Homework is a task
(often called an assignment) set by teachers for students to do outside normal
lessons – usually at home in the evening. Schools have been setting homework in
developed countries for over a century, but until the past few decades usually
only older students had to do it. More recently younger students have also been
given homework by their primary or elementary schools. In England the
government does not make schools give homework but it does set guidelines. Five
years old are expected to do an hour a week, increasing to three hours a week
at 11 and ten hours or more a week at 16. American studies report the amount of
homework being set for younger students doubling over the past twenty-five
years or so, although some doubt these findings.
Countries, schools and
subjects differ a lot on how much homework is set, and at what age, but almost
all high school students have to do at least some most nights. Most children
have never liked homework but from time to time it is also debated by politicians,
parents and teachers. Sometimes there are demands for more homework, as part of
a drive for “higher standards”. At other times there are calls for less
homework to be set, especially in primary/ elementary schools. This topic looks
at whether homework should be banned altogether.
Pros
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Cons
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Homework has little educational worth, and therefore is
a waste of students' time. Homework has little
educational worth and adds nothing to the time spent in school. Some schools
and some countries don't bother with homework at all, and their results do
not seem to suffer from it. Studies show that homework adds nothing to
standardised test scores for primary/ elementary pupils. As Alfie Kohn notes,
no study has ever found a link between homework and better tests results in
elementary school, and there is no reason to believe it is necessary in high
school. International comparisons of older students have found no positive
relationship between the amount of homework set and average test scores -
students in Japan and Denmark get little homework but score very well on
tests. If anything, countries with more homework get worse results!
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Homework has a lot of educational value, the reason it
has not shown this is because teachers do not set the right kind of homework
or they set the wrong amount of it. Some teachers believe homework is for
reviewing material, others think it is better for learning new concepts. The
result is 'confusion for students'. If the homework was consistent however,
and related specifically to what is learnt in the classroom, it would have a
great deal of educational value by helping them remember their lessons and increase
students' confidence in how much they are learning.
Furthermore, Professor Cooper of Duke University has
shown that by the high schools years, there is a strong and positive
relationship between homework and how well students do at school. There are two
main reasons why this relationship does not appear in elementary school: 1)
Elementary school teachers assign homework not so much to enhance learning,
but in order to encourage the development of good study skills and time
management; 2) young children have less developed cognitive skills to focus
and concentrate on their work. Thus, they are more easily distracted from
their homework assignments.
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Marking homework reduces the amount of time teachers
have to prepare good lessons. Irrespective
of homework's educational value, marking it takes up much of teachers' time.
Australian teachers have complained that 'homework marking can result in four
extra hours of work a day and they are rarely rewarded for their effort'.
This leaves teachers tired and with little time to prepare effective,
inspiring lessons. If the lessons aren't to the standard they should be, the
point of homework is lost as the students have little to practise in the
first place. The heavy workload also puts young graduates off becoming teachers,
and so reduces the talent pool from which schools can recruit.
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Teachers accept that marking student work is an
important part of their job. Well planned homework should not take so long to
mark that the rest of their job suffers, and it can inform their
understanding of their students, helping them design new activities to engage
and stretch them. As for recruitment, although teachers do often work in the
evenings, they are not alone in this and they get long holidays to
compensate.
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Homework reduces the amount of time for students to do
other activities. Homework takes a
lot of time up. In America, they encourage the '10 minute rule', 10 minutes
homework for every grade, meaning that high-school students are all doing
more than an hour's worth of homework each night. Being young is not just
about doing school work every night. It should also about being physically
active, exploring the environment through play, doing creative things like
music and art, and playing a part in the community. It is also important for
young people to build bonds with others, especially family and friends, but
homework often squeezes the time available for all these things.
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Homework has not prevented students doing other
activities; it takes very little time to complete. Recent American surveys
found that most students in the USA spent no more than an hour a night on
homework. That suggests there does not seem to be a terrible problem with the
amount being set. Furthermore, British studies have shown that 'more children
are engaging in sport or cultural activities' than ever before. As such, there
is no clear evidence to suggest that students are stuck at home doing their
homework instead of doing other activities. In addition, concerns over how
busy children are suggest that parents need to help their children set
priorities so that homework does not take a back seat to school work.
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Homework puts students off learning. Homework puts students off learning. Studies have
shown that many children find doing homework very stressful, boring and
tiring. Often teachers underestimate how long a task will take, or set an
unrealistic deadline. Sometimes because a teacher has not explained something
new well in class, the homework task is impossible. So children end up paying
with their free time for the failings of their teachers. They also suffer
punishments if work is done badly or late. After years of bad homework
experiences, it is no wonder that many children come to dislike education and
switch off, or drop out too early. Teachers in Britain fear that poor
children, because they lack the support to do their homework, will be turned
off school.
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If homework puts students off learning, then it has
been badly planned by the teacher. As Linda Darling-Hammond, a professor of
Education notes, 'many teachers lack the skills to design homework
assignments that help kids learn and don't turn them off to learning'. The
best homework tasks engage and stretch students, encouraging them to think
for themselves and follow through ideas which interest them. Over time, well
planned homework can help students develop good habits, such as reading for
pleasure or creative writing. The research however suggests that homework is
not in fact putting students off learning. Rather studies in Britain indicate
that 'most children are happy (and) most are achieving a higher level than
before'. Homework cannot be blamed for a problem that does not exist. Poor
children may indeed lack support to do their homework, but this just means
that schools need to do more to provide the help they need.
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Homework is about 'winning' on tests, not learning. Many governments make their schools give students a
national test (a test taken by all students of the same age). After the
tests, they compare schools and punish the schools and teachers whose
students do badly. Because schools and teachers are therefore scared about
their students doing poorly, they give them more homework, not in the hope
they learn more but simply to do better on the tests. As such, homework is
not designed to help the student, just their teachers and schools who want
them to 'win' the test and make them look good, not learn for the students'
own benefit.
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Setting homework with the intention of encouraging
students to do well at tests is beneficial to students as much as it is to
teachers and schools. National tests are a way of assessing whether students
are at the level they should be, if they do well on the tests, that is a good
thing. Therefore, a 'win' for the teachers and schools is also a great deal
of learning for the student, the two need not be separated.
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The ban on homework could be easily enforced through
school inspections. In many countries
public schools require regular school inspections to ensure students are
receiving a relatively equal level of education. In Britain for example,
Ofsted is a public body that exists specifically to inspect public schools. A
ban on homework would thus not require a level of trust between the state and
individual school principals, for state inspectors could very quickly work
out whether homework was being given out by asking the children themselves.
Children, who don't like homework at the best of times, would not lie.
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Many states do not in fact have a structured school
inspection system that could enforce such a ban. The United States, for
example, has one of the largest student bodies in the world but the state
does not have a formal inspection system that could enforce a ban on
homework. Therefore any ban would only prove a recommendation at best, and
could not possibly hope to be enforced.
Furthermore, even in those states that do have
inspection bodies, the regularity of inspections allows school principals to
prepare for their arrival. Students might be forced by their teachers to lie
to inspectors, otherwise they would receive even more homework. Furthermore,
the school inspections are partly so that they can test the ability of
students – therefore teachers are encouraged to give their students homework
so that they do better on these inspections.
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Setting homework does little to develop good study
skills. It is hard to check whether the homework students produce is really
their own. Some students have always copied off others or got their parents
to help them. But today there is so much material available on the internet
that teachers can never be sure. It would be better to have a mixture of
activities in the classroom which help students to develop a whole range of
skills, including independent learning. Furthermore, if teachers want to
develop independence in their students, students should be given a choice in
the matter of homework. Otherwise, they’re not using their judgement and
therefore they aren’t being independent at all.
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Homework encourages students to work more independently
(by themselves). Homework encourages
students to work more independently, as they will have to at college and in
their jobs. Everyone needs to develop responsibility and skills in personal
organization, working to deadlines, being able to research, etc. If students
are always “spoon-fed” topics at school they will never develop study skills
and self-discipline for the future. A
gradual increase in homework responsibilities over the years allows these
skills to develop. For instance, to read a novel or complete a research
project, there is simply no time at school to do it properly. Students have
to act independently and be willing to read or write, knowing that if they
struggle, they will have to work through the problem or the difficult words
themselves. Diane Ravitch points out that a novel like Jane Eyre cannot be
completed if it is not read at home – students have to work through it
themselves.
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Homework does not ensure that students practise what
they are taught at school. To practise what a student has been taught
requires the presence of a teacher or tutor who can guide the student if they
get something wrong. Homework, done by the student on their own, offers
little support and is only a source of stress. If confused, the student may
only come to dislike the topic or subject, which will only further reduce
their ability to remember what they were taught.
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Homework ensures that students practise what they are
taught at school. Having homework
also allows students to really fix in their heads work they have done in
school. Doing tasks linked to recent lessons helps students strengthen their
understanding and become more confident in using new knowledge and skills.
For younger children this could be practising reading or multiplication
tables. For older ones it might be writing up an experiment, revising for a
test and reading in preparation for the next topic. Professor Cooper of Duke
University, has found that there is evidence that in elementary school
students do better on tests when they do short homework assignments related
to the test. Students gain confidence from such practise, and that shows when
they sit the tests.
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Homework is a class issue. In school everyone is equal,
but at home some people have advantages because of their family background.
Middle-class families with books and computers will be able to help their
children much more than poorer ones can. This can mean poorer children end up
with worse grades and more punishments for undone or badly done homework.
David Baker, a researcher, believes
too much homework causes parents and children to get angry with each
other and argue, destroying the child’s confidence. On the other hand pushy
parents may even end up doing their kids’ homework for them – cheating and
not helping the student learn at all.
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Homework provides a link between child, school and the
home. Education is a partnership between the child, the
school and the home. Homework is one of the main ways in which the student’s
family can be involved with their learning. Many parents value the chance to
see what their child is studying and to support them in it. It has been
described as the ‘window into the school’ for parents, the area in which
schools, parents and students interact daily. And schools need parents’
support in encouraging students to read at home, to help with the practising
of tables, and to give them opportunities to research new topics.
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Homework is not an essential part of information. If
what was to be learnt from homework was that essential, it would not be left
to the child to learn on their own and away from school. In fact, many
teachers admit to simply setting homework because they are expected to set
it, not because they think it will be helpful. The best environment for
learning is in a classroom, where the student is able to ask for assistance
if stuck and the teacher is available to help.
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Homework is an essential part of education, allowing
students to learn information beyond that which they are taught at school. Homework is a vital and valuable part of education.
There are only a few hours in each school day – not enough time to cover
properly all the subjects children need to study. Setting homework extends
study beyond school hours, allowing a wider and deeper education. It also
makes the best use of teachers, who can spend lesson time teaching rather
than just supervising individual work that could be done at home. Education
is about pushing boundaries, and the learning should not stop at the entrance
to the classroom – students should take skills learnt in the classroom and
apply them at home. Homework allows this to happen, encouraging students to
go above and beyond what they do in school. Reading is the best example,
students learn how to read at school, but in order to get better, they need
to practise and that is best done at home, with the support of parents and at
the right pace for the student.
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