Homework: Help or hindrance
By GORDON SOHOLT/Special to the Daily PressAPPLE VALLEY — The questions have been around ever since there have been schools, students, parents, and teachers. Is homework valuable for students? Is it an accurate assessment of student learning? How much homework is appropriate? What types of homework have value? In this installment I offer some thoughts that may help you sort through the answers.
When I look at any educational program or issue I use a filter of "value added". Do the programs or issues add enough value to the education of students as to offset the costs associated with them. The costs may be monetary, time, or effectiveness. Let us look at homework through this filter.
To help us examine this issue, imagine a world where homework was banned. What would be the outcomes of such an amazing idea? Students, teachers, and parents would certainly have more time. A recent study suggests that the "average" American high school student spends only five hours a week doing homework. (The Brown Center Report on American Education - "Do Students Have Too Much Homework.") Compare this figure to your remembrances of high school or the time your child spends on homework. Most of my students tell me that they spend at least two hours a night on homework. Teachers spend countless hours after school correcting homework and additional hours of class time returning, discussing, and monitoring student compliance. Parents spend a great deal of time assisting or nagging their children to do their homework. Imagine that you had that time back. Think of the things you could do with it!
Does the time spent on homework by students, parents, and teachers "add value" to the educational experience? I'm sure you remember homework assignments that were boring and repetitive that didn't add "value" to your education. You also may remember assignments that were difficult, but challenging and rewarding. What was the difference? The most valuable homework experiences tend to be personalized, an assignment that gives the learner the freedom to spend as much or as little time as required. If you are good at spelling, is there value in writing each word five times? In different colors? Or could that time be wisely spent on a subject that is difficult for you? What a difference it could make if the learner were put in charge of what needed to be studied and how much time was important for each subject.
Am I suggesting that students shouldn't do any work at home? Never! Students need to be prepared to learn. This takes a variety of forms including reading specific material that will be covered in class, being able to communicate important ideas and information using a variety of methods including written and verbal, and reviewing notes for quizzes and tests. However, all this can be done with the student being responsible, not the parent or teacher. After all, most surveys of businesses indicate that the greatest skill they require of new employees is responsibility. Assigned homework takes the responsibility away from the student. It makes the parents and teacher the decision maker as to what and how much homework is appropriate. If a student can pass a test with a high grade, do they really need to do homework to help them prepare? Or will setting learning goals and giving students choices of ways that will help them reach those goals add more value to their educational experience?
As you reflect on the questions posed here, openly examine the issue. The questions have been around for hundreds of years and will probably persist that far into the future. Ultimately, the answers should be framed within the context of "value".
Gordon Soholt has been in education for 19 years and is currently the Middle/High Principal at the Academy for Academic Excellence.
For more information on the homework study, visit the Brookings Institute website http://www.brookings.edu/gs/brown/bc_report/2003/2003report.htm.
Used with persmission by Daily Press, Freedom Communication, 2003