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Outstanding experiences Our social purpose Creativity and culture Expeditions. Our schools Find a school Boarding. Admissions Admissions process Alumni. News Why is Homework Important? Benefits of Homework Homework is important because it develops core skills in young children that will serve them throughout school and working life. Through encouraging regular homework and supporting your child with their assignments, you can expect to see the following advantages: 1. Time Management Skills Homework goes beyond just the task itself; it helps children take control of their workload and increase their time management skills.
Communication Network Homework acts as a bridge and can help teachers and parents learn more about how students like to learn, providing a deeper understanding of how to approach their learning and development.
Comfortable Work Environment Some children struggle to learn outside of their comfort zone, and while classrooms are designed to be warm and welcoming, there is often no place like home.
Additional Time to Learn Children learn at different paces, and the time spent in the classroom might not be enough for some students to fully grasp the key concepts of a subject. Homework-friendly Area Having a dedicated space for children to do homework will help them stay focused. Routine Study Time A regular routine helps children get used to working at home. Make a Plan Children can get overwhelmed if they have a lot of work to do.
Pleasing a majority of parents regarding homework and having equal numbers of dissenters shouting "too much! But opinions cannot tell us whether homework works; only research can, which is why my colleagues and I have conducted a combined analysis of dozens of homework studies to examine whether homework is beneficial and what amount of homework is appropriate for our children.
The homework question is best answered by comparing students who are assigned homework with students assigned no homework but who are similar in other ways.
The results of such studies suggest that homework can improve students' scores on the class tests that come at the end of a topic. Students assigned homework in 2nd grade did better on math, 3rd and 4th graders did better on English skills and vocabulary, 5th graders on social studies, 9th through 12th graders on American history, and 12th graders on Shakespeare.
Less authoritative are 12 studies that link the amount of homework to achievement, but control for lots of other factors that might influence this connection. These types of studies, often based on national samples of students, also find a positive link between time on homework and achievement.
Yet other studies simply correlate homework and achievement with no attempt to control for student differences. In 35 such studies, about 77 percent find the link between homework and achievement is positive. The major document on the subject issued jointly by the National PTA and the National Education Association, for example, concedes that children often complain about homework, but never considers the possibility that their complaints may be justified.
Parents are exhorted to "show your children that you think homework is important" -- regardless of whether it is, or even whether one really believes this is true -- and to praise them for compliance. Health professionals, meanwhile, have begun raising concerns about the weight of children's backpacks and then recommending.
This was also the tack taken by People magazine: An article about families struggling to cope with excessive homework was accompanied by a sidebar that offered some "ways to minimize the strain on young backs" -- for example, "pick a [back]pack with padded shoulder straps. The People article reminds us that the popular press does occasionally -- cyclically -- take note of how much homework children have to do, and how varied and virulent are its effects.
But such inquiries are rarely penetrating and their conclusions almost never rock the boat. Several pages later, however, it closed with a finger-wagging declaration that "both parents and students must be willing to embrace the 'work' component of homework -- to recognize the quiet satisfaction that comes from practice and drill.
That doesn't mean that it shouldn't be taken seriously. Nor, apparently, are these questions seen as appropriate by most medical and mental health professionals. When a child resists doing homework -- or complying with other demands -- their job is to get the child back on track.
Very rarely is there any inquiry into the value of the homework or the reasonableness of the demands. Sometimes parents are invited to talk to teachers about homework -- providing that their concerns are "appropriate.
A list of sample survey questions offered to principals by the central office in one Colorado school district is typical. The most striking feature of such a list is what isn't on it.
Such a questionnaire seems to have been designed to illustrate Chomsky's point about encouraging lively discussion within a narrow spectrum of acceptable opinion, the better to reinforce the key presuppositions of the system. Parents' feedback is earnestly sought -- on these questions only. So, too, for the popular articles that criticize homework, or the parents who speak out: The focus is generally limited to how much is being assigned. For example, Boys and Girls and 4-H clubs offer volunteer tutors as well as access to computer technology that students may not have at home.
Many schools provide homework clubs or integrate homework into the afterschool program. TIPS is a teacher-designed interactive program in which children and a parent or family member each have a specific role in the homework scenario. For example, children might show the parent how to do a mathematics task on fractions, explaining their reasoning along the way and reviewing their thinking aloud if they are unsure.
Evaluations show that elementary and middle-school students in classrooms that have adopted TIPS complete more of their homework than do students in other classrooms. Both students and parent participants show more positive beliefs about learning mathematics, and TIPS students show significant gains in writing skills and report-card science grades, as well as higher mathematics scores on standardized tests.
Teachers reported fewer missed assignments and greater student effort in coursework, and math grades and GPA significantly improved. Teachers favor homework for a number of reasons. They believe it fosters a sense of responsibility and promotes academic achievement. They note that homework provides valuable review and practice for students while giving teachers feedback on areas where students may need more support. While students, to say the least, may not always relish the idea of doing homework, by high school most come to believe there is a positive relationship between doing homework and doing well in school.
They crave high-quality, challenging assignments—and it is this kind of homework that has been associated with higher achievement. What constitutes high-quality homework? Assignments that are developmentally appropriate and meaningful and that promote self-efficacy and self-regulation. Meaningful homework is authentic, allowing students to engage in solving problems with real-world relevance.
More specifically, homework tasks should make efficient use of student time and have a clear purpose connected to what they are learning. An artistic rendition of a period in history that would take hours to complete can become instead a diary entry in the voice of an individual from that era. By allowing a measure of choice and autonomy in homework, teachers foster in their students a sense of ownership, which bolsters their investment in the work.
Students whose teachers have trained them to adopt strategies such as goal setting, self-monitoring, and planning develop a number of personal assets—improved time management, increased self-efficacy, greater effort and interest, a desire for mastery, and a decrease in helplessness.
Currently, the United States has the second-highest disparity between time spent on homework by students of low socioeconomic status and time spent by their more-affluent peers out of the 34 OECD-member nations participating in the Program for International Student Assessment PISA see Figure 2. If so, this is truly unfortunate. In and of itself, low socioeconomic status is not an impediment to academic achievement when appropriate parental, school, and community supports are deployed.
Teachers can orient students and parents toward beliefs that foster positive attitudes toward learning. Indeed, where homework is concerned, a commitment to excellence with equity is both worthwhile and attainable. In affluent communities, parents, teachers, and school districts might consider reexamining the meaning of academic excellence and placing more emphasis on leading a balanced and well-rounded life.
The homework debate in the United States has been dominated by concerns over the health and well-being of such advantaged students. Reducing or eliminating homework, though it may be desirable in some advantaged communities, would deprive poorer children of a crucial and empowering learning experience. It would also eradicate a fertile opportunity to help close the achievement gap. An unabridged version of this article is available here. This article appeared in the Winter issue of Education Next.
Suggestion citation format:. Bempechat, J. The Case for Quality Homework: Why it improves learning, and how parents can help. Education Next, 19 1 ,
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