A classroom teacher’s view on homework

LE: What is your position on the issue of research?
When I answer this concern, I respond to as an educator and as the parent of school age children. I do see research as having a role in the instructional process and I do not concur with Alfie Kohn (see short article), who appears to think research is useless, or even worse, has a negative impact. While Kohn asserts there is almost no research that shows research to be useful, I did not see a persuading amount of difficult data to support getting rid of all research.
Yes, the amount of homework should be based on the trainees age and grade level. As a lot of Kindergarten-3rd grade teachers are self-contained, it needs to be reasonably simple to offer math research one night, spelling or reading one night, etc to prevent overwhelming 5 to 8-year-olds. If teachers are innovative with projects and in interacting the purpose of the assignment, students need to not become bored or annoyed. Those are my goals as a fourth-grade teacher. I see research to extend learning. Would I assign 30 mathematics problems to students who I know would battle with them, or to trainees who have shown their understanding of the skill? No, in those cases, it is my task as the teacher to modify the assignments.
Our book points out it can take 24 repeatings of a skill for a trainee to reach 80% competency. Kohn points out how trainees may become better at remembering, but not thinking. I see this as two different things; we require students to keep in mind certain truths and then move on to utilizing those abilities as thinkers and issue solvers.
As a parent, it can be tough to squeeze in research some nights! We do the finest we can, and if we have concerns or issues, I reach out to the instructor. Again, great teachers make it a point to know what some house circumstances may be like and to modify appropriately.

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I do see research as having a function in the instructional process and I do not agree with Alfie Kohn (see post), who appears to believe research is useless, or even worse, has a negative effect. While Kohn asserts there is nearly no research study that shows research to be helpful, I did not see a convincing amount of difficult data to support doing away with all research.
Yes, the amount of research need to be based on the students age and grade level. As the majority of Kindergarten-3rd grade teachers are self-contained, it needs to be relatively easy to give mathematics homework one night, reading or spelling one night, etc to prevent straining 5 to 8-year-olds. Research can be a divisive topic in the education neighborhood, and we hope you can value this instructors point of view.

Homework can be a dissentious subject in the education community, and we hope you can appreciate this instructors perspective. We would like to hear your thoughts about homework. What is your philosophy? How do you interact with families about homework?

When thinking of research, teachers find it useful to interact their policy with the households of their trainees. After just recently completing a Learners Edge course, Jennifer Lindsey, a fourth grade instructor from Pennsylvania, reflected on her research viewpoint which consists of the purposeful functions instructors and families play.

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