School daze! Homework haze! Ugh. Homework…It can be a challenging or rewarding time for parents and their children. The academic benefits of homework have been debated since the late 1800s. In the late 19th and early 20th century, homework was primarily assigned to students in fifth to eighth grades and was seen as an activity to exercise the “brain muscle.” During the 1930s the Great Depression was central to the homework debate where teachers and parents were concerned that homework led to increased child stress. By the 1950s, at the start of the Cold War, student achievement became a central focus as the United States competed with Russia. Homework was seen as a tool to help improve student achievement to enhance the ability of the U.S. Russia. During the 1960s, when the U.S. Vietnam War, the educational pendulum swung once again toward less homework where educators and parents saw homework as adding to student stress levels at home.
The homework debate is never much out of the news. Should homework be banned? Is homework at primary school a waste of time? Do our children get too much homework? Not long ago UK-based US comedian Rob Delaney set the world alight with a tweet giving his own personal view of homework at primary school. We thought, as an organisation that provides maths homework support on a weekly basis, it was time to look at the facts around the homework debate in primary schools, as well of course as reflecting the views of celebrities and those perhaps more qualified to offer an opinion! This blog is part of our series of blogs designed for teachers, schools and parents supporting home learning. A very experienced and knowledgeable Headteacher, Simon Smith who has a well-earned following on Twitter (for someone working in education, not hosting Match of the Day) also put his neck on the line and, some might think controversially, agreed with the golden-heeled Crisp King of Leicester…
Understanding concepts from a classroom setting is admirable but taking the time to complete assignments speaks volumes about your capacity to go the extra mile in deepening your understanding. Often, homework breaks down complex terminologies and concepts to make the learning process effective. Based on proven research, students that cherished doing homework exhibited advanced understanding of various topics compared to those that shunned assignments. Regardless of what naysayers might say, homework has transformed the learning process in multiple ways. Apart from simplifying the learning process, school assignments have also improved students’ problem-solving skills beyond the arithmetic requirements. Thus, homework has its place in the education process. Is homework only beneficial to students? Homework does not only benefit students. It helps teachers and parents to nurture trust and cooperation with the students. This will help to develop successful students. Is homework mandatory? Most schools have taken the initiative to make homework mandatory in their curriculum. Its implementation came in the reforms. Modernization policies designed to yield optimal benefits to students.
The vast majority of students hate it. Teachers find it overwhelming to keep homework assignments relevant and updated. Parents find it difficult to fit homework into an already stuffed after-school/evening schedule. In some schools, homework has actually been eliminated. So, is homework really necessary? Are the benefits worth the difficulty? While homework can be difficult and painful for most involved, it actually has great benefits that can benefit students for life. Some of those benefits include better retention of material, taking advantage of alternate strengths of learning, helping students develop a sense of responsibility, teaching students how to learn independently, and teaching students how to rise up to challenges. Let’s take a deeper look at what all of these points look like in real life (as well as some of the disadvantages of homework)! Homework, while difficult, does present plenty of benefits that will actually stay with students throughout their lifetime, whether at work, at home, or even future academic pursuits.
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