Middle Years Matters
Homework - a polarizing topic
I was interested to talk with a teacher this week regarding a class activity that fell flat on its face. Students were asked to look up three facts on the historical figure who is the focus for their upcoming assessment task. Simple enough request we can all agree.
This action could have been completed on the student’s mobile phone – if they have one of course – or any other device that has access to the internet. I just completed the task, locating and recording my three facts utilizing one search and one site. Less than three minutes to complete the task and write down my responses.
In preparing to write this piece I also did some research about the place of homework in the modern schooling era. There is so much information both for and against, that a valid argument can be raised for either side. That is not what this article is about however, it is about our attitude towards education and ownership of learning.
Getting back to the three-minute task, there was time to complete the task, there are any number of access points for students to use devices and there is the simple fact they were asked to do it. The outcome in the lesson was that none that is right NONE of the students had completed the task.
The other side of this was that I had spoken with the teacher only an hour or two earlier to congratulate them on the annotated exemplar assessment response that had been prepared for the same class. In my estimation at least three hours work minimum.
At the end of the day we will all have our own opinion on the amount of work a student needs to do outside of class. However, it is important, to look forward to the trends in senior education. Students will be asked for greater individual efforts with less teacher input. Maybe we should promote the idea that our young people can be asked to do something and simply complete it.