Is Homework Helpful For Students ?

Homework is a set of tasks assigned to students by their teachers to be completed

outside the class. Common homework assignments may include required reading, a writing or

typing project, mathematical exercises to be completed, information to be reviewed before a

test, or other skills to be practiced. Nowdays, many children have to spend hours on every

evening doing homework instead of involve with productive activities such as jogging, playing

football and more. Some people also seem to believe that by doing lots of homework will help

the children in their academic career. Ifill Lynch and Hammond (2006) stated that “ The goal

shouldn’t be to eliminate homework, but to make it authentic, meaningful and engaging.”. They

both also highlighted that there is connection between homework and learning process where

assigning mountains of homework to student doesn’t fully influence their learning capacities

and capabilities. It’s all about the quality of homework, not quantity.The basic objectives of

assigning homework to students are the same as schooling in general are undermine the goal,

develop study skills and help parents involved in their child’s learning.

Firstly, homework can undermine the goal. Rigid homework schedules as

undermining their ultimate curricular goals as well. Once a children enters school, the focus

should be on cultivating a love of learning, and assigning too much homework that may help

the children to always be alert, discipline and perform well in class. Young students often don’t

have the study skills to benefit fully from homework, so it may be a poor use of time (Cooper,

1989; Cooper et al., 2006; Marzano & Pickering, 2007). According to Youki Terada (2018),

homework is beneficial, but only to a degree. Students in high school gain the most, while

younger kids benefit much less. Besides that, The National PTA and the National Education

Association support the “10-minute homework guideline”—a nightly 10 minutes of homework

per grade level. These guideline actually depends to the students’ needs because each student

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has its own way to study or understanding a particular subjects. Some student could be a fast

or slow learner too. Thus, homework will help in undermine the goal to encourage student

become more successful in studies.

Next, homework can develop study skills especially when it comes into higher level

studies. Practice assignments do improve scores on tests at all grade levels. A little amount of

homework may help elementary school students build study habits and this positive habit surely

will continue grow within them even when they have gone for work. Nightly assignments can

help prepare them for scholarly work, and research shows that homework can have moderate

benefits for middle school students (Cooper et al., 2006). Other than that, recent research by

Roschelle (2016) also has proven that online math homework, which can be designed to adapt

to students’ levels of understanding, can significantly boost test scores. So, homework really

can develop study skills among students as it can improve academic achievement.

Furthermore, homework at the same time can help parents involved in their child’s

learning. Homework requires students, teachers, and parents to invest time and effort on

assignments. According to Walker et al (2004), other than encourage conversations about a

child’s life at school, it also can gives a huge impact towards the child’s strengths and interests

in studies. MetLife (2007) too found that 87% of parents saw that helping their child with

homework was an opportunity for them to talk and spend time together. For students, their

parents clearly will be their reason to struggle in studies because they are the closest supporter

to them since small. Not forgetting too as these students are still young or could also category

as teenagers nowdays love to receive attention from their beloved ones so they that can continue

moving forward and happy in whatever they do or obstacles coming to them. Thus, homework

can be a powerful tool to help parents become more involved in their child’s progress in

education.

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