The Battle Over Homework

Common Ground for Administrators, Teachers, and Parents

Harris M. Cooper

• Publisher: Carrel Books
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781631440120
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education Teaching Methods

Homework is the cause of more friction between schools and home than any other aspect of education and becomes the prime battlefield when schools, families, and communities view one another as adversaries. This comprehensive fourth edition tackles all the tough questions: What's the right amount of homework? What role should parents play in the homework process? What is the connection between homework and achievement?This essential reference offers all stakeholders—administrators, teachers, and parents—the opportunity to end the battle and turn homework into a cooperative endeavor to promote student learning.

1

Finding the Common Ground

THE AMERICAN PUBLIC’S ATTITUDES TOWARD HOMEWORK

Throughout the twentieth century, public opinion about homework wavered between support and opposition. And almost like clockwork, the beginning of the new century was accompanied by a controversy regarding the value of homework.

Homework controversies have followed a 30-year cycle with public outcries for more homework or less homework occurring about 15 years apart. Further complicating matters, at any moment during the past century, arguments and evidence both for and against homework simultaneously could be found in both the popular and the educational literature. However, at different times, the proponents and opponents of homework have alternately held sway.

Early in the twentieth century, homework was believed to be an important means for disciplining children’s minds. The mind was viewed as a muscle. Memorization—most often of material like multiplication tables, names, and dates—not only led to knowledge acquisition but was also believed to be good mental exercise. Because memorization could be accomplished easily at home, homework was a key schooling strategy.

By the 1940s, a reaction against homework set in. Developing problem-solving ability, as opposed to learning through drill, became a central task of education. The use of homework to enhance memorization skills was called into question. Greater emphasis was placed on developing student initiative and interest in learning. Furthermore, the life-adjustment movement viewed home study as an intrusion on students’ time to pursue other private, at-home activities. In the 1950 edition of the Encyclopedia of Educational Research, H. J. Otto wrote, “Compulsory homework does not result in sufficiently improved academic accomplishments to justify retention” (p. 380).

The trend toward less homework was reversed in the late 1950s after the Russians launched the Sputnik satellite. Americans became concerned that a lack of rigor in the educational system was leaving children unprepared to face a complex technological future and to compete against our ideological adversaries. Homework was viewed as a means for accelerating the pace of knowledge acquisition.

By the mid-1960s, the cycle again reversed itself. Homework came to be seen as a symptom of too much pressure on students to achieve. Contemporary learning theories that questioned the value of most approaches to homework were again invoked. And yet again, the possible detrimental mental health consequences of too much homework were brought to the fore. For example, Wildman wrote in a 1968 article, “Whenever homework crowds out social experience, outdoor recreation, and creative activities, and whenever it usurps time devoted to sleep, it is not meeting the basic needs of children and adolescents” (p. 203).

In the 1980s, homework leaped back into favor. A primary stimulus behind its reemergence was the report A Nation at Risk, which cited homework as a defense against the rising tide of mediocrity in American education (National Commission on Excellence in Education, 1983). The push for more homework continued into the 1990s, fueled by educators and parents who felt it could help meet increasingly rigorous state-mandated academic standards.

As the century turned, a remarkably predictable backlash set in. Fed by beleaguered parents, newspapers and magazines were filled with articles about too much stress on children. Was the increasing homework burden leading eight-year-olds to burn out? How were families—often headed by a single parent or two parents, both of whom worked outside the home—to juggle work and help with homework, while also finding time for rest and recreation?

Media accounts often pitted parents who felt their children were overburdened with homework against educators pressed to improve achievement test scores. Yet the majority of parents remained satisfied with teaching practices regarding homework. A nationwide poll conducted in January 2006 by Learning Services (Associated Press, 2006) tapped the attitudes of 1,085 parents and 810 teachers about homework. It showed that 57% of parents felt their child was assigned about the right amount of homework, 23% thought their child received too little, and 19% thought their child received too much. About 63% of teachers thought they assigned the right amount of homework, 25% thought they assigned too little, and 12% thought they assigned too much. Certainly, it is no small issue when about one in five parents feel their child is overburdened with homework. But the poll numbers put this concern in a broader context; about three in five parents find the amount of work is about right, and parents are just as likely to say there is too little homework as say there is too much.

Are Students Doing More Homework Now?

Interestingly, while the battle over homework raged in the popular press and among education pundits, there was historical evidence that practices regarding the amount of homework teachers assigned had changed little in the last half of the twentieth century. Gill and Schlossman (2003) looked at national surveys reporting time spent on homework and found little evidence of change from the 1950s onward, except perhaps among the youngest students, ages six to eight, who had experienced a recent increase.

A DEFINITION OF HOMEWORK

Homework can be defined as tasks assigned to students by school teachers that are intended to be carried out during nonschool hours. The word intended is used because students may complete homework assignments during study hall, during library time (sanctioned by teachers), or even during subsequent classes (not sanctioned). This definition explicitly excludes (a) in-school or out-of-school guided study (e.g., test preparation classes) or tutoring; (b) home study courses delivered through the mail, via television, on audio or video cassette, or over the Internet; and (c) extracurricular activities such as sports teams and clubs.

Homework can be defined as tasks assigned to students by school teachers that are intended to be carried out during nonschool hours. The word intended is used because students may complete homework assignments during study hall, during library time (sanctioned by teachers), or even during subsequent classes (not sanctioned).

What Are Some Ways That Homework Assignments Differ From One Another?

Homework assignments can be classified according to their (a) amount, (b) purpose, (c) skill area, (d) choice for the student, (e) completion deadline, (f) degree of individualization, and (g) social context. Table 1.1 summarizes these distinctions in homework. Assignments can vary in many other ways. These are only the most obvious differences, and they are perhaps the most critical ones that determine what an assignment will contain and how it will be carried out.

Table 1.1 Distinctions in Homework Assignments

Distinctions	Variations Within Distinctions
Amount	Frequency Length
Difficulty	Easy Hard Interspersal of easy and hard items
Purpose	Instructional Practice Preparation Integration Extension Noninstructional Parent-child communication Fulfilling directives Punishment Community relations
Skill area utilized	Writing Reading Memory or retention
Degree of individualization	Geared to individual student Geared to groups of students
Student choice	Compulsory With task options Voluntary
Completion deadlines	Long-term Short-term
Social context	Independent Assisted Parent, sibling, other students Group

The amount of homework students do can be expressed as the total amount of time spent on assignments per night or per week. However, we will see that it is best to think of homework amounts in terms of (a) frequency, or how often homework is assigned and (b) duration, or how long it takes to complete each assignment. For example, two students saying they do four hours of homework a week might be having very different homework experiences. One might be doing one hour of homework on each of four nights while the other is doing two hours of homework on just two nights.

The difficulty level of homework assignments can vary. Some assignments may contain material that the teacher hopes the student will find easy to master while other assignments are meant to be more challenging. Furthermore, assignments can be deliberately constructed to present both easy and hard material. And, of course, the same assignment may prove more or less challenging for different students.

The purposes of homework assignments can be divided into instructional and noninstructional objectives. Four instructional goals are most often identified for homework. The most common purpose of homework is to practice or review material. Practice assignments are meant to reinforce the learning of material already presented in class and to help the student master specific skills.

Preparation assignments introduce material to be presented in future lessons. Their aim is to help students obtain the maximum benefit when the new material is covered in class by providing background information or experiences. Quite often, the difference between practice and preparation homework is not in the content of the assignment but in its relationship in time to the material being covered in class—the same material presented before class discussion is preparation, whereas after class discussion, it is practice or review. Some homework assignments can have both practice and preparation objectives by introducing new material along with the practice of old material.

The third instructional goal for homework is called “extension.” Extension homework involves the transfer of previously learned skills to new situations. This often requires the application of abstract principles to circumstances not covered in class. For example, students might learn about the factors that led to the French Revolution and be asked to apply them to what they know about other revolutions.

Finally, homework can serve the purpose of skill integration. Integrative homework requires the student to apply many separately learned skills and concepts to produce a single product. Examples might include book reports, science projects, or creative writing.

There are other purposes of homework in addition to reinforcing or enhancing classroom instruction. For example, homework can be used to (a) facilitate communication between parent and child, (b) fulfill directives from school administrators, and (c) punish students. To this list might be added the public relations objective of simply informing parents about what is going on in school.

Homework assignments rarely reflect a single purpose. Instead, most assignments have elements of several different purposes. Some of these relate to instruction, whereas others may meet the purposes of the teacher, the school administration, or even the school district.

In addition to differences in purpose, homework can call for the use of different skill areas. Students may be asked to read, to submit written products, or to perform drills to enhance memory or retention of material. Written products are often required to provide evidence that the assignment was completed. Drill activities involve mechanical, repetitive exercises. These might include, for example, practicing spelling words or multiplication tables, rehearsing a public speech, or memorizing word definitions.

The degree of individualization refers to whether the teacher tailors assignments to meet the needs of each student or whether a single assignment is presented to groups of student...