Homework

Both the popular and the research literature have focused on homework as viewed from the outside, that is, on the nature of the homework itself. We focus on homework as viewed from the inside, by the student doing the assignments. Many educational benefits will accrue from understanding the wide range of individual differences among learners in the way they prefer to do their homework and from encouraging children to learn at home under conditions that match their preferences as much as possible.

Although much learning occurs in school, a great deal of learning also occurs outside that environment. Homework is a kind of out-of-school learning that has not yet received the serious attention that it merits in the research literature. Learning at school and at home are similar in several ways. The student's ability to learn does not change. Inschool learning is affected by variables not found in the out-of-school learning situation: The quality of the teacher-learner interaction, the dynamics of the classroom group, and other characteristics of the school in which learning takes place. The characteristics of the home environment; the influence of parents, siblings, and friends; and the existence of other activities that compete for the children's time, attention, and effort. However, the major difference between learning at school and at home is that the learner has choices not only about whether to do the homework at all, but also about the circumstances and surroundings in which to do it.

Homework is most frequently done at home and alone, but it may be done in other places such as the library, in study periods during or after school, or with other people such as parents or fellow students. There are different kinds of homework. Some homework is designed to assure that students review, practice, and drill material that has been learned at school. Other homework assignments are intended to provide students with the opportunity to amplify, elaborate, and enrich previously learned information. Homework is also sometimes used to prepare, in advance, material to be learned in the following classes.

Strong opinions on the topic of the efficacy of homework as a teaching strategy appear in the professional literature as well. The views range from strong criticism of the use of homework to claims that the proper use of homework can yield a significant increase in the level of academic achievement. By contrast, there have been relatively few empirical studies on the effects of homework. A number of authorities on the topic examined these studies and concluded that (a) only a small number of studies have been conducted, (b) many of them were poorly designed, and (c) they focused almost exclusively on the characteristics of the homework itself (e.g., types, quality, amount, grading system, feedback) or on the effect of homework on achievement.