weekly, while the school government defined 7.5 hours as the maximum working time. Girls spent more time in working at home for school than did boys. Pressure to perform at school, work habits, and test anxiety were shown to be good predictors of working time. The study in the third grade ("Grundschule") investigated whether findings could be validated and generalized. Data from 122 pupils were analyzed. Results showed no gender differences in the amount of time pupils worked at home for school, but gender differences in test anxiety similar to those in the 10(th) grade. While subjects in the 10(th) grade spend the largest proportion of their of time in learning for tests, pupils in the third grade invest most time in homework.