There is an article going around by Alfie Kohn about assigning homework and how it is a myth that homework completion leads to student success. It's something I think about a lot. Do students really learn from doing homework? Is it really necessary practice, or is it just something that we teachers assign our students because we had to do homework when we were in school? So much of modern education just repeats the practices of the past, even when those practices don't hold up under scrutiny.
I don't claim to have the answer about homework, I just think it is an interesting question. When I was student teaching at the high school, homework did not count for a grade, therefore students did not complete the homework. I could count on 1 or maybe 2 students completing the homework assignment for the night, so I could not refer to the homework during the lesson. It got to the point that writing the homework assignment on the whiteboard was practically a useless exercise. It was something I did just because it's something that teachers do. All good teachers assign homework, right?
Because I did not have the incentive of graded homework, I tried to appeal to students' intrinsic motivations to learn. "Homework is valuable practice," I said. I tried relating it to sports: "If you never practice dribbling, how can you play basketball? If the only time you pick up a basketball is during the game, you won't win the game." I did not have success with this line of argument. Granted, I could have done better at motivating my students in the classroom, so it's no wonder they had little motivation outside of the classroom. At the end of the day, I felt like some sort of disservice was being done when I didn't give my students something to work on at home. Homework has to matter, doesn't it?
I can remember times in my life when homework assignments have been meaningful and have been learning experiences, and I can remember times when homework was just a waste of time. The majority of the time homework was just a waste of time, to be honest. If I already understood how to do the work in class, why did I need to repeat it when I got home? On the other hand, if someone doesn't understand the work in class and can't complete it at home, why waste time on a task that can't be completed?
I think the answer has to be that homework only increases learning when it matters to students. When I really cared about an essay, I researched, pre-wrote, drafted, edited, revised, and proof-read. When I didn't care about an essay, I wrote 5 paragraphs, clicked spell check, and turned it in (maybe with some creative fonts and margins to meet the minimum length requirement). Rote memorization and routine practice doesn't really transfer to meaningful and lasting learning, so a lot of homework assignments are just a waste of everyone's time.
Again, I don't claim to know the answer to homework's (lack of) efficacy. I just want to know what other people think. Is there merit to Alfie Kohn's claim that homework is a waste of time? Or is there truth in the adage that practice makes perfect? Or is it a mix of the two?
Based purely on reflective hindsight, I would like to think it's a mix of the two perspectives (isn't it always?). I agree that rote memorization and repetitive exercises can be relatively worthless to students who already grasp material from classroom, as well as those who have yet to grasp the material. As you seem to suggest in your post, however, homework can indeed be fruitful if the material is important to students who wish to perfect their understanding. This engagement starts in the classroom, of course, and I certainly remember getting a lot out of classes where more engaging instructors used homework as reinforcement, rather than a crutch to compensate for a lack of in-class progress and interaction.
ReplyDeleteSorry for commenting so late! I'm reading a lot of these posts in an effort to catch up. :)