Recently, the significance of homework has been the subject of debate in the academic world. Due to the inability of research to prove that homework boosts the academic performance of students, some schools have decided to suspend it.
However, it is believed that a better approach will be a revision of the type and the quality of homework given. Some say that schools and teachers eliminating homework and replacing it with night reading have seen a positive impact on the students’ academic achievement.
Counter-critics opined that beyond increasing grades and test scores, homework helped in developing good reading habits in the student. It also allows the parent to evaluate their child’s learning progress.
Distinctions of Homework
The research that homework doesn’t boost academic performance is a baseless one. Psychologists have proven that homework is part of the strategies used to help students learn more. The problem is not assigning homework but assigning the right type of homework.
Homework can be a retrieval practice that gives the student the ability to recall what they have learned in school. This practice is not practicable during the school hour, but at home when students might have forgotten the lesson a bit. It has proven to be more effective in learning than revisiting book materials for reading.
The positive impact of homework has been underestimated. Studies overlooked the distinction of homework. This omission gave critics the chance to believe it has not been helping the academics of the students.
Whereas, its positive effect on elementary and high school students is not small. Homework played a significant role in boosting the Mathematics academic performance of elementary school students.
This fact negates the claim that homework has not helped the academic performance of students. The fact that parental involvement in their children’s homework affects the learning of the child is not correct too.
A study has proven that students from families whose parents provide kids with law homework help perform excellently in their academics.
The claim that homework is an additional stress for young children that needs to chill out after school exercise is baseless. Homework researchers have only recommended what is called the “ten-minute rule.”
This rule allows first-grade students to do ten minutes of homework, second-grade students twenty minutes, and soon. With this rule, there is still enough time for a child to engage in any other activities at home.
Nevertheless, there is a need to educate the teachers and tutors about the system of effective homework. This knowledge will give us the ability to harness and maximize the potential power of homework. Homework should be a means of teaching the kid substantive things in the world concerning their academic learning.
Conclusion
Despite all the arguments on the ineffectiveness of homework, it still plays a major role in the academic performance of any child. It makes students smarter and enhances their learning skills. However, to maximize the positive effects of a homework assignment, teachers should also learn how to administer qualitative homework.