Is Homework Beneficial or Detrimental - Global Debate

Is Homework Beneficial or Detrimental - Global Debate
Table of Contents
  1. Is Homework Beneficial or Detrimental - Global Debate
  2. Is homework beneficial for students?
  3. Why is homework beneficial
  4. 1.Homework reinforces learning
  5. 2.Homework improves academic performance
  6. 3.Homework promotes parents' involvement
  7. 4.Homework makes students independent
  8. Why is homework not beneficial
  9. 1.Increased stress
  10. 2.Absence of physical activity
  11. 3.Lack of family time
  12. 4.Leads to academic burnout
  13. Does homework reinforce learning?
  14. Is homework effective?
  15. Lessons learnt after 2020
  16. So what is the verdict?

Studying in college or high school, students are most likely to ask themselves whether there is a necessity for such a huge number of homework assignments as they are time-consuming. Sometimes, students lack the free time to handle all the assignments on time. When you are studying just one subject, that will not become such a problem compared to tons of complicated tasks on a daily basis from different subjects. Then, the question "Is homework beneficial?" arises almost in every mind of college students. To solve the debatable problem, there should be a comparative study of both sides of the homework role in improving students’ academic performance. We tried to gather the most important points related to the benefits and disadvantages of homework in college. 


Is homework beneficial for students? 

While most teachers, as well as parents, strongly believe that assigning homework assignments is beneficial to their children who are studying in High school, Middle school, or college, students are more likely to take the opposite position. As far as they spend all their free time handling their home tasks, they do not have enough time to spend with their family or friends. Although there are numerous studies that argue about the benefits of homework tasks, there are also risks to assign too much. The amount of homework assignment differs across different states and grade levels. Some kids show better results at school because of having some additional practice tasks at home. However, there are also those, who are lacking time management skills to do the homework good. Being overwhelmed with tonds of assignments, kids are unable to organize their time effectively in order to handle such amount of homework. To solve the debatable question, there is a need to compare the possible benefits and harmful effects of giving homework tasks for students, who are doing it after classes being at home. 

Why is homework beneficial 

Studying at school or college is a significant part of students' life. Besides educational institutions, they still have to dedicate time to learning at home. Some scholars do not understand the advantages of home assignments and consider them a waste of time. 

1.Homework reinforces learning

First of all, homework reinforces the learning process and enables students to review course material one more time. Most students tend to forget about 50-60 percent of the information they studied during the class. Therefore it is essential to do your assignments even a couple of hours after a lesson not to have a knowledge gap. Homework helps to consolidate the acquired skills.

2.Homework improves academic performance

Homework assignments improve students' performance and achievement. Learners become more capable of completing complex tasks, hoimework researching the required data, and showing a detailed understanding of assimilated material. Furthermore, they develop their time management and competently distribute the homework amount. Scholars who fully complete their home assignments are inclined to get higher marks and enhance their grade level.

3.Homework promotes parents' involvement

Homework promotes parents to be involved in the learning process of their children. Moreover, it is a good chance for a family to encourage tuition at home. Parents can track the learning material and level of education the students get. They also have an opportunity to support and assist their children in case of study problems.

4.Homework makes students independent

Home assignments make pupils more independent and well organized. They develop homework research skills and select the required information wisely without a teacher's assistance. Students can arrange their workspace and stuff on their own. They plan ahead, create a study calendar, and set time limits. In such a way, learners do not get distracted and stay focused for a long time.

Why is homework not beneficial 

Besides the positive benefits of homework, it also may bring negative aspects to learners' lives. It is essential to be aware of the downside to choose the right approach to assignment execution. Below we will discuss the main disadvantages of home exercises and the harm it causes on students behavior.

1.Increased stress

Homework can be very stressful for students. We may regularly notice that teachers assign too many tasks, especially for middle and high school scholars. Such a colossal workload makes pupils nervous, anxious, and unhappy that can lead to health problems. It would be right to bring in eliminated homework, at least for kids in elementary school, as they cannot manage the load.

2.Absence of physical activity

Home assignments often reduce scholars' time for hobbies, playing with friends, and sport. The lack of leisure time impairs pupils' social skills, academic performance, and achievement. Furthermore, the absence of free time activities harms mental and physical wellbeing. Children do not feel self-esteem; thereby, they cannot achieve a sense of self-satisfaction.

3.Lack of family time

Studying at home also decreases the spending of time with the family. Nowadays, parents are usually busy with work while children deal with homework overload. Such conditions often weaken the family bond, and there is no understanding with parents. Besides, children do not get enough family support and may cope with loneliness or depression.

4.Leads to academic burnout

Basically, students spend around 3-4 hours on the execution of home assignments besides 6 hours at the learning institute. Such time planning often leads to academic burnout. Learners feel exhausted and do not have the motivation to perform any additional tasks. They no longer enjoy the course material and do not concentrate on lessons or lectures. Such circumstances result in a loss of confidence in academic achievements.

Does homework reinforce learning? 

Teachers use to assign homework in order to improve students' practicing, preparation, integration, or extension of concepts and grade-level skills. Taking into consideration assignments with the purpose of practicing at home, it could be strongly stated that such type of homework reinforces learing in children. Performing practice homework, kids learn from concepts, rules, and skill that have been already taught at school. Practice tasks promote students' automaticity and boost retention skills of the content represented earlier at school or college. Therefore, asigning different group projects, giving different quizzes, or frequent practice tests can transfer short-term memory of the kid or a student into the long-term memory. In other words, practicing will constantly make new knowledge stick. Such approach in learning give the opportunity to pursue lifelong learning in children starting from the High school period. Moreover, doing homework tasks students have to make some sidestep from their comfort zone, which reinforces their learning indeed.


Is homework effective?

The effectiveness of homework depends on the nature of the homework and its purpose. In the general perspective, homework teaches kids to work independently from early ages and, therefore, develop self-discipline. Also, after classes assignments encourage learners to take responsibility as well become more initiative during the task completion. Such part of the learning process allows parents take active part in child's education. Moreover, parents can helps their kids study well and evaluate their academic progress. At the same time, the effectiveness of the homework depends on several factors, like its amount, type, and time. In fact, when teachers give too much homework taska they transform the homework into inefficient way of reinforcing students' learning. Among the core drawbacks regading the efficiency of the homework,  there are boredom, burnout concerning the academic material, lack of time for family, inability to take part in extracurricular activities, increased stress, and even lack of sleep. 

Lessons learnt after 2020

Today, studying process along with learning approaches changed a lot due to the situation with pandemic of COVID-19. Students are mostly studying at home, therefore, teachers are forced to change their target="_blank" rel="nofollow"teaching approaches in order to control the effctiveness of the learning process. Among the most useful approaches of the modern studying system are:

  1. Providing timely and frequent feedback. 
  2. Valuing parental involvement. 
  3. Sidestepping the comfort zone.
  4. Offerring clean slates instead of focusing on things from the past that can’t be changed 
  5. Becoming resourceful in order to find a way to get it done.
  6. Making learning more active to keep students engaged
  7. Teachers are becoming more advocate for themselves and for their students
  8. Pursuing lifelong learning by staying up-to-date on developments and new researches 
  9. Encouraging discussion to teach kids share information, agree/disagree in a nonthreatening way
  10. Keeping always a positive outlook.

So what is the verdict? 

While studying is the same hard and timeconsuming as teaching, both teachers and students should have a single goal in order to use the proper learning techniques with effectiveness. That means, that it is impossible to argue that homework should be banned or that it should be kept in the way it has existed for years. Homework should be constantly analysed and adapted to the students' academic performance. As far as, there are useful and really effective hometask assignments, these should be kept. By contrast, the taks that are just overwhelming kids and taking all their free time without adding any progress to their academic performance should be really reviewed one more time concerning their necessity. In case you need any academic assistance during the education process, visit our online platform and solve your academic problems with us.