Mention the word ‘homework’ to any stakeholder in education and the reply is bound to be one of absolute agreement or one of absolute disagreement.
Teachers, parents and children will all have different interpretations and reactions to what homework is and means.
In some places homework is distributed daily or weekly and can involve a lot of photocopied tasks that have little to no relevance with the classroom learning. It is nothing more than ‘busy work’ and can provide an unnecessary burden to the child (and subsequently the parents) to be motivated to complete the set tasks. “Many parents lament the impact of homework on their relationship with their children; they may also resent having to play role of enforcer and worry that they will be criticized”. (Kohn, 2007)
Some homework tasks can also cause angst between the parent and child as the parent willingly wants to assist their child, but provides ideas and strategies that they were taught, which now differ to current learning and theory (ie: maths/numeracy). “Parent involvement in homework can turn into parent interference. For example, parents can confuse children if the instructional techniques they use differ from those used by teachers.” Extensiveness of Homework.
After school, children should be encouraged to engage in extra-curricular activities that develop the well-being of the ‘whole child’. Encourage children to; ride their bike, climb a tree, take up a craft, join a group (such as dance, sport), read books that they are interested in, have creative, imaginary play (build a hut), cook simple recipes and many more. These types of activities provide children with rich and engaging experiences and interactions. Experiences and interactions that will aid the children with developing and building a schema of their world and enabling them to make links between other experiences, contexts and concepts.“Homework can deny access to leisure time and community activities that also teach important life skills.” Extensiveness of Homework.
If teachers are to assign home work, it could be better to describe it as ‘Home Learning’ – learning from the classroom that will be supported at home WHICH matches the current focus and learning of the class. Most people would agree that it is important to maintain home learning in the areas of; reading at home, learning basic facts and spelling words – elements that assist us with day to day living and learning. Any other task should support the class programme and not be too onerous. For example, from recent experience, in class we were learning about Man Walking on the Moon – was it true or a hoax? After the children had formulated their own theory and justified it with evidence, the best home learning task was asking the children to go home and discuss this notion with their parents. This task caused an unprecedented response which was fantastic! Children reported that they had lengthy discussions and debates with their parents as each tried tried to justify their response! This was a fabulous learning experience as it encouraged children to interact with their parents, to listen to another point of view, but it also met the class learning intention of, WALT: justify and explain. This L.I had been heightened by a MEANINGFUL HOME LEARNING TASK.
This type of home learning task supported the current learning and engaged the children in deeper, metacognitive learning, it wasn’t the home work of “complete a 5 page reading report on the planet Jupiter”.
Home Work/Home Learning – does it enhance student learning? If it supports the learning intention and focus of the class, if it engages the children in higher order thinking, if it is purposeful and relevant, then it can have a place. If it is to set tasks day after day, week after week and provide the child with mass photocopied sheets, or large projects that serve little purpose, then it could be doing a disservice to the child and subsequently the whole family.
References:
Kohn, Alfie Rethinking Homework 2007.
http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/2051/Homework.html Homework – Purpose, Public Attitudes toward Homework, The Positive and Negative Effects of Homework, Extensiveness of Homework.