Chapter 1: Topic and Problem 4
Problem Statement 5
Purpose of the Study 5
Research Question and Hypothesis 5
Limitation of the Study 6
Chapter 2: Literature Review 7
Literature Review 7
Homework as an Efficient Assessment Tool 7
Homework as Negligible and Impractical Assessment Tool 9
Discussion of the Hypothesis 11
Chapter: Research Methodology 12
Research Methodology 12
Overview of the Research Methodology 12
Proposed Research Design 12
Sampling Technique 12
Research Design 12
Participants 12
Data Collection Method 13
Instrument 13
Procedures 14
Data Analysis 14
References 16
Chapter 1
Traditional educational system (for all levels) requires after-school activities which are related to the lessons taught during that day or during the previous days. One of the most common examples of these is homework, take-home exercise, assignment, or whatever similar terms which pertains to such activities. Homework is assigned to the students for reviewing purposes as well as to prepare them for the upcoming lessons (Caldwell, 2007). In both purposes, homework comprised a small amount of portion of the final grade of the students, which is about 5 to 10 percent. However, there are claims that doubted the true value of homework in the academic performance of the students (Piascik & Brazeau, 2010). Depending on the students and the way of handling, homework can be either significant or not in the improvement of the student’s classroom performance. This paper will discuss about the effectiveness of homework in students of all levels with the aid of the previous studies related to homework policy and assessment which will test the claims.
Many schools prefer homework as one assessment tool for evaluating the academic performance of the students. In this sense, the paper shall provide adequate information about the value of homework in the current educational system in the global scale. There are several reasons as to why homework is being doubted as a credible assessment: (1) Homework answers can be accessed from outside sources where students can easily copy the answers with ease (Piascik & Brazeau, 2010), for example, from the Internet and from the other students; (2) Information acquired from homework is not completely retained in the student’s memory for a long time due to several factors such as the level of difficulty and seriousness of the students on taking the task (Jackson & Harbison, 2014), and; (3) The time allotted for homework varies among the students, unlike in other classroom activities such as quizzes and exams (Blazer, 2009).
Problem Statement
Many questions related to implementation of homework policy arise in relation to its effectiveness. The paper will focus on the effectiveness of this policy, and determine if homework really has positive impact on the academic performance of the students.
Purpose of the Study
The purpose of the study is to determine the effectiveness of homework in improving the academic performance of the students. It is important especially to the students and parents because homework requires the sufficient amount of time to be accomplished. With the consumption of time, other things such as playing time and family time are being sacrificed for the sake of finishing the homework (Blazer, 2009). Also, knowing the true value of homework would impact the current educational system, as it would possibly create a future policy wherein homework will be encouraged or abolished, depending on the benefits of the students, parents, teachers and the institutions (Harris & Sherman, 1974).
Research Questions and Hypothesis
In align with the homework policy and academic performance of the students, the following questions will be considered a great benefit for the completeness of the research study:
1. What are the advantages and disadvantages provided by the current homework policy?
2. How effective is regular homework on improving the academic performance of students?
3. Considering the alternatives to homework policy, how they can be more beneficial and advantageous to the development of the academic performance of the students?
Considering the attitude of most students about homework, the hypothesis of the research paper would be that homework is not significantly effective in improving the academic performance of the students.
Limitations of the Study
Considering that this is a master’s degree research paper, there should be minimal limitation regarding in terms of experience and expertise in the field. There will also be minimal objections to supports from the administration and family as the research poses no risks on the lives of the researcher and respondents. The constraints that the researcher might face include financial capabilities and time constraint as the research would require the researcher to take tours to different school to assess students from elementary to college level. Travel expenses will consume most of the resources and the time becomes limited due to the travelling hours needed to reach the destinations.
Chapter 2
Literature Review
Related literatures showed that there are possibilities on which homework policy might end up in the future educational system. It might continue to be an assessment tool for the student’s academic performance, an optional reference material, or an academic tool that will be erased and replaced by a more efficient method of assessment.
Homework as an Efficient Assessment Tool
Since homework has been put into a policy for a long time, it is not surprising that several benefits have been given by making the students do school-related tasks at home (Hanover Research, 2010). One of its most common benefits is to polish the previous performance of students who did not perform well during class hour activities. A study showed that by giving elementary students who frequently commit mistakes in the classroom performed better after homework has been given to them (Harris & Sherman, 1974). It only means that some students perform better if they will be given enough time to study the lessons that are taught in limited hours in the classroom. Students have different learning capabilities and those that do not excel greatly benefits in doing their homework with all their time in their houses. Another benefit of homework is that it enables students who are immersed in extra-curricular activities, such as sports, to cope up with the lessons provided to their class while they are absent for their activities (McGrath, 2010). Since they are not present in classroom at often times, written assessments such as examinations and homework will be the primary source of their grades (McGrath, 2010). This means that the value of homework to student-athlete is important for their academic improvement, so assignments given to them are taken more seriously as it is an important reflection of their academic performance.
In the medical field, homework activities are also significant in dealing with children and students who needed extra attention due to their hyperactivity (Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD). Research studies showed that giving these children with ample amount of homework improved their thinking skills and reduced the symptoms of ADHD (Eiraldi, Mautone, & Power, 2012). Homework enables children with ADHD to cope with their inattentiveness by exposing to different problems which will give them more time to think than to listen (Langberg et al., 2010). With these findings, teachers will be able to find ways to make homework more interactive and highly efficient specifically for their students with ADHD because the homework might do the teaching more than the teachers, who will now act as guidance for the children.
There are also different modern methods in which homework is incorporated to improve the learning capabilities of the students (Hanover, 2010). In Plant Physiology, the use of Computer Personalized Approach (CAPA) enables students to access their homework online, thereby encouraging the student to always read and study their notes and lectures (Artus & Nadler, 1999). Since CAPA regularly gives homework, the students are able to cope with their lectures well and give better academic performance due to their preparedness. In large class settings, the use of Audience Response System (ARS) encourages the students to be responsible about their homework, as the information will be used the next day during their class (Caldwell, 2007). To ensure the credibility of homework performance, Questionnaire-Parent Scale is provided to ensure that homework done by the students will be supervised and guided by their parents (Power et al., 2007). To make the homework more appreciated, a reverse classroom (students will teach, and teachers will do the homework) is made possible by modern technology, which will give more ideas for both students and teachers to improve their roles in classrooms by assuming responsibilities not familiar to them (Sherbino, Chan, & Schiff, 2013). These applications were built and designed to ensure that homework will provide a beneficial outcome for the students and the assessment of their academic performance will be accurate and precise (Hanover Research, 2010).
Homework as Negligible and Impractical Assessment Tool
In some instances, homework may opt to be removed from being an assessment tool to being an optional reference, while the academic performance assessment does not change and affected. Videos are proven to be a good alternative for homework because the students can clearly see the processes incorporated in the lecture (Jacobson, 2015). Videos can be helpful to make the students appreciate the lecture because video can show the practical side while the lectures show the theoretical side of a certain subject. In addition to this, some classes prefer to make the students focus on lecture rather than recap in order to save time and provide the students more opportunities to learn. Flipped classroom enables this setting to happen, as interaction among students and instructors are prominent and encourages students to focus entirely on lecture rather than in homework when at home (Gross et al., 2015).
Also, homework, at some instances, is proven to be useless and in addition, other problems to the students, teachers, and institution. Homework became burden to the teachers especially if the students are not paying attention to the homework. Additional tasks are being made in order to make homework more significant than other activities outside school hours such as playing and social gatherings (Paulu, n.d). Motivating the students to do their homework is proven to be difficult because of the many interventions which hinder the students to learn. As a result, homework became another workload for teachers, which does not improve the academic performance of the students at all. Also, it is not the load of homework which helped the students in their academic performance, but the type of homework that is given to them (Jackson & Harbison, 2014). This means that homework is not necessarily needed, because homework problems can be given in other forms where the focus of students is highly observed, such as in quizzes and classroom drills.
Also, homework can cause reduction of academic integrity among students. One common example is through cheating made in homework activities. Study showed that students cheated twice as many in their homework than in quizzes and examinations by answering their homework by groups and therefore producing the same answers (Piascik & Brazeau, 2010). Others do the cheating by browsing the answers in the internet and copying it directly, thinking that what they have done is not a form of cheating (Piascik & Brazeau, 2010). Other disadvantages of homework include inefficiency for learning, lack of control of the teachers, and time consumption (Blazer, 2009). These disadvantages imply that students do not integrate their learning capacities with the type of homework given to them. Instead, they lose their time for other more worthwhile activities that are more potentially beneficial for them rather than doing the homework. Also, the students will experience tiredness and disappointment for doing homework that do not suit their interests, and might result to negative outlook towards schooling and discourage them to learn more.
The opinion of public about homework is diverse and divided. Whatever consequences happen upon the implementation of homework policy, both advantages and disadvantages are always integrated into the nature of homework and it is up to the institution whether to accept the benefits and drawbacks given by maintaining or abolishing homework policies.
Discussion of the Hypothesis
The research study arrived at the hypothesis that homework is not significantly effective in improving the academic performance of the students because the currently, the policy lacks enough supervision which will not show proof that homework is done with originality and creativity. As stated in the literature review, students now have means and access to sources which will directly answer the questions provided in the homework. Whether the students copied their answers from the other classmates, or searched in the internet and directly write the contents of their research, these only proved that homework can be accessed and finished without even making difficult thought processes and analysis.
In this research, the hypothesis will be tested using the methodology which will be provided in the next chapter. The independent variables of the research will be the scores of the students in their previous examinations prior to the research study, and the regular provision of homework and video clips to the students. The dependent variable of the study will be the scores of the students in the examinations that will be given the day after homework has been given. Other variables which are already considered are age, gender, methods of teaching and the type of homework and examinations that will be provided to the students.
Chapter 3
Research Methodology
Overview of the Research Methodology
The research aims to determine the effectiveness of homework in the academic performance of the study. Students of each level (elementary, secondary and college) will be randomly chosen, divided into two groups depending on the assigned tasks to them (homework or watching videos), and their scores will be observed after tasks has been done. Results will be subjected into analysis and will be concluded accordingly.
Proposed Research Design
In order to determine the effectiveness of homework to the academic performance of the students, comparative research design will be used to obtain the necessary data without manipulating the setting of the research. Quantitative approach will be done to obtain the data needed for the research proposal (students’ scores). The procedure will focus on obtaining the scores of the students on a particular test that will be administered the next day after homework or lecture video has been given to them.
Sampling Technique
Stratified sampling will be specifically which will subdivide the population into levels of education of the students: elementary, secondary and college level. Random sampling will also be used to obtain the respondents without bias.
Participants
There are a total of 180 students that will be participating in the research study. 60 students from elementary level (10 for every grading level), 60 students from secondary level (10 for every level) and 60 students from college level (regardless of year level) will be observed in terms of their academic scores for one month in their written performances in exams. The gender for every level and in college will also be distributed equally to equalize outside factors such as behaviors and hobbies. All students will be given written-output homework on a regular basis of twice a week and then an anticipated written examination will be given the next day after homework has been given. The students will be informed about the research study and purpose. The results of the examination will be obtained and kept with high confidentiality.
Data Collection Method
Quantitative method will be used to obtain the numerical scores of the participants in the exams after the tasks have been given. The tasks include designation of homework to one group, and assigning the other group to watch the provided lecture videos. Also, scores in exams before the research study will be obtained as reference. It is important to note the scores of the students so that the development of the students will be tracked. The data collection method ensures that the homework policy and the alternatives to homework are both presented
Instrument
Written examination will be given immediately the next day after the tasks (homework or lecture video) are given so that the information is still clearly retained in their memory. The examination will be an identification test, so that the memory capacity of the students will be tested, as well as to eliminate significantly the chances of guessing the correct answer. Also, the examination will be checked immediately so that the scores will be tabulated at an early time. Also, the examination will be the same for all students, regardless of the tasks assigned to them. The research instrument is designed in a way that the homework and the alternative (lecture video) will be accounted for the results of the examination.
Procedures
Samples with equal number of males and females will be obtained through random sampling. The participants will then be informed about the research study and the study makes sure that scores will be confidential. The population sample will be divided into two groups, and in each group, the students in every year level are divided equally. Homework will be given regularly to the students in the first group while on the other group, a video related to the lecture given during the day will be provided by the teachers and the student in that group will be required to watch it on the same day the homework has been given, and the students in this group are required to summarize what they watched. On the next day, a written examination will be given based on the homework and the video assigned to the students. The examination will be checked immediately after and the scores will be obtained. The homework and summary tasks during the research period will be included in the grading system of the students to ensure that the students will take them seriously. The research study will last one month and representatives of the researcher will be sent in examination days to obtain the results.
Data Analysis
Descriptive statistics will be used to analyze the research data. Mean scores of the exams before and during the research period will be obtained and put into comparison. The scores of the students in the both groups will be compared to their previous examination scores in order to see if there are improvements. Afterwards, the scores of the homework and the video group will be compared against one another to see which group performed better in the examination. The discrepancies of the data between the scores and before and during the research period will be the basis of the conclusion that will be formed. The research methodology is designed to answer the research questions stated in the previous portion. The research will be useful in future research which contributes to the future educational system that will be implemented.
References
Artus, N., & Nadler, K. (1999). A Computer-Assisted Personalized Approach in an Undergraduate Plant Physiology Class. Plant Physiology, 119(4), 1177-1186.
Blazer, C. (2009). Literature Review Homework. Office of Assessment, Research, and Data Analysis.
Caldwell, J. (2007). Clickers in the Large Classroom: Current Research and Best-Practice Tips. CBE Life Science Education, 6(1), 9-20. doi:10.1187/cbe.06-12-0205.
Eiraldi, R., Mautone, J., & Power, T. (2012). Strategies for Implementing Evidence-Based Psychosocial Interventions for Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America, 21(1), 145-159. doi:10.1016/j.chc.2011.08.012.
Gross, D., Pietri, E., Anderson, G., Moyano-Camihort, K., & Graham, J. (2015). Increased Preclass Preparation Underlies Student Outcome Improvement in the Flipped Classroom. CBE Life Sciences Education, 14(4). doi:doi: 10.1187/cbe.15-02-0040.
Harris, W., & Sherman, J. (1974). Homework assignments, consequences, and classroom performance in social studies and mathematics. Journal of Applied Behavioral Analysis, 7(4), 505-519. doi:10.1901/jaba.1974.7-505.
Jackson, J., & Harbison, L. (2014). An evaluation of the utility of homework in Irish primary school classrooms. Irish Teachers' Journal, 2(1).
Jacobson, B. (2015). The efficient classroom: How team-based learning and lecture video acceleration affect the learning efficiency and effectiveness of a first-year engineering course.
Langberg, J., Arnold, L., Flowers, A., Altaye, M., Epstein, J., & Molina, B. (2010). Assessing Homework Problems in Children with ADHD: Validation of a Parent-Report Measure and Evaluation of Homework Performance Patterns. School Mental Health, 2(1). doi:10.1007/s12310-009-9021-x
McGrath, N. (2010). Supporting the Student-Athlete’s Return to the Classroom After a Sport- Related Concussion. Journal of Athletic Training, 45(5), 492-498.
Paulu, N. (n.d.). Helping Your Students With Homework A Guide for Teachers. Office of Educational Research and Improvement.
Piascik, P., & Brazeau, G. (2010). Promoting a Culture of Academic Integrity. American Journal of Pharmacology Education, 74(6), 113-113.
Power, T., Dombrowski, S., Watkins, M., Mautone, J., & Eagle, J. (2007). Assessing Children’s Homework Performance: Development of Multi-Dimensional, Multi-Informant Rating Scales. Journal of School Psychology, 45(2), 333-348. doi:10.1016/j.jsp.2007.02.002.
Sherbino, J., Chan, T., & Schiff, K. (2013). The reverse classroom: Lectures on your own and homework with faculty. Canadian Journal of Emergency Medicine, 15(3), 178-180.
Strategies for Teaching Large Undergraduate Classes. (2010). Hanover Research.
