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Hmm. The article alludes to some studies that back up their point, but, anecdotally, I think I got more out of doing homework than I did out of sitting in class
by tjr 11y ago
Hmm. The article alludes to some studies that back up their point, but, anecdotally, I think I got more out of doing homework than I did out of sitting in class...
- JoeAltmaier 11y agoExactly! This dovetails with the Khan Academy approach, of listening to lecture online, then doing homework in class with the teacher there as tutor. Public school is usually run upside-down from what makes sense.
- JadeNB 11y agoI don't agree with this comment, but it's a shame that it was downvoted. It seems to me like a productive contribution to the discussion.
- s73v3r 11y agoWhat data do you have to back that up?
- fineman 11y agoBelieve it or not, but I did a fairly detailed study of public schools. I spent nearly two waking years over more than a decade auditing and participating in 50+ classes at levels from K to pre-university, across ten or more schools. I know people will respond with "Anecdotes aren't data", but that's incorrect - they're just really badly sampled. Even if my experiences are uncommon they're enough for me to recognize errors and overly broad assumptions in other people's work.
- wvenable 11y agoI tried to do all my homework while in class. But I hated and did terribly at doing homework at home.
- Retric 11y agoThis right here is the core of a world of problems. Data contradicts gut feeling. Data must be wrong.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- Retric 11y agoPS: In response to a deleted post. As a counter argument, doing homework can easily train people to do thing wrong thing which takes a lot of effort to correct. That does not preclude doing. In many cases mixing in 'homework' with class work is probably a much better use of time. AKA ask everyone what 57+49 is give them 30 seconds. Collect answers. Fix errors. Repeat.
- tjr 11y agoI deleted the post because after 30 seconds I thought it was insufficiently well thought out and written. :-) In many cases mixing in 'homework' with class work is probably a much better use of time. AKA ask everyone what 57+49 is give them 30 seconds. Collect answers. Fix errors. Repeat. Agreed. My school classroom experiences were mostly passive listening. The few that mixed listening with reading with doing, right there in the classroom, were marvelous. Little if any extra homework needed. If that would be done? I think that'd be great. But if the proposal is just passive lectures in class and that's it, I remain unconvinced.
- comex 11y agoData and anecdotes are rarely actually contradictory; by combining data, which can demonstrate broad trends with authority (while taking special care to avoid giving extrapolated conclusions the same authority as what is actually shown), with anecdotes, which can fill in detail by suggesting what factors may cause some cases to defy the broad trends, one can come to a broader understanding of a situation.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- onewaystreet 11y agoThat's more of an indictment on how bad classes are than how beneficial homework can be.
- mikeash 11y agoIMO the problem is not work, the problem is homework. It's pretty well accepted that the sweet spot for working a job is around 40 hours a week. Go beyond that consistently and your productivity starts to fall off, to the point where you may well get less done than you would have if you worked less. School is basically a student's job. Their output is learning. Surely the same thing applies? Yet we have the students "work" 40 hours a week at school, then have them "work" even more once they get home. If you go to school for 8 hours a day, then you have two hours of homework a day including weekends, you're "working" 54 hours/week. By all means, give the students assignments. But they should be assignments the students can complete during school hours. If you don't have time for that, then maybe you should cut back on instructional hours.