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Nowadays, the view of homework has become the topic that people argue about. According to researchers England and Flatley (1985) states, “survey of teachers conducted in 1966 found that 89 of 90 teachers favored homework; another survey in 1989 found that teachers did not strongly believe homework was beneficial”. In this topic, there are some adherents who think that they can encourage students to take the initiative to do their homework, and can train them to have independent study skills. They believe homework is the extension of classroom instruction because homework is a kind of practice.
Homework allows students to apply the knowledge they have gained in the classroom. On the other hand, critics think that homework has occupied students’ leisure time, and leaves students no extra time to develop unrestrained. However, critics think homework influences the forming of the students’ individual character. Although the homework in middle and primary schools is heavy for students, it is essential if students are to improve their study skills. Homework that the teacher assigns is mostly written exercises and reading in the textbook, and that lacks homework, experiments, observation, and social investigation.
In my opinion, homework is one of the important means of feedback for a teacher’s teaching result. It can consolidate the knowledge that students have already studied, train students’ creativity, and develop students’ intelligence. Moreover, it is very essential to require some homework in the teaching process. Butler (1987) states, “Homework is the time students spend outside the classroom in assigned activities to practice, reinforce or apply newly-acquired skills and knowledge and to learn necessary skills of independent study” (p. 17).
Most homework assigned by teachers is for practice and preparation purposes because instructional homework may be assigned to help students. Parents often have questions about why homework is assigned, how beneficial it is, and how they may best help their child complete homework. Homework is beneficial to students because it is an extension of teaching materials, and it can promote students’ understanding of knowledge. It is an effective way to increase student personal responsibility and individual accountability, and it leads to increased communications between parents and the schools and encourages parent awareness of student learning.
First, homework is beneficial to students because homework is extension of the teaching material and it can promote students’ understanding of knowledge. Homework is the student extension of schoolwork. The Chinese teachers give a lot of new information to students, but do not discuss it in class; sometimes students need to do a large amount of homework to strengthen understanding after class. Therefore, the basic objectives of assigning homework to students are the same as schooling in general that is to increase the knowledge and improve the abilities and skills of the student.
Homework enhances and supplements classroom learning, and is usually intended to provide the student with a better education. In addition, homework may be intended to develop students’ independence, responsibility, self-motivation, and self-discipline. Homework assignments may be designed to reinforce what students have already learned, prepare them for upcoming or complex or difficult lessons, extend what they know by having them apply it to new situations, or to integrate their abilities by applying many different skills to a single task.
Moreover homework is an important component of the learning process but can be easily abused. A meaningful homework assignments helps students to construct knowledge, develop deeper understandings and connections amongst the concepts to which they have been introduced, and provides an opportunity for them to apply the skills they have acquired. It also reflects their attitudes on learning. Homework assignments provide the time and experience students need to develop study habits that support learning.
They experience the results of their effort as well as the ability to cope with mistakes and difficulty (Bempechat, 2004). Homework and practice are related, connected by the context when students are learning on their own and applying new knowledge. In my opinion, appropriate homework and well-designed student practice will increase student learning. Second, homework is beneficial to students because homework can increase student personal responsibility and individual accountability.
In Corno’s (1996) research, he cites Xu who (1994) states that “research shows that when personal responsibility is a goal that parents hold for their children and when parents systematically help support this goal through structure and supervision around homework, then homework can foster personal responsibility” (Corno, p. 28). Personal responsibility and study skills are a major product of homework at school. Homework reinforces concepts presented during the school. Homework assignments may be required on every day except for the weekend. Sometimes homework may take one student twenty inutes to finish a math homework assignment, but it may take another student ten minutes, and the third student may take forty-five minutes to complete the same homework assignment. Even though every student takes a different time to finish a homework assignment, homework teaches students’ personal responsibility and time management skills as students take work from school to home and assume responsibility for completing homework and turning it in on time. Therefore, each teacher assigns some homework to students and help students understand home study as an extension and application of class activities.
Homework can be an important factor in helping students achieves and in helping them develop effective work habits. Other researchers state that homework helps students develop responsibility and life skills and the ability to manage tasks and that it provides experiential learning, increased motivation, opportunities to learn to cope with difficulties and distractions, and academic benefits (Corno and Xu 2004; Coutts 2004; Xu and Corno 1998). Responsibility and accountability are essential in everyone’s life. I believe that students need to have the responsibility of completing homework outside of class time.
Third, homework is beneficial to students because homework can increase communications between parents and the schools and encourage parent awareness of student learning. Homework can help parents learn about their children’s education and communicate both with their children and the schools. Homework is an opportunity for students to learn and for parents to be involved in their children’s education; it can also bring parents and educators closer together. Besides, parents often become involved in their children’s education through homework.
Teachers can help parents engage in homework processes by providing specific, time-limited suggestions for helping students in ways that support the broader learning goals of homework assignments. For example, teachers might suggest younger children read with parents or want parents to listen to the child read for ten minutes every day. This homework assignment is likely to be possible within most family schedules; it also provides parents a way of understanding the value of children’s school work and reinforcing students’ learning.
Moreover, parental involvement focused on helping children understand learning tasks often requires considerable knowledge. Teachers can help parents and family members understand what homework monitoring involves and why it is important (Toney, Kelley, & Lanclos, 2003). Teachers may also support parents and after school staff awareness of direct teaching strategies that may be useful in helping students with homework. Schools and teachers can offer important information about when direct teaching is likely to be helpful.
I think parents should be encouraged to contact the teacher if they have questions about students’ homework. To sum up, assigning homework serves various educational needs. It serves as an intellectual discipline, establishes study habits, eases time constraints on the amount of curricular material that can be covered in class, and supplements and reinforces work done in school. In addition, it fosters student initiative, independence, and responsibility and brings home and school closer together.
Research suggests that these include positive student attitudes about learning and homework; positive student perceptions of personal competence and efficacy for learning; student perceptions of personal control over learning outcomes; and self-regulation skills pertinent to goal-setting, organizing and planning, persistence in the face of difficulty, and management of emotional responses to homework (Hoover-Dempsey et al. , 2001). Homework is an important component of the learning process, but it can be easily abused. Homework serves the above functions only if it is well designed.
Homework should not involve students in mechanical repetition such as copying from the texts notes or just rote learning. It should not be boring or lead students to learn in a passive way. Although there are some people who think homework in not beneficial, I still can understand why teachers give students homework each night to help them practice and retain knowledge because I believe the homework is beneficial to student. In my view, homework is beneficial to students because homework is an extension of knowledge from teaching materials; homework can foster personal responsibility, and homework help parents’ awareness of student learning.
Reference Bempechat, Janine (2004). “The Motivational Benefits of Homework: A Social-Cognitive Perspective”, Theory Into Practice Volume 43, Number 3, Summer 2004, pp. 189-196 Butler, J. A. (1987). Homework. School Improvement Research Series. Research You Can Use. Close-Up #1. Portland, Oregon: Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory. Corno, L. (1996). Homework is a complicated thing. Educational Researcher, 25 (8), 27-29. Corno, L. , & Xu, J. (2004). Homework as the job of childhood. Theory into Practice, 43, 227-233. Coutts, P. M. (2004). Meanings of homework and implications for practice. Theory Into Practice, 43, 182-188. England, D.
A. & Flatley, J. K. (1985). Homework-And Why. Bloomington, IN. Phi Delta Kappa Educational Foundation. Hoover-Dempsey, K. V. , Battiato, A. C. , Walker, J. M. T. , Reed, R. P. , DeJong, J. M. , & Jones, K. P. (2001). Parental involvement in homework. Educational Psychologist, 36, 195–210 Toney, L. P. , Kelley, M. L. , & Lanclos, N. F. (2003). Self- and parental monitoring of homework in adolescents: Comparative effects of parents’ perceptions of homework behavior problems. Child & Family Behavior Therapy, 25(1), 35–51. Xu, J. , & Corno, L. (1998). Case studies of families doing third-grade homework. Teachers College Record, 100(2), 402-436.