Today I learned something I never thought I would hear: homework has no effect on how well a student learns. What made it even more unexpected was that my professor told my class giving our future students homework would be a waste of time. Funny, I never thought I would be told by a teacher to not give homework as a future teacher. His argument was that there is no evidence that homework does help a student to learn in elementary school. In high school, there has been some sort of data recorded, but none at the elementary level.
Before, I wanted to give my students work that would make them want to learn more about whichever subject they were learning. Now I think I'm being driven to becoming a sort of rebellious teacher. Teachers have given homework, or "busy work" for decades. I guess it does make sense. I never learned much from homework in elementary school except how to get it all done on the bus and watch TV until dinner. Thinking about my students though, will they still learn the material if they don't get any practice outside of school? I don't know. I'll just have to wait until I can actually give them homework to find out.
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