How Beneficial is Homework? Get some Pros and Cons

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There are two schools of thought to homework. Those in support of homework are of the view that homework is capable of improving the performance of students in school and it makes independent learning of classroom skills possible and it is a way of preparing the child for the challenges in future.

The opponents are of the belief that the introduction of homework is an invitation to stress and can be harmful to the students overall health. It will reduce leisure and it will eventually lead to cheating.

We are going to consider the arguments put forward by both sides and leave you with the final decision on what you are going to make out of homework.

Pros of homework

  • Improves the achievement of students: It has been shown that homework is instrumental to improving student achievement in terms of test results; likelihood to attend college and test results. For high school boys; increased homework leads to a higher GPA and a higher probability for college attendance.
  • Good study habit and life skills: Practice makes perfect. Live skills that will be useful in life can be developed through executing homework. Students that take part in self-motivator exercises during the time of completing their homework are generally more motivated in real-life situations.
  • Parents’ involvement: Most parents do not know what goes on during normal school time with their kids in school. Homework is an avenue to get the parents involved in what the kids are doing in school. It is an avenue for parents to interact with the teachers of their kids’ in school.

The above represents the opinion of those that are in support of homework. We shall take a look at the opinion of those that say homework should not be given any pride of place in the learning process.

The cons of homework

  • Lack of evidence that homework helps younger kids: The outcome of a study published by the review of educational research goes to show that homework in elementary schools has no correlation with achievement goals when we take a look at the standardized test results or grades. Fourth-grade students that did no homework get the same grades as their counterparts that are made to pass through the ritual of homework.
  • Low income students are at a disadvantage: In the US; about 41% of the students live in low income families. They lack the resources in the home to execute their homework. This is the reason why most of them struggle with their homework at home. Students from wealthier families are more at an advantage.
  • Too much homework is harmful: Too much homework leads to stress. When students are given excessive homework; it leads to cheating among them. The fact that the majority of teachers do not know how to handle homework is not helping matters. A whopping 90% of middle school students and 67% of high school students admit that they cheat in their homework by copying someone else’s work.

Final thoughts

The arguments for or against homework have been given above. The controversy will remain for a long time to come. Homework help tools and services such as Assignment Geek should be implemented into the learning process to ease the homework burden.