Rethinking Homework

Mar 5, 2015

Homework has always been an implied part of the educational experience. Recently, however, its merit has been taken into question.

“There must be purpose behind every homework assignment, and it should be meaningful. Homework should absolutely be about practice. It should never be about just giving students something to do,” said Mr. David Braaten, Business Education.

Braaten recently attended a conference centered on the book “Rethinking Homework,” by Cathy Vatterott, Associate Professor of Education at Washington University in St. Louis. The conference focused on the types of homework that are most effective. After studying the book, he changed the way in which he goes about creating homework in his classes.people

“When I give homework now, I’m very mindful of why exactly I want the students to do the assignment. It’s also important for me to then do something with the homework — not just handing it back with a score, but really giving feedback to the students. The feedback on homework should tell the students where they’re at,” Braaten said.

Mr. Brent Hering, Mathematics, echoes Braaten’s point that homework serves to identify students’ understanding of a topic to both the teacher and the students themselves. In Advanced Placement (AP) Calculus, students complete homework online through a program called WeBWorK which is new to the class. Through this program, students receive immediate feedback on their work.

“I really wanted students to know if they’re ready for a test beforehand. In a way, [WeBWorK] is almost like a little pre-test,” Hering said.

Many elementary schools around the country, such as Hawthorne South Elementary in Chicago, have started to not require homework. Jami Dehn, a teacher at the school, explains that daily assignments measure a student’s work ethic more than his or her knowledge and most of the time, it comes back with obvious assistance from parents. For many classes in this elementary school, teachers are now reserving their grade books for in-class work.

ChenThis trend has now become a discussion in secondary education. Grading expert and former high school teacher Ken O’Conner discusses his philosophy that grades actually deter some students from doing homework. He stated, “Nobody gets better from getting a one out of 10, but with descriptive feedback saying ‘You did this well, and this is where you need to improve,’ [a student] is far more likely to do his or her homework.”

Ms. Diane Schimelpfenig, director of Teaching, Learning, and Assessment, has recently joined the discussion as Hopkins junior highs begin to think about changing some homework-related policies.

“A group of junior high teachers and administrators are studying grading practices at that level, and our work has not yet been completed,” Schimelpfenig said. “We anticipate making recommendations later this spring.”

In order to ensure that the homework gives students an accurate evaluation of their understanding in the class, Mr. Jacques Youakim, Mathematics, explains that homework should mirror the assessments.

“I end up saying, ‘Okay, here’s what I want my kids to know.’ When I make my test, I write the questions, and beside them, I write another set of similar questions for homework. Sometimes all I change is the numbers,” Youakim said.

Due to the similarities between homework and tests, especially in the math department, Hering finds that there is a very strong correlation between his students’ test and homework scores.

“The students that are getting 100 percent on their WeBWorK, if I was going to generalize, are going to do okay on the test,” Hering said. “The students that are not doing well on the test are getting low scores on the WeBWorK. They’re not putting the time in and may not understand the concept.”

ReddotOne unique aspect to the WeBWorK program is that while all the problems within a set are similar, the numbers are different. Because of the variation within the problems, the answers to the homework are no longer posted online as they used to be, which Hering believes is actually beneficial to the students.

“I know that students are working more on homework than they ever have before,” Hering said. “Students I’ve had in the past will say they ended up copying the homework the night before, or sometimes they would get stuck while working on the homework, and end up following or copying the work online. This could lead to the misconception that they understood the material when really they didn’t.”

The issue of plagiarism is hardly a new topic within schools, and it is one that proves difficult to solve.

“I think homework is a really hard thing for teachers in the sense that, if you had an ideal student that does the homework because they value it, then that’s perfect, and you don’t have to worry about the grading piece so much and the issue of copying wouldn’t be so important,” Braaten said. “But, if people will only do it when points are assigned, it creates this frenzy which can lead to high-stake,s meaningless work.”

Braaten stresses that when a student chooses to cheat on an assignment or to not fully complete it, they will suffer from the repercussions. He feels that if students were internally motivated to do their homework, this issue would not exist.

“If you don’t do the homework, you not only don’t get the points, but you’re not getting the content, so you’re not prepared for the test,” Braaten said. “Homework is practice, and at a sports practice, a coach doesn’t give you a score. So, if you think about homework in that sense, there should, ideally in this utopian world, be an intrinsic value to the student to do homework and put effort into it.”

AYellowdotlthough there is a trend of abandoning outside work assignments, many studies have proven the reasoning and importance of homework. According to a study completed by Harris Cooper, director of Duke University’s Program in Education, there is a positive relationship between the amount of homework students do and their achievement outcomes. He found that students who had required homework performed better on class tests compared to those who did not.

Unlike Cooper, Youakim finds that the students in his AP Statistics class, which offers extra credit for the optional homework that is turned in, are motivated to complete their work. Of the 36 students in his first hour class, 32 turned in the homework.

In Youakim’s opinion, the students who do their homework understand that it is ultimately their responsibility to do as much work as necessary to prepare for a test, which may vary from student to student on Feb. 9.

“I am a firm believer that kids will do what they want in order to get the grade they want,” Youakim said. “They know what’s necessary in order to be successful. As time goes on, kids will find out what would have better helped prepare them for the test.”

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Much of this article uses research from Alfie Kohn’s book, Rethinking Homework. For more information, visit Alfie Kohn’s website.

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