Group One

Leadership Challenge Project: An Investigation into Homework for

Year 12 Students.

Background

“MF and TG surveyed Yr 12s in December to find out about their initial experiences with the Diploma.Initial quantitative findings suggested that there was significant concern about the amount of homework that students were receiving.There were also general concerns about time management.”

Background…

“There were concerns expressed that some teachers were still thinking “AL” rather than “IB”.The same issue had been identified in other ESF schools at about the same time.The outcome of TG and MF’s initial survey was the stimulus for our project.”

Motivation for our project

• All 4 members of our team teach at least one IB class, so we felt that this issue was common ground across all our subjects

• It was also an area in which we could make some improvements through leadership within our departments.

Student Survey

Student Survey• We began by designing a survey for Year 12

students.• We were interested to find out about the

amount of time spent on homework per day/week

• The balance between subject groups• The nature of homework tasks and how this

compared with GCSE tasks.• We decided to give the survey ONLY to our

own teaching groups

Paper survey results -key points

• The amount of time spent on homework on a daily basis varied from 30 minutes to 5 hours

• As a rough estimate it seems like an average amount of time spent is 3 hours

• Other activities take up time eg: CAS journal writing/ SAT preparation.

• No clear pattern emerging of which subjects were setting the most work

Action

• Our initial thoughts on the quantitative survey results led us to investigate some issues further.

• We designed a set of questions for individual student interviews, which we recorded for qualitative analysis.

Survey questions

How are you coping with your workload now in comparison with term 1 of Year 12?

Are you doing more or less extra-curricular activities this year? Why?

Do you receive a homework assignment from every lesson?

Are the tasks that you have to do this year different from those for GCSE?

• Have you had coursework this year? If so, did the teacher keep to the coursework planner?

Student Survey

Student Survey -key points High workload and pressure in the third term due to

major assessments

Coursework Planner

CAS.

Focus solely on CAS activities to gain hours - ethos

of CAS?

Sacrifice of usual leisure activities - ethos of CAS?

Do students need greater preparation for the change in

learning style in year 12 until MYP?

The Way Forward

Curriculum

Discussions on homework at departmental level

• Homework is teacher and department specific• CW planner is not always used• Compare SL and HL• Reduction of term three pressures• Review of questions in IGCSE and KS3 to

prepare students for IB

Curriculum

• Mapping of key departmental pressure times

• Monthly review of homework given and tasks set

Pastoral

• Monitor extra curricular participation• Review reasons for extra curricular

participation• Review of CAS program in earlier years

to ensure focus on ethos rather than hours - lead through year group teams

Pastoral

• Random sample of students taken each term to monitor homework

• Tasks being set should also be monitored

Pastoral

Term one drop in sessions• Time management• File management• Note taking