Homework

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Short Answer

“Problems worthy of attack prove their worth by fighting back”

Piet Hein, Grooks 1 (1969)

Class time should offset homework time, though this balance depends heavily on the subject(s) taught.

It’s possible, but not always feasible, to eliminate homework entirely for a class provided students demonstrate sufficient understanding of the material taught.

Another reason is students may refuse to do it altogether.

Sometimes you may have to give homework due to an administrative policy. This is typically to align teachers and avoid discrepancies in provided education. Other times, there’s no homework policy and it’s up to the teacher.

Long Answer

Recall the previous section where I talked about blockers to student learning and the ability to teach.

I’ve personally seen schools implement “no homework” policies in the mid-2010s and use the rule of thumb of 10 minutes per grade level. Nevertheless, it’s difficult to determine the “optimal” time to dedicate to homework (Guo et al., 2024). Even if an optimal time is determined, there’s plenty of guesswork involved but there’s still an argument for neither too little nor too much homework (Cooper et al., 2006). Despite its benefits. homework amplifies potential blockers to learning and may affect equity. Student A and student B may not have the same opportunities, technology available to use, support systems, and availability to complete the same assignment.

Equity is opportunity provided to those in worse circumstances and with fewer resources. Before you start parading equity as the end-all, be-all solution, and go straight towards support no homework policies, consider the following argument:

Much of American Education and how much time is spent learning is largely shaped by the Carnegie Unit or the Student Hour (Shedd, 2003). College students may see a professor for 3 hours a week while high schoolers see teachers typically 4-5 days each week at about 50 min to 1.5 hours per day. This adds up to at least 120 hours of class and contact time over one academic year. Less class time in college may mean more out-of-class work and practice to stay on track and ensure material is retained. Primary and secondary education courses have more time in class, so less, or even no, homework should be needed to go through the necessary material.

Now to talk about why more homework for students means more homework for you, the teacher.

Do I give more or less homework?

Every assignment you issue is an assignment you may have to write, grade, and adjust to various student accommodations. With dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of students, this workload from one graded assignment can take multiple days. Any accommodations multiply the time further. The time to go through one homework assignment scales exponentially as class sizes increase and number of accommodations increase.

Additionally, if all work is done inside of class, a teacher could catch errors and reteach topics quickly rather than delaying correction with homework. In middle school and high school, students typically may have several teachers with differing amounts of homework given in their class too.

Homework should be intended as practice and low-stakes, not busy work. I’ve had the most success with homework that isn’t too time-consuming; if it takes excessive time, it’s an issue with assignment design and/or student understanding.

See Cooper, 2006, for more research on that.

Homework should also be practice and focus on critical problem-solving skills. You can do repetition through homework, but it shouldn’t be something like drilling down 40+ math problems with a value or two changed. class time is better for drilling down concepts because you can have students go through concepts with a teacher guiding, correcting, modeling, and facilitating the learning process (Pearson & Gallagher, 1983).

Before making a decision on issuing more homework, there are two other important notes I’ll cover.

Note 1: Some practice is needed for learning, which may require homework or classwork.

To reference Brown, Roediger, and McDaniel (2014).

Say I’m teaching electrical circuits. This may include topics like Ohm’s Law (V = IR) and the Power Formula (P = IV). The theory is taught, equations are demonstrated, and understanding is checked for.

At this point, a problem occurs: some students lack algebra skills to manipulate multivariable equations. There’s no need to reteach the entirety of algebra then and there, but they still need guidance on how to properly manipulate and apply these equations in different scenarios.

This combines two fields, math and science, into one: applied algebra remediation so students succeed on the current topic(s). I could do this with classwork and practice right then and there, but I may have to assign it as homework so I don’t get too far behind and risk not staying on track with my curriculum and standards.

Note 2: When allowed, only assign homework you’re willing to grade.

If homework must be graded, design it for fast evaluations. Automate when able, limit questions, and stick to formats with discrete answers like multiple choice questions, certain math/science problems, and questions with one correct solution in general. If their answers don’t match your answers, it’s easy to cross-reference and grade.

In data analysis terms, it’s matching 1-to-1 questions to answers, rather than 1-to-many questions to answers.

These types of questions are easy to automate compared to qualitative problems and questions with a multitude/range of correct answers, which means you save more time. We like saving time.

My primary approach for homework in class was “implied homework.” I explicitly told students they were responsible for preparing for tests and assignments based on what I covered in class. Students could ask me questions about concepts will be tested, but not ask me about which questions are on tests. If I didn’t cover a topic to a sufficient degree, I summarized, simplified, and/or excluded the topic from exams.

This setup eliminated virtually all formal homework, except for math-heavy science and engineering topics, but necessitated frequent testing to ensure mastery of concepts.

There were also “open book” tests. I reserved those tests for subjects and concepts where the primary skill tested is knowing how to find information then apply it to a problem. They also eased up knowing all of the details, so long as the student could extrapolate from the information to solve the problem(s).

Overall, though, don’t give out homework unless necessary. Try your best, as a teacher, to accomplish what you need to get students to learn within the classroom setting.

Bibliography

Brown, P. C., Roediger, H. L., III, & McDaniel, M. A. (2014). Make it stick: The Science of Successful learning. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
Cooper, H., Robinson, J. C., & Patall, E. A. (2006). Does Homework Improve Academic Achievement? A Synthesis of Research, 1987–2003. Review of Educational Research, 76(1), 1–62. https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543076001001
Guo, L., Li, J., Xu, Z., Hu, X., Liu, C., Xing, X., Li, X., White, H., & Yang, K. (2024). The relationship between homework time and academic performance among K‐12: A systematic review. Campbell Systematic Reviews, 20(3). https://doi.org/10.1002/cl2.1431
Hein, P. (1969). Grooks 1 (Grooks, #1). Doubleday & Company.
Pearson, D., & Gallagher, M. (1983). The Instruction of Reading Comprehension. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 8(3), 317–344. https://doi.org/10.1016/0361-476X(83)90019-X
Shedd, J. (2003). The History of the Student Credit Hour. New Directions for Higher Education. 122 (Summer) (122): 5–12. doi:10.1002/he.106