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| Debatabase Junior Topic |
| Summary: Should students be given homework tasks to complete outside school? Or are such tasks pointless? |
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Author:Alastair Endersby ( United Kingdom )
Alastair learnt to debate at the Cambridge Union but discovered his real talents lay in coaching when he started teaching. He has twice coached England teams in the World Schools Debating Championships. Alastair currently teaches History and Politics at Bishop Wordsworth's School in Salisbury, England. He is the Editor of Debatabase. |
Created: Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Last Modified:
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Homework is a task (often called an assignment) set by teachers for students to do outside normal lessons – usually at home in the evening. Schools have been setting homework in developed countries for over a century, but until the past few decades usually only older students had to do it. More recently younger students have also been given homework by their primary or elementary schools. In England the government does not make schools give homework but it does set guidelines. Five year olds are expected to do an hour a week, increasing to three hours a week at 11 and ten hours or more a week at 16. American studies report the amount of homework being set for younger students doubling over the past twenty-five years or so, although some doubt these findings.
Countries, schools and subjects differ a lot on how much homework is set, and at what age, but almost all high school students have to do at least some most nights. Most children have never liked homework but from time to time it is also debated by politicians, parents and teachers. Sometimes there are demands for more homework, as part of a drive for “higher standards”. At other times there are calls for less homework to be set, especially in primary/ elementary schools.
This topic looks at whether homework should be banned altogether. The arguments could also be adapted for debates on whether less homework should be set, or on ending homework for younger students. |
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| Homework has little educational worth and adds nothing to the time spent in school. Some schools and some countries don’t bother with homework at all, and their results do not seem to suffer from it. Studies show that homework adds nothing to standardised test scores for primary/ elementary pupils. International comparisons of older students have found no positive relationship between the amount of homework set and average test scores. If anything, countries with more homework got worse results! |
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Homework is a vital and valuable part of education. There are only a few hours in each school day – not enough time to cover properly all the subjects children need to study. Setting homework extends study beyond school hours, allowing a wider and deeper education. It also makes the best use of teachers, who can spend lesson time teaching rather than just supervising individual work that could be done at home. Tasks such as reading, writing essays, researching, doing maths problems, etc. are best done at home, away from the distractions of other students. |
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| Homework is almost always done when a child is already tired from a long day at school. As a result few students are at their best when they sit down in the evening to yet more work. Homework ends up being done in a hurry, by students fighting fatigue, and poor quality work is produced. Worse still, students who have been up late trying to finish off their homework, then come tired into school the next day, and so are less ready to learn. Really, what is the point? |
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Having homework also allows students to really fix in their heads work they have done in school. Doing tasks linked to recent lessons helps students strengthen their understanding and become more confident in using new knowledge and skills. For younger children this could be practising reading or multiplication tables. For older ones it might be writing up an experiment, revising for a test, reading in preparation for the next topic, etc. |
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| Setting homework does little to develop good study skills. It is hard to check whether the homework students produce is really their own. Some students have always copied off others or got their parents to help them. But today there is so much material available on the internet that teachers can never be sure. It would be better to have a mixture of activities in the classroom which help students to develop a whole range of skills, including independent learning. |
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Homework prepares students to work more independently, as they will have to at college and in the workplace. Everyone needs to develop skills in personal organisation, working to deadlines, being able to research, etc. If students are always “spoon-fed” topics at school they will never develop study skills and self-discipline for the future. |
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| Homework produces large amount of pointless work of little educational value, but marking it ties up much of teachers’ time. This leaves teachers tired and with little time to prepare more effective, inspiring lessons. The heavy workload also puts young graduates off becoming teachers, and so reduces the talent pool from which schools can recruit. |
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Teachers accept that marking student work is an important part of their job. Well planned homework should not take so long to mark that the rest of their job suffers, and it can inform their understanding of their students, helping them design new activities to engage and stretch them. As for recruitment, although teachers do often work in the evenings, they are not alone in this and they get long holidays to compensate. |
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| Homework puts students off learning. Studies have shown that many children find doing homework very stressful, boring and tiring. Often teachers underestimate how long a task will take, or set an unrealistic deadline. Sometimes because a teacher has not explained something new well in class, the homework task is impossible. So children end up paying with their free time for the failings of their teachers. They also suffer punishments if work is done badly or late. After years of bad homework experiences, it is no wonder that many children come to dislike education and switch off, or drop out too early. |
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If homework puts students off learning, then it has been badly planned by the teacher. The best homework tasks engage and stretch students, encouraging them to think for themselves and follow through ideas which interest them. Over time, well planned homework can help students develop good habits, such as reading for pleasure or creative writing. |
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| Homework takes a lot of time up. Being young is not just about doing school work. It should also about being physically active, exploring the environment through play, doing creative things like music and art, and playing a part in the community. It is also important for young people to build bonds with others, especially family and friends, but homework often squeezes the time available for all these things. |
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Again, just because some teachers are bad at setting homework that is not a reason to scrap it altogether. Homework needs to be well designed and should not take up all of students’ spare time. Recent American surveys found that most students in the USA spent no more than an hour a night on homework. That suggests there does not seem to be a terrible problem with the amount being set. |
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| Homework is a class issue. In school everyone is equal, but at home some people have advantages because of their family background. Middle-class families with books and computers will be able to help their children much more than poorer ones can. This can mean working class children end up with worse grades and more punishments for undone or badly done homework. On the other hand pushy parents may even end up doing their kids’ homework for them – cheating. And homework is one of the most common causes of family arguments. |
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Education is a partnership between the child, the school and the home. Homework is one of the main ways in which the student’s family can be involved with their learning. Many parents value the chance to see what their child is studying and to support them in it. And schools need parents’ support in encouraging students to read at home, to help with the practising of tables, and to give them opportunities to research new topics. |
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| | This House would ban homework
That homework tasks are an unnecessary part of education
This House would scrap homework assignments
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| View the full discussion |
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rawapz
Member
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Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2009 06:22 am |
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| Homework is very useful. Not all students would study in their home after coming home from school. Homework will give them (the students) some practice about what they learn in school before. It will also help the teachers to teach what are they taught. Homework also make students more understand with the lesson and also a practice for them who can not understand difficult lesson.
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DemocraticDebater247
Member
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Posted: Sun Nov 8, 2009 10:28 pm |
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| The teacher provides a pupil with homework because he wants them to be sucessful. Homework helps the student understand a principal of the subject and it'll assist them during tests. Homework isn't a consquence that a child thinks it is. If there wasn't any homework that was provided, test scores would be low and their wouldn't be any more intelligent people
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Chav
Member
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Posted: Sun Sep 13, 2009 09:12 am |
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Practice doesn't make perfect but it gets you as close to perfect as the average person!!!
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