This text analyses discussions about homework held with teachers during spring 2004. Notes of these discussions are presented elsewhere.
Teachers' thoughts
Teachers' comments from the discussion of 19/01/04 may be grouped under five headings:
- Role of parents/carers
- Communication between home and school
- Children not completing homework
- Nature of homework tasks
- Reading as homework.
Role of parents/carers
Accounts
This was the first issue raised in teachers' discussions and was returned to repeatedly (four or five times). It occupied more than one third of the discussion, so was significant. Several claims were made in the conversation, including:
- The school needs to work to involve parents/carers in homework, possibly having to convince them to take a part. This was summarised succinctly as the need to 'get parents on-board'.
- Parents/carers (perhaps especially of 'less-able' children) are not that reliable in helping their children do homework. 'Lots of parents' tend to give up (e.g. hearing young children read). This was reflected in the phrase: 'Some parents take homework seriously, some don't', possibly with the speaker's emphasis fatalistically on the terminal 'don't'.
- Some parents/carers struggle to get their children to do what they want them to do, so experience difficulties in getting children to complete homework. The evidence for this viewpoint was anecdotal and based, in part, on informal conversations with parents ('He's a little so-and-so if he's asked to read').
- Parents/carers need to be taught ('trained') to help their children do homework (they should not do homework tasks for their children).
Making the reflexive basis explicit
- Teachers assume that the most effective homework will take place when children work with parents/carers who are filling the role of a teacher-at-home. If parents fill this role they will need to be (summarising the four claims above): involved, committed, motivating and informed. The extent to which parents fall short of these standards is the extent to which homework falls short of being fully effective.
- A second assumption underlying these claims is that it is the teachers' ship which parents must 'get on-board'. Teachers are professionally (perhaps personally) involved, committed, and motivating. In addition, they are undeniably better informed than most parents about children's learning so it is for teachers to set the homework agenda, both generally (at policy level) and particularly (week by week when setting homework tasks).
- This largely unflattering view of parents' involvement in homework could be understood as a defensive response to the criticism (in the inspection report) that first prompted the school's consideration of the issue. 'If homework is not working as it should,' one could sense teachers saying, 'Then it's not all our fault.' I may have made this defensive stance (if such it was) almost inevitable by referring back to the inspectors' criticisms at the outset of the discussion.
Recollecting excluded possibilities
- Alternatives to parents filling the role of teacher-at-home: Parent as: Interested friend; Overseer; Encourager; Resource-provider; Other role?; Or completely uninvolved.
- Alternatives to teachers setting the homework agenda (policy level): Detailed, collaborative consultation with: Parents/carers; Pupils; Governors.
- Alternatives to teachers setting the homework agenda (tasks): Pupil-negotiated content (age appropriate).
- The evidence-base for judgements about parents' lack of involvement can be scrutinised. Possible consideration of: 'Successful' homework tasks in which parents have played a significant part; Parents' questionnaire replies; Level of parents' support of particular homework activities; Parent interviews.
Transforming claims into questions
- What roles can parents realistically fill as children complete homework?
- What distinctive contributions can parents, who choose to do so, make in support of their child's learning at home?
- What kinds of task will give parents room to fill a role (or roles) that they are confident with?
- How can homework be made effective even if parents play little or no part in it?
- How can teachers feel that their efforts to make homework effective are worthwhile if some parents choose not to actively support their children?
Communication between home and school
Accounts
- Homework diaries are proving useful for children aged 9-11 years old, and have been 'well received' by parents of these children.
- A simple response sheet for families to report the degree of parental involvement in homework tasks might be worthwhile.
- Formal feedback to parents could be achieved by a comment in children's end of year reports.
Making the reflexive basis explicit
- Parents need/want to know about their child's homework. They need/want to know what tasks have been set and, at least in general terms, how well their child has done.
- Teachers need/want to know who has completed homework tasks (child alone, child with parent, parent alone).
Recollecting excluded possibilities
- -
Transforming claims into questions
- -
Children not completing homework
Accounts
This issue raised considerable interest. Discussions made it clear that:
- Knowing what to do when children fail to complete homework tasks matters to teachers
- Praising compliance was universally agreed to be desirable
- Homework practices in the primary phase are likely to be different from those in the secondary phase
- Applying sanctions for not completing homework caused teachers unease.
Staff expressed the belief that (assumed) high levels of completion of homework in the secondary phase are a consequence of a punitive response to non-completion. Whilst ('over-the-top'?) praise for children completing homework tasks was unexceptionable there was overt unease at the prospect of adopting a system that identified those who failed to complete homework tasks (a star chart displayed in the classroom, for example). 'I wouldn't want to name-and-shame,' stated one teacher to a murmur of assent from colleagues, despite the contention that such a system 'did have an effect' in one colleague's previous school where such practice was school policy.
Making the reflexive basis explicit?
Such reticence might stem from the following (undiscussed) motives:
- A strong desire not to belittle any child
- A belief in the need for intrinsic motivation in the child rather than external coercion
- An understanding that the lack of maturity of the primary school age child makes it harsh to apportion responsibility for non-completion entirely to him/her
- The fact that applying sanctions requires extra effort within school (e.g. the possible loss of break times by staff supervising children completing homework tasks in school playtimes).
A school-wide policy on this issue is necessary, it was agreed.
