Why I Dislike Homework and How the Research Backs Me Up
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Do your kids spend hours a night doing homework?
Mine do.
And I hate it– maybe even more than they do.
Seriously, I’d much rather that my kids get much needed down-time to: play, nap, read, run, swing, dance, twirl, build, create, draw, invent, or design.
Yet I sit inside with them, trying to pretend that I’m enthusiastic and supportive, helping them to stay focused, answering questions that come up. Ugh. (And don’t get me started trying to describe the melt-downs when you have a child with Sensory Processing Disorder and ADHD. Homework is that much more of a nightmare.)
Remember when I asked you on Facebook about homework? Most of you didn’t support homework either.
And to be clear, I didn’t care for homework as a fifth grade teacher either. My students rarely had homework unless they didn’t finish something in class. (Lesson to use your time wisely.) No homework meant that they could read, play, do sports, have family time . . .
The majority of research supports no homework. (So does common sense, one could argue, . . . at least, I’d argue anyway.)
Homework Research
1. There is no evidence showing that early elementary homework is beneficial (Cooper, 1989 a; Cooper, Robinson & Patall, 2006) ASCD with the exception of  some studies showing correlation on math tests. (NCTM, 2008)
2. Too much homework affects a child’s sleep. Lack of sleep negatively impacts brain function. (Wolfson, 1998)
3. Homework is detrimental to student achievement and makes children depressed. (Australian Institute of Family Studies following 10,000 students)
4. Too much homework is not helpful to student achievement. (Cooper, Civey, and Patall, 2006.)
5. Mixed research showing homework developing good study habits – some research shows yes, some no. (Cooper, 1989a, Cooper, Robinson, & Patall, 2006) ASCD (Kohn, 2006 The Homework Myth.)
6. Time spent on homework for secondary students sometimes correlates to achievement but not with elementary students and not consistently for secondary. (Plude, Enns, and Broudeur 1994) NCTMÂ and (Maltese, and Fan, 2012)
7. Many countries (Japan, Denmark and Czech Republic) with high test scores have instructors who assign no or little homework. (Mullis, Martin, Gonzalez, Kelly and Smith, 1998.)
You’ll find more research on two articles from which I learned the most and synthesize the homework research: Jane Bluestein’s blog and on ASCD.
Recommendations for Homework (if given)
While I’ll always believe that homework should be little to none, IF homework is assigned here are my recommendations.
Homework should:
– be able to be completed independently, without the help of an adult
– have been well-covered in class and is an opportunity to deepen knowledge
– promote mastery of a skill the student hasn’t yet mastered with an engaging task
– be clear and purposeful to the learner
– give students autonomy to learn a topic interesting to them
– be coordinated with other teachers so there isn’t an overwhelming amount
– be differentiated (considering different abilities of the learners, different modalities of learning, etc.)
I think less homework just makes sense.Â
But there’s the rub. What’s up with all the homework our kids are assigned?
What do you think?
Have you advocated for less homework in your child’s life? Or would you do so now that you know the research and know you’re not alone? Please elaborate in the comments.Â
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Homework is a tuff work for students and if it is on the daily basis because student spends lots of time in doing their homework and cannot learn their lesson. economics assignment help
Home work is a form of self learning. The quantity of homework must be less as the kids can happily do this rather than they get bored and fed up of it and try to get rid of it by completing it hastily without learning anything from it.
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I’ve been teaching first grade for 23 years and agree with you 100%. My first graders have 10 min of reading homework per night. You wouldn’t believe a note I received just last week telling me that parents have other things to do than fill out a reading log and get it back to school…..just on Mondays, mind you. I know our schools give too much homework; I’ve raised two boys who had project after project throughout their elem., middle school and high school years. I’m surprised sometimes that our children even want to go to college when they’ve been over tested and loaded with homework through the years. I do feel that young readers need someone listening to them read AND enjoying the love of books with a parent.
I finished reading all the posts. It just blows my mind in this day and age, when we find that the United States’ students are falling behind, that so many young parents whine and complain about doing some homework at home. I do not agree to more than 10 minutes of homework per grade level. (10 for first grade, 20 for 2nd grade, etc…) I absolutely feel that reading for 15 minutes, reviewing Spelling lists, and practicing Math facts are the perfect way for parents to see how their child is progressing on reading fluency, comprehension of what they read, and working toward the goals of learning new words and math facts that will later help them on Writing and Math Skills. Not all, but many parents think nothing of their child participating at sports practice/games for hours, mindless video games, and TV viewing. If the work is too hard, you should be contacting the teacher, then the principal if you are not getting the response you want. I’m also tired of the rhetoric of mindless worksheets. You cannot practice all skills on a game or in stations. At some point a student has to show what they know independently, not only on daily work, but also the tests that are becoming more difficult. By third grade, students at least in my state have to take state tests. You can’t leave all the preparation to that grade level. It has to be a gradual skill expectation that increases with every year of school. If you think it’s bad now, Common Core testing is right around the corner. It won’t be simple. It will require thinking and carefully written responses.