Critical Review; The Value of Homework

Here is one of my writing tasks on 6th semester,,

A critical review of Steven A. Carbone II 2009, ‘The Value of Homework: Is Homework an Important Tool for Learning in the Classroom?’, Student Pulse; Online Academic Student Journal, VOL 1, 12.

Homework, a form of formative assessment that is mostly applied in school in order to improve student achievement, still becomes a contentious topic to be discussed. Carbone II (2009) in his article states the need of written homework policy that should be provided in every school in order to track student learning since homework has a positive correlation with student achievement. The article exposes the result of some studies related to this topic which mostly point out the importance of homework. Though its importance, the implementation of homework has not been worked well yet. Furthermore, a new experiment which is followed by 10.000 students revealed that they who are troubled with homework achieved lower scores in their achievement. Even, homework simply makes students unhappy then leads them to have no interest in learning. Concerning with those issues, providing homework policy in every school is not an effective way to solve the problems resulted from homework.  

Carbone II in his article, The Value of Homework explains the role of homework in school, especially in determining the student grade. Both pro and contra sides who still debate this topic reveal the cases in order to support their idea in term of the importance of homework to be applied. Furthermore, several studies have been conducted related to this topic. Carbone II mentions a study conducted by Hill, Spencer, Alston and Fitzgerald (1986) resulted that there was a positive correlation between homework and student’s achievement. They also state that homework is a cheapest method to be used in increasing student academic preparation than anything else. Another research conducted by McMillan, Myran and Workman (2002) in regards to carrying out the investigation toward the assessment and grading practices also resulted the same finding. In addition, these studies also reveal the significance of flexibility in evaluating and assigning students’ homework, the lack of awareness in designing a written homework policy in 50% of school respondents and the low emphasizing in terms of homework grades. On the eight guidelines for successful assessment suggested by O’Connor also emphasizes the significance of the need of formative assessment process such as homework, ungraded quizzes and others. In regards to the research findings above, the writer declares the essential of the existence of a flexible, written homework policy on a school or district level if homework is applied. Meanwhile, the writer still has unanswered questions related to the use of homework since it cannot be purposed as an indicator of students’ acquired knowledge.

Carbone II’s opinion about the importance of homework is not completely wrong, some proponents said that homework definitely teaches student to have self-discipline, good time management and improve other non-academic skills. Despite those positives, in fact students are getting frustrated when they are forced to do their homework. Some assume that doing homework is only a waste of time, so that they cannot do other activities they want. As result, it is possible if they will lose their interest in learning. In Kohn (2007), Daniels, an education professor, says “Most of what homework is doing is driving kids away from learning”. Because of those reasons, a growing number of schools are shown to disallow the existence of homework. Moreover, Kohn (2007) states that homework has no association with the academic achievement and the positive effects of homework are only a myth. In fact, it has not been found real evidence that confirms any academic profit from assigning homework. In his article, Carbone II says that in order to maintain the quality of homework, the school has to make a written policy over homework. This written homework policy is purposed to encourage and track student learning. Yet, this policy also raises a new problem related to student motivation in doing their homework, if they know that it will not be scored. This means that having a new policy is not a good solution to end the debate over homework.

Regardless of the criticism over the article, the author presents several great supporting ideas to support his opinion towards the worth of homework and the need of homework policy. Moreover, he also comes up with researches that verify his statement. Nevertheless, his testimony does not offer a significant resolution concerning the homework debate. Hence, the author should provide other reports to ensure that his solution is the only way to solve the problem.

References

Kohn, Alfie. 2007. Rethinking Homework. http://www.alfiekohn.org/teaching/rethinkinghomework.htm (accessed on April 4, 2013)

McAuliff, John. 2012. Warning! This Homework May Cause Negative Effects. http://www.usatodayeducate.com/staging/index.php/ccp/warning-this-homework-may-cause-negative-effects (accessed on April 4, 2013)