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Homework: can be used to extend the curriculum; can involve
parents/carers and others; promotes independent learning; allows
exploitation of non-school resources.
Points Arising from Research
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Homework raises attainment in the secondary sector; results less
conclusive amongst primary pupils |
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Pupils who do moderate amounts of homework tend to do better than those
who do very little and those who do a great deal
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Pupils with a positive attitude to homework tend to succeed.
(Girls tend to do more homework than boys) |
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Parents want their children to be given homework, but they tend to feel
that they lack understanding of what is required
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Working class boys who do at least one hour of homework per night tend
to do as well as middle class boys in exams |
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Parental help may not improve attainment, but this may be because
of the types of support being given |
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Pupils tend to have preferred styles of homework (as they do for
class-work) and this can be exploited.
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Key Elements of
Homework
Pupil
Attitudes:
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Ensure that pupils understand the relevance of homework
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Give good feedback to pupils |
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Make homework interesting and varied |
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Give a sense of challenge and a sense of achievement
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Ensure appropriate differentiation in tasks (but treat this sensitively)
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Promote a sense of individual responsibility through homework
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Be aware of pupils’ varying home situations and difficulties they may
face
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Build up pupil expectations re homework on a whole-school basis
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Home links:
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Exploit pupils’ home access to ICT resource |
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Ensure that parents know what is expected of pupils. General
curricular information can be offered as well as the contribution of
homework
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Give parents information about how to help pupils directly
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Be aware that helpers in the home may include parents, carers, other
family members and others |
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Don’t prejudge which homes will be supportive - the evidence is that
support may come from the least likely sources
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Build up awareness of education as a shared process
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Foster an awareness of life-long learning |
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Communicate with and consult parents throughout the process
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It may be possible to involved fathers particularly, with potential
benefits in the area of gender issue |
Types of homework:
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Relate homework to class-work |
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Provide a range of types of homework, catering for different preferred
styles of work |
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Ensure appropriate tasks for varying abilities
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Provide opportunities for pupils to use non-school resources
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Provide opportunities for independent research and investigation
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There is a role for specific homework materials, related to course work
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There is also scope for impromptu exercises, preparation for up-coming
class-work and “finishing off” |
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Researchers put special emphasis on the importance of developing reading
activities for homework, especially with primary pupils
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Organisation:
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Link homework with teaching of study skills. (Whole-school issue?)
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Homework should be planned and integrated into on-going work
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Homework diaries allow pupils to organise themselves and allow parents
to check progress |
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Time allocations should be controlled. Homework should be
manageable for pupils. Ensure whole-school awareness and
consistency re homework loads
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It is possible to link homework programmes with workshops for parents
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The role of sanctions for failure to do homework can be examined
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Reflection and
Discussion
Which areas above do you recognise in your own use of homework?
Can you identify areas which might be usefully be developed?
Some advice suggests that pupils should not be punished for failure to do
homework and that homework should not become a “battleground”. Do you
agree?
In addition to the raising of attainment, to what extent do you see homework
as developing a sense of life-long learning and developing attitudes of
pupils and family members to education? How can these issues feed into
the New Community Schools programme?
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Some Activities Relating To the Issue of
Homework |
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Key element |
Objective |
Action |
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Some examples and
suggestions |
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Pupil Attitudes |
Make homework interesting and varied. |
Pupils to research topic by
interviewing family member or other member of the community. This can
generate data in a wide variety of contexts. |
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Home Links |
Build up awareness of education as a shared process |
Institute study of local or current
affairs issue, with parents and pupils to research together. They can be
encouraged to read certain newspapers together. Often parents report
that they have taken an interest in new topics as pupils study them. |
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Types of Homework |
Use of specific homework materials. |
Homework bags and equipment can be
issued to younger pupils. |
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Organisation |
Workshops for parents. |
Parents (or other homework helpers)
can be invited to a homework club to work alongside the pupil. |
Selected
References
Further Reading
The Homework File
by John MacBeath. The Quality in Education Centre for Research
and Consultancy, 1994 ISBN: 1 85098 527 8
Three booklets are available, for pupils, parents and teachers,
under the title "The Homework File". They can be
ordered from the University of Strathclyde Tel: 0141 440 2881
Websites
www.nfer.ac.uk/research-areas/pims-data/summaries/hwk-review-of-studies-on-homework.cfm=
Caroline Sharp
has studied research into homework and material relating to her work can
be found on various websites, including the National Foundation for
Educational Trust site.
www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/homework/
Has references to case studies (eg of one in the Newham Education
Action Zone [or EAZ])
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