why should homework be banned australia

Should Australian schools ban homework?

Associate Professor, Faculty of Education and Social Work, University of Sydney

Director, Learning and Teaching Education Research Centre, CQUniversity Australia

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Richard Walker is the co-author of Reforming Homework: Practices, Learning and Policy.

Mike Horsley is the co-author of Reforming Homework: Practices, Learning and Policy.

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The recent decision by French President Francois Hollande to abolish homework from French schools has reignited the long running debate about homework.

This debate has been around for more than a century and remains a contentious issue for parents, students and education researchers alike.

A lengthy debate

Last month’s promised ban came as part of Hollande’s wider reforms to education , and followed widespread teacher and parent agitation for a short-term ban on homework in France earlier in the year.

At that time, the president of a French teachers’ organisation stated that homework reinforces socioeconomic and educational inequalities, saying: “Not all families have the time or necessary knowledge to help their offspring.”

On the other side of the debate, the president of another French parents’ association spoke in support of homework and stated: “Of course, it has to be reasonable, but going back over a lesson is the best way of learning things.”

Homework, broadly defined as tasks given to students during non-school hours, has long been the subject of both pro- and anti-homework campaigns, some of which have resulted in court action and the abolition of homework for students in some school grades.

Abolishing homework

The recent French announcement has led to calls for the abolition of homework in some German and American schools. So should homework be abolished in Australia?

The answer to this question requires a closer look at what homework is supposed to do, and whether it achieves these goals for students of all backgrounds.

The most comprehensive list of reasons for setting homework has been compiled by American researcher Joyce Epstein . These include the practice of already learnt skills, preparation for the next lesson, parent-child communication about school activities, the requirements of school or education department policies, and the enhancement of the reputation of the school or teacher.

But most empirical research into homework focuses on three main issues: does homework enhance student learning and achievement outcomes? Does homework help students to develop the skills of independent, self-directed learning? Does homework involve parents in the educational activities of their children in ways that are beneficial?

The conclusions

In our new book Reforming Homework: Practices, Learning and Policy , we have reviewed and evaluated the research evidence on each of the three issues.

While this research is complex and there are many caveats, the following broad conclusions can be drawn. In terms of academic achievement, homework has no benefit for children in the early years of primary school, negligible benefits for children in the later years of primary school, weak benefits for junior high school students and reasonable benefits for senior high school students.

Sound research has demonstrated that spending more time on homework is associated with lower student achievement; this finding is complemented by research showing that in countries with high homework demands, student performance on international tests of achievement is poor.

Self-directed learning skills are associated with doing homework but the research indicates that the development of these skills occurs when parents are able to assist upper primary and junior secondary school students with their homework.

Parental involvement in their children’s homework activities can be both beneficial and detrimental. It can be detrimental when parents are over-controlling or interfering, but can be beneficial to student motivation when parents provide autonomy and a supporting learning environments for their children.

An Australian ban?

In our book we have argued that rather than abolition, homework needs to be reformed. Generally speaking, homework needs to be better planned by teachers and needs to be of a higher quality.

But it won’t be easy – homework needs to be challenging for students but not too challenging, it needs to be interesting and motivating, and students also need adequate feedback.

So the way forward is to start a conversation between teachers, parents and students about the sort of homework students need. The routine of completing homework (if done well) can help with self-management, planning and organising skills, but these skills take a long time to learn.

Homework setting and practice will have to change so that students are learning about self-management and self-regulation. The sort of homework tasks that promote learning these skills will not focus on drill and practice but require homework tasks where students make some decisions and choices and also exercise some autonomy.

At the same time, guidance for students who do not have family support will require planning (and provision) to complete these sorts of more complex homework tasks. The books explores the equity implications of homework and how providing guidance and support for students should be explicitly planned as part of a homework curriculum.

Less homework, better homework

Overall, there should be less homework, especially homework that emphasises drill and practice. Homework should also be there as a a bridge between the community and the school. In particular, homework needs to be planned around the community’s and family’s fund of knowledge – which may be different from what the curriculum is based on.

In essence, homework can help children but perhaps not in the ways we think. And much of it depends on what you want homework to achieve and how parents and teachers see it.

One of the authors of this article has a six year-old daughter in her first year of school. When he asks his daughter to collect a reader from her school bag, bring it to the place she has chosen for the shared reading and decides who reads first and when, this may not seem like homework.

But in fact focusing on her choice and autonomy will help develop independent learning skills, skills that will hopefully last her lifetime. Understanding homework as a path to independent learning needs to be the first step.

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25 Reasons Homework Should Be Banned (Busywork Arguments)

As students across the globe plow through heaps of homework each night, one question lingers in the minds of educators, parents, and students alike: should homework be banned?

This question is not new, yet it continues to spark lively debate as research findings, anecdotal evidence, and personal experiences paint a complex picture of the pros and cons of homework.

On one hand, proponents of homework argue that it reinforces classroom learning, encourages a disciplined work ethic, and provides teachers with valuable insight into student comprehension. They see homework as an extension of classroom instruction that solidifies and enriches learning while fostering important skills like time management and self-discipline. It also offers an opportunity for parents to be involved in their children's education.

However, some people say there are a lot of downsides. They argue that excessive homework can lead to stress and burnout, reduce time for extracurricular activities and family interactions, exacerbate educational inequalities, and even negatively impact students' mental health.

This article presents 25 reasons why we might need to seriously consider this radical shift in our educational approach. But first, lets share some examples of what homework actually is.

Examples of Homework

These examples cover a wide range of subjects and complexity levels, reflecting the variety of homework assignments students might encounter throughout their educational journey.

• Spelling lists to memorize for a test
• Math worksheets for practicing basic arithmetic operations
• Reading assignments from children's books
• Simple science projects like growing a plant
• Basic geography assignments like labeling a map
• Art projects like drawing a family portrait
• Writing book reports or essays
• Advanced math problems
• Research projects on various topics
• Lab reports for science experiments
• Reading and responding to literature
• Preparing presentations on various topics
• Advanced math problems involving calculus or algebra
• Reading classic literature and writing analytical essays
• Research papers on historical events
• Lab reports for advanced science experiments
• Foreign language exercises
• Preparing for standardized tests
• College application essays
• Extensive research papers
• In-depth case studies
• Advanced problem-solving in subjects like physics, engineering, etc.
• Thesis or dissertation writing
• Extensive reading and literature reviews
• Internship or practicum experiences

Lack of proven benefits

Homework has long been a staple of traditional education, dating back centuries. However, the actual efficacy of homework in enhancing learning outcomes remains disputed. A number of studies indicate that there's no conclusive evidence supporting the notion that homework improves academic performance, especially in primary education . In fact, research suggests that for younger students, the correlation between homework and academic achievement is weak or even negative .

Too much homework can often lead to increased stress and decreased enthusiasm for learning. This issue becomes particularly pressing when considering the common 'more is better' approach to homework, where the quantity of work given to students often outweighs the quality and effectiveness of the tasks. For instance, spending countless hours memorizing facts for a history test may not necessarily translate to better understanding or long-term retention of the subject matter.

However, it's worth noting that homework isn't completely devoid of benefits. It can help foster self-discipline, time management skills, and the ability to work independently. But, these positive outcomes are usually more pronounced in older students and when homework assignments are thoughtfully designed and not excessive in volume.

When discussing the merits and drawbacks of homework, it's critical to consider the nature of the assignments. Routine, repetitive tasks often associated with 'drill-and-practice' homework, such as completing rows of arithmetic problems or copying definitions from a textbook, rarely lead to meaningful learning. On the other hand, assignments that encourage students to apply what they've learned in class, solve problems, or engage creatively with the material can be more beneficial.

Increased stress

Homework can often lead to a significant increase in stress levels among students. This is especially true when students are burdened with large volumes of homework, leaving them with little time to relax or pursue other activities. The feeling of constantly racing against the clock to meet deadlines can contribute to anxiety, frustration, and even burnout.

Contrary to popular belief, stress does not necessarily improve performance or productivity. In fact, high levels of stress can negatively impact memory, concentration, and overall cognitive function. This counteracts the very purpose of homework, which is intended to reinforce learning and improve academic outcomes.

However, one might argue that homework can teach students about time management, organization, and how to handle pressure. These are important life skills that could potentially prepare them for future responsibilities. But it's essential to strike a balance. The pressure to complete homework should not come at the cost of a student's mental wellbeing.

Limited family time

Homework often infringes upon the time students can spend with their families. After spending the entire day in school, children come home to yet more academic work, leaving little room for quality family interactions. This limited family time can hinder the development of important interpersonal skills and familial bonds.

Moreover, family time isn't just about fun and relaxation. It also plays a crucial role in the social and emotional development of children. Opportunities for unstructured play, family conversations, and shared activities can contribute to children's well-being and character building.

Nonetheless, advocates of homework might argue that it can be a platform for parental involvement in a child's education. While this may be true, the involvement should not transform into parental control or cause friction due to differing expectations and pressures.

Reduced physical activity

Homework can often lead to reduced physical activity by eating into the time students have for sports, recreation, and simply being outdoors. Physical activity is essential for children's health, well-being, and even their academic performance. Research suggests that physical activity can enhance cognitive abilities, improve concentration, and reduce symptoms of ADHD .

Homework, especially when it's boring and repetitive, can deter students from engaging in physical activities, leading to a sedentary lifestyle. This lack of balance between work and play can contribute to physical health problems such as obesity, poor posture, and related health concerns.

Homework proponents might point out that disciplined time management could allow students to balance both work and play. However, given the demanding nature of many homework assignments, achieving this balance is often easier said than done.

Negative impact on sleep

A significant concern about homework is its impact on students' sleep patterns. Numerous studies have linked excessive homework to sleep deprivation in students. Children often stay up late to complete assignments, reducing the amount of sleep they get. Lack of sleep can result in a host of issues, from poor academic performance and difficulty concentrating to physical health problems like weakened immunity.

Even the quality of sleep can be affected. The stress and anxiety from a heavy workload can lead to difficulty falling asleep or restless nights. And let's not forget that students often need to wake up early for school, compounding the negative effects of late-night homework sessions.

On the other hand, some argue that homework can teach children time management skills, suggesting that effective organization could help prevent late-night work. However, when schools assign excessive amounts of homework, even the best time management might not prevent encroachment on sleep time.

Homework can exacerbate existing educational inequalities. Not all students have access to a conducive learning environment at home, necessary resources, or support from educated family members. For these students, homework can become a source of stress and disadvantage rather than an opportunity to reinforce learning.

Children from lower socio-economic backgrounds might need to contribute to household chores or part-time work, limiting the time they have for homework. This can create a gap in academic performance and grades, reflecting not on the students' abilities but their circumstances.

While homework is meant to level the playing field by providing additional learning time outside school, it often does the opposite. It's worth noting that students from privileged backgrounds can often access additional help like tutoring, further widening the gap.

Reduced creativity and independent thinking

Homework, particularly when it involves rote learning or repetitive tasks, can stifle creativity and independent thinking. Students often focus on getting the "right" answers to please teachers rather than exploring different ideas and solutions. This can hinder their ability to think creatively and solve problems independently, skills that are increasingly in demand in the modern world.

Homework defenders might claim that it can also promote independent learning. True, when thoughtfully designed, homework can encourage this. But, voluminous or repetitive tasks tend to promote compliance over creativity.

Diminished interest in learning

Overburdening students with homework can diminish their interest in learning. After long hours in school followed by more academic tasks at home, learning can begin to feel like a chore. This can lead to a decline in intrinsic motivation and an unhealthy association of learning with stress and exhaustion.

In theory, homework can deepen interest in a subject, especially when it involves projects or research. Yet, an excess of homework, particularly routine tasks, might achieve the opposite, turning learning into a source of stress rather than enjoyment.

Inability to pursue personal interests

Homework can limit students' ability to pursue personal interests. Hobbies, personal projects, and leisure activities are crucial for personal development and well-being. With heavy homework loads, students may struggle to find time for these activities, missing out on opportunities to discover new interests and talents.

Supporters of homework might argue that it teaches students to manage their time effectively. However, even with good time management, an overload of homework can crowd out time for personal interests.

Excessive workload

The issue of excessive workload is a common complaint among students. Spending several hours on homework after a full school day can be mentally and physically draining. This workload can lead to burnout, decreased motivation, and negative attitudes toward school and learning.

While homework can help consolidate classroom learning, too much can be counterproductive. It's important to consider the overall workload of students, including school, extracurricular activities, and personal time, when assigning homework.

Limited time for reflection

Homework can limit the time students have for reflection. Reflection is a critical part of learning, allowing students to digest and integrate new information. With the constant flow of assignments, there's often little time left for this crucial process. Consequently, the learning becomes superficial, and the true understanding of subjects can be compromised.

Although homework is meant to reinforce what's taught in class, the lack of downtime for reflection might hinder deep learning. It's important to remember that learning is not just about doing, but also about thinking.

Increased pressure on young children

Young children are particularly vulnerable to the pressures of homework. At an age where play and exploration are vital for cognitive and emotional development, too much homework can create undue pressure and stress. This pressure can instigate a negative relationship with learning from an early age, potentially impacting their future attitude towards education.

Advocates of homework often argue that it prepares children for the rigors of their future academic journey. However, placing too much academic pressure on young children might overshadow the importance of learning through play and exploration.

Lack of alignment with real-world skills

Traditional homework often lacks alignment with real-world skills. Assignments typically focus on academic abilities at the expense of skills like creativity, problem-solving, and emotional intelligence. These are crucial for success in the modern workplace and are often under-emphasized in homework tasks.

Homework can be an opportunity to develop these skills when properly structured. However, tasks often focus on memorization and repetition, rather than cultivating skills relevant to the real world.

Loss of motivation

Excessive homework can lead to a loss of motivation. The constant pressure to complete assignments and meet deadlines can diminish a student's intrinsic motivation to learn. This loss of motivation might not only affect their academic performance but also their love of learning, potentially having long-term effects on their educational journey.

Some believe homework instills discipline and responsibility. But, it's important to balance these benefits against the potential for homework to undermine motivation and engagement.

Disruption of work-life balance

Maintaining a healthy work-life balance is as important for students as it is for adults. Overloading students with homework can disrupt this balance, leaving little time for relaxation, socializing, and extracurricular activities. All of these are vital for a student's overall development and well-being.

Homework supporters might argue that it prepares students for the workloads they'll face in college and beyond. But it's also crucial to ensure students have time to relax, recharge, and engage in non-academic activities for a well-rounded development.

Impact on mental health

There's a growing body of evidence showing the negative impact of excessive homework on students' mental health. The stress and anxiety from heavy homework loads can contribute to issues like depression, anxiety, and even thoughts of suicide. Student well-being should be a top priority in education, and the impact of homework on mental health cannot be ignored.

While some might argue that homework helps students develop resilience and coping skills, it's important to ensure these potential benefits don't come at the expense of students' mental health.

Limited time for self-care

With excessive homework, students often find little time for essential self-care activities. These can include physical exercise, proper rest, healthy eating, mindfulness, or even simple leisure activities. These activities are critical for maintaining physical health, emotional well-being, and cognitive function.

Some might argue that managing homework alongside self-care responsibilities teaches students valuable life skills. However, it's important that these skills don't come at the cost of students' health and well-being.

Decreased family involvement

Homework can inadvertently lead to decreased family involvement in a child's learning. Parents often feel unqualified or too busy to help with homework, leading to missed opportunities for family learning interactions. This can also create stress and conflict within the family, especially when parents have high expectations or are unable to assist.

Some believe homework can facilitate parental involvement in education. But, when it becomes a source of stress or conflict, it can discourage parents from engaging in their child's learning.

Reinforcement of inequalities

Homework can unintentionally reinforce inequalities. Students from disadvantaged backgrounds might lack access to resources like private tutors or a quiet study space, placing them at a disadvantage compared to their more privileged peers. Additionally, these students might have additional responsibilities at home, further limiting their time to complete homework.

While the purpose of homework is often to provide additional learning opportunities, it can inadvertently reinforce existing disparities. Therefore, it's essential to ensure that homework doesn't favor students who have more resources at home.

Reduced time for play and creativity

Homework can take away from time for play and creative activities. These activities are not only enjoyable but also crucial for the cognitive, social, and emotional development of children. Play allows children to explore, imagine, and create, fostering innovative thinking and problem-solving skills.

Some may argue that homework teaches discipline and responsibility. Yet, it's vital to remember that play also has significant learning benefits and should be a part of every child's daily routine.

Increased cheating and academic dishonesty

The pressure to complete homework can sometimes lead to increased cheating and academic dishonesty. When faced with a large volume of homework, students might resort to copying from friends or searching for answers online. This undermines the educational value of homework and fosters unhealthy academic practices.

While homework is intended to consolidate learning, the risk of promoting dishonest behaviors is a concern that needs to be addressed.

Strained teacher-student relationships

Excessive homework can strain teacher-student relationships. If students begin to associate teachers with stress or anxiety from homework, it can hinder the development of a positive learning relationship. Furthermore, if teachers are perceived as being unfair or insensitive with their homework demands, it can impact the overall classroom dynamic.

While homework can provide an opportunity for teachers to monitor student progress, it's important to ensure that it doesn't negatively affect the teacher-student relationship.

Negative impact on family dynamics

Homework can impact family dynamics. Parents might feel compelled to enforce homework completion, leading to potential conflict, stress, and tension within the family. These situations can disrupt the harmony in the household and strain relationships.

Homework is sometimes seen as a tool to engage parents in their child's education. However, it's crucial to ensure that this involvement doesn't turn into a source of conflict or pressure.

Cultural and individual differences

Homework might not take into account cultural and individual differences. Education is not a one-size-fits-all process, and what works for one student might not work for another. Some students might thrive on hands-on learning, while others prefer auditory or visual learning methods. By standardizing homework, we might ignore these individual learning styles and preferences.

Homework can also overlook cultural differences. For students from diverse cultural backgrounds, certain types of homework might seem irrelevant or difficult to relate to, leading to disengagement or confusion.

Encouragement of surface-level learning

Homework often encourages surface-level learning instead of deep understanding. When students are swamped with homework, they're likely to rush through assignments to get them done, rather than taking the time to understand the concepts. This can result in superficial learning where students memorize information to regurgitate it on assignments and tests, instead of truly understanding and internalizing the knowledge.

While homework is meant to reinforce classroom learning, the quality of learning is more important than the quantity. It's important to design homework in a way that encourages deep, meaningful learning instead of mere rote memorization.

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The case for banning homework so kids can have a life

Homework normalises a lack of boundaries between working and personal lives, and burdens teachers with extra duties and unpaid overtime.

Benjamin Clark

Feb 01, 2023

Irish President Michael D Higgins made global headlines last week by calling for a ban on homework, arguing students would benefit more from spending their after-school hours developing friendships and playing.

“It should get finished at school [and] people should be able to use their time for other creative things,” Higgins told Irish radio station RTE. However, Higgins doesn’t have the power to change Ireland’s education policies, and Education Minister Norma Foley has vowed to leave the decision up to principals.

As most Australian students return to school this week, it’s high time for a debate about the merits of homework. Should Australia consign it to the proverbial dog’s bowl for good?

Homework gets a D-

There is little correlation between global test scores and the time students spend studying at home. Fifteen-year-old students from Shanghai (who do a whopping 14 hours of homework a week on average) and Singapore (seven hours) score higher than Australia (six hours, one more than the OECD average) on tests by the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). But so do Finnish students, who spend fewer than three hours on homework each week.

This is because the educational benefits of homework are small, according to academic studies, and only kick in once students hit their mid-teens.

Australian academics Richard Walker and Mike Horsley, authors of the book Reforming Homework, conclude : “Homework has no benefit for children in the early years of primary school, negligible benefits for children in the later years of primary school, weak benefits for junior high school students and reasonable benefits for senior high school students.”

Why? Recent UK research suggests younger children are often “[unable] to complete this homework without the support provided by teachers and the school”.

Even for older students, only a small amount of homework is beneficial. The OECD surmises that “after around four hours of homework per week, the additional time invested … has a negligible impact on performance”.

Relying on work outside the classroom also exacerbates educational inequality, as students from disadvantaged backgrounds are less likely to receive help from family members who may be out working or busy with caring responsibilities. Just like increasing private and public school fees , homework shunts more of the burden of education on to individual families, leaving children more reliant on their parents’ resources.

Long hours on the tools crayons

There is also a broader question: why, when we (theoretically) limit the adult work week to 38 hours, do we think it’s acceptable for kids to work 41 hours a week on average (35 hours in school, six hours of homework)? When adults work such hours, they’re usually meant to be paid overtime (again, theoretically).

Homework normalises a culture of working late hours into the night, which conditions students to expect an unhealthy lack of boundaries in their working lives. Spending time with family and friends, keeping active and exploring hobbies and creative pursuits are relegated to afterthoughts. This is especially the case for high-achieving students, who often move into professions with toxic overworking cultures such as medicine, law, finance and consulting, which they’ve been conditioned to accept.

I've come to the conclusion that the sole purpose of homework is to condition children into accepting that unpaid overtime and ridiculous hours and not even being able to escape work even in your own home are a normal things to expect in their future. — Erin Ekins (she/her) (@QueerlyAutistic) July 19, 2020

It’s one reason we’ve seen the rising acceptance of unpaid overtime in the Australian economy, particularly among young workers. The average Australian works six weeks’ worth of unpaid overtime a year, losing more than $8000 they’re rightfully owed, according to a November report by the Centre for Future Work . Young people work the most unpaid overtime.

Even if you think the link between homework and overwork is a long bow, it’s clearly a short one for teachers. Teachers rarely have enough time to properly mark homework and provide feedback. It’s thus unsurprising they work 15 hours of unpaid overtime on average a week, according to a 2021 union survey — more than double the national average. Much of it is spent marking homework.

Teacher, leave those kids alone

As our work and home lives have become increasingly blurred through the pandemic, establishing a healthy work-life balance is an important standard to impart to kids from a young age. It will ready them for their economic futures, in which work emails will haunt them digitally if they don’t set strong boundaries.

We should start by heeding Higgins’ call and resigning homework to the history books, at least for primary school students. For older students, we should cap their expected hours at 38, in line with the adult work week. They’re in school for roughly 35 hours a week, and three hours a week of homework fits within the amount the OECD deems beneficial.

It might offend “old school” teachers and parents, but as any teacher marking papers will tell you: for a persuasive conclusion, you must follow the latest evidence.

Homework: who needs it? Let us know by writing to  [email protected] . Please include your full name to be considered for publication .  We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity.

About the Author

Columnist @ben_clark56

Benjamin Clark is a writer and media worker based in Melbourne. His work has appeared in Crikey , The Age , Junkee and Kill Your Darlings .

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In the 80s, I attended a full time boarding school (home weekend every couple of months).

We had 3 hours of mandatory supervised silent homework 6 nights a week. 1700 to 1800 then 1830 to 2030.

Often some sort of infringement would result in the entire student body (200+) copping “late study”, ie an extra hour on top of this. Saturdays off (very lenient /s).

So we were doing 18 hours a week (plus bonus time on the whim of the study supervisor ) on top of our longer than average school day of 0845 to 1530. 50-55 hour weeks……

BTW, between 1545 and 1645 was *mandatory* sport.

Anyway, back then, my school annual magazine was in the habit of publishing year 12 results from the previous year…..so years later, I found a copy online with my year level results and perused the academic outcomes of all this study time.

Gotta say, there were not a lot of academic high flyers in my cohort (self included). In fact, the results were kinda substandard.

Still having study/homework nightmares though, so I guess there was some impact.

I have ADHD, and loathed homework to the point where I simply didn’t do it and bore with the consequences. It wasn’t just an intrusion, it was punishment. The idea that it exists to condition us into a powerless, overworked and underpaid role as employees makes sense; in the ultimate neoliberalist paradigm we should all be on-call at every moment of our lives.

On the arguments above, music practice of hours per day would seem to be equally punishing and even more pointless. Yet for centuries past, parents have seen value in committing their children to music homework. Their arguments must be worth considering.

Not at all. Practising more does make you a better musician. The article says that homework doesn’t necessarily help.

Woop, my experience both as a student and as a teacher (for 40 years) suggest that the article is rubbish. To say that homework does not help is to insult the intelligence of a moron.

Imagine if our footballers didn’t do training each week. Yes, I know they’re paid, but not all athletes are paid, they still go and train between competitions. It’s practice or don’t make the team. Music is the same. If there’s no practice between lessons, there’s little to no progress.

Most kids are in school 5 days a week. They get plenty of practice at school. Perhaps it could be optional for some kids. My oldest son had a teacher who would reward students with no homework for achieving some goal set in class… but one student he would actually give extra homework because that student wanted it.

I’m a teacher with 10 years under the belt and as a rule, I don’t set homework. A general end to the practice would be a positive across the board for students. It would reduce pressure on those who just cannot complete said homework. I’ve had students who have had to work part-time to support their family. They’re not completing anything you set outside of school hours and to create a curriculum with assumed extra knowledge is just folly.

One thing I have noticed is the increase in extracurricular activities that occupy students after school. So students will regularly finish school at 3:30 and then be playing sport until 6, 7 or even 8pm. So the added expectation of completing 2-3 hours of homework a night just isn’t manageable. I have had students finishing work at 1am because “well, I had homework sir!”. It then means the day at school might as well be write off as they’re just not mentally present. I have several students in my support group which I have mandated that they must have one night off a week to do a nothing activity (i.e. watch a movie with friends) because otherwise, they will burn themselves out.

Furthermore, unless you as a teacher actually review the work set as homework, it might as well not exist. There is no point spending two hours on problems for a subject if you have a fundamental misunderstanding of what needs to be done. All this leads to is stress or even worse, for students to message teachers after hour via Teams asking for help. This then puts extra pressure on the teacher to always be on and creates a culture of constantly being on the job.

I will say one general exception to the above is reading or another creative hobby. In my years teaching, the students who do well are often the ones with creative outlets or calming activities that let them just unwind. These students are usually the strongest students as they actually know how to work effectively and learn. And that’s the rub, despite one detractor in the comments saying that this would somehow create a culture of mediocrity in Australia, it really would have zero impact. The students who are high achievers will continue to achieve high. They are the ones who seek out extra work as they want to extend and deepen their knowledge. For them, it’s not homework, it’s additional learning.

Rob, I would contend that Australia has had a ‘culture of mediocrity’ in education for at least 50 years. I have personally observed it evolve over time. For me, it began in Victoria with the abolition of the external Intermediate Certificate Examination at 4th Form Level (that’s year 10 for anyone under about 50 years of age), then we saw the Leaving Certificate external Examinations go. Both of these changes occurred in the late 1960’s. The educational vandals then came after the Matriculation Certificate. These educational wreckers succeeded in dumbing down the Year 12 qualification when the HSC was introduced in Victoria, but boy, did standards plummet with the introduction of the VCE in the early 1990’s!! I know, Rob, I had to prostitute myself as a teacher and participate in this egregious process. For example, I studied the Matriculation chemistry course as a student, I taught chemistry at both the HSC and VCE levels. There was a clear decline in standards going from Matriculation to HSC and then standards collapsed when the HSC changed to the VCE compliments of Joan Kirner.

And as far as the primary school situation is concerned, I used to tell my students, if I was a parent and was about to send my children to primary school and I had the choice of sending them to a school that used the same approach as I had in the 1950’s, or to a modern primary school, then I would, without hesitation, send to the primary school that used the 1950’s approach. That is how much confidence I have in the modern educational system. Education these days is what you get when you put the clowns in charge of the circus. I understand that students are no longer taught to write cursively. What an absolute disgrace. How can you treat this system with anything other than complete contempt!

I disagree. Education has changed and generally for the better. Just because something worked when you were at school, it doesn’t forever make it “the” model for education.

I second you Rob. I did high school in the 70s. Twenty-something years later, I noticed my own kids in year 10 doing assignments set with expectation levels that approximated my year 12 level. Their year 12 math studies were at my uni-level. Now I have grandchildren attending a Catholic (but not posh) school in a rural town. The 10-year old talks about grammar terms and parts of speech that I didn’t learn until high school. She could teach most of today’s journos a thing or two, actually. Hmm, maybe I need to back-track a bit after all, our media standards are evidence that modern education is letting some down… 😀

You make some good points there kmart60. I think that the ‘rot’ had actually become fairly well-established by the 1970’s. Completely idiotic ideas such as, “Oh, don’t put a red-line through that spelling mistake, you might damage the student’s self-esteem” and “Oh don’t make the students learn their times table by heart, that’s so boring” became popular at the time. It was like being at the Mad-Hatter’s Teaparty.

From my observations as an educator, the able students do the homework and reinforce the material being taught, the struggling students don’t know where to start and need to be supervised to complete their homework.

Homework serves to increase the gap between students who are coping and those who are struggling

Exactly! It’s also time better spent for everyone. Do something creative and constructive instead of just repetitive learning.

billie, in order to close that gap between the able students and the struggling students, we need to provide extra help for the struggling students; not to artificially restrain and obstruct the progress of the able students. Is your idea of ‘education’ billie dumbing everyone down to the lowest common denominator level in order to close the gap?

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Student Opinion

Should We Get Rid of Homework?

Some educators are pushing to get rid of homework. Would that be a good thing?

By Jeremy Engle and Michael Gonchar

Do you like doing homework? Do you think it has benefited you educationally?

Has homework ever helped you practice a difficult skill — in math, for example — until you mastered it? Has it helped you learn new concepts in history or science? Has it helped to teach you life skills, such as independence and responsibility? Or, have you had a more negative experience with homework? Does it stress you out, numb your brain from busywork or actually make you fall behind in your classes?

Should we get rid of homework?

In “ The Movement to End Homework Is Wrong, ” published in July, the Times Opinion writer Jay Caspian Kang argues that homework may be imperfect, but it still serves an important purpose in school. The essay begins:

Do students really need to do their homework? As a parent and a former teacher, I have been pondering this question for quite a long time. The teacher side of me can acknowledge that there were assignments I gave out to my students that probably had little to no academic value. But I also imagine that some of my students never would have done their basic reading if they hadn’t been trained to complete expected assignments, which would have made the task of teaching an English class nearly impossible. As a parent, I would rather my daughter not get stuck doing the sort of pointless homework I would occasionally assign, but I also think there’s a lot of value in saying, “Hey, a lot of work you’re going to end up doing in your life is pointless, so why not just get used to it?” I certainly am not the only person wondering about the value of homework. Recently, the sociologist Jessica McCrory Calarco and the mathematics education scholars Ilana Horn and Grace Chen published a paper, “ You Need to Be More Responsible: The Myth of Meritocracy and Teachers’ Accounts of Homework Inequalities .” They argued that while there’s some evidence that homework might help students learn, it also exacerbates inequalities and reinforces what they call the “meritocratic” narrative that says kids who do well in school do so because of “individual competence, effort and responsibility.” The authors believe this meritocratic narrative is a myth and that homework — math homework in particular — further entrenches the myth in the minds of teachers and their students. Calarco, Horn and Chen write, “Research has highlighted inequalities in students’ homework production and linked those inequalities to differences in students’ home lives and in the support students’ families can provide.”

Mr. Kang argues:

But there’s a defense of homework that doesn’t really have much to do with class mobility, equality or any sense of reinforcing the notion of meritocracy. It’s one that became quite clear to me when I was a teacher: Kids need to learn how to practice things. Homework, in many cases, is the only ritualized thing they have to do every day. Even if we could perfectly equalize opportunity in school and empower all students not to be encumbered by the weight of their socioeconomic status or ethnicity, I’m not sure what good it would do if the kids didn’t know how to do something relentlessly, over and over again, until they perfected it. Most teachers know that type of progress is very difficult to achieve inside the classroom, regardless of a student’s background, which is why, I imagine, Calarco, Horn and Chen found that most teachers weren’t thinking in a structural inequalities frame. Holistic ideas of education, in which learning is emphasized and students can explore concepts and ideas, are largely for the types of kids who don’t need to worry about class mobility. A defense of rote practice through homework might seem revanchist at this moment, but if we truly believe that schools should teach children lessons that fall outside the meritocracy, I can’t think of one that matters more than the simple satisfaction of mastering something that you were once bad at. That takes homework and the acknowledgment that sometimes a student can get a question wrong and, with proper instruction, eventually get it right.

Students, read the entire article, then tell us:

Should we get rid of homework? Why, or why not?

Is homework an outdated, ineffective or counterproductive tool for learning? Do you agree with the authors of the paper that homework is harmful and worsens inequalities that exist between students’ home circumstances?

Or do you agree with Mr. Kang that homework still has real educational value?

When you get home after school, how much homework will you do? Do you think the amount is appropriate, too much or too little? Is homework, including the projects and writing assignments you do at home, an important part of your learning experience? Or, in your opinion, is it not a good use of time? Explain.

In these letters to the editor , one reader makes a distinction between elementary school and high school:

Homework’s value is unclear for younger students. But by high school and college, homework is absolutely essential for any student who wishes to excel. There simply isn’t time to digest Dostoyevsky if you only ever read him in class.

What do you think? How much does grade level matter when discussing the value of homework?

Is there a way to make homework more effective?

If you were a teacher, would you assign homework? What kind of assignments would you give and why?

Want more writing prompts? You can find all of our questions in our Student Opinion column . Teachers, check out this guide to learn how you can incorporate them into your classroom.

Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.

Jeremy Engle joined The Learning Network as a staff editor in 2018 after spending more than 20 years as a classroom humanities and documentary-making teacher, professional developer and curriculum designer working with students and teachers across the country. More about Jeremy Engle

Is it time to get rid of homework? Mental health experts weigh in.

It's no secret that kids hate homework. And as students grapple with an ongoing pandemic that has had a wide range of mental health impacts, is it time schools start listening to their pleas about workloads?

Some teachers are turning to social media to take a stand against homework. 

Tiktok user @misguided.teacher says he doesn't assign it because the "whole premise of homework is flawed."

For starters, he says, he can't grade work on "even playing fields" when students' home environments can be vastly different.

"Even students who go home to a peaceful house, do they really want to spend their time on busy work? Because typically that's what a lot of homework is, it's busy work," he says in the video that has garnered 1.6 million likes. "You only get one year to be 7, you only got one year to be 10, you only get one year to be 16, 18."

Mental health experts agree heavy workloads have the potential do more harm than good for students, especially when taking into account the impacts of the pandemic. But they also say the answer may not be to eliminate homework altogether.

Emmy Kang, mental health counselor at Humantold , says studies have shown heavy workloads can be "detrimental" for students and cause a "big impact on their mental, physical and emotional health."

"More than half of students say that homework is their primary source of stress, and we know what stress can do on our bodies," she says, adding that staying up late to finish assignments also leads to disrupted sleep and exhaustion.

Cynthia Catchings, a licensed clinical social worker and therapist at Talkspace , says heavy workloads can also cause serious mental health problems in the long run, like anxiety and depression. 

And for all the distress homework  can cause, it's not as useful as many may think, says Dr. Nicholas Kardaras, a psychologist and CEO of Omega Recovery treatment center.

"The research shows that there's really limited benefit of homework for elementary age students, that really the school work should be contained in the classroom," he says.

For older students, Kang says, homework benefits plateau at about two hours per night. 

"Most students, especially at these high achieving schools, they're doing a minimum of three hours, and it's taking away time from their friends, from their families, their extracurricular activities. And these are all very important things for a person's mental and emotional health."

Catchings, who also taught third to 12th graders for 12 years, says she's seen the positive effects of a no-homework policy while working with students abroad.

"Not having homework was something that I always admired from the French students (and) the French schools, because that was helping the students to really have the time off and really disconnect from school," she says.

The answer may not be to eliminate homework completely but to be more mindful of the type of work students take home, suggests Kang, who was a high school teacher for 10 years.

"I don't think (we) should scrap homework; I think we should scrap meaningless, purposeless busy work-type homework. That's something that needs to be scrapped entirely," she says, encouraging teachers to be thoughtful and consider the amount of time it would take for students to complete assignments.

The pandemic made the conversation around homework more crucial 

Mindfulness surrounding homework is especially important in the context of the past two years. Many students will be struggling with mental health issues that were brought on or worsened by the pandemic , making heavy workloads even harder to balance.

"COVID was just a disaster in terms of the lack of structure. Everything just deteriorated," Kardaras says, pointing to an increase in cognitive issues and decrease in attention spans among students. "School acts as an anchor for a lot of children, as a stabilizing force, and that disappeared."

But even if students transition back to the structure of in-person classes, Kardaras suspects students may still struggle after two school years of shifted schedules and disrupted sleeping habits.

"We've seen adults struggling to go back to in-person work environments from remote work environments. That effect is amplified with children because children have less resources to be able to cope with those transitions than adults do," he explains.

'Get organized' ahead of back-to-school

In order to make the transition back to in-person school easier, Kang encourages students to "get good sleep, exercise regularly (and) eat a healthy diet."

To help manage workloads, she suggests students "get organized."

"There's so much mental clutter up there when you're disorganized. ... Sitting down and planning out their study schedules can really help manage their time," she says.

Breaking up assignments can also make things easier to tackle.

"I know that heavy workloads can be stressful, but if you sit down and you break down that studying into smaller chunks, they're much more manageable."

If workloads are still too much, Kang encourages students to advocate for themselves.

"They should tell their teachers when a homework assignment just took too much time or if it was too difficult for them to do on their own," she says. "It's good to speak up and ask those questions. Respectfully, of course, because these are your teachers. But still, I think sometimes teachers themselves need this feedback from their students."

More: Some teachers let their students sleep in class. Here's what mental health experts say.

More: Some parents are slipping young kids in for the COVID-19 vaccine, but doctors discourage the move as 'risky'

Education News

The pros and cons of homework.

John Hattie is Professor of Education and Director of the Melbourne Education Research Institute at the University of Melbourne, Australia, and the author of Visible Learning , a synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement in education.

When deciding on how much, and what, homework to hand out, Hattie says there are quite a few things teachers should consider.

“Homework in primary school has a measurable effect of around zero,” Hattie told BBC Radio 4 Journalist Sarah Montague.

“In high school it does have a larger measurable effect, which is why we need to get it right, not why we need to get rid of it. It’s one of those lower hanging fruit that we should be looking at in our primary schools to say ‘Is it really making a difference?”’

Hattie looked at research studies from all over the world that have tried to measure the impact of various factors on education, including the optimal time students should be spending on homework.

He found homework appears to be more effective for higher-ability rather than lower-ability students, and for older rather than younger students.

CensusAtSchool is a collaborative project involving teachers, the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the Ministry of Education, which examines the lives of children in year four to 12.

A comparison of the findings from 2008 to 2013, reveals that Australian children are spending more time doing homework than they were five years ago.

In 2008, Australian children spent an average of 5.3 hours a week doing their homework. Today that has jumped to seven hours a week. Child psychologist Michael Carr-Gregg said he was concerned by the trend that kids were spending an increasing amount of time on homework, and believes the trend is linked to higher levels of anxiety.

“I actually think less is more with homework, because there seems to be so much stress around school,” he said.

A number of primary schools in Australia are effectively handing the decision-making power over to parents, allowing parents to permanently excuse children from homework.

Some primary schools have even sent letters home to parents outlining their reasoning for setting homework, but ultimately recognising that parents are best placed to make decisions about whether or not their children have the capacity or time to complete it.

Hattie is more positive about giving secondary school aged children homework.

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) found that high-school aged Australian students are also spending more hours doing homework each week.

The report found that 15-year-old Australian students spend an average of six hours a week doing homework. That marks an increase of 0.3 hours per week from the 2003 study.

Australia and Austria were the only countries to report a statistically significant increase in the amount of time students spend doing homework.

“The overall effect of homework on achievement in older students is positive, but there are quite a few qualifications to that,” Hattie writes in Visible Learning . Qualifications included things like the age of the learner, the amount of homework, and whether the homework was task-oriented or complex and unstructured.

Neurologist and former classroom teacher Judy Willis says if a teacher knows a bit about the brain, he or she can plan homework to suit the needs of students as they develop.

“During early school years, for example, the brain is focused on getting to grips with the world around us. Memories and understanding grow when new information can be linked to things we already know. Homework that helps with this recognition can build literacy and numeracy skills,” says Willis.

“When students reach adolescence, they become more independent and self-directed. There is shift away from rote memorisation and single, correct responses. Learning goals are more likely to focus on reading for content and comprehension, revising, report writing, solving problems, investigating and independent or group work.”

Willis says that while the amount of time spent on homework will always vary depending on the age of students, there are a few physiological guidelines to remember.

“After about 15 minutes of learning and practising something – such as the Pythagorean theorem in maths – the regions of the brain activated in spatial-numerical learning get fatigued and need to rebuild the neurotransmitters, such as dopamine, that get depleted,” says Willis. “The restoration only takes a few minutes if the break is timely, but if they are pushed to stay with that same process for too long, stress builds, neurotransmitters drop way down and it will take twice as long to restore full efficiency to that area of the brain.”

Willis recommends online games for learning basic knowledge as they usually have set timings.

“You can assign a specific amount of time to be spent on the skill-building program for homework and confirm students’ compliance by checking the teachers’ pages,” she says.

“When students know that the effort they put into homework will enhance their participation and enjoyment of classroom learning, they become more motivated. Pupils also put more effort into schoolwork or homework when they are engaged in something that is relevant to their studies.”

One of the studies Hattie examined warned against homework that undermined a student’s motivation, as it could lead to the student internalising incorrect routines.

“For too many students, homework reinforces that they cannot learn by themselves and that they cannot do the schoolwork,” says Hattie. “Ensuring that students are assessment-capable learners is the most important thing we can do to raise student achievement.”

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Why Dr Justin Coulson banned homework

The leading parenting expert explained his reasons on The Morning Show.

By Livia Gamble

April 05 2023

It’s something all children have to endure, but one of Australia’s leading parenting expert says he’s against teachers setting homework for primary school children.

Speaking about his decision on The Morning Show , Dr Coulson, who runs the blog, Happy Families , said he wrote a letter to each of his six children’s teachers every year during primary school explaining why his family does not believe in homework.

The letter says, “we really appreciate how much work you put into how much our children learn but we’ve discovered homework is a problem for a handful of reasons.” 

Firstly, there’s “no research to support the use of homework at home in primary school," he said. 

He adds: “It gets in the way of family life, it’s a burden for teachers and means they can’t do all the great stuff that we like them doing after school, like piano lessons or art or drama class or playing with friends.”

According to an article published earlier this month in  The Guardian , "Education researcher Professor John Hattie, found that homework in primary schools has a negligible effect."

Dr Coulson has two exceptions: Reading and learning based projects, for example, if a child is interested in insects, you can spend some time googling information to nurture that interest.

That said, Dr Coulson’s stance has softened in the last few years. 

"First of all there are some kids who need some structure when they go home they’ve got nothing else to do but stare at a screen if that’s what they are doing it's better to do something productive," he said. 

And some kids just like doing it. 

He finished saying, "If your kids love doing homework and it's not affecting them negatively, it won’t hurt them but it’s not going to help them either."

Click here for a copy of the letter Dr Coulson sends to his daughter's school . 

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The Surprising History of Homework Reform

Really, kids, there was a time when lots of grownups thought homework was bad for you.

Homework causes a lot of fights. Between parents and kids, sure. But also, as education scholar Brian Gill and historian Steven Schlossman write, among U.S. educators. For more than a century, they’ve been debating how, and whether, kids should do schoolwork at home .

At the dawn of the twentieth century, homework meant memorizing lists of facts which could then be recited to the teacher the next day. The rising progressive education movement despised that approach. These educators advocated classrooms free from recitation. Instead, they wanted students to learn by doing. To most, homework had no place in this sort of system.

Through the middle of the century, Gill and Schlossman write, this seemed like common sense to most progressives. And they got their way in many schools—at least at the elementary level. Many districts abolished homework for K–6 classes, and almost all of them eliminated it for students below fourth grade.

By the 1950s, many educators roundly condemned drills, like practicing spelling words and arithmetic problems. In 1963, Helen Heffernan, chief of California’s Bureau of Elementary Education, definitively stated that “No teacher aware of recent theories could advocate such meaningless homework assignments as pages of repetitive computation in arithmetic. Such an assignment not only kills time but kills the child’s creative urge to intellectual activity.”

But, the authors note, not all reformers wanted to eliminate homework entirely. Some educators reconfigured the concept, suggesting supplemental reading or having students do projects based in their own interests. One teacher proposed “homework” consisting of after-school “field trips to the woods, factories, museums, libraries, art galleries.” In 1937, Carleton Washburne, an influential educator who was the superintendent of the Winnetka, Illinois, schools, proposed a homework regimen of “cooking and sewing…meal planning…budgeting, home repairs, interior decorating, and family relationships.”

Another reformer explained that “at first homework had as its purpose one thing—to prepare the next day’s lessons. Its purpose now is to prepare the children for fuller living through a new type of creative and recreational homework.”

That idea didn’t necessarily appeal to all educators. But moderation in the use of traditional homework became the norm.

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“Virtually all commentators on homework in the postwar years would have agreed with the sentiment expressed in the NEA Journal in 1952 that ‘it would be absurd to demand homework in the first grade or to denounce it as useless in the eighth grade and in high school,’” Gill and Schlossman write.

That remained more or less true until 1983, when publication of the landmark government report A Nation at Risk helped jump-start a conservative “back to basics” agenda, including an emphasis on drill-style homework. In the decades since, continuing “reforms” like high-stakes testing, the No Child Left Behind Act, and the Common Core standards have kept pressure on schools. Which is why twenty-first-century first graders get spelling words and pages of arithmetic.

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Should Homework be Banned in Australian Universities

Homework is an essential part of the learning process in Australian universities as it provides students with opportunities to practice and apply what they have learned in class. However, there is an ongoing debate on the quantity and quality of homework assigned to university students in Australia, with some arguing that excessive homework can lead to stress, burnout, and negative impacts on mental health.

Table of Contents

Why Should Homework be Banned?

Proponents of banning homework argue that universities should focus on more effective and efficient ways of teaching and learning, such as project-based learning, collaborative learning, and hands-on experiences. They argue that these methods can help students develop critical thinking, problem-solving, and communication skills essential for their future careers.

Why Should Homework Not be Banned?

Opponents of banning homework argue that it is an essential component of the learning process and helps students develop discipline, time management, and responsibility. They argue that homework is necessary to reinforce what is taught in class and prepare students for exams and assessments. Additionally, they argue that homework assignments can be modified and adapted to meet the needs of individual students and their learning styles.

Ultimately, deciding whether to ban university homework depends on the institution’s specific context, goals, objectives and programs. Universities need to consider homework’s potential benefits and drawbacks and find a balance that supports student learning and well-being.

Is Homework a Punishment?

While many students consider homework a punishment, it is designed to enhance the learning process. 

We at BuyAssignmentOnline believe that homework isn’t a punishment and it is an integral part of the learning process, and it serves as a way for students to practice and apply what they have learned in class. Homework assignments are designed to help students reinforce and extend their understanding of the material, as well as to develop their critical thinking, problem-solving, and time management skills.

While some students may view homework as a burden or a punishment, it is important to recognise that it is a valuable tool for learning and academic success. Educators must provide meaningful and engaging homework assignments that support student learning and help them achieve their academic goals. Students need to approach homework positively and recognise the benefits of this important aspect of their education.

If you are looking for the list of best graduate schools in Australia, we have written a complete guide on it; further, we also have written articles about ChatGPT Essay writers , Grey literature and etc.

Does Homework Help Students with Time Management?

Homework assignments typically have deadlines, requiring students to manage their time effectively to complete the assignments on time. By working on homework assignments, students can develop skills in prioritizing tasks, setting and meeting deadlines, and managing their time effectively.

Furthermore, homework can help students develop good study habits and establish a routine for completing their work, leading to better time management skills. For example, by setting aside a specific time each day to work on homework, students can establish a routine that helps them stay focused and productive.

Overall, based on our years o experience in the education sector, we firmly believe that homework can be an effective tool for developing time management skills, as it provides students with opportunities to practice and improve their ability to manage their time effectively. 

However, students need to approach homework positively and develop strategies that work best for their individual needs and learning styles.

Stuck in homework? We can help!

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Benefits of Homework 

Homework can offer several benefits for students. Here are some of them:

• Reinforces learning: Homework provides students with opportunities to practice and reinforce what they have learned in class, which helps to solidify their understanding of the material.
• Develops skills: Homework assignments can help students develop important skills such as critical thinking, problem-solving, time management, and research skills.
• Prepares for exams and assessments: Homework can help students prepare for exams and assessments by giving them practice with the types of questions and tasks that will be on the tests.
• Encourages self-directed learning: Homework assignments can encourage students to take responsibility for their own learning by setting goals, managing their time, and seeking help when needed.
• Promotes deeper learning: Homework assignments that require students to think critically and creatively can promote deeper learning and a better understanding of the material.
• Improves grades: When students complete homework assignments, they are often better prepared for class discussions, quizzes, and tests, which can lead to improved grades.

Overall, homework can be an effective tool for promoting learning and academic success as long as it is designed to support student learning and is appropriate for their grade level and ability level.

Frequently Asked Questions

According to several kinds of research published, doing homework may not always result in better academic success. Some students may experience worry and frustration. There are several opinions on whether or not homework should be prohibited.

• Excessive workload
• Inequality of resources or support
• Lack of effectiveness
• No time for other growth-essential activities.

Why Should Homework not be Banned?

Homework offers numerous benefits, enhancing students’ learning, study techniques, and preparation for higher education or careers. The advantages include reinforcing class learning, improving research, time management, self-discipline, and the professor’s feedback.

Does Homework Help with Time Management?

By giving students a chance to practice scheduling and managing their time, homework may help with time management.

Students who have homework to do need to set aside time for it, organise their chores into priority lists, and schedule when and where they will work on it. Therefore, they must learn to efficiently manage their time and form effective time-management practices.

Some teachers assign homework as punishment, but not all. Homework serves as a tool for students to understand and reinforce concepts taught in class, aiding their learning process.

While some students can see their homework as a punishment, you should keep in mind that it plays a useful function in assisting kids to achieve academic excellence. Also, homework helps students develop abilities like responsibility, self-discipline, and time management.

Yet, giving kids too much homework or assigning it as a punishment might have a severe impact on their motivation and mental health. In these situations, it can be wise to review the quantity and goal of the assignment given.

Can I Copy my Class Fellow’s Homework?

Without their consent, duplicating someone else’s assignment is unethical, undermines academic integrity, and can have significant repercussions.

Copying someone else’s work indicates that you are not making an effort to understand the subject on your own, which might be detrimental to your long-term success. It is always preferable to finish your own work and ask your teacher or fellow students for assistance if necessary.

It’s acceptable to contact your instructor, tutor, or a fellow student for help or explanation if you’re having trouble with your assignment, but be sure you’re not simply duplicating their work.

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Homework banned in Australia from April 1, you’ve got to be joking!

A nationwide ban on homework for Aussie kids is news worth celebrating … or is it?

Is Bluey really moving home?

Aussie blueberry sets world record

READING LEVEL: GREEN

Leave your books at school, put down your pens and pencils at 3.30pm! A new law has banned homework for Australian students.

The new rule comes into effect on April 1, 2022.

Hang on, is there something familiar about that date?

Gotcha! Yes, it’s April Fools’ Day.

This is just one of the many pranks that will be played in classrooms, school yards, homes, businesses, on websites and in the media this April Fools’ Day.

So where did this wacky tradition begin?

It’s all a bit of a mystery actually. The most likely origin* seems to trace back to Rome, Italy, in 1582 when Pope Gregory XIII decided it would be a good idea to adopt the new Gregorian calendar* (named after himself).

The year had previously started at the end of March under an old Roman calendar, but under the new Gregorian calendar rules it was moved to January 1.

Even though the news was spread, some people clearly didn’t get the message in time and continued to celebrate the New Year on April 1. Because of this, they were laughed at and branded as “fools”; and that is where the tradition of April Fools’ Day is believed to have started.

Another theory places the origin of April Fools’ Day in France in 1564, when king Charles IX decreed that the new year would no longer begin at Easter, which often falls in April depending on the lunar cycle, and would instead start on January 1. Those who clung to the old ways were called “April Fools.”

Historians have also linked April Fools’ Day to festivals such as Hilaria, which was celebrated in ancient Rome at the end of March and involved people dressing up in disguises.

Others think April Fools’ Day was tied to the vernal equinox, or first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, when Mother Nature fooled people with changing, unpredictable* weather.

More recently, people have gone to great lengths to create amazing April Fools’ Day hoaxes.

Newspapers, radio and TV stations and websites have also participated in the April 1 tradition by reporting outrageous fictional* stories that have fooled their audiences.

In Australia, Canada and England, April Fools’ Day jokes are only supposed to be played until noon.

It is believed prank victims are only “fools” if they fall for a trick early in the day. After that, the fools become those who try to carry out pranks after noon.

Many people are divided on this issue, however, and some insist on carrying out pranks all day.

• origin: where something began
• Gregorian calendar: the calendar we continue to used today, based on a seasonal year of about 365 days, which is the time it takes for Earth to revolve once around the sun
• unpredictable: hard to predict or know what will happen, likely to change suddenly
• fictional: imaginary, not true

EXTRA READING

Matt Stanton’s guide to pranking

Why do we pull pranks on April Fools’ Day?

• What prank does this story attempt to pull on the reader?
• Which Pope is thought to be linked to the origin of April Fools’ Day
• What year did this Pope introduce a new calendar?
• Which French king is also linked to a theory about the origin of April Fools’ Day?
• What part of the day are pranks supposed to be played in some countries including Australia?

LISTEN TO THIS STORY

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES 1. Make the rules Sometimes our idea of a funny prank or joke can actually be hurtful or insulting. Write a list of at least five April Fools’ Day rules. The purpose of your list is to help people come up with fun things to do that are not hurtful or insulting.

Time: allow 20 minutes to complete this activity Curriculum Links: English, Personal and Social Capability

2. Extension Create another fun day that can be celebrated! Give your day a name, write a description of what your day is about and how it must be celebrated. Include the date and write a short explanation of why you have chosen that date. You can include activities, special foods or anything else that makes your day fun and special.

Time: allow 30 minutes to complete this activity Curriculum Links: English

VCOP ACTIVITY Punctuation thief Pick a paragraph from the article, or about three sentences together if that’s easier, and rewrite it without the punctuation.

At the bottom of the page write a list of all the punctuation you stole and in the order you stole it. For example; C , . A .

Then swap your book with another person and see if they can work out where the punctuation needs to go back in.

Make it easier: Underline where you stole the punctuation from but don’t put the list at the bottom in order.

Make it harder: Don’t put the punctuation in order at the bottom. Underline where you took the punctuation from, but don’t tell them what pieces you took. Just tell them how many pieces you took, but not what they are. Don’t give them any clues!

Moving home is something lots of kids have to go through, but could Australia’s favourite animated family really be selling their iconic Brisbane house? And if so, where would they move to?

A northern NSW farm has claimed a Guinness World Record for producing the world’s heaviest blueberry – check out the pictures and find out how this massive superfood came to tip the scales

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The Tyranny of Homework: 20 Reasons to Stop Assigning Homework Over the Holidays

M any students agree that assigning homework over the holidays really is a form of cruel and unusual punishment.

Upon returning from winter break, you’ll probably have a handful of students saying the dog ate their homework or it got blown away in a winter storm. But you’ll probably be surprised to learn that some research suggests assigning too much homework can be a bad thing.   A 2009 article in the Los Angeles Times , suggests that some districts have cut back on the amount of homework in the effort to consider children’s social development. In fact, the San Ramon Valley district modified its homework policy and no homework is allowed over weekends and holiday vacations, except for reading.

The US   National Education Association   recommends no more than ten minutes (of homework) per grade level, per night.

Homework has fallen in and out of favor over the decades. California even established a law in 1901 limiting the amount of homework teachers could assign. Assigning homework is highly in favor now a days. With recent trends of information overload, packed activity schedules, and childhood obesity, it’s no wonder educators are reconsidering their stance on homework.

Learn more about how to progress in your teaching career with an online Certificate in Education Support today.

Here are 20 reasons why you shouldn’t assign homework over the holidays. Perhaps one of your students will print this list and encourage you to reconsider your ideas about homework.

• Students are learning all the time in the 21 st   century.   According to a   recent article   in MindShift traditional homework will become obsolete in the next decade. Thanks to computers, learning is occurring 24/7. With access to software programs, worldwide connections, and learning websites such as the Khan Academy, learning occurs all the time. According to Mindshift, “the next decade is going to see the traditional temporal boundaries between home and school disappear.” Try to see if you can bridge the gap between school and home by getting students interested in doing their own research over holiday break. Rather than assigning homework, create a true interest in learning. They will often pursue learning about topics they like on their own. After all, this is the way of the 21 st   century and information is everywhere.
• More homework doesn’t necessarily equate to higher achievement . Yes, too much homework can actually be a bad thing. A 1989 Duke University study that reviewed 120 studies found a weak link between achievement and homework at the elementary level and only a moderate benefit at the middle school level. In a similar recent review of 60 studies,   researchers at Duke U   found assigning homework was beneficial, but excessive amounts of homework was counterproductive. The research found homework was more beneficial for older students than younger ones. The study was completed by Harris Cooper, a leading homework research and author of “The Battle over Homework: Common Ground for Administrators, Teachers, and Parents”. Cooper suggests that teachers at the younger level may assign homework for improving study skills, rather than learning, explaining why many studies concluded less benefit for younger children. Many teachers do not receive specific training on homework. Cooper suggests that homework should be uncomplicated and short, involve families, and engage student interests.
• Countries that assign more homework don’t outperform those with less homework.   Around the world, countries that assign more homework don’t see to perform any better. A   Stanford study   found that in countries like Japan, Denmark, and the Czech Republic little homework was assigned and students outperformed students in counties with large amounts of homework such as Greece, Thailand, and Iran. American and British students seem to have more homework than most counties, and still only score in the international average. In fact, Japan has instituted no homework policies at younger levels to allow family time and personal interests. Finland, a national leader in international tests, limits high school homework to half hour per night. Of course, there are other factors not taken into account in the study, such as length of the school day. But in itself, it is interesting to see this issue from a world perspective.
• Instead of assigning homework, suggest they read for fun.   There are great holiday stories and books you can recommend to parents and students. If you approach the activity with a holiday spirit, many students   will be engaged . They may want to check out the stories on their own. You can start by reading the first chapter in class and leaving them intrigued. For instance, you can read the first chapter of   The   Gift of the Magi   and suggest students read it over winter break. With younger students, you might promise roles in a play for students who read over break.
• Don’t assign holiday busy work.   Most academics agree that busy work does little to increase learning. It is best to not assign packets of worksheets if they do nothing to add to student learning. You also don’t want to waste valuable time grading meaningless paperwork. Some studies show that much homework may actually decline achievement. Assigning excessive amounts of homework may be detrimental. In fact, a 2006 study by Yankelovick found that reading achievement declined when students were assigned too much homework. Actually, interesting reading such as   Harry Potter   produced higher reading achievement.
• Have students attend a local cultural event.   You can let parents know that instead of assigning homework, you are suggesting students attend a particular event that relates to your classroom. For instance, if you are reading Shakespeare, they might attend a related play or ballet.
• Family time is more important during the holidays . Assigning less homework makes it easier for families to have time together. Family studies at the University of Michigan, show that family time is extremely important to achievement and behavior. Studies on family meals, suggest that students who have dinner with their family have better academic scores and behavioral outcomes. Perhaps this is only a correlation, but family time is undeniably important to child development. Students spent most of their days at school while parents are at work. When all is said and done, remember what it was like being a kid. The things you remember most about the holidays aren’t the assignments you took home, but the time you spend with family and friends.
• For students who travel during the holidays, assigning homework may impede learning on their trip . The Holiday time is the one time of year that many families reconnect with distant family members or travel. I remember having to pack hoards of books over some holidays to Spain and it was not fun. I wanted to enjoy the time with family and experience the country fully. Traveling in itself is a learning activity. Let students experience their travels fully.
• Kids need time to be kids.   A recent article from Australia’s Happy Child website,   “What is the value of Homework: Research and Reality”   considers this issue and explains how children need unstructured play time. Homework can have a negative influence on early learning experiences. Suggest students use holiday time to do physical activity, such as ice-skating or sledding. Many kids don’t get enough exercise. Childhood obesity is a major problem in the United States. Suggesting students play outside or participate in a sport is a good way to get them to value physical activity. The holidays are a great time for kids to go sledding in the snow or play with friends outside. If no one has homework, classmates might exchange phone numbers to play together. You can suggest this to parents. If the teacher thinks physical activity is important, students will too.
• Some education experts recommend an end to all homework . Etta Kralovec and John Buell, authors of   The End of Homework: How Homework Disrupts Families, Overburdens Children, and Limits Learning ,   controversially suggests that homework may be a form of intrusion on family life, and may increase the drop-out rate in high schools. The authors blame homework for increasing the achievement gap due to socio-economic differences in after-school obligations. Consider challenging your own views of the benefits of homework and try to create a level playing field when considering assignments.
• Send a letter to parents explaining why you are not assigning work.   You might want to take the Christmas holiday as a chance to engage parents to play a learning game or do some art with their kids. If families know there is an intentional purpose to not assigning work, they may take the chance to spend more one-on-one time with their child.
• You can make the holidays a time for an “open project” for extra credit.   Students might take this time to do something related to the curriculum that they would like to explore on their own terms. Before the holidays, you might talk about topics or provide books students for students to take home. Learning for fun and interest, might produce more meaningful engagement than assigning homework.
• Suggest they visit a museum instead.   With families at home, the holiday time is a great time for students to see an exhibit that interests them or do a fun activity at a nearby museum. Sometimes encouraging these field trips may be more beneficial than assigning homework. You might want to print coupons, a schedule, or a list of upcoming exhibits so that families have the information at their fingertips.
• Encourage students to volunteer during the holiday time.   The holidays are a great time for students to give back. Students might volunteer at a local soup kitchen or pantry. Volunteer organizations are often at their busiest during the holiday time. Plus, students learn a lot from the experience of doing community service. I remember visiting a group home during the holiday time in high school and helping kids wrap Christmas gifts for their families. This is a great alternative to assigning homework, especially for Generation Y who highly values civic involvement.
• Develop a class game.   You might have the class play a   learning game   the week before vacation and have them take it home to show their family. My fourth grade teacher had hop-scotch math. We often drew with chalk outside to replicate her game at home. Try to think of a holiday-themed game or one that the whole family can get involved in.
• Students might learn more from observing the real world.   Learning isn’t just about paper and pencil activities. Teachers should also inspire students to seek ways to learn from real-world experiences. They might cook with their parents and practice measuring. Or tag along with a parent who is putting up holiday lights or building a shed. Ask students to observe a job around the house or ask their parents about their job over holiday break. They might be enlightened to learn more about the real world and different jobs they might pursue in the future. Perhaps some students might be able to go to work with their parents instead of a formal assignment.
• Go on a hike.   Students learn a great deal from nature. Tell students to go outside on a walk and be ready to share their experience when they get back. Did they observe natural phenomena you talked about in science class or different types of rocks you discussed in geology? Or can you tie their walk into a discussion of poetry?
• Tell students to visit an amusement park.   If you are teaching physics or math, amusement parks give ample room to explain the laws of physics and mathematical probability. This outing would allow students to think about the real world implications of science. You may want to even plan a lesson beforehand that ties this idea in. On another level, it allows students to create a lasting memory with their own families.
• Kids need rest!   Everyone needs a mental breather and the holidays are the best time for students to play and take a break from school. Kids need a full ten hours of sleep and adequate rest. The vacation time is a great time for students to take a mental breather from school. With many family outings and vacations during the holiday time, they will have less time to complete homework. They will come back to school feeling re-energized.
• Many parents and students dislike holiday homework.   You want parents to buy-in to your classroom community and support your endeavors with students. Assigning homework over the holidays is usually unpopular with parents because it may the one time of year they have to give children their undivided attention. Instead, you might want to take a survey to see if parents agree with the idea. You can then send a letter with the survey results. Taking parents’ perspectives into account shows you value their opinions and feedback. Students prefer some free time too. Not surprisingly one student created a Facebook page, titled, “Why do teachers give us homework over the holiday.” If the students know you are giving them a break over the holidays they may work harder for you when they get back.

If you’re still not convinced, check out this   fact sheet   based on   The Case Against Homework: How Homework Is Hurting Our Children and What We Can Do About It   by Sara Bennett and Nancy Kalish. If you still plan on assigning homework over the holidays, at least keep in mind some guidelines.

The US   National Education Association   recommends no more than ten minutes per grade level, per night. If you must assign homework make sure it is meaningful and doesn’t take away from time with families. And most of all, remember what it was like being a kid during the holiday time. Homework is generally not a part of those memories, nor should it be. Those days playing outside and spending time with family are lifelong memories just as important as school.

Childhood is over in the blink of an eye.

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No More Homework: 12 Reasons We Should Get Rid of It Completely

Last Updated: May 4, 2024 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by wikiHow staff writer, Finn Kobler . Finn Kobler graduated from USC in 2022 with a BFA in Writing for Screen/Television. He is a two-time California State Champion and record holder in Original Prose/Poetry, a 2018 finalist for the Los Angeles Youth Poet Laureate, and he's written micro-budget films that have been screened in over 150 theaters nationwide. Growing up, Finn spent every summer helping his family's nonprofit arts program, Showdown Stage Company, empower people through accessible media. He hopes to continue that mission with his writing at wikiHow. There are 12 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 129,623 times. Learn more...

The amount of homework students are given has increased dramatically in the 21st century, which has sparked countless debates over homework’s overall value. While some have been adamant that homework is an essential part of a good education, it’s been proven that too much homework negatively affects students’ mood, classroom performance, and overall well-being. In addition, a heavy homework load can stress families and teachers. Here are 12 reasons why homework should be banned (or at least heavily reduced).

School is already a full-time job.

• For years, teachers have followed the “10-minute rule” giving students roughly 10 minutes of homework per grade level. However, recent studies have shown students are completing 3+ hours of homework a night well before their senior years even begin. [2] X Trustworthy Source American Psychological Association Leading scientific and professional organization of licensed psychologists Go to source

Homework negatively affects students’ health.

Homework interferes with student’s opportunities to socialize.

Homework hinders students’ chances to learn new things.

Homework lowers students’ enthusiasm for school.

Homework can lower academic performance.

Homework cuts into family time.

Homework is stressful for teachers.

Homework is often irrelevant and punitive.

• There are even studies that have shown homework in primary school has no correlation with classroom performance whatsoever. [9] X Research source

Homework encourages cheating.

Homework is inequitable.

Other countries have banned homework with great results.

• There are even some U.S. schools that have adopted this approach with success. [13] X Research source

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• ↑ https://www.edutopia.org/no-proven-benefits
• ↑ https://www.apa.org/monitor/2016/03/homework
• ↑ https://healthier.stanfordchildrens.org/en/health-hazards-homework/
• ↑ https://teensneedsleep.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/galloway-nonacademic-effects-of-homework-in-privileged-high-performing-high-schools.pdf
• ↑ https://time.com/4466390/homework-debate-research/
• ↑ https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00220485.2022.2075506?role=tab&scroll=top&needAccess=true&journalCode=vece20
• ↑ https://kappanonline.org/teacher-stress-balancing-demands-resources-mccarthy/
• ↑ https://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/ct-life-homework-pros-cons-20180807-story.html
• ↑ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6294446/
• ↑ https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/06/homework-inequality-parents-schedules-grades/485174/
• ↑ https://www.bbc.com/news/education-37716005
• ↑ https://www.wsj.com/articles/no-homework-its-the-new-thing-in-u-s-schools-11544610600

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Thinktank warns Australian misinformation laws should not be based on voluntary industry code

Experts find ‘significant gaps between statement and practice’ of social media firms’ enforcement of standards

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The Australian government’s laws to force tech companies to act on misinformation should not be based on the current voluntary industry code as planned, because those standards are not being met, a technology thinktank has said.

“We were testing the efficacy of these systems,” the executive director of Reset Australia, Alice Dawkins, said. “And where there had been a commitment or a statement made in the code we tested the results against what platforms said that they did.

“Across the board, there were some significant gaps between statement and practice.”

The digital platforms lobby group Digi launched the Australian Code of Practice on Disinformation and Misinformation in 2021, with signatories including Facebook , Google, Microsoft and the company then known as Twitter.

X, as it is now called, has been kicked out of the code but the other companies are required to release transparency reports annually in May on their efforts to tackle misinformation and disinformation.

Digi has said it engages an independent expert to review the reports and requires the companies to show proof they are compliant. But Reset Australia said its research, released in a report on Friday, shows some of the companies are not meeting their own voluntary standards.

In its latest transparency report, Meta stated that it applies a warning label to “content found to be false by third-party factchecking organisations”. But Reset found the label is not applied to all content making claims found to be false by factcheckers, just to the individual posts that are factchecked – meaning other posts making the same claims could escape the label.

Researchers found 17 factchecked articles. But out of 152 posts making the false claims identified in the factcheck, only 8% were labelled four weeks after being reported to Meta.

In one example, a factchecked post said Russia and Australia are the only two countries still considered sovereign. Reset found another post making the same claim that was not labelled.

Reset pointed out the discrepancy to Meta, saying the claim in its transparency report was misleading. The company’s response, cited in the Reset report, was that “where content is reviewed … and found to be false, Meta applies a warning label to that specific item of content”. It dismissed the complaint.

Reset then complained to Digi but the independent complaints subcommittee at Digi rejected the complaint. It argued Reset had not shown Meta to be making false statements in the report. The committee also noted Meta had offered to update its next transparency report with more information, and criticised Reset for taking its complaint to media before the committee had made a decision.

Dawkins said making a complaint to Digi was one of the few avenues for challenging adherence to the code.

“There’s no pathway for evidentiary scrutiny of these transparency reports,” Dawkins said. “We’re stuck with this surface-level assessment of the syntax.”

Reset also reported that X had failed to remove any content identified as misinformation about the voting process for the voice referendum, while Facebook took action against 4% of content identified. TikTok removed one-third after the content had been flagged by the “report” button on the app.

In one example, a TikTok video claiming the referendum was unconstitutional was removed from the platform, while another near-identical video stayed online.

Similarly, on Facebook, two posts made the same claim that the high court had ruled the referendum unconstitutional but only one was removed while the other remained online.

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In another previously reported case, TikTok approved 70% of ads tested by Reset that contained misinformation about the voice referendum.

Reset contrasted that with a claim by TikTok in its transparency report that the company has “strict prohibitions” on ads containing deceptive or misleading claims.

The federal government is planning to introduce revised legislation later this year to make the voluntary misinformation code mandatory. It is also expected to empower the Australian Communications and Media Authority to require social media companies to toughen their policies on “content [that] is false, misleading or deceptive, and where the provision of that content on the service is reasonably likely to cause or contribute to serious harm”.

While much of the controversy around the bill has been focused on claims it will limit free speech and religious speech, Dawkins said basing the bill on the existing code was not sufficient to tackle misinformation.

“The government’s really got to take a moment before just embedding this code into legislation,” she said. “The fact it’s about misinformation is moot. The real interest is how are the platforms reporting on what they do?”

She said making the platforms more transparent would give people more confidence in the decisions being made about content on the platform.

“More meaningful corporate accountability over that sort of content and distribution is a win for freedom of speech, and it’s a win for all those concerns.”

Digi was approached for comment.

Meta and TikTok previously said in response to the Reset analyses that they had worked to combat misinformation on their platforms.

TikTok’s Australian director of public policy, Ella Woods-Joyce, told SBS its focus during the referendum was to work with the AEC and to “keep our community safe and protect the integrity of the process, and our platform, while maintaining a neutral position”.

Meta said it had provided more funding to factcheckers and taken other steps to combat misinformation on its platform.

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