A Study on Homework Efficiency and Pace of Instruction

Introduction:

All of us, as kids and adults, wonder what are the benefits of homework, and why do we get homework? Also, many times we wonder why a teacher is going to fast in class, and does not reply to the students' questions, knowing the fact that they might not be on the same page as the teacher?

This is a research done on a class in the 10th Grade to see how they viewed homework as being effective and beneficial to them, and its effects on them. Also to see how the pace of instruction in class affects the students asking questions in class. Very interesting results were found. Students become more motivated to do their homework, if they saw value to it. And also would become more motivated if they were involved in instruction, and were able to ask questions. Background research has been done, to see how other studies and researchers thinks about these points. 

Rationale:

Homework! Why do we give our students homework? Is it efficient?

For the teacher, it sounds right to give the students homework. It is a chance to cover more material in quicker time, because the students would have thought about it previously and thus it needs less time to cover it. This way, the teacher would cover as many exercises as s/he can. Other teachers might give homework as a way to solve extra problems that will not be solved in the class because there is not enough time. It would be a way for covering these exercises without actually spending time on them in class. While others give homework so that their students can actually practice the concept and the skills of what they are learning in school and apply it at home.

Students ask their teacher, parents, and themselves what good homework gives them. Many students think of homework as a kind of punishment. Maybe it is the way of how teachers use homework as… Would students be more involved in doing their homework if there was some kind of evaluation, or assessment after it? That means that students are not only responsible for “writing responses” but by finding the correct “answers” as they will be graded… Would that be more efficient, more beneficial? What would it mean if a certain teacher did not give homework, would that make her less professional?

Homework is an important issue that many schools, teachers, parents, and students face every day, with every generation… In addition, as the importance of getting higher grades is increasing day by day, so is the importance of homework… This is why it is important to study the effect on the students. There are so many reasons why it is important to give homework. But yet the effects of homework are more important on the students’ understanding of the concept that the act itself. 

How Fast Is Too Fast in the Class?!

Another important issue that is more concerned with the teachers and schools is the pace of instruction. Pacing is the rate of instructional presentations and response solicitations. How fast should a teacher go when explaining a lesson? Is it more important to cover the concepts and topics that are stated in the national standards, or is it more important to insure conceptual understanding? Does the pace of the instructions affect the level of understanding in the children? The pace of instruction is influenced by many variables such as task complexity or difficulty, relative newness of the task, and individual student differences.

In addition, the pace of instruction affects several aspects in class. These aspects are frequent student responses, providing adequate processing time for the students to think before they give a response, monitoring the students’ responses, and providing feedback for correct and incorrect responses.

All the previous questions and aspects are important to consider when thinking about the pace of an instruction; and what the effects are on the students’ understanding of the concepts and the depth of the understanding.

Literature Review:

 Literature Review on Homework:

The debate over homework is not a new one, with attitudes shifting throughout the years. Advocates show their evidence to support their views on the necessity and importance of homework in the development and the construction of knowledge of the student, and how it affects their cognitive thinking.

Homework is seen as a valuable resource for teaching, allowing students to practice, and in doing so, learn the unit material. Results documented the importance of flexibility in the assignment and evaluation of quality homework assignments especially in higher cognitive types of homework.

It is suggested to steer away from performance-goal oriented extrinsic motivators such as grades, and emphasize on performance and grades during the formative process. Because it can be damaging to student achievement, because it might shift the student’s focus away from the goal of mastery of the material to concern over the way their grades, and how they might be judged by their peers. Constructive feedback throughout homework maintains the focus on mastery goals created at the outset, and provides the students with the support necessary to make connections between new learning and prior knowledge. Because grading and recording the work completed from homework at this time would not accurately create a record of the student’s level of understanding, ability, and knowledge because they are still in the process of learning the material.

They also convey the idea that feedback, and not grades, should be used during the whole learning process, as formative assessment takes place. The true measurement of what the student has learned comes at the end of that learning process, in the form of a summative assessment.

There has been a classification of six constructive purposes for homework in the context of the student’s educational experience in school, where it has been proven that homework can provide several benefits. The student’s ability to bring an assignment home, gather and organize necessary materials in order to complete the assignment, return the assignment and receive a grade, strengthens his or her sense of responsibility. Time management skills are learned by completing homework. Further, when homework proceeds smoothly it can become a positive aspect of the relationship with the student.

Thus, homework can play a public relations role by keeping parents informed about class activities and policies, and let parents know what their children are learning... An administrative role can be fulfilled in helping schools achieve their overall mission of improving student’s achievement.

The last two that are suggested to be the most important and obvious. Through practice and participation in learning tasks, homework can improve your child’s achievement. Thus, it would be expected that if homework were completed accurately, not only would your child’s general knowledge and grades improve but your child would also increase mastery of basic academic skills, such as reading, writing, spelling, and mathematics.

While other sources doubt the benefits of homework. Just because some teachers are seduced with the practice of assigning homework that promises to make-up the gaps in what they are not able to get through during the day that does not mean students will actually learn what they are forced to do at home by themselves. Even supporters of homework generally justify it as a way to have kids practice skills they were taught during the day, not as a way for them to teach themselves new material!

Teachers that are less likely to assign homework, are teachers that focus on helping their students discover facts, rather than covering many facts in that subject. Thus, allowing the students to become critical thinkers and excited learners. Because in any cases, the disadvantages of homework -- frustration, exhaustion, family battles, loss of time for kids to pursue other interests, diminution of interest in learning -- far outweigh any theoretical gain in curriculum coverage.

Literature Review on Pace of Instruction:

Pacing is the rate of instructional presentations and response solicitations. The instructional pace is influenced by several factors, for example: task complexity or difficulty, relative newness of the task, and individual student differences. Having tasks presented at an efficient pace aids in having three reimbursement in instruction that are accomplished by this: students are supplied with more information (broader), students are occupied in the instructional activity, and behavior problems are diminished, and therefore, students stay on-task when instruction is appropriately paced.

When students actively participate in their learning, they are achieving greater success that is long lasting. The teacher must extract student responses several times per instruction, for example ask students to say, write, or do something. Highly interactive instructional procedures keep students actively engaged, provide students with adequate practice, and help them achieve greater success.

Interactive instructions are minimized when an instruction is paced in a fast way, because students will not have the enough time to process the new information in their heads, and thus will not be able to analyze if they understood it or not. This will effect the involvement in the instruction, and the students’ motivation towards the subject that is being explained. Moreover, as the teacher is focused on speed and how much s/he can explain in one session, s/he will miss out on the chance to monitor students’ responses and understanding. This is an essential teacher skill to ensure that all learners are mastering the skills the teacher is presenting in that instruction. Watching and listening to student responses provides the teacher with key instructional information. Adjustments may be made during instruction, which would require the teacher to change the plan. When teachers have an appropriate pace on their instruction, they will be able to constantly scan the classroom as students respond in any mode, and have the chance to respond to their responses and give aid if needed.

Content: 

This class is a class of the 10^th Grade. It has 23 students in it. There were 10 girls and 13 boys. As you can see when you enter the class, the girls were seated in the two front rows and the three outside rows. The boys had the rest of the classroom to sit. In this class, there were not any students that were repeating the same class. However, it had some students that were “high achievers” and others that were “low achievers”. There were a bunch of boys that always wanted to joke with the teacher and comment on everything that happened in class. When the girls were asked why they preferred sitting infront, and far from the boys, their response was because boys at the back will talk and comment a lot and therefore, they could not focus a lot. Just a note, not all of these girls were high achievers, some of them got regular grades, but they did like to pay attention in class.  

Statement and Origin of Report:

Origin:  In one of the sessions, the teacher had distributed the corrected exam to the students. The students were shocked that how low their grades were. There was a high percentage of failures, but it was their first exam. However, that was a cue that there is a problem in this class. Therefore, the students were asked what is the most important thing that they would want/like to change in this class, or what is the hardest thing that they find in this class… Several students responded that it was the pace of instruction that was the problem. This led to a questionnaire that was done on the students. The list will be attached at the end.

Statement:  What I learned from the students, is that not only does the instruction pace affect the students’ understanding and grades, but it also affects the students’ encouragement and desire to learn. They were not enjoying their chemistry class. They seem to have a problem, not with the teacher, but with the method and teaching strategies that she applies in class. I learned that in order to keep the students encouraged and motivated, and keep the students involved in the explanation of the lesson, there is an appropriate pace that is efficient. The students said that not only does she explain in a fast way, but also the rapidness did not allow the students to ask questions during instruction. A lot of times, the teacher would tell them to wait until she finishes the topic and then ask her again; but they never did. Therefore, the pace of instruction also affected the students asking for help as well.

In short, I learned that the pace of instruction has an affect on several aspects. These aspects are students asking for help, students understanding, their scores on exams, their involvement and encouragement and participation.

Method: 

 In order to check what ways the students would find more interesting and would keep them more involved and motivated in this class, a list of questions was distributed in this class. This questionnaire was distributed on 23 students, in the 10^th Grade. They were asked to answer by yes/no questions. If they found that they had a word answer, they were free to write it.

Results:

Pace of Instruction and Homework: The results of this questionnaire were very interesting. This study was done on 23 students. Eighteen students out of 23 thought that the teacher explained her lessons in a fast way. Sixteen out of them thought if the teacher were to slow down while explaining the lesson, they would understand better.
Eighteen out of 23 students wanted the lesson to include pictures, lab sessions, and models of molecules in class.
Sixteen out of 23 wanted to do presentations and to have group work. While seven out of 23 students did not want presentations in class, but they wanted group work… When the students were asked why they did not want presentations, they said that it included more work and evaluation.
Only twelve out of 23 wanted to be asked more questions during instruction, the other 11 seemed to be ok and not being involved.
Nineteen out of 23 found that they benefited and learned from their homework.
Ten out of 23 thought that their homework should not be graded. Out of these 10, 3 thought that they would be encouraged to do their homework if it was graded. Sixteen out of 23 thought they will be encouraged to do their homework if it was graded.
Eleven out of 23 were found not to have the best relation with the teacher, some were afraid to ask questions whether inside class or outside the class. In addition, if they had a problem with the explanation or instruction, they are not able to tell the teacher.
Five out of 23 were found to be afraid to ask the teacher questions and would not like questions to be directed to them.
Five out of 23 were found not to be afraid to ask the teacher questions but would not like questions to be directed to them.
Nine out of 23 were found not to be afraid to ask the teacher questions and would like questions to be directed to them.
Four out of 23 were found to be afraid to ask the teacher questions but would like questions to be directed to them.

Implications: It seems that girls are more afraid to ask the teacher for help inside and outside of the class. It might be due to the relationship with the teacher has with the students. The girls are shy and do not participate easily in the class! The teacher does not try to enhance their participation. On the other hand, the teacher has better relationships with the boys, because they are less shy and are more opened to talk and joke with the teacher. It seems like the teachers’ relationship with the students is affecting their understanding and communication. The students should be able to ask questions freely, because they are an important aspect of the instructions. They are also important for developing cognitive thinking for the students. As the students’ questions are encouraged as well as higher levels of thinking, this increases the critical thinking.

The majority of the students think that the teacher explains in a fast way. They think that if she would explain the lesson in a slower pace, they would understand better. This is true, as Hall, (2009), found it that when the pace of instruction is fast, the teacher will press on with the explanation of the lesson (Hall, 2009). Thus, the teacher does not search for cues from the students to check if they understood or not. Pressing on contributes a loss of information during the transfer of ideas and skills. When the teacher explains at an efficient pace, Hall (2009), students will learn better, and will become more engaged (Hall, 2009). As it shows from their answers (more would like to have group work and presentations) in other words, to be more involved in the subject (Hall, 2009). Students want to be asked questions during instruction. They want to feel that they are a part of this course so that they can get involved in it to learn better and in a more efficient way. The rest of the students who did not want to be asked questions that could be due to the way the teacher responds to the students’ incorrect answers. If put downs are used, even the brightest student would not want to be asked a question (Hall, 2009).

Although having a fast pace in instruction seems bad at first, but an effective teacher uses his/her skills s/he will be able to address the issues that were addressed previously, while giving students a chance to participate (Hall, 2009). Fast-paced instruction is good when there is a lot of information to cover. However, these instructions would most likely be coverage sessions and would not include big ideas and main topics.

In short, a fast-paced instruction does not necessarily mean that it has a bad effect on the students. What is bad is that the teacher that applies a fast pace instruction, does not check for the students understanding and gaining of knowledge. The teacher should involve the students in the instruction, in order to motivate the students and therefore have a more productive instruction. The teacher should check the students’ understanding, and then appropriately give them constructive feedback.

When it comes to homework, most of the students think that they are benefiting from their assignments. They think that it does help them in solving the exercises in the class. They try to practice and apply skills that they learned in school and apply at home (Goldstein & Zentall, 1999). Homework benefits students and teachers (Carbone, 2009). As seen in several cases by Kohn (2011), this chemistry teacher is one of the examples, when she does not cover all the exercises that she planned on covering for a particular session, the rest of the exercises were assigned as homework. Even if homework was not done correctly (Carbone, 2009), it would give the students a base to start from. This is why Carbone (2009), suggested that homework was not to be evaluated and graded because it does not truly reflect the students’ knowledge and understanding ability. It should be done summatively as a test at the end of the chapter or unit, as most teachers do (Carbone, 2009). Here we come to the students’ results where most of them would like to be evaluated either monthly or at the end of the chapter. This way they would not have a lot of material to study at once.

In short, for homework to be considered as effective in instruction and effective for the students’ cognitive and critical thinking it should be carefully planned and assigned by the teacher. It should not be a random act, to fill in the gap that was left in the instruction due to the lack of time (Kohn, 2011)… For homework to be efficient and effective it must help students discover ideas rather than cover them (Kohn, 2011). It must help the students in practicing and participating learning tasks, helping them discover a set of skills as they gain several experiences from solving homework (Goldstein & Zentall, 1999).

References:
Hall, T., (2009). Explicit Instruction; Effective Classroom Practices Report. National Center on Assessing the General Curriculum

Carbone, S., (2009). The Value of Homework: Is Homework an Important Tool for Learning in the Classroom?

Goldstein, S. & Zentall, S., (1999). The Importance of Homework in Your Child’s Education

Kohn, A., (2011). "But I Need to Assign Homework! Look at All I Have to Cover!"