Honestly homework depends on the student. Some students absolutely NEED the practice and just learn by doing, while others, myself included, can do absolutely no homework and still do really good on the exams. The problem with implementing a case-by-case policy is that it seems pretty resource intensive to look at each person individually and see if they need homework to succeed or not.
That is why I think homework should be entirely optional after a certain point in school(say, start of high school/whatever the rest of the world calls it) as at that point, most kids know if they're the type that needs to do homework to practice or if they're the type that doesn't need it. Of course, even if a kid typically doesn't need it, they might do it once in a while to practice things they aren't grasping very well and vice versa.
[QUOTE=J$ Psychotic;44891692]As for homework contributing to stress levels and even mental diseases as the OP suggested, I would reason that those individuals already had pre-existing conditions or other environmental factors that led to a mental disease, not that homework was a major, or even a minor, factor. I think the influence of homework on the mental health of students is negligible.[/QUOTE]
I gotta disagree with this hard. my depression was stress related, and that stress was brought on by homework. I lead a relatively stress-free life, have a good home life, all of that. Now that I've gotten some help (an extra study hall essentially) and that the year is winding down it's essentially gone away.
[QUOTE=Deadman123;44909971]Honestly homework depends on the student.[/QUOTE]
This 100%. I'm essentially done with an electrical engineering degree. So I've done plenty of both pure math and math related subjects and I still hate homework. Luckily, most engineering professors that I've come across don't give graded homework and I've found that I learn best by understanding the fundamentals behind the problems instead of just doing a bunch of them. Once I understand why it works the way it does I might only need to do a few problems to have a very good grasp on the subject.
I will usually look at solutions, follow along with the method, and learn it by doing so. I work it along with the solution in my head and if, at any point, I'm confused I stop and ensure that I understand it before moving on.
I think it is necessary, but it needs a good balance. Anecdotal, but for the sake of argument, I have a two hour tutorial at university every Thursday which ends up only going for one hour (and the tutor gets paid for two), as we spend the first half-hour going over the answers for a number of short response questions given to us as homework, then the second half-hour for each of us to go through an extended response question in-class and we're shown the answer when we are done.
I often have trouble doing homework in my own time, as I study at uni full-time and work 20-30 hours every week, but I'm not going to use that as an excuse to whinge about homework. I just find it unfair when we're allocated a two hour tutorial but the tutor instead chooses to delegate a majority of the tutorial content into our own time so that the tutorial only goes for one hour. As part of my job in a priority position, my boss knows my uni timetable and can work around it, but if I'm called in outside of uni hours then I have to say yes to a shift especially as I have the living expenses of an independent person to pay for.
[editline]27th May 2014[/editline]
Currently have ~80% in that course so I think I'm managing it okay.
I think everybody should experience a few weeks of art school and see what homework really is. I've been spending from 5pm to 3am every night doing weekly homework. I believe it's a necessary evil to hone your abilities whether it be math, science, history, or whatever.
[QUOTE=bdd458;44919777]I gotta disagree with this hard. my depression was stress related, and that stress was brought on by homework. I lead a relatively stress-free life, have a good home life, all of that. Now that I've gotten some help (an extra study hall essentially) and that the year is winding down it's essentially gone away.[/QUOTE]
Tbh, what you're dealing with is performance stress though. And it's something that can happen often enough. Keep in mind that the majority of your classmates probably weren't as impacted as you were.
Homework should be optional
My science teacher the last couple of months hasn't graded homework, and has told us he has no intention of doing so. People who actually care about their grades kept doing it to study for tests and labs and such(except for me because fuck that I make straight As w/o studying because I guess I'm an auditory learner.)
A moderate amount of homework should be mandatory. It's simply practice. If homework was optional, the kids that don't want to do it aren't going to do it, and I fucking guarantee that those are the same kids that actually need the practice that homework gives. There's a such thing as too much homework, and we need to stay away from that. I'd even say teachers should give certain homework to each child that differs, to help them practice on their week subjects.
I see homework is more of a test of the motivation of the students, it's really easy to seperate the procrastinators from the rest of the bunch just by who did their homework and who actually did it effictiently. While I always hated it when I was in high school, I don't think it's unnecessary. The best way to learn something is by doing it yourself.
[QUOTE=gk99;44941184]Homework should be optional
My science teacher the last couple of months hasn't graded homework, and has told us he has no intention of doing so. People who actually care about their grades kept doing it to study for tests and labs and such(except for me because fuck that I make straight As w/o studying because I guess I'm an auditory learner.)[/QUOTE]
When you get to scientific concepts that are actually quite challenging to grasp, you'll quickly find just listening to a lecture won't cut it.
[QUOTE=Falubii;44946363]When you get to scientific concepts that are actually quite challenging to grasp, you'll quickly find just listening to a lecture won't cut it.[/QUOTE]
While it's true that lectures won't be enough, that doesn't mean that homework is going to fill the gaps. I personally just read the text book and looked through already worked about problems for essentially everything in my electrical engineering degree (the most math intensive engineering degree).
I think it really depends on the subject matter and nature of the material. Hands-on subjects that teach through experience, and only really utilize homework as an agent to keep students [I]remembering[/I] the lessons they experienced don't really need it.
However, text and specific-info based subjects that utilize notes and lectures, requiring the storage and constant-review of specific items definitely need some degree of outside work to stay grounded. A lot of the time, teachers will suggest that you 'study' the material in-order to remember it, but there's no actual guarantee that the students will devote the time, especially in Highschool/College-level coarses that take place during key-social times in kids lives.
Homework is an effective way to assure that the students review and further-store the material after having it lectured to them in class, while actually demanding some kind of proof or material result from it. However, too much homework that actually makes an effort to demand [I]hours[/I] of student time beyond that needed to remember and refresh the material can be pretty ridiculous.
So, yes--homework is essential to helping students remember what they've learned, and [I]prove[/I] they're putting in the necessary time for it. An education is both an in, and out-of-class experience. No--it shouldn't be assigned for the sole purpose of forcing students to stare at the material for hours on end, hoping that it eventually sinks in.
IMO it should. In my school if we don't do homework we lose so much points on final grades. And it is just overwhelming because when I am at home I just want to take a fucking break, not work more.
[QUOTE=Havolis;44960564]IMO it should. In my school if we don't do homework we lose so much points on final grades. And it is just overwhelming because when I am at home I just want to take a fucking break, not work more.[/QUOTE]
I think it really depends on what kind-of work you're doing. If the material you learn in class is solid, experience-based, and easy to remember, then yeah--homework is pointless, and the extra work being demanded of you is unreasonable.
But if you're working on crunching, college-level subjects--where knowing, remembering, and solidifying the information is crucial--you have to wonder if you'd do just as poorly if the homework wasn't there to push your studying.
[QUOTE=katbug;44882135]I've always thought a sort of reverse-homework would be nice, where the teacher could record a lesson/have something prerecorded by someone else, have a reading, or a section from a textbook to read (because lessons are usually VERY short and just take time because kids dick around), and then do what would be homework in the classroom, where they can get help.[/QUOTE]
After school, College never gave us work to actually complete from the home. Instead we were able to review official textbooks and other notes in our own time. I found this -much- more effective.
I want to say Yes but I think the right answer should be No,
It's easy to blame homework in a technological modern world like today, but they kind of teach kids and teens to set some priorities in their life.
I would put my vote on a equality system where everything is balanced, If you are very good at school, you don't need to do any homework since you understand it very well and it would be a waste of time.
If you have some difficulties, it can be a great way to help you out as long as the teacher also help you with your problems.
At the same time, they can be a great way for children to make their priorities at the right place. That might help out against procrastination I guess
I might add that if you can't handle homework after class then you're going to have a tough time being successful in the real world. Rather than succumb to the stress of homework maybe we should be focusing on coping with stress, concentration, etc... Just a thought.
BANNED? Uhh, no.
I'd say it largely depends on the individual, and what kinda environment he or she is subjected to outside of school. And that can be less or even more educating than the school itself, so in no case should you ever consider about banning home-work, that's for sure..
homework only helps if it actually covers and prepairs one for the actual exams and stuff. i had a teacher who gave us like 5 hours of homework a day that wasn't worth shit for the exam because she used a completely different question bank so everything was worded differently, then she told me that the homework that was manditory wasn't even to prepair us for the tests, the extra 3 hours of assignments ontop of that were.
suffice to say i was pissed off. yes i've done math homework for 4-5 hours at a time and in calc 3/diff-eq there's really no other way to do it other than practice practice practice. but i made sure that what i was doing was prepairing myself for the exams. the problem is really that if you made homework optional for like highschoolers they'd probably just not do any of it because they already have so many damn classes to learn at once. in college since homework is mostly optional, you do it if you feel like you need to and your classes are much more interconnected or similar. thinking back to highschool, i just was stretched too thin to really think about academics, with english term papers, history tests, math tests, physics tests, government tests all happening simultaniously i really remember myself just cherrypicking the subjects that i liked and ignoring the ones i didn't, and i think thats part of the problem here is that there's really no choice in american highschools, you have to take 4 of this class, 4 of that class, 4 of the other class and there wasn't any way to get around them or any flexibility. at least in college if i don't want to take a class and i don't need it for any other class, i can put it off till its a much better time to take it, or if i have to take a class of a particular type, i have usually got like 4 options to choose from
ive known guys in my major that could get by without doing any studying or actual practice work. they didn't last very long.
Yes, homework should be banned. It's annoying and makes my life hell. I work my ass off in school daily, only so that I can get another piece of **** workload at home. I'm drowning in work, and my family & personal relations are suffering from it. Because of homeworks I am now constantly suffering from anxiety and clinical depression. No one who thinks humanity is worth a damn would openly reject homework.
Homework should be banned or at least reduced to a minimum.
Back then, when I was at school, I went through some depressive stages.
Thats what has driven me to find a work as quick as possible and skip university. Because coming home from work and have nothing left to do sounds pleasing, right?
Right now I attend evening classes to get my qualification for university entrance.
My first semester will start on the 1st of october.
What I want to say: The amount of stress at school in the early age spoils the mood. Dramatically.
A lot of teachers don't coordinate with each other. And at the end of the day you come home with a shitload of homework to do.
Nowadays it's a lot easier. You get advices on what to do. If you think you've already mastered it, just don't do it. Nobody cares. But that's because we're adults. It won't work with children. Pretty sure of it.
So what are the 2 options?
1) No homework. Pay special attention on schoolteaching.
2) A minimum of homework. Teachers of different subjects need to adjust the amount of homework with each other, so it won't pile up.
In my opinion, [i]it should not[/i].
I fucking hate homework, but I'll have to admit, it's [b]very[/b] useful. It's a reinforcement for what you've learned in class and things you don't understand very well (or do understand), you will understand better. However I do agree that teachers should coordinate better so that each teacher doesn't send the sort of homework that works like this:
"Hey, see [subject spoken about in class]? There's 5 pages talking about it. That's your homework for class tomorrow."
Because all teachers will do it and you'll spend the entire evening doing it, because about 5 teachers sent that sort of homework and you have to do it for tomorrrow. (Which happens pretty damn often unfortunately.)
So I do agree that teachers should coordinate better, and I think that homework should be only 2-3 questions about the subject, so that kids feel that it's just 2-3 quick questions so that they don't mind doing it, and feel like it's just a reinforcement to the subject, instead of a huge boring chore (Which makes them ignore the whole subject because they'll find it boring.)
Basically; Don't ban homework, simply don't make it a drag.
A half hour or so of homework is reasonable and from what I understand of the studies my gf has shown me (Child Studies graduate) is beneficial for most. After 30 minutes diminishing returns start to set in for most people, and around an hour homework has usually become detrimental. There is no question that homework must be carefully managed so as to maximize benefit in the smallest amount of time. Also, more needs to be done to show people how to study efficiently. Properly organizing information, creating connections, and finding out when and how your brain and body work best are all skills you will actually need in the real world (as opposed to the bullshit you are taught to regurgitate in the vast majority of your class time).
I am so glad I only need about 4 hours of sleep a day, because had I been like most people I never would have made it through all my advanced classes in high school. Getting 2-4 hours of homework every day was torture. Honestly, despite everything everyone said about the real world and jobs being so much tougher, it's been almost 10 years and I have yet to experience anything that even approaches the toll high school took on my mind and body. I can't believe people actually look back on high school and think "wow I wish I could go back to that".
When we are young and don't realize how important our education is, I think that homework is a great way to keep us up to date with what's going on at school. When you get older however, I think that it's one of the most stupid ideas ever. Starting from highschool, I think it only puts unecessary pressure on you. At that age I believe that you are smart enough to understand that in order to succeed on the final exam you gotta study. When you choose to study should be entirely up to you in my opinion.
[QUOTE=maeZtro;45292080]When we are young and don't realize how important our education is, I think that homework is a great way to keep us up to date with what's going on at school. When you get older however, I think that it's one of the most stupid ideas ever. Starting from highschool, I think it only puts unecessary pressure on you. At that age I believe that you are smart enough to understand that in order to succeed on the final exam you gotta study. When you choose to study should be entirely up to you in my opinion.[/QUOTE]
Indeed. My freshman year I was getting fantastic scores on tests and quizzes, but the ridiculous overload of busywork I refused to do. It affected my grades terribly, and even though I could demonstrate complete knowledge of the subject matter, the mindless work I hadn't done only hurt me in the end.
Homework should probably be re-geared to be research projects or something. I found most of my "assignment" homework was just a big waste of time, not worth a tonne of marks (tests made most of those)
Ideally highschool would have been better if it was comprised of in-class quizzes, and then homework was relegated purely to student-selected research projects. Homework-handouts where you need to do some sort of prefab assignment was bullshit, boring as fuck and totally non-objective work. You learn more when you actually need to research things.
[QUOTE=JurajIsNotPirat;44868537]Homework makes sure you go over and properly understand the knowledge you were given in class.[/QUOTE]
This is exactly how I feel about it. Extra work on a subject from one day's class is a huge help for me, as nothing aids me more in learning than repetition.
Homework should not be banned. Many people seem to forget that school is not there so we can learn the facts of the past or how to use Mathematics to solve problems; but it is there to teach us how to learn effectively. Homework is one of the only true ways in which we can learn effectively - a skill that will be required by anyone that ever was, is or will be.
Some learn better than others and are then able to become better at particular fields. Depending on the difficulty and rareness of the field; those people will - on average - accomplish much more in life.
I think that a little bits okay but when you get a tonne of it it makes you go crazy. I have a neck tic (a twitch in my neck) due to stress, most of which from homework. But a bit of homework for revision or stuff like that is ok.
[QUOTE=The golden;45014165]Homework would be much more tolerable (and educational) if schools better coordinated the handing-out of homework. Having multiple classes dump homework on a student all in one day and then having due dates close together is going to cause nothing but frustration and failed assignments.[/QUOTE]
This is how real life works
[editline]28th September 2014[/editline]
Sometimes real life shits on you, sometimes you have nothing to worry about
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