The Mechanism of How Primary School Students Acquire Study Habits: A Comparison of Urban Areas in Japan, Hong and Shanghai

Abstract

  The purpose of this study is to examine whether how much a student studies at home is determined by one’s family background, and if so, what is the pathway that explains the relationship between family background and student’s study hours at home. Students’ study hours at home is important, because it has been shown to have a positive effect on student achievement. “After-school study hours” has been used as a measure of “effort” in the field of sociology of education in Japan, and empirical studies have shown that after-school study hours in high school is determined by students’ family background. In this study, I bring a new perspective to the issue of after-school study hours by: (1) framing study hours as a measurement of “habit” rather than “effort”, (2) focusing on children at younger age, (3) distinguishing and highlighting the association between study hours at home and in shadow education, and (4) adding a comparative perspective.

  I use the 6^th grade data of urban areas in Japan Education Longitudinal Study (JELS) 2009 and its comparative data collected in urban areas of Hong Kong and Shanghai. I employ a multilevel SEM (Structural Equation Modeling) mediation analysis. I hypothesize that parents with higher educational level and income are more likely to invest in shadow education, which in turn, increase students’ study hours at home. I also hypothesize that students’ participation in shadow education positively affects their attitude toward studying, because students may learn effective learning strategies and gain more experiences of solving challenging problems in shadow education, which in turn, increase students’ study hours at home. I explore to what extent and how the mechanism of inequity in study habits by family background in urban Japan differs from those in urban Hong Kong and Shanghai.

  My findings are as follows: (1) In urban Japan, family background has a strong effect on students’ study hours at home, with this effect being large compared to urban Shanghai. In urban Hong Kong, surprisingly, family background has no association with students’ study habits at home. (2) The effect of family background on students’ study hours at home is largely mediated by students’ participation in shadow education. This pathway is unique to urban Japan. Students from lower family background are double-disadvantaged in that they are less likely to study in shadow education and at home. In contrast, in urban Hong Kong and Shanghai, the association between participation in shadow education and study habits is low; i.e., students study at home, regardless of whether they participate in shadow education or not. (3) In urban Japan, the effect of participation in shadow education on students’ study hours at home is partly mediated by students’ attitudes toward studying. However, in urban Hong Kong and Shanghai, students’ attitudes toward studying has no association with family background or shadow education participation.

  I conclude with a discussion on possible meso and macro factors that explain the unique mechanism found in urban Japan of how primary school students acquire study habits. In urban Japan, 6^th grade students’ study habits are largely acquired through participation in shadow education, whereas in urban Hong Kong and Shanghai, it may be formulated primarily at school. In Hong Kong and Shanghai, schools may provide more homework and assignments that have clearer roles and are exposed to more rigid evaluation, which in turn, may contribute to forming students’ study habits. In other words, when focusing on the formulation of study habits, shadow education may indeed be the “shadow” in urban Hong Kong and Shanghai, but it may be more the “light” in the case of urban Japan. Secondly, in urban Japan, the sense of necessity to study and the belief in the effect of education may (View PDF for the rest of the abstract.)