Education Shortform
Homework
In a nutshell
Homework is done in the absence of a teacher/instructor, meaning that students need to make their own decisions and keep themselves on track without encouragement or immediate feedback.
Of course, they aren’t entirely alone. Younger learners often get support from family when they get stuck.
Perhaps for this reason, homework has been criticised for widening disadvantage; learners from more affluent homes get more effective help with homework (though school homework clubs can tackle this problem) while children generally attain better overall if their parents are more involved.
A broader problem is that a lot of homework tasks set are poorly designed; statistically homework does not boost attainment at all among younger age groups, though it does make a difference at high school age.
Increasingly, school teachers are being asked to be more mindful of the burden of traditional homework tasks, and to consider other options such as independent reading.
For more, check out this perspective from Kathryn Staublin about why a lot of homework can be seen as ‘busy work’.
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This is one of a series of shortform education articles. You can download a simplified summary of my ‘A–Z of Educational concepts’ here.
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