Piling on Homework is No Help
My little brother’s elementary school would give so much daily homework that it would take until almost bedtime to finish. Many times beyond that. But now here is a study that suggests that they reverse course as it is of little to no benefit to average students. Does that mean that you stop challenging them? I mean, there are children taking geometry in 6th grade nowadays so it is essential that children kick tail in their studies.
While U.S students continue to lag behind many countries academically, national statistics show that teachers have responded by assigning more homework. But according to a joint study by researchers at Binghamton University and the University of Nevada, when it comes to math, piling on the homework may not work for all students.
Published in the July issue of the Econometrics Journal, researchers found that although assigning more homework tends to have a larger and more significant impact on mathematics test scores for high and low achievers, it is less effective for average achievers.
“We found that if a teacher has a high achieving group of students, pushing them harder by giving them more homework could be beneficial,” said Daniel Henderson, associate professor of economics at Binghamton University. “Similarly, if a teacher has a low ability class, assigning more homework may help since they may not have been pushed hard enough. But for the average achieving classes, who may have been given too much homework in an attempt to equate them with the high achieving classes, educators could be better served by using other methods to improve student achievement. Given these students’ abilities and time constraints, learning by doing may be a more effective tool for improvement.”
[...]According to Henderson, the findings should be of particular interest to schools who have responded to the increased pressures to pass state-mandated tests by forcing students to hit the books even harder. “This does not mean that homework is unimportant for average achievers,” says Henderson. “But it does mean that this population may also benefit from other activities such as sports, art or music, rather than additional hours of math homework.”
So what can teachers take away from the study? Henderson points out that every student is unique and while umbrella policies may benefit some, they generally cannot be applied to all.
[...]
Henderson also points out that repetition has been proven effective for some but not all subjects and what may have worked one academic year may need to be altered the next.
“Teachers should consider quality over quantity when it comes to homework assignments,” he says. “In the end it should be up to the individual teacher to decide how to motivate and educate their students.”
According to Henderson, the learning process needs to remain a rich, broad experience.
“One of the most beautiful things about America to me is the creativity that we instill in our primary and secondary schools,” says Henderson. “I know that we lag behind many countries in test scores, but I believe we also produce some of the most creative, enthusiastic students in the world.”
Filed under: Children's Issues
Once, my 4th grade niece (who goes to an elementary school in the Orange Mound neighborhood in Memphis) had a homework assignment of writing each of her 30 spelling words 8 times each. That’s ridiculous. It’s just busy work.
I’m a teacher, and at least at high school, teachers already have adjusted how much homework they assign - for the last decade or so - based on who is in the classes. I assign more in honors classes, or harder problems. In regular classes, I try to only assign the minimum I think is necessary to practice the concept.
Abdul Malik Shaw and I discussed this many times the teachers just give it because they are obligated. I know this to be the case when I was teaching Arabic at PVS.
I don’t know what to say about the state of education. Students and their teachers are under so much pressure in being educated.
Last year, my sister (and a couple of other parents as well) had a talk with my youngest nephews teacher about his work. When he was given his homework, His mom was expecting the curriculum that 1st graders are assigned, but who ever this teacher was wanted his class to do a Black inventors report . Although my sister want all of my nephews to be academcially competitive and challenged, my youngest nephew was being taught somehting that he hasn’t been introduced to. He was only learning is ABC’s, learning Spanish and learning how to read and spell. Those kids wasn’t being taught how to use a typewriter or Microsoft Word.How could that teacher make that big jump like that?
Our schools just all of these kids to be alike without the root of the problem. It wouldn’t matter if teacher give their students a meager amount of homework or give them piles of it, unless they know about the students academic abilities and/or if the student is driven to do it, they cannot expect for them to be to be type of students that hey want them to be. Even though I’m pro-homework, I also think that today’s are bring offered less outlets and too much work. I’ve never seen how this can help students because it can cause a lot of them too much stress. Children shouldn’t have to go through that.
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