Homework, does it work??

An on and on going debate is homework! Does it work? Why do we have it and what's it good for? On the other hand homework is culturally contitioned over many years, and it's a platitude that we still have homework. So homework, does it work?

PROs: Homework can have an important role in the cooperation between school and home. This will give parents an opportunity to take part in student training. Homework contributes the students to learn to take responsibility and it teaches them good working practices. Students, who practice, will learn!
Here's a short film created to encourage students to do their homework.



CONs: Schoolwork belongs to the school. Today the children are really busy. More busy then before. So when the school is finished they hurry home to eat, then it is off to football practice, gymnastics or something else. And when the training is over, they want to be social with their friends with what’s left of the evening.
And if the children don’t have much to do, they often have siblings which are occupied. Then the parents have travel from one to another just to keep the wheels spinning. And then there is this kid at home who needs help and follow-up with his/hers homework. He/her feels adversity evening after evening.


The homework these days aren’t the same as in “the old days”, so many students feel that the grown-ups at home can’t contribute with any help and there are also grown-ups. Students from minority backgrounds can have parents who haven’t the qualification to help in Norwegian. So they end up felling adversity…again.
Education Act hasn’t got any provisions in it which says that homework is decreed by law. It is just an old tradition which says that homework is necessary.
Here is an article from the newspaper Aftenposten who talks about the topic.
So as you all can see there are more CONs than PROs. So am I against homework? What do I mean?
I mean that homework is something that we have to practice. Why? I do believe that homework is important for the parents because this gives them an opportunity to take part in student training. According to the new research from Statistics Norway students can learn more, but especially those who have high – educated- parents.

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What about the other parents and their students? Well I do believe in this statistics and I do believe that we have to find a solution that can help this group. How? What about more quality on homework at home and homework – lessons at school. This gives, especially students who has little help at home, a chance to get equal help. This means that the school needs to have homework-help at school.

According to the newspaper Dagsavisen students rush less and no truant from lessons anymore. So it is clearly that it gives a positive effect on the students in many ways. The students now have some spare time to use at home with their friends and family.

What do I mean about more quality at home? I do mean that the teacher needs to choose homework which is thought through and can be done at home. The teacher needs to follow up this homework back at school so it has a learning objective.

If a teacher could manage to combine do these two things I do believe he has done a good job.