by Randy Limon
In an academic driven school in Asia, many parents nowadays grumble about the insufficient amount of homework given to their child. They usually ask for more worksheets or assessment papers to give to their children, even though their kids perform academically well in class. When you ask them why they are asking for more, they simply answer this question with “I want Jenny to practice her math skills further at home.” My teachers often ask me for help to deal with this type of parents. Handling this type of parents has created anxiety among my team. These parents equate the result of performance-based assessments to the ability of their child; they often blame the school or certain teachers for not giving enough homework worksheets to practice with. Should we give more homework to our students to help them improve their academic performance? I think homework is an integral part of any student’s education. However, we have to ensure that parents are clearly informed about expectations on homework regarding the content/purpose, duration and frequency over a week.
Homework assignments in elementary years can be given as extension material or as activities done at home. This can be a simple revisiting of skills learnt in the form of reading notes and answering questions from similar assessment books. This type of assignment serves as supplemental work to reinforce the skills learnt in school. “Homework is designed to help students reinforce key concepts, process and solidify new information, provide time for extra practice of skills, and reflect on how much they’ve learned,” (Susan Becker). However, giving large amount of homework may cause harm rather than good to students. “If they can see the connection between what they’re doing as homework and what they need to know [for class], they are much more willing to do the homework.” (Lynn Fontana). The purpose of giving more homework will be beneficial for students who really need it but not for students who are already achieving good grades.
Giving a lot of homework does not increase student’s achievement especially in elementary years. “ReformingHomework: Practices, Learning and Policies (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012) evaluated homework research and concluded that it does not significantly impact achievement— and can even be detrimental.” According to this report students in countries with high homework demands did not perform better on the international test of achievement than their counterparts in schools with less homework. The authors did not call for a homework ban, but recommend less homework with high quality, rather than huge amount of pages of worksheets for drills. According to them the amount of homework does not necessarily affect student’s achievement.
In an academic driven school in Asia, many parents nowadays grumble about the insufficient amount of homework given to their child. They usually ask for more worksheets or assessment papers to give to their children, even though their kids perform academically well in class. When you ask them why they are asking for more, they simply answer this question with “I want Jenny to practice her math skills further at home.” My teachers often ask me for help to deal with this type of parents. Handling this type of parents has created anxiety among my team. These parents equate the result of performance-based assessments to the ability of their child; they often blame the school or certain teachers for not giving enough homework worksheets to practice with. Should we give more homework to our students to help them improve their academic performance? I think homework is an integral part of any student’s education. However, we have to ensure that parents are clearly informed about expectations on homework regarding the content/purpose, duration and frequency over a week.
Homework assignments in elementary years can be given as extension material or as activities done at home. This can be a simple revisiting of skills learnt in the form of reading notes and answering questions from similar assessment books. This type of assignment serves as supplemental work to reinforce the skills learnt in school. “Homework is designed to help students reinforce key concepts, process and solidify new information, provide time for extra practice of skills, and reflect on how much they’ve learned,” (Susan Becker). However, giving large amount of homework may cause harm rather than good to students. “If they can see the connection between what they’re doing as homework and what they need to know [for class], they are much more willing to do the homework.” (Lynn Fontana). The purpose of giving more homework will be beneficial for students who really need it but not for students who are already achieving good grades.
Giving a lot of homework does not increase student’s achievement especially in elementary years. “ReformingHomework: Practices, Learning and Policies (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012) evaluated homework research and concluded that it does not significantly impact achievement— and can even be detrimental.” According to this report students in countries with high homework demands did not perform better on the international test of achievement than their counterparts in schools with less homework. The authors did not call for a homework ban, but recommend less homework with high quality, rather than huge amount of pages of worksheets for drills. According to them the amount of homework does not necessarily affect student’s achievement.
Homework can promote self-reliance and autonomy among children in such as
initiative, independence and responsibility. This task “helps students develop responsibility and
life skills and the ability to manage tasks and that it provides experiential learning, increased
motivation, opportunities to learn to cope with difficulties and distractions, and academic
benefits” (Corno and Xu 2004; Coutts 2004; Xu and Corno 1998). It also can be an opportunity
to promote bonding between parents and students to discover and enjoy new things together.
Parents and teachers can praise students for putting effort on their homework as well.
“Homework gives kids a sense of responsibility and teaches them to plan their work, which in
turn helps develop their autonomy and organizational skills.” (Roch Chouinard, vice-dean of the
Université de Montréal's Faculty of Education) On the other hand, in some schools, students who
do not see the purpose of these assignments because these items are not graded may lose the value of doing and completing homework. Homework cannot be assessed solely for the accuracy
of its content. Sometimes, parents do intervene with the work of the students at home.
Consequently, this cannot be used to evaluate the authentic cognitive learning of the child.
Teachers can collect and give feedback to the students for doing and completing the homework
which is meaningful for this type of assignment. The life skills involved in doing this task can
support the self-growth and moral development of the child. This moral implication is attributed
from classroom expectations that children should follow in completing homework. Children may
not always view homework as an enjoyable experience, but if the task serves a good purpose and
parents reinforce the completion of the tasks, students will benefit by gaining skills, good study
habits, and a more positive attitude toward school and learning.
A lot of parents are not aware that spending lots and lots of hours for homework can
affect their child’s development.
The reasonable amount of time to be spent on homework should not go over half an hour for early elementary school years and 1 hour for late elementary students. “According to a parent guide released by the National PTA and the National Education Association, most educators agree that for K2 students, homework is more effective when it does not exceed 10-20 minutes daily; for students in grades 3-6, 30-60 minutes a day is adequate” Parents who are guiding younger children could help them manage their time by setting up a routine at home. As the child reaches senior school, the amount of time spent can vary depending on the subjects and nature of homework they are working on.
Amount of homework varies depending on the needs of the student. For teachers, planning which homework to give is important. Can the teacher modify homework to suit the need of the students? - Absolutely! “The more specific and precise the task is, the more likely it is to make an impact for all learners. Homework that is more open, more complex is more appropriate for able and older students” (John Hattie). Teachers have to know the skills that you are reinforcing and the amount of time needed to complete them. Students are responding well to homework that is manageable and provides more room to develop skills within reasonable time. Furthermore, the mastery of the concepts and skills is important in developing understanding. If the students have answered 5 similar questions correctly in formative assessments, why give more questions as assignments testing the same skills over and over again? Parents don’t usually get the idea that the value of repeating those skills decreases once the students have mastered the skills. “In 2012, Finland and South Korea came in at numbers 1 and 2, respectively, on the Global Index of Cognitive Skills and Education Attainment, which ranks countries based on international test scores, literacy, and graduation rates” (The Learning Curve Pearson website). These two countries have different approaches on homework and learning. Schools in Finland still give reasonable amount of homework and can be completed in not more than half hour.
The reasonable amount of time to be spent on homework should not go over half an hour for early elementary school years and 1 hour for late elementary students. “According to a parent guide released by the National PTA and the National Education Association, most educators agree that for K2 students, homework is more effective when it does not exceed 10-20 minutes daily; for students in grades 3-6, 30-60 minutes a day is adequate” Parents who are guiding younger children could help them manage their time by setting up a routine at home. As the child reaches senior school, the amount of time spent can vary depending on the subjects and nature of homework they are working on.
Amount of homework varies depending on the needs of the student. For teachers, planning which homework to give is important. Can the teacher modify homework to suit the need of the students? - Absolutely! “The more specific and precise the task is, the more likely it is to make an impact for all learners. Homework that is more open, more complex is more appropriate for able and older students” (John Hattie). Teachers have to know the skills that you are reinforcing and the amount of time needed to complete them. Students are responding well to homework that is manageable and provides more room to develop skills within reasonable time. Furthermore, the mastery of the concepts and skills is important in developing understanding. If the students have answered 5 similar questions correctly in formative assessments, why give more questions as assignments testing the same skills over and over again? Parents don’t usually get the idea that the value of repeating those skills decreases once the students have mastered the skills. “In 2012, Finland and South Korea came in at numbers 1 and 2, respectively, on the Global Index of Cognitive Skills and Education Attainment, which ranks countries based on international test scores, literacy, and graduation rates” (The Learning Curve Pearson website). These two countries have different approaches on homework and learning. Schools in Finland still give reasonable amount of homework and can be completed in not more than half hour.
Homework can impact students in many ways. As educators, we have to remind our
classes’ parents of the beneficial and harmful effects of giving so much homework. In my
school, the curriculum lasted for about 8 hours in elementary years each day. When students get
home, they are usually tired and just want to spend time and play with families or friends. The
students feel stressed when they are not able to do so or fail to complete homework because of
the amount of work given to them. Teachers should be able to judge the amount of homework
they give to students. I also think that giving more homework to students does not contribute to
the true meaning of holistic development and balanced education.
I strongly believe that school should transfer clear expectations to parents and provide specific guidelines about homework completion. At the beginning of the school year, teachers should address class expectations related to homework completion and submission. Should there be any concern regarding students’ homework, teachers should inform the parents immediately to resolve any issues that might affect homework completion at home. With regards to the amount of homework, parents should be aware of the negative effects of this on their child. We can help both parents and students with a more planned structure on how we spread out homework. We can create a weekly/monthly schedule for homework to ensure a fair amount of distribution of homework across subject areas. Projects that take more time to be completed must be set in advance and should be allotted ample time to complete. Homework assignments will give an understanding of what the school curriculum is about and offer a lot of opportunity to explore and learn.
I strongly believe that school should transfer clear expectations to parents and provide specific guidelines about homework completion. At the beginning of the school year, teachers should address class expectations related to homework completion and submission. Should there be any concern regarding students’ homework, teachers should inform the parents immediately to resolve any issues that might affect homework completion at home. With regards to the amount of homework, parents should be aware of the negative effects of this on their child. We can help both parents and students with a more planned structure on how we spread out homework. We can create a weekly/monthly schedule for homework to ensure a fair amount of distribution of homework across subject areas. Projects that take more time to be completed must be set in advance and should be allotted ample time to complete. Homework assignments will give an understanding of what the school curriculum is about and offer a lot of opportunity to explore and learn.
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