The Homework Dilemma

This week I read an interesting article entitled  “Tackling the Homework Dilemma” in the most recent issue of Middle Ground.

The author posed the provocative question “Is homework a subject or a method”, asking what is the actual purpose of homework.

Many believe homework helps students learn self-discipline and personal organization while others feel its purpose is to help students increase their knowledge and understanding. If it’s the latter (as I believe it is), then homework should be used to help students better learn and understand the material rather than to be a daily, have-to chore.

In the article one teacher in Minnesota assigns but does not collect or grade daily homework. Instead, he gives a short daily quiz at the beginning of every class over the concepts and skills covered in the previous night’s homework. This teacher finds that his daily quiz does the following for his students:

• Students who know the content can skip the burden of doing redundant homework since the focus is on mastery, whether it comes from completing the homework assignment, paying attention in class, or background knowledge.
• Nothing is gained by copying another student’s homework or having a parent do the assignment. (Copying homework is a rampant problem in any middle and high school.)
• Lots of teacher time that would be used for correcting homework is freed up to do more effective, creative things for students

Homework remains a very controversial and divisive topic among and between parents and teachers. (I’ve written in other blogs of the lack of correlation between amount of homework and student performance.) When I shared this article with my wife (a high school math teacher), she dismissed the effectiveness of giving a daily quiz, which illustrates that two experienced educators can have drastically different feelings on this topic.

There can be value to homework in terms of seeing if students have truly mastered concepts and skills presented in class and if they truly understand those concepts and skills through work that demands higher-level thinking skills and critical and creative thought.

Similarly, it does help younger students practice and develop important habits and skills like personal responsibility, organization, and discipline.

Clearly reading, especially novels, is more easily done through homework than in class. (As an English teacher, I am more skeptical of at-home writing assignments because there is too great a possibility of adult assistance—hence, almost all my writing assignments are completed in class.)

There has also been much discussion of the “flipped-classroom” where students learn content at home and then use class time to demonstrate and deepen their understanding.

With the growing ubiquity of technology, homework is also becoming more collaborative and interactive with blogs, wikis, etc.

Nevertheless, it’s vitally important for teachers and parents to ensure that homework is necessary and needed and not overly repetitive and redundant for students. What I like about the teacher who gives a daily quiz over the previous night’s homework is he is empowering students to decide to what extent they need to complete the assignment depending on their understanding. He is respecting the fact that each and every one of his students brings to the classroom a range of abilities, motivational levels, and previous knowledge. His homework is not one-size fits all.

We must remember, also, that students—even in high school—are still kids who need free time, adequate rest, and unstructured opportunities to be creative and imaginative.