Homework
There is a general belief among many parents, teachers, educational administrators, politicians, and media representatives that homework is essential to the process of schooling. This belief is true, but not for the reasons which most people suppose.
According to those who hold the foregoing belief, homework plays a crucial role in helping students to: (a) acquire a love of learning; (b)develop self-discipline; (c)enhance creativity; (d) learn good study habits; (e) facilitate communication between parents and teachers; (f) improve student attitudes toward school, and (g) become better citizens. The truth of the matter is there is little, or no, reliable empirical data to back-up any of the these claims.
To be sure, there have been hundreds of studies which purported to demonstrate 'this' or 'that' concerning the relationship between homework and one, or more, of the aforementioned qualities, but the vast majority of these studies either suffered from a variety of research design defects, or generated results of a contradictory nature, or could not show that whatever relationship, which might exist between homework and some given quality related to schooling, was clearly causal in nature, rather than correlational ... that is, associated with one or more of the above qualities in a statistical manner which could not be properly analyzed to indicate whether the nature of the association was something other than incidental or, even, irrelevant, to the studies central hypothesis. (see Harris Cooper's comprehensive overview: Homework, 1989, as well as the related article: 'Synthesis of Research on Homework', 1989, Educational Leadership, 47:3)
For instance, let us suppose some educator does a study which seeks to prove that giving homework leads to, say, greater academic achievement. This educator completes his investigation, writes up the results, and concludes there is a positive correlation between the assigning of homework and test scores.
Before one starts jumping to conclusions that this educator has proven that homework leads to better test scores, one has to consider a variety of factors. Where was the study done (for example, in a private school, rural region, or inner-city district)? What was the kind of homework involved? Was the result independent of teaching methods and/or teachers? What subjects were considered in the study? What were the criteria used in assessing the test scores and performance on homework? Were these objective or subjective in nature? Would the students who did well on the test have done just as well without homework? What control groups were there? What steps were taken to ensure that the control groups and the experimental group were roughly homogenous in all relevant respects except for the variable of homework? What statistical methods were used in analyzing the data? Were these methods appropriate? Was the positive correlation statistically significant and at what level? Were the results reproducible or replicated in other studies? Could one plausibly account for the outcome of the study in other ways? And so on.
When someone says that a given study concerning homework entailed one, or more, design defects, such an individual is maintaining, in effect, that questions, like those noted above, were not addressed adequately and, as a result, the conclusions of the study are suspect or have been compromised, and, therefore, are unreliable. Alternatively, if two different educators run a similar study seeking to determine the relationship between homework and academic achievement, but produce contradictory results (i.e., one study says that homework helps, and the other study says that homework does not help), then, one has to do further studies in order to try to figure out what actually is going on - both with these studies, as well as with the hypothesis that assigning homework leads to better test scores, and until one is able to sort this out, we are not in a position to claim either that homework does, or does not, help with respect to higher test scores.
The fact there have been hundreds of studies centering on homework and schooling which have been conducted over many decades and, yet, no definitive evidence has been forthcoming which demonstrates that homework generates the results that advocates claim is, itself, highly significant. After all, if this were the no-brainer that many proponents of homework maintain, then, one might suppose that a rather substantial amount of 'reliable' and reproducible evidence might have been forthcoming by now, and this just is not the case.
Even if someone were able to show there was some sort of positive correlation between the assigning of homework, and even if someone were able to demonstrate that the correlation was strong and that other possible explanations for, say, enhanced test scores had been eliminated, there is another question which must be raised in conjunction with the findings that, for purposes of argument, I am assuming to be positive - namely, what costs are there associated with the assigning of homework.
For instance, if a student is assigned 'x' amount of homework that requires 'y' amount of time every evening, then, what impact does this have on the individual's relationship with his or her family? If a youngster lives in a home in which the student needs to work in order to help the family pay bills, and/or needs to look after siblings because the parents are working, and/or has responsibilities with respect to ailing grandparents, and/or is expected to do various kinds of chores (such as cooking meals), and/or has religious commitments within the home, then, how does a student balance the needs of the family against the demands of school, and how does one weigh the importance of the two different realms - especially when there is no experimental evidence which shows that doing more homework will result in getting subsequent employment that is high paying and permanent.
Or, lets look at this issue from a slightly different set of vantage points. Is doing homework more valuable than spending time with family? Is doing homework more valuable than volunteering in the community? Is doing homework more valuable than pursuing, and developing proficiency, with some hobby such as photography, computer graphics, and so on? Is doing homework more valuable than belonging to groups such as Boy or Girl Scouts? Is doing homework more valuable than developing a stable, healthy set of relationships with other people? Is doing homework more valuable than trying to establish a clear-cut sense of social or spiritual identity? Is doing homework more valuable than participating in neighborhood projects - ranging from political campaigns, to charitable causes, to cleaning up the neighborhood?
Many advocates of assigning homework suggest that the process of homework helps people to develop skills which will assist the individual to be better workers, citizens, and community members. However, one can easily ask whether there might not be alternative - and, perhaps, better - ways to learn how to become fully contributing participants in the world of work, democracy, and community, other than through homework.
There also are important questions of equity surrounding the issue of homework. Not every student goes home to the same set of circumstances, and, consequently, some students face stresses, obstacles, and problems in relation to the completion of homework that are not experienced by other students.
More specifically, if a student has no regular place to do homework, or cannot find peace and quiet for an extended period of time, or cannot afford the supplies which may be necessary to do homework, or does not have the equipment (computers, typewriters, calculators, paper, pens, glue, tape, stapler, and so on), or does not have parents who are able to assist her or him, or who may not even be supported and encouraged at home to do well in school, then, from the point of view of educational fairness, how does one reconcile these circumstances with those of a student who has a regular, quiet, well-equipped place of study and, in addition, has parents or other resources that can be called upon in order to finish homework assignments? Does homework really mean the same thing in both sets of circumstances or have the same educational impact on the respective students?
Another aspect of the equity issue is whether schools even have the moral right to intrude into, and disrupt, the families of students via the agency of homework. Furthermore, what right do schools have to expect that parents should be able (either in terms of competency, training, or time) to take on the unpaid responsibilities of doing what schools and teachers get a great deal of money to do - namely, to educate students? And, finally, what right do schools and teachers have to assume that parents should be willing to help their children do homework that may involve lesson plans, projects, or themes, with which the parents don't agree - politically, morally, spiritually, and/or philosophically?
Are the educational gains of homework worth the stress, tension, and disharmony that enters a home via such extra-school requirements? Is homework more important than family harmony and stability?
These questions can't even be addressed because the available 'evidence', if it can be called that, has, yet, to demonstrate, beyond all reasonable doubt, that homework has a pay-off which is of greater import than family harmony, or the physical and emotional well-being of a student, or a healthy development in a student's sense of self-esteem or identity, or the student's participation in the community (through work, volunteering, clubs, and, even, friends). Indeed, how would one go about weighing, analyzing, and assessing such issues, and what criteria and standards would one use?
None of the foregoing discussion has, yet, touched on the quality of homework. Are students merely being given busy work to create the impression that teachers and schools are doing their job? Is the homework boring or interesting and challenging, and can one assume that what is interesting and challenging to a teacher will be received in the same way by students? And, do creative, innovative homework assignments necessarily lead to better understanding among students?
What standards are being used in the generation and evaluation of homework? Whose standards are these? How were they developed and why? Do all teachers operate with the same set of principles in the assigning and grading of homework? Do teachers co-ordinate their homework assignments? Who, if anyone, is keeping track of all this and ensuring that the homework, taken collectively, is serving and achieving substantial educational purposes?
Homework is a mantra that is part of a faith that is imposed on students and their families alike. It is a mantra that is chanted by many, if not most, school boards, principals, teachers, and politicians, but whose efficacy, validity, and value are in serious question.
Like many doctrinaire systems, no one is permitted to question this central tenet of educational faith without running the risk of being labeled a heretic and trouble maker. Moreover, the chant is so prevalent that even parents have been induced to mouth it despite the fact of experiencing, on a daily basis, the tremendously disruptive and, often times, destructive effect homework has on family life and on the healthy development of their children.
Many advocates of homework argue that we live in a world where we must learn how to work longer and harder in order to compete and survive. Homework is part of the intensification of effort which is being foisted on students and their families in order, supposedly, to make us more competitive and more to offer to the community - but working harder and longer is not necessarily the same thing as working 'smarter', and until educators can prove that homework is synonymous with working 'smarter', those who insist on making homework a central part of the schooling process seem little better than snake-oil scam artists of the past who made all kinds of promises about the wondrous effects of the elixir they have to offer for what ails us educationally, but with respect to which the beneficial results have, yet, to be proven.
The subjective, anecdotal impression of educators that homework has fundamental value is really not sufficient to warrant the intrusion into the extra-school life of students and/or their families. Educators would not accept the subjective impressions of students concerning various issues, and educators would demand that students be able to back up their claims. This practice of do as I say, not as I do sets a terrible example for students.
There is a principle which exists that is referred to as the 'known-harm' test. Essentially, this principle states that if one cannot demonstrate the positive value of some practice, but one can provide evidence concerning the discernible harm which ensues from such a practice, then, one has an obligation to adopt a policy that avoids the known harm, rather than opt for a policy which promotes a practice that is of dubious and unproven value.
Under the present empirical circumstances, there are numerous reservations about, and questions surrounding, the issue of homework's educational value. To continue to pursue a policy of assigning homework under such circumstances - while, simultaneously, keeping in mind the very real problems that homework generates in the lives of students, their families, the community, and even schools - violates the principle of 'known-harm' in a rather substantial way.
Less anyone should construe the foregoing as advocating that students need not expend effort to learn, please note the following point. There is a huge difference between compelling someone to do school work (that is, usually, of an arbitrary, artifical, and irrelevant nature) outside of school hours and establishing a learning environment in which an individual is motivated to explore, reflect, and do research on her or his own, quite independently of compulsion. Educatators tend to assume - without justification - that the former is the same as the latter and will produce the same results ... and this is not only experimentally and clinically not correct, but it runs counter to what most of know to be so on the basis of our own personal experience across many years of education.
Individuals must find their own way to cognitive and creative industry. Such commitment cannot be manufactured by someone else and forced upon an individual without considerable, counterproductive damage being done in the process.
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