HOMEWORKMOTIVATION & ACHIEVEMENT

ENTRY TASK Please take a couple of minutes to

respond to the following questions: What is homework? Why is homework assigned? Is homework important?

WHAT IS HOMEWORK?“Homework can be defined as any task assigned by schoolteachers intended for students to carry out during non-school hours. This definition explicitly excludes (a) in-school guided study; (b) home study courses delivered through the mail, television, audio or videocassette, or the Internet; and (c)extracurricular activities such as sports and participation in clubs” (Cooper, Robinson, & Patall 2003).

ESSENTIAL QUESTION What motivates students to complete

homework and does homework completion impact academic achievement?

RESEARCH QUESTIONS1. What motivates students to complete

homework? 2. What role do parents play in the

motivation to complete homework?3. In what contexts should homework be

assigned and completed?4. What do these findings say about the way

humans learn?5. What are the educational implications of

these findings?

MY BELIEFI believe that effective homework practices increase academic achievement.

Research Results for General Effects of Homework

Study No. of Effect Sizes

Average Effect Size

Percentile Gain

Paschal, Weinstein,

& Wallberg, 1984

81 .36 14

Graue, Weinstein, & Wallberg, 1983

29 .49 19

Hattie, 1992 110 .43 1

Ross, 1988 53 .65 24

(Marzano, Pickering & Pollock 2001)

WHAT CAUSES THE LACK OF HOMEWORK COMPLETION? Non-school related time commitments Homework was left at school Did not understand how to complete task Lack of organizational skills Heavy homework load Missing home support Lack of value

(Diersen 2000)

WHAT MOTIVATES STUDENTS TO COMPLETE HOMEWORK?

LEARNING STYLE QUIZ Read the words in the left-hand column Circle the one response in that row that

best characterizes you Answer as honestly as possible Count the number of circled items Write total at the bottom of each

column

STUDENTS ARE MOTIVATED TO COMPLETE HOMEWORK WHEN . . .

they have ownership over what’s being assigned.

“Our goal is to give students methods that are purposeful for them, methods that work for their learning styles” (Vatterott 2010).

“When we customize tasks to fit student learning styles and interests, the task becomes theirs, not ours” (Vatterott 2010).

STUDENTS ARE MOTIVATED TO COMPLETE HOMEWORK WHEN . . . it is purposeful.

“Mastering a skill requires a fair amount of focused practice” (Marzano, Pickering & Pollock 2001).

“A second general purpose of homework is to prepare students for new content or have them elaborate on content that has been introduced” (Marzano, Pickering & Pollock).

Research Results for General Effects of Practice

Study No. of Effect Sizes

Avg. Effect Sizes

Percentile Gain

Ross, 1988 9 1.29 40

Bloom, 1976 73410

.54

.931.43

213242

Kumar, 1991

5 1.58 44

(Marzano, Pickering & Pollock 2001)

Increase in Learning Between Practice Sessions

Practice Session # Increase in Learning (%) Cumulative Increase (%)

1 22.918 22.918

2 11.741 34.659

3 7.659 42.318

4 5.593 47.911

5 4.349 52.26

6 3.534 55.798

7 2.960 58.754

8 2.535 61.289

9 2.205 63.494

10 1.945 65.439

11 1.740 67.179

12 1.562 68.741

13 1.426 70.167

14 1.305 71.472

15 1.198 72.670

(Marzano, Pickering & Pollock 2001)

STUDENTS ARE MOTIVATED TO COMPLETE HOMEWORK WHEN . . .

there is a clear focus and they believe it is usable.

“Design homework assignments that

clearly articulate the purpose and

outcome”

(Marzano, Pickering & Pollock).

Assignment Squares

STUDENTS ARE MOTIVATED TO COMPLETE HOMEWORK WHEN . . . they believe they are capable of

achieving the goal.

“One of the most important characteristics of motivated students is that is that they have high academic self-efficacy” (Pressley & McCormick 2007).

“High self-efficacy in a subject area is important because it motivates students to attempt tasks in the same and related subjects in the future, and thus is a causal factor of future academic achievement” (Pressley & McCormick 2007).

“If all students are to feel competent in completing homework, we must abandon a one-size-fits-all approach” (Vatterott 2010).

STUDENTS ARE MOTIVATED TO COMPLETE HOMEWORK WHEN . . .it is efficient.

“Some traditional tasks may be inefficient – either because they show no evidence of learning or because they take an inordinate amount of time to complete but yield little ‘bang for the buck’”(Vatterott 2010).

“Ensure that homework is at the appropriate level of difficulty. Students should be able to complete

homework assignments independently with relatively high success rates, but they should still find the assignments challenging enough to be interesting” (Marzano & Pickering 2007).

STUDENTS ARE MOTIVATED TO COMPLETE HOMEWORK WHEN . . .

their teachers believe it’s important.

“Perceived homework control proved to be positively related to self-reported effort when operationalized in terms of constructive teacher behavior, but negatively related or unrelated to effort when measures alluded to negative emotional or behavioral responses” (Trautwein & Ludtke 2007).

STUDENTS ARE MOTIVATED TO COMPLETE HOMEWORK WHEN . . . it is visually appealing.“Every day, students make decisions about

whether to do a homework assignment on the basis of their first impressions. The way homework looks is important” (Vatterott 2010).

“Wise teachers have learned that students at all levels are more motivated to complete assignments that are visually uncluttered. Less information on the page, plenty of room to write answers, and the use of graphics or clip art make tasks look inviting and interesting” (Vatterott 2010).

WHAT ROLE DO PARENTS PLAY IN THE MOTIVATION TO COMPLETE HOMEWORK?

SERVE AS FACILITATORS“. . . Parent-child communication and parental valuation of school subjects are positively related to homework effort, whereas the quantity of direct parental engagement in the homework process is unrelated or negatively related to homework effort” (Tratwein & Ludtke 2007).

This means parents could:Ask QuestionsEngage students in conversation

This means students could:Reflect on progress with parentsInterview their parents

IN WHAT CONTEXTS SHOULD HOMEWORK BE ASSIGNED AND COMPLETED?

STRUCTURE

“. . . Changing the constraints and style of homework from the traditional worksheet can motivate students to choose to do their own homework” (Diersen 2000).

“Changing the constraints might mean allowing students different time schedules to have it completed, for rewarding effort grades for progress towards a project goal, and by giving students choices about how much and when homework is to be completed” (Diersen 2000).

STUDY SKILLS“While changing the homework can improve student motivation, actually teaching students how to study smarter, not harder, will result in a transferable skill. Study skills taught in the classroom have the potential of traveling with students wherever they go” (Diersen 2000).

TIME “. . . For about every 30 minutes of ‘additional’ homework a student does per night, his or her overall grade point average (GPA) increases about half a point. This means that if a student with a GPA of 2.00 increases the amount of homework she does by 30 minutes per night, her GPA will rise to 2.50”(Marzano, Pickering & Pollock).

TIME“. . . Students who reported doing homework always had higher achievement scores than students who did not do homework. However, the strongest relationship between homework and achievement was found among students who reported doing 7-12 hours of homework per week, followed by students who reported doing 13-20 hours per week. Students who reported doing more than 20 hours of homework per week revealed a relationship with achievement test scores nearly equal to those reporting between 1-6 hours of homework per week”(Cooper, Robinson & Patall 2003).

TIME SUGGESTIONS

Primary: 10-30 minutes a day Upper Elementary: 30-90 minutes a day Middle: 50-120 minutes a day High: 60-180 minutes a day

(Marzano, Pickering & Pollock 2001)

WHAT DO THESE FINDINGS SAY ABOUT THE WAY HUMANS LEARN?

CONSTRUCTIVISM“Students assemble their understanding of information, concepts, and principles through multiple experiences with hands-on exploration. As part of this process, they must think about what they have learned, how they have learned it, and what that learning might mean in a real-world context” (Dell’Olio & Donk 2007).

CONSTRUCTIVISM“Students’ minds interpret the world through their personal lenses of prior knowledge and experience” (Dell’Olio & Donk 2007).

WHAT ARE THE EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS OF THESE FINDINGS?

LEARNING MODELS Concept Attainment

Guided experience in exploration Inductive Model

Generate, organize, make sense of and communicate your own information

Inquiry-Based Learning Tackle a question or problem, follow

process to solve, and communicate discoveries

Cooperative Learning Work collaboratively on an academic task

(Dell’Olio & Donk 2007)

TEACHERS MUST BE TRAINED“Teachers should not abandon homework. Instead, they should improve its instructional quality” (Marzano & Pickering 2007).

“ . . . Teachers are not well trained in how to assign homework” (Marzano & Pickering 2007).

“. . . It makes good sense to only assign homework that is beneficial to student learning instead of assigning homework as a matter of policy” (Marzano & Pickering 2007).

HOMEWORK TAKES PLANNING

(Saphier, Haley-Speca & Gower 2008)

ASSESSMENT IS IMPORTANT“Ideally, homework should provide feedback to teachers about student understanding, enabling teachers to adjust instruction and, when necessary, reteach concepts before assigning practice” (Vatterott 2010).

“To ensure homework is doable, teachers must differentiate assignments so they are at the appropriate level of difficulty for individual students” (Vatterott 2010).

PROVIDE FEEDBACK“Vary the approaches to providing feedback. Providing feedback on homework serves to enhance student achievement” (Marzano, Pickering & Pollock 2001).

Research Results for Graded Homework

Use of homework Effect Sizes

Percentile Gain

Homework with teachers’ comments as feedback 2 30Graded Homework 3 28Assigned homework but not graded or commented on

47 11

(Marzano, Pickering & Pollock 2001)

FLEXIBILITY IS KEY“Teachers ought to be able to exercise their judgment in determining how they want to deal with homework, taking into account the needs and preferences of the specific children in their classrooms, rather than having to conform to a fixed policy that has been imposed on them” (Kohn 2006).

HOMEWORK SCENARIOS At the end of Science class, Mrs. T realizes that students

did not have enough time to reflect on their lab. She assigns this to be completed as homework.

In English, students have spent a week discussing how to analyze tone in literary works. They’ve worked on this analysis with their teacher, peers, and independently – reflecting on their progress throughout. Mr. A asks students to analyze tone in their independent reading books each night this week and to mark the text with sticky notes to be used in class discussion.

While working on a story problems unit in Math, Mrs. P assigns 30 story problems to be completed by the end of the week.

At the end of his American Revolution unit, Mr. L wants his students to show what they know about how the Patriots gained their independence. He informs students that they can (1) write a victory speech from George Washington’s perspective; (2) create a newspaper article; (3) design and perform a play; (4) create a visual presentation.

EXIT SLIP Please take a couple of minutes to

respond to the following questions: What is homework? Why is homework assigned? Is homework important?

REFERENCESCooper, H., Robinson, J., & Patall, E. A. (2006). Does Homework Improve Academic Achievement? A Synthesis of Research, 1987-2003. Review of Educational Research, 76(1), 1-62. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

Dell'Olio, J.M & Donk, T. (2007). In D. McDaniel, E. Smith, L. Larson, & B. Freeman (Eds.), Models of Teaching: Connecting Student Learning With Standards (pp. 145-178). Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications, Inc.

Diersen, K. (2000, May 1). Improving Academic Achievement through Creative Alternatives to Traditional Homework Strategies. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

Kohn, A. (2006). Down with Homework. Instructor, 116(2), 43-45,. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

Marzano, R. J., & Pickering, D. J. (2007). The Case for and against Homework. Educational Leadership, 64(6), 74-79. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

Marzano, R.J., Pickering, D.J., & Pollock, J.E. (2001). Homework and Practice. In Classroom Instruction that Works (pp. 60-71). Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Pressley, M. & McCormick, C. (2007). In C. Jennison (Ed.), Child and Adolescent Development for Educators (pp. 92-121). New York, New York: The Guilford Press.

Trautwein, U., & Ludtke, O. (2007). Students' Self-Reported Effort and Time on Homework in Six School Subjects: Between-Students Differences and Within-Student Variation. Journal of Educational Psychology, 99(2), 432-444. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

Vatterott, C. (2010). Five Hallmarks of Good Homework. Educational Leadership, 68(1), 10-15. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.