A classroom teacher’s view on homework

When considering homework, teachers discover it helpful to communicate their policy with the households of their students. After just recently completing a Learners Edge course, Jennifer Lindsey, a fourth grade instructor from Pennsylvania, assessed her research viewpoint which consists of the purposeful functions teachers and households play.

Research can be a dissentious subject in the education community, and we hope you can value this instructors point of view. We want to hear your ideas about research. What is your approach? How do you interact with families about homework?

LE: What is your position on the problem of research?
When I address this question, I respond to as a teacher and as the parent of school age children. I do see homework as having a function in the educational procedure and I do not concur with Alfie Kohn (see post), who appears to believe research is useless, or worse, has an unfavorable effect. While Kohn asserts there is nearly no research that shows research to be useful, I did not see a persuading quantity of hard information to support doing away with all research.
Yes, the quantity of research need to be based on the students age and grade level. As a lot of Kindergarten-3rd grade teachers are self-contained, it needs to be relatively basic to give math homework one night, reading or spelling one night, etc to avoid overloading 5 to 8-year-olds. I see research to extend knowing.
Our textbook mentions it can take 24 repetitions of a skill for a student to reach 80% proficiency. I believe practicing skills is worthwhile. Kohns comparison with tennis does not make sense to me. There are abilities in tennis you need to practice to enhance. There are standard mathematics skills kids need to practice to develop a strong foundation prior to proceeding to higher-level math abilities. Kohn points out how trainees might become better at remembering, however not believing. I see this as 2 different things; we need trainees to bear in mind certain facts and then carry on to utilizing those skills as thinkers and issue solvers.
As a parent, it can be difficult to squeeze in research some nights! We do the finest we can, and if we have issues or problems, I reach out to the instructor. Once again, great instructors make it a point to know what some home situations may be like and to modify accordingly.

I do see homework as having a function in the instructional process and I do not agree with Alfie Kohn (see short article), who appears to believe homework is worthless, or even worse, has an unfavorable impact. While Kohn asserts there is practically no research study that shows research to be useful, I did not see a persuading amount of hard data to support doing away with all research.
Yes, the amount of research must be based on the trainees age and grade level. As many Kindergarten-3rd grade teachers are self-contained, it ought to be relatively simple to provide math research one night, checking out or spelling one night, etc to prevent overloading 5 to 8-year-olds. Research can be a divisive topic in the education neighborhood, and we hope you can value this teachers point of view.

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