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"Do American students have too much homework, or too little? We often hear passionate arguments for either side, but I believe that we ought to be asking a different question altogether. What should matter to parents and educators is this: How effectively do children’s after-school assignments advance learning?"
Do American students have too much homework, or too little? We often hear passionate arguments for either side, but I believe that we ought to be asking a different question altogether. What should matter to parents and educators is this: How effectively do children’s after-school assignments advance learning?
Homework - where do you stand on this issue? This post by Annie Murphy Paul provides information that looks at current research on the brain and a new field called "Mind, Brain and Education, that is devoted to understanding and improving the ways in which children absorb, retain and apply knowledge"
The post discusses specific ways that homework may be designed to help learners. These include spaced repetition, essentially exposing students to the same information over a longer period of time; retrieval practice, using a test to reinforce what a student knows; and interleaving, mixing "up different kinds of situations or problems to be practiced, instead of grouping them by type."
You will find more information on this research as well as evidence that points to pretty significant increases in students grades when utilizing these methods. Well worth a read as we enter a new school year and have to look at the issue of homework yet again.