A classroom teacher’s view on homework

Research can be a dissentious subject in the education community, and we hope you can value this teachers perspective. We want to hear your thoughts about homework. What is your viewpoint? How do you interact with households about research?

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When considering research, teachers discover it advantageous to communicate their policy with the families of their trainees. After just recently completing a Learners Edge course, Jennifer Lindsey, a fourth grade teacher from Pennsylvania, reviewed her research viewpoint which includes the purposeful roles teachers and families play.

LE: What is your position on the problem of research?
I address as a teacher and as the parent of school age children when I address this concern. I do see homework as having a role in the instructional procedure and I do not agree with Alfie Kohn (see post), who appears to believe homework is worthless, or even worse, has an unfavorable effect. While Kohn asserts there is nearly no research study that proves research to be useful, I did not see a persuading quantity of tough information to support eliminating all homework.
Yes, the quantity of research should be based upon the trainees age and grade level. As most Kindergarten-3rd grade instructors are self-contained, it should be reasonably basic to give mathematics homework one night, reading or spelling one night, etc to avoid straining 5 to 8-year-olds. If instructors are innovative with tasks and in interacting the function of the task, trainees ought to not end up being bored or annoyed. Those are my objectives as a fourth-grade teacher. I see research to extend knowing. Would I appoint 30 mathematics problems to students who I know would battle with them, or to trainees who have demonstrated their understanding of the ability? No, in those cases, it is my job as the teacher to customize the projects.
Our book points out it can take 24 repeatings of a skill for a trainee to reach 80% proficiency. I think practicing skills is beneficial. Kohns contrast with tennis does not make good sense to me. There are skills in tennis you need to practice to improve. There are basic math abilities kids need to practice to develop a solid structure before carrying on to higher-level math skills. Kohn mentions how trainees might progress at remembering, but not thinking. I see this as two various things; we require trainees to keep in mind particular facts and then carry on to utilizing those skills as thinkers and problem solvers.
As a parent, it can be challenging to squeeze in research some nights! We do the best we can, and if we have problems or concerns, I reach out to the instructor. Once again, good teachers make it a point to know what some home circumstances might be like and to customize appropriately.

I do see research as having a function in the academic process and I do not agree with Alfie Kohn (see article), who appears to think research is worthless, or even worse, has an unfavorable effect. While Kohn asserts there is practically no research that shows homework to be beneficial, I did not see a convincing quantity of difficult data to support doing away with all homework.
Yes, the quantity of homework must be based on the trainees age and grade level. As most Kindergarten-3rd grade instructors are self-contained, it needs to be fairly easy to give mathematics homework one night, spelling or reading one night, and so on to avoid overloading 5 to 8-year-olds. Homework can be a dissentious topic in the education neighborhood, and we hope you can appreciate this teachers point of view.

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