When Homework Is Counterproductive?

One of the most controversial topics in education today is homework. This debate has been going on for decades, as teachers, administrators, and parents disagree on whether homework should be assigned, and if assigned, then what the right amount of homework should be. The time students spend on homework has increased over the years. “High school students get assigned up to 17.5 hours of homework per week, according to a survey of 1,000 teachers” (Bidwell). Recently, more fuel has been added in this debate because younger students in particular are receiving much more homework than before. Alfie Kohn, author of The Homework Myth: Why Our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing, states that “The amount of homework that younger kids – ages 6 to 9 – have

Imagine having a full time job where you did not get paid, could not quit, and have at least a few hours of paperwork to complete each night. This is what students go through everyday with homework. Homework is assignments sent home from school for students of all ages to finish by a certain due date, for a grade. In the past decade, controversies over the amount of work kids and teens are given has lead many to study the benefits of homework to see if the work teachers assign is actually helping students academically and improving test scores. It has grown to an extreme amount, prevents kids and teens from getting the things they need in life, gets in the way of a good childhood, damages relationships, and has not proven to actually aid

“Homework is arguably the worst punishment inflicted upon the student body.” One would think this extreme statement would come from the 10-year boys and girls who complain to their parents about the homework they have to complete. However, Rodney Jones starts of his argument against homework using this statement. He argues that homework does not help children taking up all their time. Continuing, he explains how parents should extend child’s knowledge out of school instead of homework and in the end these assignments do not help students grade. However, in contrast of Jones’ beliefs homework indeed benefits children’s learning through the small amounts of extra practice it gives to help the students excel.

Everyday, when the school day is over, students are most likely to get homework to do when they get home. This can be a lot or a little amount of homework, but it can still effect the students the way they are. These effects can be good, bad, or nothing, so today, we take a look whether homework should be assigned or not.

Homework is a large contributing factor to a student’s stress.Researchers surveyed students in 10 high-performing schools in California, and found that 56% of the students stated that homework was a primary stressor (Strauss). Reducing the amount of homework would be more beneficial to students than not. As students go throughout the school day the homework they get from each class piles up. Many students believe that homework is pointless since some teachers never look it over, and give a small amount of points for all of their work. Now this is not to say that homework should be worth more points. Rather, the amount of homework should be equal to the

Homework has been an area of discussion for teachers, students, and even psychologists. It’s been a practice which has been used throughout the United States to help students learn material, reinforce their day’s lesson, or just as busy work to improve a student’s work ethic. Several people view homework as useless, or just plainly unhelpful; this view has been demonstrated ever since the early twentieth century, where many authors and politicians were vehemently against homework, going as far as to write whole books and draft legislation (legislation which had passed the Californian government and had been law) against homework. This opposition has ever since faded, but is now seeing a new movement around America, and there are reasons as to why that is. In an article from CNN, they quote a study from another article published by The American Journal of Family Therapy which states that: “students in the early elementary school years are getting significantly more homework than is recommended by education leaders, in some cases nearly three times as much homework as is recommended”, and, as such, students are raised within a state of stress from the first grade. Several other studies also find that homework is very hurtful; the Journal of Experimental Education published an article which had made a study that found that the average amount of time students spend on homework each night had been 3.1 hours from a sample of high-performing schools in California, when the recommended time on homework is, at most, one hour each night. Homework has been mandated work for students all around the country, and several others, and the workload seems to only be increasing, and so, how might this workload affect a student’s ability to live a healthy life, a teacher’s work plan, and a psychologist’s view of an enormous workload on a student?

Homework has the greatest affect on our lives, even on our teachers and parents,as well as students.The purpose of homework is to connect the gap between children’s learning at school and at home.Most children abhor the purpose of homework.Others insist that assignments are a very important factor in the life of students and that it should be maintained.Homework has a positive impact on children and may help a child’s future life and career.

Throughout their school years,children say that they hate homework and that it’s pointless. Others will say, that this is definitely not the case. Students who actually spend time doing homework will better understand and execute class work more efficiently. Source C had mentioned that children who do not achieve much do more homework because they’re struggling. But, that struggling never goes away. Instead, children still struggle, but at this point, they don’t believe that homework is important. Source D had actually shown that high schoolers had higher grades when they spent more time doing work. They take the time to study and learn how to work through problems on their own, which helps them when taking tests. Multiple sources have stated

Homework has been at the front of school reform since the early 1900’s. Debates over the benefits of homework include “immediate impact on the retention and understanding of the material it covers” (Cooper, 1989, p.86) and downsides of homework include “satiation, denial of access to leisure time and community activities; parental interference; cheating; and increased differences between high and low achievers” (Cooper, 2006, p.7) have led to a see-saw of support and objection regarding homework. There is support from several studies (Maltese, Tai, Fan, 2012; Cooper, Robinson, Patall, 2006; Falkenberg & Barbetta, 2013) that cite homework as a source of increasing students’ achievement level. None of the

Homework can become more closely monitored to assure that the work being assigned to students is useful and engaging. Parents and students are unhappy with homework assigned as busy work which offers little depth and instead just consumes the student’s time (Melvin). If the High School could keep a closer eye on what teachers are assigning students, this would help to alleviate students who are stuck performing monotonous tasks night after night that do not contribute to their overall educational experience. To elaborate on this, different forms of homework impact certain students differently and good teachers will be able to deliver educational value through different types of work. (Terada). Teachers who always assign only a single type of homework will inevitably be unable to engage their entire class. In order to fully get everyone to become involved and engaged in the work allotted, the school system should make sure that the homework teachers assign to students is constantly

When a class is almost over and a teacher starts assigning homework, every student's heart drops. When students have an excess of homework, they do not do as well. Even though homework is a good tool to help teachers teach students subjects, teachers should give less homework because too much homework causes mental health issues in students and less homework helps improve test scores.

“Homework puts pressure on both kids and parents.” The things students learn on a regular bases parents did not learn back when they were in school and if they did it had a new method of doing it. The stress level of kids always studying and doing homework on a daily basis is making them overwhelming. “Homework takes away our personal time no student wants to come home and do more work on what they were already doing for the past 6 hours anyway.”

In many American households, homework is the main cause of stress. Some people think that America is not so well and adding more homework will fix that problem. A study by Indiana University found that students who do more homework tend to get higher scores on standardized tests” (“Do Kids Need Homework?”). “Plus, part of growing up is learning to balance outside activities and the demands of schoolwork” (“Should Parents Help Kids With Homework?). Teachers have their reasons as well. “Teachers say homework is important in the learning process and can help kids develop study and organizational skills. They say kids need to practice what they've learned in school so that the material sticks in their brain” (Strauss). “Having too much homework

“Does Homework Really Work?” by Leslie Crawford agrees with The Huffington Post and Murphy Paul. “homework (takes) precious family time and puts kids under unneeded pressure, is an ineffective way to help children become better learners and thinkers.” -Crawford. One Canadian couple took the case to court claiming their children’s academic performance was not improved after completing homework assignments and won: their children were exempt from future

Homework is given frequently in many of the core classes in order to help students practice and retain the information that is taught. It is typically divided throughout a ‘chapter.’ The concept of homework in itself is excellent, however, there needs to be a clear boundary acquired in how much is too much. Furthermore, students are often given daily homework assignments from at least one class, some of which may not be as extensive as others. Sometimes, students truly comprehend the classroom material beforehand and simply do not need the extra practice, yet are still forced to do it for the ‘grade.’ On the contrary, there are those who feel as if homework should continue to be assigned at the current rate, if not an even greater amount in order to increase the challenge set upon the students. However, this idea presents conflict and many students disapprove on account of already feeling pressured enough with the current portion of work assigned.