Educators and parents have a wide range of opinions when it comes to the topic of homework. Is it best to have homework? Or no homework? Or another method of learning at home?
Students at one Iowa high school are experiencing a new method for learning at home. Teacher Katie Bunce calls her initiative “quests.” She does not assign homework, but instead allows students to embark on study quests and learn at their own pace.
According to the Des Moines Register “she created a flow chart for each unit the class is studying. Within the unit are several quests that students can work on until they get 100 percent.” This approach allows for personalization of the learning, differentiated by interest and learning needs.
And so far it seems to be working well for her Advanced Placement® students.
More details about these “quests” can be found in the article, Urbandale Students Take Hands-On Role In Learning.
What are the pros and cons of homework? Should it be maintained in its traditional sense, eliminated, or redefined based on student needs?
I find this an interesting idea. It seems to coincide with the Healthy Homework Guidelines promulgated by the Race to Nowhere Team and presented to the National PTA this past June. For me, we get somewhat off track debating for and against homework when we should really be debating how much authority teachers should have to dictate behaviors in the home. In the end, parents are the heads of their own homes. Homework sits as a singular activity in which authority outside the home can override day to day decision making that parents usually have. If homework were given with the understanding that parents could waive it, teachers would begin considering homework from a different point of view.
The other issue that is much more important than a pro and con debate about homework is the need for teachers to be trained in homework as a technique. If you look at the curricula of schools of education, none, to the best of my knowledge, have courses called Homework. Teachers do not have continuing education courses on homework, and professional websites have a dearth of articles on homework. If teachers give homework, they have an obligation to study the theory, research, and practice of homework. They don’t and that, in my mind, is at the core of the problem.’
Kenneth Goldberg, Ph.D. http://www.thehomeworktrap.com.