Blog Fourteen - Homework
On average, students in the United States spend around six or seven hours on homework, as recorded by the National Center for Education Statistics. Homework is meant to have students review the lessons taught earlier in the day to enhance memory. These can include taking notes for a reading, doing practice problems, or creating flow charts to summarize the information they learned in the corresponding lesson. The type of homework given generally corresponds to the nature of the subject taught. For example, mathematics classes are more likely to have practice problems since math problems typically cultivate problem-solving intuition that is required for the class but can’t be acquired through videos or readings. On the other hand, an intermediate-level language learning class would likely benefit from assigning readings in the target language so learners can see it used in a more real-world setting. Or videos so they can see the language spoken more informally and colloquially, and get used to the dialect and slang. But having to do work at home can cause school to be too prevalent in students' lives. If they aren’t allowed to separate their school and home lives, it can lead to increased pressure, burnout, and even a lack of motivation to learn certain classes because students are so overworked by those classes.
Studies by the National Library of Medicine show that the human brain’s memory retention increases from repeating and applying the material learned. Homework provides learners with a perfect opportunity to review concepts on their own at a later time and see how much they absorbed during the lesson. In the case that the student struggles with homework, they now know the specific topic they need to seek support in before high-stakes exams, where a mistake would have more of an effect on their grades. On the other hand, homework is usually weighted very low or even zero in most classes, so there is less of an impact if a student makes mistakes on their homework due to gaps in their content knowledge.
Moreover, homework allows students to practice completing tasks in an environment where they aren’t being monitored. In other words, it teaches them accountability. Being able to complete assignments on their own and having to find internal motivation to do so helps learners build discipline and time-management skills from balancing homework, their hobbies, their extracurriculars, and maybe a job amongst their other daily events. This is a skill they will need when they develop their careers since a job environment holds an individual accountable for completing tasks, compared to school, where students are not held accountable to do much outside of it.
However, interesting results showed up in an analysis of three of the top five countries in the Pearson Review’s best-ranking education system list in 2014: Finland, South Korea, and Japan, all of which are known for their exceptional education. What is intriguing is that these countries amass an average of 2.8, 2.9, and 3.8 hours of homework, respectively, while still ranking 5th, 1st, and 2nd in the list. For comparison, the US averages around six to seven hours, more than double the countries listed above, yet ranks as number seventeen. This provides an argument for the necessity of homework since there are many countries where learners seem to still have the “content absorption” derived from homework without actually assigning it, indicating that they likely have a better system of teaching content inside the classrooms themselves. Or, it could also point to cultural differences and the weight that education and knowledge have in each country. An alternative to both is that the homework may help, but it is administered in formats different from those in the US. Maybe a combination of all three. Regardless, this disparity in hours depicts that many hours spent on homework are not exactly a necessity for a successful group of learners.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, students in the United States already spend an average of 6.64 hours a day at school. Their home life is meant to give them time to relax and explore their passions. However, suppose they are not given ample time to cultivate and nurture their interests due to schoolwork. In that case, it may lead to a lack of independent thinking and creative freedom in the younger generation as a whole, leading them to be more of a homogenous group without the freedom to have their interests. Consequently, this will result in them having a lack of original ideas as adults since, while the importance of hobbies is generally underestimated, hobbies can shape the way a student thinks.
Additionally, being forced to do a subject at home may lead to students being unwilling to explore it further of their own free will. Let’s analyze a student in mathematics, for example. If they had to do mathematics at school and home, they would likely be too tired or sick of it to explore it on their own, even if it may interest them.
Homework brings a lot of consideration to the world of education. It is especially different because it has to do with students’ home lives as well and deals with the balance of students' free time and school. These decisions that concern learners’ lives outside of school should be considered carefully since there are so many unpredictabilities that come with them as students are no longer in a controlled environment. Many students have a lot going on at home, which should be respected, even if it cannot be known for sure.
