Homework

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

Homework raises attainment in the secondary sector; results less conclusive amongst primary pupils
Pupils who do moderate amounts of homework tend to do better than those who do very little and those who do a great deal
Pupils with a positive attitude to homework tend to succeed. (Girls tend to do more homework than boys)
Parents want their children to be given homework, but they tend to feel that they lack understanding of what is required
Working class boys who do at least one hour of homework per night tend to do as well as middle class boys in exams
Parental help may not improve attainment, but this may be because of the types of support being given
Pupils tend to have preferred styles of homework (as they do for class-work) and this can be exploited. 16, children spend only
Between the ages of 5 and 16 children spend only 15% of their lives in school so if parents support them at home it will really improve their chances of success.

Key Elements of Homework

Pupil Attitudes:

Ensure that pupils understand the relevance of homework
Give good feedback to pupils
Make homework interesting and varied
Give a sense of challenge and a sense of achievement
Ensure appropriate differentiation in tasks (but treat this sensitively)
Promote a sense of individual responsibility through homework
Be aware of pupils’ varying home situations and difficulties they may face
Build up pupil expectations re homework on a whole-school basis

Home links:

Exploit pupils’ home access to ICT resource
Ensure that parents know what is expected of pupils. General curricular information can be offered as well as the contribution of homework
Give parents information about how to help pupils directly
Be aware that helpers in the home may include parents, carers, other family members and others
Don’t prejudge which homes will be supportive - the evidence is that support may come from the least likely sources
Build up awareness of education as a shared process
Foster an awareness of life-long learning
Communicate with and consult parents throughout the process
It may be possible to involved fathers particularly, with potential benefits in the area of gender issue

Types of homework:

Relate homework to class-work
Provide a range of types of homework, catering for different preferred styles of work
Ensure appropriate tasks for varying abilities
Provide opportunities for pupils to use non-school resources
Provide opportunities for independent research and investigation
There is a role for specific homework materials, related to course work
There is also scope for impromptu exercises, preparation for up-coming class-work and “finishing off”
Researchers put special emphasis on the importance of developing reading activities for homework, especially with primary pupils

Organisation:

Link homework with teaching of study skills. (Whole-school issue?)
Homework should be planned and integrated into on-going work
Homework diaries allow pupils to organise themselves and allow parents to check progress
Time allocations should be controlled. Homework should be manageable for pupils. Ensure whole-school awareness and consistency re homework loads
It is possible to link homework programmes with workshops for parents
The role of sanctions for failure to do homework can be examined

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?

Some Activities Relating To the Issue of Homework

Key element	Objective	Action
Some examples and suggestions
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.
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. Consider the resources on the LTS website mentioned in the Selected References below.
Types of Homework	Use of specific homework materials.	Homework bags and equipment can be issued to younger pupils.
Organisation	Workshops for parents.	Parents (or other homework helpers) can be invited to a homework club to work alongside the pupil. Consider the resources on the LTS website mentioned in the Selected References below. Selected References