Homework

 

It sounds intuitively obvious that teachers should be able to expand the amount of academic learning time available for students by assigning homework. In general, research supports the notion that homework tends to lead to higher performance (Cooper, 1989; Ornstein, 1994; Wahlberg et al, 1985); but there is actually very little research on the usefulness of specific types of homework. The research that has been done often does not take into consideration variations in the quality of the homework assignments or the way the homework is handled by the teacher.

Advocates of homework typically advance three general reasons to support its value: (1) parents expect homework, (2) it can extend the time available for learning, and (3) it can acknowledge and adapt to students' different learning styles. The time-on-task research indicates that homework is related to improved grades and higher standardized test scores. However, demands for more homework are often based more on philosophical and economic considerations than on research showing that homework is useful. Philosophically, people believe that hard work leads to payoffs. Economically, homework costs little and requires no major program modifications. It would be good to base homework assignments on better reasons than these.

Homework can serve at least four distinct purposes (Strother, 1984):

 

  1. Practice. Homework assignments can help students develop and practice specific skills. That is, homework can serve as extended seatwork.

  2. Preparation. If students are prepared, they can derive maximum benefit from future lessons. During homework, they can do this preparation at their own pace.

  3. Extension. Students can use homework to generalize what they have learned to new settings.

  4. Creativity. Students can integrate many skills and concepts in order to produce original responses that would be difficult to achieve within the more restrictive confines of the classroom.

 

The key point is that homework should be assigned for a specific purpose. For example, Rosenberg (1989) has shown that well-planned homework can enhance the effectiveness of direct instruction for students with mild disabilities. Earle (1992) has related homework to Gagne's events of instruction, which will be discussed in chapter 3. Although enterprising teachers or ingenious instructional materials could conceivably use homework for any of the instructional events, Earle has shown that homework most directly contributes to the following events of instruction:

 

  1. Stimulating recall of prerequisite learning. By reading or reviewing pertinent information before a topic is presented in class, students could activate the cognitive structures needed to process new information effectively.

  2. Presenting the stimulus material. Some material would simply take too long to present during a class period (for example, a short story or a chapter of a history book), and so it may be beneficial to present it outside the time frame of the class.

  3. Eliciting the performance. This is the most common application of homework for elementary school children. The student learns something in class, and practices it elsewhere.

  4. Providing feedback about performance correctness. This happens when someone tells the student the degree to which the performance was appropriate. This is often done by the teacher, but it can also be done by a parent, peer, or printed answer key. Note that while it is important that the teacher value the homework and that the student consider the feedback to be important, it is not necessary that this feedback be part of a grade. Although the two events can sometimes be combined, grading is actually part of the next event.

  5. Assessing the performance. Assessment usually takes place in class (e.g., on tests), but sometimes it may be appropriate for assessment to be conducted outside the classroom. For example, a student might write a term paper or an autobiography or conduct a science fair project outside the classroom.

  6. Enhancing retention and transfer. Distributed practice is an important stimulus to long-term retention. Application of concepts and principles in a wide variety of settings is the major factor in the ability of students to transfer learning beyond the original learning context. Both of these activities can be accomplished by homework assignments.

 

Simply assigning homework does not assure that any of the preceding instructional events will occur. Homework should be planned in such a way as to enable academic learning time to be extended by letting these instructional events occur outside the time limits normally imposed by the school's daily schedule. The key focus should be on homework as an instructional event - building homework into an instructional plan for a specific purpose. The following guidelines (based on Cooper, 1989; Ornstein, 1994; Wahlberg et al, 1985) describe how to use homework most effectively as an integral part of the instructional process:

 

  1. Increased homework assignments will be useful only if students actually do them. Students are more likely to do homework assignments if they are motivated to do the work and have an appropriate place to study.

  2. Homework that is merely done by one student and copied by several others is a waste of time. Students should have a perception that actually doing the homework will benefit them in some way.

  3. Homework needs to be as carefully planned as classroom instruction. It can focus on a wide variety of activities, not just reading the textbook.

  4. Homework assignments should be individualized. Although it may be convenient to give all the students in the class the same assignment, it is by no means obvious that this is an advisable policy.

  5. Homework assignments can include both long-range and short-term projects.

  6. Homework assignments should be relevant and useful, not boring busy work.

  7. Homework should be evaluated or graded. One of the clearest findings of homework research is that students will learn more from it if they think the teacher values it and is monitoring it.

  8. Teachers may need smaller classes or help to grade homework.

  9. Homework can develop self-discipline and other good study habits. In fact, an important purpose of homework for very young children should be to teach them study skills.

  10. When giving homework assignments, the teacher should specify clear rules such as whether group cooperation or parental help is appropriate.

  11. Not all subject matter is equally susceptible to useful homework assignments.

  12. Homework is often a form of seatwork, and the same guidelines that apply to seatwork (chapter 15) should be applied as far as possible to homework. These include effective feedback and individualization of instruction to suit learner needs.

 

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