Indeed, giving more than 90 minutes of homework has been shown to have detrimental effects on students. Students need time away from their studies to relax and engage in social, extracurricular and family activities. When given too much homework, students lose this time and suffer the effects of stress and sleep deprivation, which has proved to reduce academic performance.
Teachers who give homework must consider the purpose and value of the assignments. While elementary school homework can build confidence and engage students in the subject matter, middle school homework needs a more specific purpose.
Homework should be relevant and purposeful, said Denise Pope, a senior lecturer in Stanford University's School of Education and director of Challenge Success , a project with schools to counter the causes of adolescent academic stress.
The most valuable homework is that which is perceived by students to be meaningful, while simply providing "busy work" does nothing, she said. A research paper she co-authored, "Hazardous Homework? In elementary schools, "homework is overrated and over-assigned," she said. In general, more homework is being assigned today than years before.
Pope's study attributes studies from Harris Cooper, whose research has had an impact on policies and practices nationwide. Throughout the years, Pope said, there's been a change in mindset at schools, where the thought is that more assigned homework results in students getting up to state standards. They've had nights where they spent nearly three hours on work, she said. Experts believe that playtime is more than just a fun way to pass the time—it actually helps kids learn.
Play, particularly for younger kids, is vital to developing creativity, imagination, and even social skills. While many educators and parents believe that young children are ready for direct instruction, studies have shown that kids learn more when they are simply allowed to play. For example, young children who were showed how to make a toy squeak only learned this one function of the toy, while kids who were allowed to experiment on their own discovered many flexible uses of the toy.
Older kids also need time to run, play, and simply experiment, and parents and teachers must realize that this independent time allows kids to discover their environment. For example, kids who run in a park learn rules about physics and the environment intuitively, and they cannot take in this knowledge through direct instruction.
Later development does not in any way correlate with advancement at a later age, and when kids who are not ready for certain tasks are pushed into doing them, they may not learn properly.
They may feel more stressed and turned off to learning, which is, after all, a life-long pursuit. Too much homework turns kids off to learning and makes them less—rather than more—invested in school and learning.
Doing endless amounts of homework does not leave children the proper amount of time to interact socially with family members and peers in a way that will develop their emotional intelligence.
For example, many schools are instituting no-homework weekends to provide kids with a much-needed break and time to spend with family and friends. Article edited by Stacy Jagodowski. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Use precise geolocation data.
Since the quantities of time discussed here are totals, teachers in middle and high school should be aware of how much homework other teachers are assigning.
Psychologist Maurice Elias sees this as a common mistake: Individual teachers create homework policies that in aggregate can overwhelm students. He suggests that teachers work together to develop a school-wide homework policy and make it a key topic of back-to-school night and the first parent-teacher conferences of the school year. If a parent has positive attitudes toward homework, their children are more likely to share those same values, promoting academic success.
Small Benefits for Elementary Students As young children begin school, the focus should be on cultivating a love of learning, and assigning too much homework can undermine that goal. Moderate Benefits for Middle School Students As students mature and develop the study skills necessary to delve deeply into a topic—and to retain what they learn—they also benefit more from homework.
Brian Sztabnik, a veteran middle and high school English teacher, suggests that teachers take a step back and ask themselves these five questions : How long will it take to complete?
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