Investigating The Effect Of Elementary Students’ Extra-curricular Learning Behaviors On Their Academic Achievements

The development of ICT application in education and technology of learning analytics make it possible for collecting, tracking and analyzing students’learning routes and behaviors. The majority of existed researches discuss the effectiveness of learning behaviors on academic achievements in the classroom environment. As the informal learning that takes place out of class becoming an important part of students’ academic lives, how these learning behaviors may influence their academic achievements turns into a significant research point. This is a research area yet to be focused. This investigation study focuses on:(1) The overall characteristics of elementary students’extra-curricular learning behaviors, which in this study defined with offline homework behaviors and online social interactive behaviors; (2) How the these extra-curricular learning behaviors affect their academic achievements; (3) The prediction of extra-curricular learning behaviors on their academic achievements.564 students from sampled elementary school in Shanghai were involved in this study. Multiple data was collected, including the online behavior data from the learning platform that the students are using, and the homework data by questionnaires. The data was analyzed by statistical methods including multivariate analysis of variance, correlation analysis, regression analysis and cluster analysis. The main findings and conclusions are as the follows:1. The homework behavior level of elementary students significantly increased with the growth of grade, but no significant gender differences were found; In the process of doing their homework, pupils’task motivation behavior level is strong, but their self-exam and self-reflect on homework is low; On the level of social interaction, the fourth grade students is significantly higher than grade three and grade five, fifth grade students slightly higher than the third grade students.2. Both the homework behavior level and the level of social interaction behavior has significant positive correlation on students’academic achievement; Four indicators, including Attention, Task Motivation, Blog Posting and Subject Proposing, can be used to predict the total academic performance. The explanatory is up to 16.1%; Elementary student’s social interaction behavior can be used as the core index to predict their academic achievements.3. According to the characters of pupils’ extra-curricular learning behavior, it can be divided into three categories. The first kind of students have strong task motivation, moderate level of social interaction, and medium academic achievements; The second category of students have strong task motivation, high level of social interaction, and high academic achievements; The third class students have weak task motivation, low level of social interaction, and low academic achievements. Students who have lower level of task motivation and social interaction might perform worse on academic achievements.