Right: homework has a history stretching back over a hundred years. Its popularity with educators has waxed and waned, but most past and former students would probably be united in their dislike of it.
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Arguments against homework
1. Homework does not appear to enhance student performance, especially among primary schoolchildren
It has been claimed that numerous studies in different countries over many years have failed to demonstrate a significant benefit to students from the completion of homework.
The 2014 report of the Inquiry into the Approaches to Homework in Victorian Schools has concluded. 'The debate about the effectiveness of homework as a tool of learning has continued for more than a century. There have been more than 130 studies published related to the subject and these have reached different and, at times, quite contradictory conclusions.'
Similarly, the OECD's Education at a Glance 2014 report released in September 2014 and, in amended form, the following month stated that Australian private school students spend two hours a week more on homework than their public school counterparts but do not perform better academically when socio-economic advantage is taken into account.
Australian private school students achieved an average score 37 points higher than public school students, above the OECD average of 28 points. But - in a trend seen across the world - there was no statistically significant difference between the results of private and public school students when the economic, social and cultural status of students and schools was accounted for.
The report found that while private school students appear to benefit academically from their relatively privileged social backgrounds, the private school programs do not contribute significantly to these students' better outcomes. This includes the greater emphasis on homework in private schools, which does not appear to result, of itself, in improved academic achievement.
Primary school students, in particular, have been shown to demonstrate no academic benefit as a result of completing homework. A 1999 study led by a researcher at the University of
Durham in the United Kingdom had found that there was no evidence that homework in primary schools led to increased academic performance.
Dr Sue Thomson, a Senior Research Fellow with the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER), has noted that many of the countries with the highest scoring students on achievement tests, such as Japan, Denmark, and the Czech Republic, assign little homework. Some critics have suggested that the more homework a nation's teachers give, the poorer that country's results on the achievement tests appear likely to be.
2. Homework is inequitable
Homework raises major equity issues because it highlights the difference in socio-economic and cultural background between students. Some students come from home backgrounds which facilitate the completion of homework tasks whereas others face impediments within their home environments. Disadvantage may result from non-English speaking home environments, from cultural disparities, from poverty or from intellectual disability.
Within the school setting, equity issues can be minimised as the same opportunities can be provided to all students, often by providing additional assistance to those who require it. When students are outside the school this is no longer the case. To the extent that homework is compulsory and forms part of an assessment regime, some students will face unequal opportunities to learn and earn grades. Those students from disadvantaged backgrounds are being effectively excluded from the opportunity to succeed.
The 2014 report of the Inquiry into the Approaches to Homework in Victorian Schools concluded, 'Homework ... [impacts] on students from indigenous, culturally and linguistically diverse communities, as well as those with a disability and those from low socio-economic backgrounds.'
A similar point was made by Etta Kralovec, associate professor of teacher education and director of graduate teacher education at the University of Arizona South, in an opinion piece published by CNN on September 5, 2014. Referring primarily to the United States, Kralovec stated, 'The experience of homework is very different depending on which side of the economic divide you sit. The unequal distribution of educational resources means that some students go home to nannies, well-stocked home libraries, tutors, well-educated parents and high-speed Internet. Others students go home to caring for siblings in crowded apartments and often-absent parents who barely make ends meet.'
The expectation that students will be able to access various forms of technology, including computers and the Internet, also creates problems for students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds who are not able to do so.
In 2012 the newly elected French president proposed abolishing homework largely on equity grounds. President Francois Hollande stated, 'An education program is, by definition, a societal program. Work should be done at school, rather than at home.' He added that the homework ban was a matter of equality, since wealthier children have parental support at home that poor children do not.
3. Homework can lead to negative learning behaviours and attitudes
It has been claimed that homework fosters negative attitudes among students and that many resort to undesirable behaviours in order to appear to have completed it.
Consultant adolescent psychologist, Dr Carr-Gregg, recently undertook an Internet survey of 1,178 primary school students' attitudes to homework. The survey found that 71% thought they were given too much and 57% did not believe their teachers read it when they handed it in. Further, 20% of the students reported that they often copied and pasted their homework from the Internet and 22% had their parents complete their homework for them.
In 2009 Naomi Alanne and Rupert Macgregor completed a discussion paper on homework and its effects for familyschool.org.au. Their findings indicated 'The intense pressure to complete homework can lead to students cheating by copying from other students or getting their parents to complete the work for them - practices which could instill a negative long-term work ethic, such as a habit of relying too much on others.'
Alanne and Macgregor also noted, 'The American Psychological Association has found that students who "perceive that achievement is defined by schools and teachers in terms of grades and performance, worry about school, and believe they can get rewards for doing well in class such as getting out of homework" are more likely to cheat, and to "avoid using deep level cognitive processing strategies such as trying different ways to solve a problem".'
4. Homework can impede social and physical development
It has been claimed that homework commitments can have a negative impact on students' social and physical development, dramatically reducing the time they have available for interactions with family, friends and their local communities and limiting their opportunities to engage in activities which will promote their physical fitness.
In July, 2013, Denise Pope a senior lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Education published in the Journal of Experimental Education that in high-performing schools, too much homework can reduce student time to foster skills in the area of personal responsibility.
The report Pope co-authored stated that both the survey data and student responses indicated that spending too much time on homework meant that students were 'not meeting their developmental needs or cultivating other critical life skills.' Students were more likely to drop activities, not see friends or family, and not pursue hobbies they enjoy. Pope concluded, 'Young people are spending more time alone, which means less time for family and fewer opportunities to engage in their communities.'
It has also been claimed that homework has negative impacts on the family unit. In an article published in The Daily Telegraph on August 22, 2014, parenting researcher, Dr Justin Coulston, stated, 'Homework increases family conflict. And the more parents help with children's homework, the more tension children experience.'
Dr Coulston further stated, 'Homework places additional burdens on parents - who often don't know how to help their children anyway.'
It is also claimed that reductions in student leisure time as a result of the need to complete homework is undermining students' physical health. More than half the Australian population is overweight or obese and 1.5 million of these are under 18. Adolescent psychologist, Dr Michael Carr-Gregg has acknowledged that there is no guarantee that giving children less homework will increase their physical activity, however, he has stressed that the current levels of assigned homework are an obstacle to being active.
5. Homework can prompt student stress and depression
In July, 2013, Denise Pope a senior lecturer at Stanford Graduate School of Education published in the Journal of Experimental Education that 'the effects of homework challenge the traditional assumption that homework is inherently good.' In a survey conducted on a group of 4,317 students from ten high-performing schools in upper-middle class California, 'the results regarding the welfare and behavioural engagement of the students showed that the homework they were being given was the main cause of their stress.'
Fifty-six percent of the students surveyed considered homework a primary source of stress. Forty-three percent viewed tests as a primary stressor, while 33 percent put the pressure to get good grades in that category. Less than 1 percent of the students said homework was not a stressor.
In an interview with CBS Sacramento, Pope further indicated that a 'clear connection' was found between homework-induced stress and physical health problems. These included migraines, ulcers and weight loss.
Similarly, Dr Michael Nagel, Associate Professor of Education at the University of the Sunshine Coast, has claimed that too much homework can play a part in causing students stress and anxiety, which 'can have a dangerous impact on their not-fully-formed brains.'
Dr Nagel explains that stress releases chemicals in children's brains with which they are too immature to cope.
It has also been claimed that children with learning deficits are prone to depression when confronted with learning tasks they cannot manage. The 2014 report of the Inquiry into the Approaches to Homework in Victorian Schools states, 'Children with learning disabilities may be more vulnerable to anxiety and depression than others because processing deficits may make the environment feel overwhelming.' Unmanageable homework tasks can prompt such anxiety and depression in these children because when at home they are not in a situation in which they can seek teacher assistance with a problem.