Monday
February 25, 2008
According to NPR, several years ago, a survey called homework “the most haphazard educational practice in America’s schools” Now MetLife has released its own study on homework. [pdf]
According to the MetLife study, more experienced teachers are more likely to view homework as an essential learning tool than new teachers, possibly because they express more confidence in their ability to create engaging assignments. Shocking nobody, 90% of high school students are either listening to music, watching TV, talking on the phone, or emailing friends while doing their homework.
Not too surprisingly, parents and students are much more likely than teachers to see homework as “busywork” and unconnected to class learning, though they agree overall that homework (in theory) is important.
This was the line in the survey I found most interesting:
Parents who report that homework is not important feel more alienated from their child’s school, are less likely to have rules about homework, and are more likely to say that homework is burdensome.
Well that’s a tangled mess, and I think most teachers have struggled with where to start with this. Do you start with the part where they feel it’s not important? With the alienation? With the lack of structures in place at home?
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"Parents who report that homework is not important feel more alienated from their child’s school, are less likely to have rules about homework, and are more likely to say that homework is burdensome.”
Although it doesn’t say so, I think its safe to assume these are also the parents who blame the teacher if their child fails, forget to sign permission slips, don’t show up for parent conferences, etc.
Homework should not be busy work. In my science classes homework was typically the final lab report, to be completed after data collection and class discussion provided the student with the necessary information. Organizing the report and drawing the necessary information from class notes was a designed to be a learning experience.
I think practice on arithmetic techniques, writing drafts of essays and reading sections of textbooks are all reasonable homework assignments which can add to the instruction presented during classes. Those are also activities that do not need to be done under the teacher’s supervision in the classroom.
