HOMEWORK
Donald Snead
Department of Educational Leadership
dsnead@mtsu.edu
Kathleen Burriss
Department of Elementary and Special
Education
kburriss@mtsu.edu
1
Teachers’ Perceptions Regarding the
Motivation and Effectiveness of
Homework
2
Definition of Homework
 A historical
component of children’s learning and
teachers’ instruction

Defined as any task assigned by to complete
out-of-school

(Cooper, 1989)
3
Questions about Homework

How assign?
 How use grades?
4
Scheduling Homework

Administrator mandate
 Parents’ expectations
 Family schedules full
 Children need help
5
Past Research Inconsistencies

Yes, positive relationship between homework &
academic achievement
 But inconsistencies exist for children, parents,
and teachers

(Cooper, Robinson, Patall, 2006)
6
Contemporary Family Issues






Single family households/two working parents
Additional extracurricular activities
More hours in school
Increases in rates of childhood obesity levels
Increases in media addictions
Increases in restaurant eating
7
The Research Problem


Lack of naturalistic data in literature
Finding the teacher voice
8
Literature Review





No consensus
Administrators (test scores, school policy)
Parents’ expectations
Form of communication/involvement
Improve students’ understanding

(Van Voorhis, 2003)
9
Contradictions in Literature

Cooper, et. al (2006)


homework influences academic achievement
Kralovec & Buell (2000)


homework/waste of time
quality of professional development/after-school
programs
10
Homework is Instructional/NonInstructional

Instructional
•
•
•
•

Complete school assignments
Drill/practice
Review
Test preparation
Non-instructional:
• Community involvement
• Political & personal development
• Communication
11
Homework as Dilemma





One-size fits all
Differentiate assignments
Parents’ ability to help
Students’ ability to interpret and transfer learning
Appropriate timing
12
Past Homework Literature

A snapshot of what has already been learned
 Most studies quantitative
 Few qualitative studies from perceptional
standpoint
 Teacher voice data limited
13
Theoretical Framework
 Informational Processing



Learning as transferring information
Cognitive control processes
Adequate student understanding necessary for
transfer
• (Atkinson & Shiffin, 1968)
14
Research Questions
What are the reasons elementary school
teachers assign homework?

 Are
there any differences between early
childhood and elementary teachers’ perceptions
regarding homework?

How do teachers use homework in the overall
evaluation process of their students?
15
Research Questions

To what degree does homework involve the use
of technology or specific tools that are not
provided by the school?

To what degree does a district implement
homework policy when such is mandated by
administrators?
About the Study

Participants - 90 Volunteer Teachers:


2nd and 4th grade teachers (47 and 43 respectively)
Instrument:



Seven item open- ended questionnaire
Analysis
Compare/Contrast
17
Homework Survey

Open-Ended Survey:
•
Why do you give homework?
•
If homework is mandated, who requires it?
•
How much time do you anticipate students spending on
homework per week?
•
Do you assign homework that requires technology
(internet, word processing, spreadsheets)?
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Homework Survey

Open-Ended Survey:
•
How do you assess homework?
•
To what degree (percentage) is homework included in
the overall grades?
•
Additional thoughts on homework.
Study Validity

Piloted the survey with a group previous to the
onset of the study.

Two researchers and a graduate assistant
analyzed the participants’ responses.

Constant comparison process determined each
of the three independent coding efforts elicited
the same categories for each question.

(Le Compte & Preissle, 1993; McMillan, & Wergin, 2006)
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Study Validity

Two researchers provided text examples to
justify category labels.

Theoretical validity is affirmed through earlier
discussions of informational processing and
developmentally appropriate practices.

(Le Compte & Preissle, 1993; McMillan, & Wergin, 2006)
Five Layers of Analysis
Constant




Comparison Analysis:
Layers one, two and three
Two researchers
One graduate student
Fourth layer
• Two researchers provided text examples to justify category
labels

Fifth layer
• Researchers looked for consistent/inconsistency patterns
within individual teacher responses
22
Study Results
Question 1: Why do you give
homework?

Several instructional/non-instructional reasons:






Practice
Reinforcement
Review
Communication
Responsibility
Multiples of the aforementioned categories
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Question 2: If homework is
mandated who requires it?
 Administrators
 Parents
 District
 Other
 Not
assign
 Collapsed “other”, “Multiples”, & “Not
assigned”
 65 of 90 reported homework as a teacher
choice
25
Question 3: How much time do you
anticipate students spending on
homework per week?

Most teachers reported a range; therefore, a
spreadsheet displays the lower and upper limits
time required.

Example: Teacher A lower limit 1.25 hours to upper
limit 1.67
Teacher B lower limit 1.33 hours to upper
limit 1.33
26
Question 4: Do you assign
homework that requires
technology?

Overwhelmingly teachers reported they do not
27
Question 5: How do you assess
homework?
 Analysis





teased out five sub-categories
Teacher— sole grader
Student— sole grader
Teacher and student— teacher provide answers while
students checked work or teacher just
checked/looked over with student
No graded— teacher did not check homework
No Response— teacher did not indicate procedure
28
Question 6: To what degree is
homework included in the overall
grades?
 Analysis






teased out six categories
Not counted or 0%
1% > 10%
11% > 15%
16% > 20%
21% > 25%
Other amounts
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Question 7: Additional thoughts on
homework

Most teachers did not respond

Subcategories included:
•Responsibility
•Reinforcement
•Standard
•Parents
•Practice
•Not finished in school
•Relevant reading
•On homework given
30
Conclusions about Homework

Variety of reasons for assigning homework



Confusion
Teacher inconsistency
Purpose not well defined
•(Findings concur will Banks, 2007)
31
Conclusions about Homework

Time spent/week




Second graders .33 to 3.5 hours
Fourth graders .05 to 7.0 hours
No second/two fourth grade teachers indicated “no
homework.”
Graded


Fourth grade teachers who did not grade homework
and required more than two hours per week, included
the grade considerably more in over all (10%<)
Second grade teacher assigning more than two hours
per week, did not include in overall grade
32
The Data State…

Greatest number of responses indicated skill as
reasons for homework.
“More is better”
 Differentiated learning may be lost
 Teachers inconsistent with respect to grade, time, &
goal

33
Implications of Study
 Process
& product of homework may be
inconsistent
 Historical, but not as effective
 Differentiation not evidenced
 Teachers’ inconsistency undermine
process
 Homework did not extend learning
HOMEWORK
Donald Snead
Department of Educational Leadership
dsnead@mtsu.edu
Kathleen Burriss
Department of Elementary and Special
Education
kburriss@mtsu.edu
35