I.
Introduction
Homework has been a part of students' lives since the beginning of
formal schooling in the United States. However, the practice has sometimes
been accepted and other times rejected, both by educators and parents.
This has happened because homework can have both positive and negative
effects on children's learning and attitudes toward school.
100 Years of Homework
In the early 20th century, the mind was
viewed as a muscle that could be strengthened through mental exercise.
Since exercise could be done at home, homework was viewed favorably.
During the 1940s, schools began shifting their emphasis from memorization
to problem solving. Homework fell out of favor because it was closely
associated with the repetition of material. In the 1950s, Americans
worried that education lacked rigor and left children unprepared for the
new technologies, such as computers. Homework, it was believed, could
speed up learning.
In the 1960s, educators and parents became
concerned that homework was crowding out social experience, outdoor
recreation and creative activities. Two decades later, in the 1980s,
homework again came back into favor as it came to be viewed as one way to
stem a rising tide of mediocrity in American education. The push for more
homework continued into the 1990s, fueled by rising academic
standards.
To Do or Not To Do Homework?
Homework can have many benefits for young
children. It can improve remembering and understanding of schoolwork.
Homework can help students develop study skills that will be of value even
after they leave school. It can teach them that learning takes place
anywhere, not just in the classroom. Homework can benefit children in more
general ways as well. It can foster positive character traits such as
independence and responsibility. Homework can teach children how to manage
time.
Homework, if not properly assigned and
monitored, can also have negative effects on children. Educators and
parents worry that students will grow bored if they are required to spend
too much time on schoolwork. Homework can prevent children from taking
part in leisure-time and community activities that also teach important
life skills. Homework can lead to undesirable character traits if it
promotes cheating, either through the copying of assignments or help with
homework that goes beyond tutoring.
The issue for educators and parents is not
which list of effects, the positive or negative, is correct. To a degree,
both are. It is the job of parents and educators to maximize the benefits
of homework and minimize the costs.
Is It Enough Homework?
The most critical question about homework
is "How much homework should students do?" Experts agree that the amount
of homework should depend on the age and skills of the student. Many
national groups of teachers and parents, including the National Parent
Teacher Association (PTA), suggest that homework for children in
kindergarten through second grade is most effective when it does not
exceed 10-20 minutes each day. In third through sixth grade, children can
benefit from 30-60 minutes of homework per day. Junior high and high
school students can benefit from more time on homework, and the amount may
vary from night to night.
Reading at home is especially important for
young children. High-interest reading assignments might push the time on
homework a bit beyond the minutes suggested above.
These recommendations are consistent with
the conclusions reached by many studies on the effectiveness of homework.
For young children, research shows that shorter and more frequent
assignments may be more effective than longer but fewer assignments. This
is because young children have short spans of attention and need to feel
they have successfully completed a task.
Types of Homework
Homework assignments typically have one or
more purposes. The most common purpose is to have students practice
material already presented in class. Practice homework is meant to
reinforce learning and help the student master specific skills.
Preparation homework introduces material that will be presented in
future lessons. These assignments aim to help students learn new material
better when it is covered in class. Extension homework asks
students to apply skills they already have to new situations.
Integration homework requires the student to apply many different
skills to a single task, such as book reports, science projects or
creative writing.
In particular, math homework has been shown
to be more important in the middle to high school grades and less
important in the elementary grades. It starts to become important in the
fourth grade and is increasingly important in the upper grades.
How Parents Can Help with Homework
Research also shows that parent involvement
can have either a positive or negative impact on the value of homework.
Parent involvement can be used to speed up a child's learning. Homework
can involve parents in the school process. It can enhance parents'
appreciation of education. It can give them an opportunity to express
positive attitudes about the value of success in school.
But parent involvement may also interfere
with learning. For example, parents can confuse children if the teaching
techniques they use differ from those used in the classroom. Parent
involvement in homework can turn into parent interference if parents
complete tasks that the child is capable of completing alone.
When mothers and fathers get involved with
their children's homework, communication between the school and family can
improve. It can clarify for parents what is expected of students. It can
give parents a firsthand idea of what students are learning and how well
their child is doing in school.
Research shows that if a child is having
difficulty with homework, parents should become involved by paying close
attention. They should expect more requests from teachers for their help.
If a child is doing well in school, parents should consider shifting their
efforts to providing support for their child's own choices about how to do
homework. Parents should avoid interfering in the independent completion
of assignments.
As this brief introduction suggests,
homework can be an effective way for students to improve their learning
and for parents to communicate their appreciation of schooling. Because a
great many things influence the impact of homework achievement,
expectations for homework's effects, especially in the earlier grades,
must be realistic.
Homework
policies and practices should give teachers and parents the flexibility to
take into account the unique needs and circumstances of their students.
That way, they can maximize the positive effects of homework and minimize
the negative ones.
Back to Top
