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The Great Homework Debate

Carole Smith

Caryn Asherson

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Discussion Focus:

How should homework be used in school?

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Our Premise Homework is meant to be practice.

-It should be used to facilitate the enrichment of the course material.

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Our Premise

Homework should not be used to demonstrate mastery of Standards.

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Our Premise

Homework should not be incorporated into the academic grade.

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Our Top Ten Reasons

The following are our top ten reasons for not using homework as a factor in determining grades and consequently not a true reflection of academic performance.

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Supporting Evidence

1. Homework perpetuates extrinsic reasons for doing homework.

“Grading homework reduces interest in learning.”

-Intrinsic motivation is a key to a child’s academic success.

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Supporting Evidence

2. Students often view homework as a chore.

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Supporting Evidence

3. Emphasizing a homework grade puts too much focus on achievement rather than learning.

-It stifles a student’s creativity and imagination.

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Supporting Evidence

4. Homework should be used to identify what students are not understanding and how to re-teach for clarification.

-assessment tool.

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Supporting Evidence

5. Standards should be mastered in the classroom, not outside of school.

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Conclusion:

The evidence presented this evening strongly supports our stance focusing on the value of homework in determining grades.

Supporting Documentation:-Abusing Research: The Study of Homework

and Other Examples (The Homework Myth, 2006)

-Grade Inflation in Elementary or Secondary Students’ Progress Reports: The Contribution of Homework or Extra-Credit Projects (American Secondary Education v24 no3 p.11-18, 1996

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Supporting Evidence

6. Abusing Research:

Research is often misused, misrepresented, and misunderstood, paying particular attention to claims about the benefits of homework.

-Conclusions can be informed by research without being wholly determined by it.

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Supporting Evidence

7. It is important to distinguish between relying on scientific techniques to investigate the natural world and relying on them in education, which is ultimately about understanding, responding to, and helping particular individuals.

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Supporting Evidence

8. Homework should not be assigned (certainly not as the default condition) unless there are good data to demonstrate its value for most students.

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Supporting Evidence

9. There is no evidence that any amount of homework improves the academic performance of elementary students.

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Supporting Evidence

10. Homework studies confuse grades and test scores with learning.