CONSTRUCTING A GOOD QUALITY HOMEWORK

Did you ever imagine or experience, as a teacher, your students say to you that the homework you give to them is too much, or they even do not do it with no reason? Did you ever think that homework is really helpful as it’s supposed to be? Well, by being a teacher you will possibly face problems that you couldn’t ever imagine before and your job as a teacher is solving that problems effectively somehow. Currently, there are arguments in the internet questioning how helpful or effectively a homework can be. Some say it’s pointless but some say it’s helpful. In this article, I am going to talk about it.

Homework is a thing that many or almost teachers see as the tool to help students master the related materials, and it always goes that way. Nowadays, students seem to be easily bored while they get something similar or the same again and again. "On the other hand, homework that is repetitive, boring, too easy or difficult for students does not contribute to new learning." -Prof Horsley of Noosa-based CQ University.  So if this were happen that would be common if they didn’t do the homework and prefer playing and having fun, as they always do. Even if they do the homework they’ll become like stressful and it could influence their mentality also their ability in absorbing things, because something too much is bad.   ”When children have too much homework, then they’re not doing the things that are their real homework: playing outside, learning how to make friends, learning how to communicate,” -Stephanie Donaldson-Pressman of the New England Centre for Paediatric Psychology.

So how can we as teachers overcome the problem, since too many homework is pointless while few homework isn’t effective as well. Then teachers have to make homework that really effective, not too much and too few, also teachers have to consider the quality of the homework. Because the quality homework is the best one. "The value and effectiveness of homework depends on its quality,"-Prof Horsley of Noosa-based CQ University. The question is how we construct such a quality homework, here are the characteristics of a quality homework provided by Vatterott;

 First, a quality homework task has a clear academic purpose, such as practice, checking for understanding, or applying knowledge or skills. Second, the task is efficient in terms of time required to demonstrate student learning.  Third, the task promotes student ownership of learning by offering choices and by being personally relevant.  Fourth, the task instils a sense of competence —the student can successfully complete it without help.  And last, the task is aesthetically pleasing to the student—it appears enjoyable and interesting (Vatterott, 2009).

So a homework is able to be called good if it has clear academic purpose, homework typically supports learning in one of four ways: pre-learning, checking for understanding, practice, or processing.  “The ultimate goal of the assignment—pre-learning, checking for understanding, practice, or processing—should be clearly communicated to the student” (Marzano, Pickering, and Pollock, 2001; Pink, 2009). Students should easily understand the value of the task, or be told explicitly how it helps learning. Students should have no trouble connecting the purpose of homework to classroom learning. Some traditional tasks may be inefficient—either because they show no evidence of learning or because they take an inordinate amount of time but yield little learning (Vatterott, 2010). Teachers should consider much in giving new things to students so they cannot easily get confused, say for example, teachers teach vocabulary, new words to students then it should be put directly in sentences so they can understand it easily. “The meanings of new words are best learned by using them in context.” (David, 2010). Teachers should also consider the level of ability in his/her class, by knowing this at least teachers can easily pick the proper materials that fit the students’ ability levels. “Since learners differ in readiness and may vary in their pace and development of intellectual skills, differentiation of homework tasks is an important strategy for developing competence.” (Margolis, 2005; Minotti, 2005; Tomlinson and Imbeau, 2010). By consider all those things or factors, teacher are expected to be able to make good homework and avoiding complaint from students or getting the students being stress.

Basically teachers have instinct to make a good homework, but keep in mind that a good homework consist of purpose, efficiency, competence and ownership. As a teacher once said, "I never heard of a student not doing his work; it's our work he's not doing." When we customize tasks to fit student learning styles and interests, the task becomes theirs, not ours. The goal of ownership is to create a personal relationship between the student and the content (Vatterott, 2009). It all goes back to the teachers’ hand how to build a good and qualified homework, remember that teachers’ duty is to help students in every way, somehow so they can succeed not to make them “lose before war”. It all really goes back to you, teachers.

References

1.        http://www.gladstoneobserver.com.au/news/experts-say-too-much-homework-bad-thing/1596164/

2.       http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/sept10/vol68/num01/Five-Hallmarks-of-Good-Homework.aspx

3.        Five characteristics of quality homework, Paris International Conference on Education, Economy, and Society, Paris, France 20-­‐23 July 2011.

4.        HOMEWORK: QUALITY OVER QUANTITY, Convention Delegates May 8, 2014