eef research on homework

Homework for a digital age: Using instructional technology to make homework more effective

• Teacher Reflection
• Published on: January 31, 2022

• Cognitive science |
• Curriculum |
• Education Technology

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• Costello J and Crane D (2013) Technologies for learner-centered feedback. Open Praxis 5(3): 217–225.
• Demir M and Souldatos I (2007) Exploring students’ online homework completion behaviors. International Journal for Technology in Mathematics Education 27(3): 167–178.
• Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) (2021) Homework: High impact for very low cost based on very limited evidence. Available at: https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/teaching-learning-toolkit/homework (accessed 22 November 2021).
• Hew KF, Bai S, Huang W et al. (2021) On the use of flipped classroom across various disciplines: Insights from a second-order meta-analysis. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology 37(2): 132–151.
• Magalhães P, Ferreira D, Cunha J et al. (2020) Online vs traditional homework: A systematic review on the benefits to students’ performance. Computers & Education 152: 103869.
• Terada Y (2020) SAMR: A Powerful Model for Understanding Good Tech Integration. Edutopia, May 4, 2020. Available at: https://www.edutopia.org/article/powerful-model-understanding-good-tech-integration (accessed 30 November 2021).

From this issue

From the editor

Transforming assessment principles and practices through collaboration: A case study from a primary school and university

• Perspective Article

The currency of assessment for learners with SEND

Rethinking assessment: How learner profiles can shift the debate towards equitable and meaningful holistic assessment

Assessing progress in special schools: Reviews and recommendations

• Original Research

Classroom assessment in flux: Unpicking empirical evidence of assessment practices

The role of frequent assessment in science education at an international school in Singapore

Teaching creativity: An international perspective on studying art in the UK

Improving academic resilience and self-efficacy through feedback: Moving from ‘what’ to ‘how’

Mind the gap: What are national assessments really telling us about vocabulary and disadvantaged students?

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Is Homework Good for Kids? Here’s What the Research Says

A s kids return to school, debate is heating up once again over how they should spend their time after they leave the classroom for the day.

The no-homework policy of a second-grade teacher in Texas went viral last week , earning praise from parents across the country who lament the heavy workload often assigned to young students. Brandy Young told parents she would not formally assign any homework this year, asking students instead to eat dinner with their families, play outside and go to bed early.

But the question of how much work children should be doing outside of school remains controversial, and plenty of parents take issue with no-homework policies, worried their kids are losing a potential academic advantage. Here’s what you need to know:

For decades, the homework standard has been a “10-minute rule,” which recommends a daily maximum of 10 minutes of homework per grade level. Second graders, for example, should do about 20 minutes of homework each night. High school seniors should complete about two hours of homework each night. The National PTA and the National Education Association both support that guideline.

But some schools have begun to give their youngest students a break. A Massachusetts elementary school has announced a no-homework pilot program for the coming school year, lengthening the school day by two hours to provide more in-class instruction. “We really want kids to go home at 4 o’clock, tired. We want their brain to be tired,” Kelly Elementary School Principal Jackie Glasheen said in an interview with a local TV station . “We want them to enjoy their families. We want them to go to soccer practice or football practice, and we want them to go to bed. And that’s it.”

A New York City public elementary school implemented a similar policy last year, eliminating traditional homework assignments in favor of family time. The change was quickly met with outrage from some parents, though it earned support from other education leaders.

New solutions and approaches to homework differ by community, and these local debates are complicated by the fact that even education experts disagree about what’s best for kids.

The research

The most comprehensive research on homework to date comes from a 2006 meta-analysis by Duke University psychology professor Harris Cooper, who found evidence of a positive correlation between homework and student achievement, meaning students who did homework performed better in school. The correlation was stronger for older students—in seventh through 12th grade—than for those in younger grades, for whom there was a weak relationship between homework and performance.

Cooper’s analysis focused on how homework impacts academic achievement—test scores, for example. His report noted that homework is also thought to improve study habits, attitudes toward school, self-discipline, inquisitiveness and independent problem solving skills. On the other hand, some studies he examined showed that homework can cause physical and emotional fatigue, fuel negative attitudes about learning and limit leisure time for children. At the end of his analysis, Cooper recommended further study of such potential effects of homework.

Despite the weak correlation between homework and performance for young children, Cooper argues that a small amount of homework is useful for all students. Second-graders should not be doing two hours of homework each night, he said, but they also shouldn’t be doing no homework.

Not all education experts agree entirely with Cooper’s assessment.

Cathy Vatterott, an education professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, supports the “10-minute rule” as a maximum, but she thinks there is not sufficient proof that homework is helpful for students in elementary school.

“Correlation is not causation,” she said. “Does homework cause achievement, or do high achievers do more homework?”

Vatterott, the author of Rethinking Homework: Best Practices That Support Diverse Needs , thinks there should be more emphasis on improving the quality of homework tasks, and she supports efforts to eliminate homework for younger kids.

“I have no concerns about students not starting homework until fourth grade or fifth grade,” she said, noting that while the debate over homework will undoubtedly continue, she has noticed a trend toward limiting, if not eliminating, homework in elementary school.

The issue has been debated for decades. A TIME cover in 1999 read: “Too much homework! How it’s hurting our kids, and what parents should do about it.” The accompanying story noted that the launch of Sputnik in 1957 led to a push for better math and science education in the U.S. The ensuing pressure to be competitive on a global scale, plus the increasingly demanding college admissions process, fueled the practice of assigning homework.

“The complaints are cyclical, and we’re in the part of the cycle now where the concern is for too much,” Cooper said. “You can go back to the 1970s, when you’ll find there were concerns that there was too little, when we were concerned about our global competitiveness.”

Cooper acknowledged that some students really are bringing home too much homework, and their parents are right to be concerned.

“A good way to think about homework is the way you think about medications or dietary supplements,” he said. “If you take too little, they’ll have no effect. If you take too much, they can kill you. If you take the right amount, you’ll get better.”

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Write to Katie Reilly at [email protected]

EEF Toolkit 3.0: A key update ‘at just the right time’

“This is the EEF toolkit 3.0.”

The words of Professor Steve Higgins, lead author of the Sutton Trust/EEF Teaching and Learning Toolkit, underline why the next time teachers visit the Education Endowment Foundation’s (EEF) toolkit pages something entirely new awaits them.

“They’re definitely won’t miss the changes,” adds EEF head of policy Jon Kay.

And this is not just because the toolkit has a new colour scheme.

As of today the entire scope of the toolkit has been expanded to offer a far wider array of insights on the different approaches schools can use to boost outcomes - from assessment and homework, to the use of technology, peer feedback, small study groups, behaviour and much more.

“We’ve basically taken every single underlying study in the toolkit and reviewed whether it is of high quality and whether it deserves to continue to be included,” says Kay.

“And then we’ve extracted a lot more information from each study - where it takes place, what the impact is, the methodology, the context and lots more details on the pedagogical approach.”

The updated EEF Teaching and Learning Toolkit: a huge task with a clear goal 

As this suggests, the work involved has been exhaustive with Kay and Higgins explaining that some 2,500 research studies were analysed and broken down to provide a very granular level of insight - by phase, setting and even subjects where possible.

“It’s taken three and a half years and in that time we have unpacked all the previous analysis and research and created a single database so we can compare effects by age, subject, school,” says Kay.

“It means schools can now dig in and look in more detail about the impact and the differences [between interventions].”

This is a notable development and should give teachers the opportunity to more properly assess how they can drive improvements in specific areas and see meaningful outcomes.

“There’ll be a section which describes variation by phase, variation by subject - if there is a meaningful result that communicates that,” says Kay.

He adds that doing this work was the “responsible” thing to do as it means schools can be much more informed about how an intervention could help in their specific subject - and in doing so avoid investing time and effort into something that may not actually suit their subject that well.

“For example, with mastery learning there are higher impacts in maths than in English as English mastery is emerging as a practice,” says Kay, explaining that with these sorts of insights schools should be able to more accurately assess the right interventions for their needs.

The importance of implementation 

Complementing this is an increased focus on advice for implementing the ideas being reviewed as well.

“Implementation is a key message the EEF have spoken about for a while now so [we will] be pulling out more information [from the reviews] about what are the key things that you should consider when implementing a high-quality peer tutoring approach or small group tuition approach, for example,” adds Kay.

Furthermore, as part of the more fine-grained approach, the toolkit now offers, it has also been updated to provide a specific focus around how each intervention can help to tackle attainment gaps.

“The toolkit analyses evidence for all pupils, but our key focus of the EEF is closing the attainment gap and primarily the toolkit is used for considering pupil premium funding,” says Kay.

“So there will be a specific focus that talks about where things might have a differential impact to pupils from a disadvantaged background.”

An example of how all this slots together to provide a more detailed view for teachers can be seen in the following text from the “small group tuition” page:

• Impact tends to be greater in primary schools (+4 months) than secondary schools, which have fewer studies overall and a lower impact (+2 months).
• Most of the research on small group tuition has been conducted on reading and there is a greater impact, on average (+ 4 months). The studies in mathematics show a slightly smaller positive impact (+ 3 months).

As you can see, there are details on phase, subject and cohort size to give teachers more insights on how this intervention could help with their aims, while the new “closing the disadvantage gap” tab means teachers can quickly assess its impact on this area, too.

Embedding a digital focus 

As well as these developments, another notable new area in the toolkit is around digital technology. In the old toolkit, digital technology was its own strand. This though, meant it was too broad, says Kay.

“It was too divergent. What does digital technology mean - is it using an intelligent tutoring system or giving children an iPad?”

However, while the strand has been removed, advice on how to use digital technology has not disappeared. Quite the opposite, as it has now been given great prominence than ever with digital technology a separate sub-section on almost all the strands outlining how it can be incorporated.

“What we’ve done is analysed the impact of digital technology in the constituent strands. So rather than having a strand that’s focused on digital technology, we say, ‘What’s the impact of homework when delivered using digital technology?’” says Kay.

“So it might say that using digital technology for flipped learning has a more positive impact than average, but for feedback it has a lower overall impact.”

Higgins adds: “We want teachers to think about technology within teaching and learning approaches and so it makes much more sense to pull out studies within each area of the toolkit.”

Given the huge strides that almost all schools have made in using digital technologies during the pandemic, this could well prove to be highly useful if certain interventions are shown to be more effective through technology.

Room for teacher expertise

Of course, despite all these updates and the greater level of detail being provided, it does not mean the information provided is foolproof, and teachers will still have to apply their professional expertise to consider how different ideas may suit their setting.

“One of the challenges is that evidence changes and evolves as new studies come and the impacts go up or down,” says Higgins.

“The evidence can never tell you exactly what works in every setting. [Teachers] have to use their professional expertise when using the toolkit.”

Teachers won’t be left on their own, though, with the update to the toolkit also resulting in it becoming a more dynamic platform with the added ability to incorporate new studies as they are published and further refine the information presented to ensure it is offering the most up-to-date insights.

“In practice, once you’ve got 100 or so studies in the database, adding one or two more is very unlikely to make much difference,” says Higgins.

“But over time, the precision will increase and the detail of what we can say will also improve.”

A fortuitous bit of timing

This should all be good news for schools as they seek to address the damage done by the pandemic and catch up on the lost learning of the past 18 months by helping them understand the interventions that can help do this best.

What’s more, the arrival of this new souped-up tool kit should also help schools to better adhere to a new government directive that from autumn schools must demonstrate how pupil premium funding decisions are “informed by research evidence”.

CEO of the EEF Professor Becky Francis says it was “serendipitous” the update arrived at the same time as this new requirement - but certainly no bad thing: “It’s very fortuitous the update comes as the government focuses even more tightly on evidence-led spending of pupil premium funding and we are able to offer this additional rigour and scale for the toolkit,” she says.

“It will help schools think about their specific needs and drill down into the evidence and zero in on the ‘best bets’ from the research for their priorities.”

And for her, this is what the toolkit and the latest update are truly about - helping schools to do the best for their pupils.

“It’s been such a challenging time for schools, so now, more than ever, they will be making difficult decisions on how to support pupils’ recovery - using research evidence can really help with that.”

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Herts & Bucks TSA Blog

Homework , Research & Development

Is Homework Beneficial? What does the research say?

By Andrew Jones

The relevance and impact of homework on learning and pupil progress continues to be a source of controversy amongst pupils, parents, senior leaders and governors. There is already a huge amount of academic research on the purpose, impact and value of homework. Nonetheless, overviews of these studies (see below) show that any concrete agreement on its benefits, relevance and impact is inconclusive and debatable.  Moreover, there is plenty of evidence suggesting that homework may have negative effects on learning and pupils well-being (see Cowan & Hallam, 1999, for example).

GENERALLY BENEFICIAL

Harris Cooper (1989; 2006) has conducted a couple of major meta-analyses on the impact of homework. He has analysed studies dating back to 1897 in which researchers claimed conflicting results with regard to homework and its impact on pupil achievement. Nevertheless, his initial review, involving 48 comparisons between pupils who did and did not receive homework, showed that 73% of those receiving regular homework had higher attainment scores. His additional reviews showed that the correlation of test scores and how much homework students generally receive are positive despite the possibility of other factors influencing the outcomes. The two reviews combined involved approximately 180 studies in total.

DFE RESEARCH

Studies by the DfE have also shown how homework can impact pupils overall attainment. This seems to suggest that their studies of pupils in England and Wales corresponds to Cooper’s studies of pupils in the USA. For instance, DfE researchers have noted the strong evidence that pupils who reported spending 2-3 hours doing homework on a typical school night attained higher grades on average than those who did not (see Sammons et. al, 2014). Moreover, pupils in Year 9 who reported spending between 2 and 3 hours on homework on an average weeknight were almost 10 times more likely to achieve 5 A*-C than students who did not spend any time on homework (ibid).

A similarly strong result was found for the time spent on homework reported in Year 11. The researchers noted that moderate to strong positive effects of time spent on homework were found for total GCSE scores, including specific GCSE grades and benchmark indicators, as well as overall academic progress and progress in specific subjects (ibid).

IS THE RESEARCH LIMITED? WHAT DOES IT REALLY TELL US?

Although, overall, homework has a positive impact on pupils’ academic outcomes at secondary level (Cooper, 1989; Cooper et al., 2006; Sammons et. al., 2014), most of the research indicating the positive impact of homework does not question the impact of different types of homework assignment on learning and pupil attainment. Are we essentially looking at quantity over quality or does quality trump quantity and make these existing studies redundant if re-examined in the context of well designed, set and assessed homework. Indeed, research by Darling-Hammond & Ifill-Lynch (2006) suggests that teachers should continue to set homework, but also make it authentic, meaningful, and engaging (Darling-Hammond & Ifill-Lynch, 2006).

Moreover, whilst the impact of time spent on homework is clearly evident, we have no way of knowing whether these pupils are better off financially, have greater parental support and cultural capital at home. This is a fact highlighted by Harris Cooper himself amongst others (Cooper et al., 2006; OECD, 2014; Eren & Henderson, 2011). Furthermore, the meta-analyses mentioned above do not tell us whether the pupils’ own management of homework in relation to time spent on various subjects or their triaging of their own needs comes into play.  Thus, researchers have warned about how homework is used. For example, Fernández-Alonso et al. (2015) argue that assigning too much homework can result in pupil poor performance.

HOW RELIABLE IS THIS BACKGROUND RESEARCH?

According to the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), homework has been extensively studied. However, studies have mainly looked at the correlation between homework and how well schools perform. It is certainly the case that schools whose pupils do homework tend to perform well, but it is less clear that the homework is the reason why they are successful. There are a smaller number of studies which have investigated what happens when homework is introduced and compared with classes where homework is not given. These studies tend to show that homework is beneficial, though the evidence is less secure.

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING

Cooper, H. (1989)  Synthesis of research on homework  in  Educational leadership,  Vol. 47, Issue 3, pp. 85-91.

Cooper, H. (2010)  Homework’s Diminishing Returns .  The New York Times .

Cooper, H., Robinson, J. C., & Patall, E. A. (2006)  Does homework improve academic achievement? A synthesis of research, 1987–2003  in  Review of Educational Research, V ol 76, Issue 1, pp. 1 – 62.

Cowan, R. & Hallam, S. (1999) ‘ What do we know about homework ?’ in S. Hallam (2004)  Homework: the evidence  (London: Institute of Education, University of London), pp. 8-9.

Darling-Hammond, L., & Ifill-Lynch, O. (2006)  If They’d Only Do Their Work!  in  Educational Leadership,  Vol 63, Issue 5, pp. 8-13.

Educational Endowment Foundation (2017)  Homework (Secondary) . (Online: EEF).

Eren, O., & Henderson, D. J. (2011)  Are we wasting our children’s time by giving them more homework?  in  Economics of Education Review,  Vol 30, Issue 5, pp. 950-961.

Fernández-Alonso, R., Suárez-Álvarez, J., & Muñiz, J. (2015, March 16)  Adolescents’ Homework Performance in Mathematics and Science: Personal Factors and Teaching Practices  in  Journal of Educational Psychology.  Advance online publication.

Hallam, S. (2004)  Homework: the evidence .  (London: Institute of Education, University of London)

Jerrim, J. (2017)  Extra Time: Private Tuition and Out of school Study, New International Evidence.  (London: The Sutton Trust)

OECD (2014)  Does Homework Perpetuate Inequities in Education?  in  PISA in Focus , No. 46, OECD Publishing, Paris.

Patall, E. A., Cooper, H., & Robinson, J. C. (2008)  Parent involvement in homework: A research synthesis  in  Review of Educational Research,  Vol. 78, Issue 4, 1039-1101.

Sammons et. al (2014)  Influences on students’ GCSE attainment and progress at age 16  (DfE: London)

Sharpe, C., Keys, W. and Benefield, P. (2001)  Homework: A Review of Research.  (Slough: NFER)

Van Voorhis, F. L. (2003)  Interactive homework in middle school: Effects on family involvement and science achievement  in  The Journal of Educational Research,  Vol. 96, Issue 6, pp. 323-338.

Walker, J. M., Hoover-Dempsey, K. V., Whetsel, D. R., & Green, C. L. (2004)  Parental involvement in homework: A review of current research and its implications for teachers, after school program staff, and parent leaders .  Cambridge, MA: Harvard Family Research Project.

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teacherhead

Zest for learning… into the rainforest of teaching.

Homework: What does the Hattie research actually say?

This is an excellent book.  It is an attempt to distil the key messages from the vast array of studies that have been undertaken across the world into all the different factors that lead to educational achievement.  As you would hope and expect, the book contains details of the statistical methodology underpinning a meta-analysis and the whole notion of ‘effect size’ that drives the thinking in the book.  There is a discussion about what is measurable and how effect size can be interpreted in different ways. The key outcomes are interesting, suggesting a number of key factors that are likely to make the greatest impact in classrooms and more widely in the lives of learners.

My main interest here is to explore what Hattie says about homework.  This stems from a difficulty I have when I hear or read, fairly often, that ‘research shows that homework makes no difference’. It is cited as a hard fact in articles such as this one by Tim Lott in the Guardian: Why do we torment kids with homework?    Even though Tim is talking about his 6 year old, and cites research that refers to ‘younger kids’, too often the sweeping generalisation is applied to all homework for all students.  It bugs me and I think it is wrong.

I have written about my views on homework under the heading ‘Homework Matters: Great Teachers set Great Homework’ . I’ve said that all my instincts as a teacher (and a parent) tell me that homework is a vital element in the learning process; reinforcing the interaction between teacher and student; between home and school and paving the way to students being independent autonomous learners.  Am I biased? Yes.  Is this based on hunches and personal experience? Of course.  Is it backed up by research……?  Well that is the question.

So, what does Hattie say about homework?

Helpfully he uses Homework studies as an example of the overall process of meta-analyses, so there is plenty of material. In a key example, he describes a study of five meta-analyses that capture 161 separate studies involving over 100,000 students as having an effect size d= 0.29.  What does this mean?  This is the best typical effect size across all the studies, suggesting:

• improving the rate of learning by 15% – or advancing children’s learning by about a year
• 65% of effects were positive
• 35% of effects were negative
• average achievement exceeded 62% of the levels of students not given homework.

However, there are other approaches such as  the ‘common language effect’ (CLE) that compares effects from different  distributions. For homework a d= 0.29 effect translates into a 21% chance that homework will make a positive difference.  Or, from two classes, 21 times out of a 100, using homework will be more effective.   Hattie then says that terms such as ‘small, medium and large’ need to be used with caution in respect of effect size.  He is ambitious and won’t accept comparison with 0.0 as a sign of a good strategy.   He cites Cohen as suggesting with reason that 0.2 is small, 0.4 is medium and 0.6 is large and later argues himself that  we need a hinge-point where d > 0.4 is needed for an effect to be above average and d > 0.6 to be considered excellent.

OK.  So what is this all saying. Homework, taken as an aggregated whole, shows an effect size of d= 0.29 that is between small and medium?  Oh.. but wait… here comes an important detail.  Turn the page:  The studies show that the effect size at Primary Age is d = 0.15 and for Secondary students it is d = 0.64!  Well, now we are starting to make some sense.  On this basis, homework for secondary students has an ‘excellent’ effect.  I am left thinking that, with a difference so marked, surely it is pure nonsense to aggregate these measures in the first place?

Hattie goes on to report that other factors make a difference to the results:  eg when what is measured is very precise (eg improving addition or phonics), a bigger effect is seen compared to when the outcome is more ephemeral. So, we need to be clear:  what is measured has an impact on the scale of the effect.  This means that we have to throw in all kinds of caveats about the validity of the process.  There will be some forms of homework more likely to show an effect than others;  it is not really sensible to lump all work that might be done in between lessons into the catch-all ‘homework’ and then to talk about an absolute measure of impact.  Hattie is at pains to point out that there will be great variations across the different studies that simply average out to the effect size on his barometers.  Again, in truth, each study really needs to be looked at in detail.  What kind of homework? What measure of attainment?  What type of students?  And so on…. so many variables that aggregating them together is more or less made meaningless?  Well, I’d say so.

Nevertheless, d= 0.64!  That matches my predisposed bias so I should be happy.  q.e.d.  Case closed.  I’m right and all the nay-sayers are wrong. Maybe, but the detail, as always, is worth looking at.  Hattie suggests that the reason for the difference between the  d=0.15 at primary level at d=0.64 at secondary is that younger students can’t under take unsupported study as well, they can’t filter out irrelevant information or avoid environmental distractions – and if they struggle, the overall effect can be negative.

At secondary level he suggests there is no evidence that prescribing homework develops time management skills and that the highest effects in secondary are associated with rote learning, practice or rehearsal of subject matter; more task-orientated homework has higher effects that deep learning and problem solving.  Overall, the more complex, open-ended and unstructured tasks are, the lower the effect sizes.  Short, frequent homework closely monitored by teachers has more impact that their converse forms and effects are higher for higher ability students than lower ability students, higher for older rather than younger students.  Finally, the evidence is that teacher involvement in homework is key to its success.

So, what Hattie actually says about homework is complex.  There is no meaningful sense in which it could be stated that “the research says X about homework” in a simple soundbite.  There are some lessons to learn:

The more specific and precise the task is, the more likely it is to make an impact for all learners.  Homework that is more open, more complex is more appropriate for able and older students. Teacher monitoring and involvement is key – so putting students in a position where their learning is too complex, extended or unstructured to be done unsupervised is not healthy.  This is more likely for young children, hence the very low effect size for primary age students.

All of this makes sense to me and none of it challenges my predisposition to be a massive advocate for homework.  The key is to think about the micro- level issues, not to lose all of that in a ridiculous averaging process.  Even at primary level, students are not all the same.  Older, more able students in Year 5/6 may well benefit from homework where kids in Year 2 may not.  Let’s not lose the trees for the wood!  Also, what Hattie shows is that educational inputs, processes and outcomes are all highly subjective human interactions.  Expecting these things to be reduced sensibly into scientifically absolute measured truths is absurd.  Ultimately, education is about values and attitudes and we need to see all research in that context.

PS. If you are reading this from Sweden, Tack för läsning. Låt mig veta era tankar om denna fråga.

Update :  Note that Hattie himself has commented on this blog post: https://teacherhead.com/2012/10/21/homework-what-does-the-hattie-research-actually-say/comment-page-1/#comment-536

(Slides from a Teach First session on homework are here: Teach First Homework )

See also  Setting Great Homework: The Mode A:Mode B approach.

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87 comments.

[…] See Tom Sherrington’s (@HeadGuruTeacher) discussion of some of the research on homework in his blog-post here. […]

“The biggest mistake Hattie makes is with the CLE statistic that he uses throughout the book. In ‘Visible Learning, Hattie only uses two statistics, the ‘Effect Size’ and the CLE (neither of which Mathematicians use).

The CLE is meant to be a probability, yet Hattie has it at values between -49% and 219%. Now a probability can’t be negative or more than 100% as any Year 7 will tell you.”

https://ollieorange2.wordpress.com/2014/08/25/people-who-think-probabilities-can-be-negative-shouldnt-write-books-on-statistics/

[…] at the evidence on homework from Hattie, we’re committed to setting homework but need to be mindful that only certain types of […]

[…] Hattie has thrown some doubt over the effectiveness of homework as an intervention, wouldn’t it be better to, as Tom […]

Nice post… Though, here homework is to target students who are a bit older. Pupils at elementary level or less than 4years may not be taken serious on assignment issue.

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[…] mentions a couple of bits of research in his post regarding the effectiveness of homework on learning and although some studies suggest a […]

[…] of analogies with outdoor pursuits tasks like learning to abseil. If you look at the detail – for example the homework chapter as I did here – you also learn about the complexities of education research itself and the importance of […]

[…] Homework: What does the Hattie research actually say? […]

[…] as an example of the pitfalls of interpreting the results. I’ve written about this in full in this post.  It was interesting to see, in a ranking of the Visible Learning effect sizes, that Drugs appears […]

I’m reading this from Sweden (although I am originally from the UK and trained to teach there). 7 years ago I did a piece of small action research as part of my masters degree looking at how I used homework. I was in the UK at the time. My findings, although much smaller scale, would support Hattie. Homework has an impact but you must design it properly was my basic conclusion. My problem is having to deal with the huge number of parent conversations and societal attitude towards homework in Sweden (which are generally negative), and school in general really, fuelled by the media and it’s anti-homework stance. My own feeling about the attitude is that academic learning should happen only in school. Even getting parents to do something so simple as read with their child can cause endless arguments. No it’s not all parents and it does depend a lot on your location. But that’s just my experience of the schools I have worked in.

Hi LUNATIKSCIENCE,

I am currently in the process of looking into a whole school home learning policy and I would be really interested to read the work you did. I have been trying to read as much research into home learning as possible, but getting some actual data would be great.

Would you be able to share any additional information in regards to your findings?

Many thanks Alasdair

Hi, sorry just noticed this comment. I can send you my paper that I wrote if you are still interested.

Yes please. That would be so useful.

[email protected]

Thanks very much.

Hi, I would also be really interested if you were happy to share your research. I am DH working in a Prep school that is in the midst of analysing our approach to homework. Thanks

[…] I posted a link to a pro-homework argument. Again today, I’ve stumbled across another–this one summarizing John Hattie’s Visible Learning on the […]

Reblogged this on The Maths Mann .

[…] When preparing for our leadership planning day yesterday, I was investigating how to build on-going professional teaching conversations (as an alternative to Performance Review) that I stumbled upon John Hattie again talking up collective teacher efficacy on the Principal Centre Radio podcast. If you are not familiar with Hattie, his name is rarely far from discussions about teacher effectiveness… Visible Learning, 1400 meta-analyses, 80,000 studies, 300 million students… what works best in education (still, his chosen research approach, meta-analysis, is now without its detractors or straightforward teacher criticism.) […]

[…] Feel free to leave comments/thoughts between meetings here e.g. Sam sent me this link: Homework: What does the Hattie research actually say? […]

But you make the assumption that educational achievement is per se, the only thing affected. Easy to see from the teacher /school perspective. But from the parent /home perspective, there may be many more valuable activities going on that are much more important than homework, to the growth of the human being. So these things need to be taken into account too. Where homework detracts from the time spent on these, then it could be good from a school education point of view but bad from a more all – round education point of view.

[…] Homework: What does the research say about its effectiveness? […]

[…] of the problem is that the research on homework, although plentiful, is unclear. In his post Homework: What does the Hattie research actually say? blogger, author of The Learning Rainforest and education consultant Tom Sherrington unpicks the […]

[…] I have explored issues with homework in various different posts.  In particular, the research into homework by John Hattie is covered in detail in this post: Homework: What does the Hattie research actually say? […]

[…] Homework: What does the Hattie research actually say? […]

This is an excellent summary of Hattie’s work and gives us all good for thought about what could be meaningful and helpful and what to avoid when considering homework.

[…] ‘Homework: What does the Hattie research actually say?’ by Tom Sherrington. It’s important to keep in mind that all the research around homework applies to remote learning: Specific and precise tasks are more successful than longer tasks that involve complex problem solving, higher ability students benefit more than lower ability students, older students benefit more than younger students, and teacher monitoring is crucial. […]

[…] is more crucial for novices and less effective as students gain expertise, and homework has little impact on educational outcomes, particularly for young […]

[…] a lack of evidence is not the same as evidence that an approach is not successful. This echoes the comments Hattie made here about Visible Learning: “Visible Learning is a literature review, therefore it says what HAS happened not what COULD […]

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September 22, 2022

Implementing the eef’s five-a-day-approach: school planning guide for primary schools, implementing the eef’s five-a-day-approach and school planning guide for primary – part 1 of 3.

This document was produced by EEF in May 2022. This blog will present a summary of the content and recommendations of this publication with specific reference to its implications for primary schools. 

The impact of Covid-19 on Learning

• Covid-19 has negatively disrupted the attainment of all pupils, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds.
• There is evidence that the attainment gap between the socially disadvantaged and their classmates has grown.
• There is some evidence that in primary schools, younger year groups (KS1) have been the most significantly affected, with lower attainment than previous cohorts across all subjects.
• Despite some recovery in Summer 2021, on average pupils were not performing as well in both maths and reading as pre-pandemic cohorts.
• Aside from the impact on attainment, which this report focuses on, teachers have frequently reported concerns about the effect on pupils’ wellbeing.

The impact of Covid-19 on learning clearly sets the context for the challenges that schools face in the Autumn Term of 2022. High-quality teaching every day for every pupil will make a difference. 

This document aims to support leaders to plan for the ongoing recovery of all pupils, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, whose learning has been disproportionately impacted by Covid-19.

The EEF’s guide focuses on:

Much school planning for the academic year will rightly focus on ensuring high quality teaching every day, for every pupil. Recent research suggests some ‘best bets’ to sustain high quality teaching.

The best bets include:

• 5-a-day approach
• Using diagnostic assessment to address learning gaps
• Improving outcomes in reading and mathematics
• Securing effective professional development

What is the 5-a- day approach?

The suggestion is that there are certain elements that can be incorporated into daily practice to enhance its quality. If done well, these five elements will have a positive impact for all pupils, including those with SEND.

• Explicit instruction: Clear explanations, modelling and frequent checks for understanding. This is then followed by guided practice, before independent practice.

Cognitive and metacognitive strategies:  Managing cognitive load is crucial if new learning is to be transferred into the long-term memory. This also includes opportunities for pupils to monitor and evaluate their own learning.

Scaffolding:  The use of a supportive tool or resource (a writing frame, partially completed example) can be an effective scaffold. Aim to gradually reduce the scaffold over the course of a week, half term. 

Flexible grouping: Allocate groups temporarily based on the current level of attainment. This could be a group that receives additional spelling instruction based on current needs before joining the rest of the class. 

Using technology:  Technology can be used effectively by teachers to model worked examples, or by pupils to help them to learn. 

The guide goes onto suggest that the five-a-day approach might be especially helpful in addressing lingering knowledge gaps or long-standing misconceptions. 

What does the term ‘explicit instruction’ mean?

One popular approach to explicit instruction is Rosenshine. Explicit instruction is not lecturing pupils or teaching by telling (transmission teaching). It usually begins with detailed teacher explanations, followed by extensive practice of routine exercises and later moves onto independent work. Explicit instruction includes teaching knowledge or concepts in small steps, using examples or non-examples, using clear language, anticipating and planning for common misconceptions and highlighting essential content and removing extraneous information.

Cognitive and metacognitive strategies

Cognition is the mental process of knowing, understanding and learning. Cognitive strategies are skills like memorisation or subject-specific strategies, like methods to solve problems in maths. Cognitive strategies are fundamental to learning and are the bread and butter of effective teaching. Metacognition refers to the way in which learners monitor and direct their learning. Metacognitive strategies are strategies we use to monitor and control our own cognition, for example: checking that we have chosen the correct approach to solve a mathematical problem or deciding which cognitive strategy is the best fit for a task. In order to facilitate this in a classroom, teachers need to develop their pupils’ metacognitive skills by modelling their own metacognitive processes; this will include how to plan, monitor and evaluate their learning. Teachers can also set an appropriate level of challenge to develop pupils’ self-regulation, promote and develop metacognitive talk in the classroom and explicitly teach pupils how to organise and manage their independent learning. Graphic organisers are a cognitive strategy that has been extensively researched with pupils with SEND. Graphic organisers are used to organise knowledge, concepts and ideas. They are effective tools for supporting learning. 

Scaffolding

Scaffolding is a form of temporary support; it is removed when it is no longer required. Initially, a teacher will provide scaffolding for tasks that pupils are not able to do independently. This requires effective assessment to gain a precise understanding of the pupil’s current capabilities. Support could be visual, verbal or written. The teacher will gradually remove the scaffold as the pupil becomes able to complete the task independently. If the teacher is supporting a pupil with SEND, that scaffold may be in place for longer to promote competence and confidence that can be sustained once the scaffold is removed. 

Flexible grouping

Recent research on pupils with an EHCP plan, found that these pupils are often grouped together with other pupils with SEND and are segregated from the rest of their peers. This situation equates to a form of streaming, where pupils are grouped together based on an overview of their attainment, regardless of their individual strengths and weaknesses. An alternative approach might be to allocate pupils to groups flexibly, based on the individual needs that they are currently sharing with other pupils. Such groups can be formed for an explicit purpose and disbanded when that purpose is met. Allocating pupils to temporary groups can also allow teachers to set up opportunities for collaborative learning. 

Using technology

Technology can be a useful tool for supporting teaching. Successful approaches could include instructional apps that provide modelling or instructional opportunities. There are also non-instructional apps that can be used to aid learning, such as note-taking apps and speech-generating apps to support pupils who may have communication difficulties. 

The five-a-day approach can be particularly helpful in closing knowledge gaps and correcting misconceptions.

Steps to success:

Explicit instruction is used to ensure that pupils have a secure understanding of previously learned content upon which to then build new knowledge.

Flexible groups temporarily bring together pupils with a specific knowledge or skill gap to receive additional support.

Scaffolding homework tasks can support pupils who may be struggling to learn independently at home

The guide presents two questions for school leaders to consider:

Are teachers and leaders using the five-a-day approach to promote good teaching for all pupils, including those with SEND?

What are the necessary ‘five-a-day’ teaching approaches that would best support pupils in your school context?

Part 2 coming soon…

Principal Consultant September 2022

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Research into the Importance of Homework

Author: Bethany Spencer

Posted: 15 May 2017

Estimated time to read: 10 mins

Homework as a concept has been around for hundreds of years, and today is considered the norm for modern schools. At secondary level, schools set regular homework via a whole-school homework policy. This can take many forms and is sometimes given a different name like 'home learning' or 'Independent study', but the concept of completing work outside of the classroom remains the same.

The setting of homework is regarded highly by many with Epstein‭ ‬&‭ ‬Van Voorhis stating that it not only reflects on the success of the student‭, ‬but also the success of the school‭ (‬2001‭). ‬In spite of this‭, ‬attitudes towards homework are constantly changing‭, ‬culminating in‭ ‬the age old homework debate. ‬

The Homework Debate

Attitudes towards the value and purpose of homework are usually reflective of the current societal stance and general sentiment towards education‭. ‬For example‭,‬‭ ‬in the 20th century the mind was seen as a muscle that would benefit from memorisation‭, and since this could be done at home‭, ‬homework was perceived as valuable‭. ‬However‭, ‬come the 1940s‭ ‬where emphasis shifted from drills to problem solving‭, ‬people started to view homework negatively‭ (‬Cooper‭, ‬1989‭).

Yet, fast forward to 1957, the year Russia launched Sputnik‭, and ‬society became concerned that students were not ready for the advanced technologies that were creeping into modern life, leading many to start favouring homework again‭.

‬Although,‭ ‬reflective of the attitudes in the 1960s, homework fell out of favour with the belief that it put too much pressure on students‭ (‬Cooper‭, ‬1989‭). ‬This is why we find ourselves encased in a spiral of ever changing attitudes towards homework which looks set to continue.

We believe that homework plays an important role in both a student’s education and the performance of the school‭. ‬Here we look at academic research‭, ‬but also take into account the opinion of leading educators who give weight to the stance that homework serves a purpose that penetrates far deeper than improving a student’s general understanding of a subject‭.‬

The Wider Purpose of Homework 

The purpose of homework can be grouped into ten strands as stated by Epstein‭ ‬&‭ ‬Van Voorhis‭ (‬1988‭, ‬2001‭, ‬p.181‭) ‬‘practice‭, ‬participation‭, ‬preparation‭, ‬personal development‭, ‬parent-child relations‭, ‬parent-teacher communication‭, ‬peer interactions‭, ‬policy‭, ‬public relations and punishment‭.‬’‭ ‬ This suggests that homework affects more areas than just a student’s academic ability‭. ‬

However‭, ‬when we look at the research that focuses on the link between homework and academic achievement we see that homework does in fact have a positive impact on students’‭ ‬ grades‭ . ‬Sharp‭ (‬2002‭) ‬states there is a direct link between students spending time on homework and their achievement in secondary school‭.

‬‬Cooper similarly found that students who completed homework had better report cards and test results than‭ ‬those who didn't (‬1989‭ ‬cited by Epstein‭ ‬&‭ ‬Van Voorhis 2001‭). ‬In a report conducted by the EEF‭, ‬they also found that the completion of homework at secondary level can add on an additional 5‭ ‬months‭ ‬progress onto a child’s learning‭ with minimal cost incurred by the school‭ (‬EEF‭, ‬2016‭). ‬

In addition to the academic findings‭, ‬teachers themselves have commented on the purpose they believe homework provides to students and schools‭. ‬Epstein‭ (‬1988‭, ‬2001‭, ‬p.181‭) ‬found that teachers recognised‭ ‬‘practice‭, ‬preparation and personal development’‭ ‬to contribute to the overall purpose of homework‭. ‬

Homework helps to " develop learners' knowledge and allow them more choice in how they express their work"

Tom Sherrington‭, ‬a Headteacher at a UK secondary school and influential education blogger‭, ‬has expressed his personal views on the value of homework‭: ‬‘Students who are successful at A Level and at GCSE are those who have highly developed independent learning skills‭, ‬have the capacity to lead the learning process through their questions and ideas’‭ (‬Sherrington 2012a‭). ‬

This suggests that even those who do not see an immediate impact from homework‭, ‬believe that it will help students’‭ ‬personal development but also prepare them for the next stages of education and beyond‭. ‬This is further supported by Sharp‭ (‬2002‭) ‬who recognised that‭, ‬despite homework not having a direct link to achievement in younger children‭, ‬it did promote independent‭ ‬learning and prepare them for secondary school‭.‬

A second UK teacher and education blogger‭, ‬Rachel Jones‭, ‬commented on what she believes to be the purpose of homework and found‭ ‬that it had a positive impact on both retention of knowledge and hand-in rates when the homework set‭ ‬was assigned with the intention to‭ ‬‘develop learners knowledge and allow them more choice in how they express their work’‭ (‬Jones 2013‭).

Parental Involvement 

In addition to the correlation between completing homework and improved achievement‭, ‬homework plays a fundamental role in both home-school involvement and students’‭ ‬relationships with their parents‭. ‬A key purpose of homework outside of‭ ‬‘enhancing instruction’‭ ‬is to‭ ‬‘establish communication between parent and child’‭ (‬Acock‭ ‬&‭ ‬Demo‭, ‬1994‭ ‬cited by Cooper et al‭, ‬20016‭, ‬p.2‭). ‬

Homework acts as a bridge between school and home‭, ‬and the ability to engage parents in school life has a positive impact on teachers‭ - ‬when teachers feel as though there is more parental involvement in school they feel more positive about teaching‭ (‬Epstein‭ ‬&‭ ‬Dauber‭, ‬1991‭, ‬Hoover-Dempsey et al‭, ‬1987‭ ‬cited by Epstein‭ ‬&‭ ‬Van Voorhis‭, ‬2001‭).

‬Acock and Demo‭ (‬1994‭, ‬cited by Epstein‭ ‬&‭ ‬Van‭ ‬Voorhis 2001‭, ‬p.182‭) ‬have even stated that homework can help to improve relationships between parents and students, ‬bringing them‭ ‬‘closer together to enjoy learning and exchange ideas’‭, ‬cementing the idea that homework has greater repercussions than just raising academic achievements within school‭.‬

In addition to this‭, ‬a purpose of homework valued by both parents and teachers‭ ‬is the idea that homework completed regularly by‭ ‬students helps to promote‭ ‬‘a sense of‭ ‬responsibility’‭ (‬Warton 1997‭, ‬p.213‭). Moreover‭, ‬Sherrington‭ (‬2012b‭) ‬comments on his stance as both an educator and a parent‭ ‬saying that he firmly believes that homework has a fundamental part to play in the learning process‭ ‬‘and paving the way to students becoming independent learners’‭. ‬

Quality Homework 

Although ‬in order for homework to really show the benefits expressed in this article it must be purposeful‭ . ‬Students have expressed their‭ ‬opinion on the value of homework‭, ‬deeming it to be an important part of the learning experience‭ (‬Sharp 2002‭). ‬

Yet‭, ‬they do express concerns regarding how homework is set relating to‭ ‬‘conflicting‭ ‬deadlines‭, ‬and tasks that make little contribution to learning’‭ (‬Sharp 2002‭, ‬p.3‭). ‬In order to combat these concerns‭, ‬schools should be vetting the quality of homework set‭, ‬and teachers should be communicating with one another in reference to deadlines‭.‬

The idea of setting purposeful homework is further supported by Epstein‭ ‬&‭ ‬Van Voorhis‭ (‬2001‭, ‬p.19‭) ‬who report that those who set homework‭ ‬‘to meet specific purposes and goals‭, ‬more students complete their homework and benefit from the results’‭. ‬Additionally‭, ‬the idea of setting homework with a clear purpose further encourages parental involvement within the child’s education‭. ‬

"Quality homework types to include‭ ‬‘fluency practice‭, application‭, ‬spiral review and extension"

Purposeful homework is intrinsically linked to quality homework ‭, ‬and when teachers are setting homework the emphasis should be on this as opposed to the quantity‭. ‬In order for homework to be regarded as high quality‭, ‬the instruction provided must be clear‭ ‬and detailed‭ (‬Frey‭ ‬&‭ ‬Fisher‭, ‬2011‭), ‬and the tasks that are being set are‭ ‬‘authentic and engaging’‭ (‬Darling-Hammond‭ ‬&‭ ‬Ifill-Lynch 2006‭, ‬p.1‭) ‬providing students with a real reason to complete them‭. ‬

This is further supported by Dettmers et al‭ (‬2010‭) ‬who found that when students identified homework as being well thought out and relevant‭, ‬they were more motivated to complete it‭. ‬Frey‭ ‬&‭ ‬Fisher‭ (‬2011‭) ‬identified quality homework types to include‭ ‬‘fluency practice‭, ‬application‭, ‬spiral review and extension’‭ ‬and denounced the value of homework that asks students to complete work that was not covered in class as not valuable as they have no peer or teacher support and are unfamiliar with the topic‭. ‬

It is also important to consider the implications of focusing on the amount of homework set ‭ - ‬setting too much homework can have‭ ‬detrimental effects on students‭, ‬such as stress‭, ‬fatigue and loss of interest in studies‭ (‬Cooper‭, ‬2010‭). ‬

From this we can gather that fewer pieces of well thought out homework will have more of a positive impact on students’‭ ‬learning‭. ‬It is important for schools to monitor the amount of homework that is set‭, ‬what is being set and the frequency ‬so as to avoid‭ ‬over-working students‭ - having a homework policy which teachers adhere to will help to enforce this. 

The Overall Importance of Homework

Homework encourages self-development and self-discipline. Students who complete regular homework don't just perform better at school and during exams, they learn broader life skills and associate hard work with long term rewards. Homework has also been found to improve parental relationships.

Conclusion 

From this we can conclude‭ ‬that homework does indeed serve a purpose‭ as studies provide a link between homework and higher‭ ‬secondary school attainment‭. ‬Yet despite a lack of research to suggest these effects in primary school and younger years‭, ‬homework will help to prepare students younger than 11 for secondary school and encourages them to become independent learners‭. ‬

The setting and completion of homework also has benefits outside of academic attainment with parent-child relationship and home-school involvement both improving within schools as a result of successful homework practice.

However, it must be taken into consideration that in order to experience the benefits of homework, the work being set should have a clear goal, as well as being worthwhile and purposeful to encourage students to complete it.

References:

Cooper, H., 1989. Synthesis of Research on Homework. Effective Schools Research Abstracts [online], 4 (1), 85-91

Cooper, H., 2010. Homework’s Diminishing Returns. The New York Times [online], 12 December 2010. Available from: http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2010/12/12/stress-and-the-high-school-student/homeworks-diminishing-returns [Accessed 1 July 2016]

Cooper, H. and Robinson, J.C. and Patall, E.A., 2006. Does Homework Improve Academic Achievement? A synthesis of Research, 1987-2003. Review of Education Research [online], 76 (1), 1-62

Darling-Hammond, L. and Ifill-Lynch, O., 2006. If They’d Only Do Their Work! Educational Leadership [online] 63(5), 8-13, Available from: http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/feb06/vol63/num05/If-They%27d-Only-Do-Their-Work!.aspx [Accessed 1 July 2016]

Dettmers, S at al., 2010. Journal of Educational Psychology. Homework works if homework quality is high: Using multilevel modeling to predict development of achievement in mathematics. [online], 102(2), 467-482. Available from: http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/edu/102/2/467/ [Accessed 1 July 2016]

EEF, 2016. Teaching and Learning Toolkit [online] London. Available from: https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/evidence/teaching-learning-toolkit [Accessed 1 July 2016]

Epstein, L.J. and Van Voorhis, F.L, 2001. More than Minutes: Teachers’ Roles in Designing Homework. Educational Psychologist [online], 36 (3), 181-193

Frey, N. and Fisher, D., 2011. High-Quality Homework [online] USA: Principal Leadership. Available from: http://fisherandfrey.com/uploads/posts/Homework_NASSP.pdf [Accessed 1 July 2016]

GOV.UK, 2015. School Inspection Handbook from 2015 [online]. England: The National Archives. Available from: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-inspection-handbook-from-september-2015 [Accessed May 2016)

Jones, R., 2013. DESTROY Homework. Create Innovate Explore [online] 12 August 2013. Available from: http://createinnovateexplore.com/destroy-homework/ [Accessed May 2016]

Sharp, C., 2002. Should Schools set Homework? National Foundation for Educational Research [online], 27 (1), 1-4

Sherrington, T., 2012. Homework Matters: Great teachers set great homework. Headguruteacher [online]. 2 September 2012. Available from: https://headguruteacher.com/2012/09/02/homework-matters-great-teachers-set-great-homework/ [Accessed May 2016]

Sherrington, T., 2012. Homework: What does the Hattie research actually say? Headguruteacher [online] 21 October 2012. Available from: https://headguruteacher.com/2012/10/21/homework-what-does-the-hattie-research-actually-say/ [Accessed May 2016]

Warton, P.M. 1997. Learning about responsibility: Lessons from homework. British Journal of Educational  Psychology [online], 67(2), pp. 213–221

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by Durrington Research School on the 29th June 2019

It is an old age question that seems to come around time and time again in the world of education; is homework worth it? Homework is an important part of student’s daily routine, with over 75 % of 13  –  17  years olds claiming to do some every day, and 37 % of 13  years olds spending a minimum of 1  hour per day on homework (Cooper et al, 2006 ). When enrolling in school most parents and students expect homework to be a factor of their daily lives. However the value of homework has always been questioned, with the setting of it generally being a controversial and polarising issue (CCoL, 2009 ). Homework can often be a source of friction between home and school, with teachers demanding greater support from parents in ensuring completion/​quality, and parents’ concerns ranging from too much to too little, impacts on home life and the vagueness of some assignments (Cooper et al, 2006 ). Kouzma and Kennedy ( 2002 ) meanwhile note that for many students, homework is their chief source of stress, and subsequently some (especially those in the popular media) have argued that homework may be linked to pupil disengagement with school. The question(s) over homework are not new. In their systematic review of literature examining the impact of homework on academic achievement, the Canadian Council of Learning (CCoL) note that the popularity and support of homework has historically swung from side to side. Focusing on attitudes to homework within North America, the review notes that between 1890 and 1940 the prevailing view was anti-homework with the overriding consensus that ​ “ the less of it the better” (Gill and Schlossman, 2004 ), before the 1950 ’s saw a swell of support for homework in attempt to promote greater academic performance. By the 1960 ’s and 1970 ’s opposition to homework had regrown, probably as a part of backlash against the authority and rigidity of institutional structures, with homework branded as an added and unnecessary pressure. When faced with such a controversial issue, the need to turn to research evidence and proven practice is even more important. Cooper’s ( 1989 ) definition of homework is the most commonly used and states that homework is any task given to students to be completed outside of usual school hours. This may come in many forms such as lesson task completion, preparing for future tasks or assessment revision. The EEF toolkit on homework clearly states that ​ “ the evidence shows that the impact of homework, on average, is five months’ additional progress.” Additionally there is a pretty consistent picture that pupils in schools which give more homework perform better. However beneath this positive figure are much deeper layers of varying impact dependant on the type, quality and amount of homework set, and the students completing the homework. In addition where homework setting and academic achievement seem to have been linked in schools, much of the research has had to concede a lack of proof for causal relationships and have been unable to rule out the impacts of other school factors. The research evidence is in agreement that setting homework for the sake of setting homework is unsupportable, and that homework that relates to learning during normal school time is important to ensure students perceive homework as an integral part of learning. Homework as a bolt on is unlikely to have a significant positive impact. The purpose of homework must be made clear for students if they are to fully engage and benefit from it. While the broader evidence base also suggests that quality over quantity is important, and that students should receive some form of feedback on their homework if its impact is to be maximised. In their review of 18 empirical studies completed between 2003 and 2007 , the CCoL ( 2009 ) found that homework that demands active engagement by students is most likely to boost achievement, and recommend that this may be done by incorporating a metacognitive component into homework tasks, where students have to think about their thinking. Metacognition is one of the active ingredients we recommend departments at DHS to consider incorporating into their homework – for more information in what we consider to be our active ingredients for effective homework see Chris Runeckles blog . The systematic review also found that the impact of homework seemed to vary from student to student, with older students and low attaining pupils benefitting the most. In regards to quantity there is still much research to be done and discussion to be had. However, according to the EEF, some studies indicate that 1  –  2  hours per day is the optimum amount for a secondary school student. I started this piece with the question ​ “ What is the point of homework?”, I would argue that while the research evidence makes this question redundant, in light of the research base we should perhaps be asking ourselves ​ “ what is the point of the homework I am setting?”. Homework has been proven to be successful so it is not going anywhere, but what we do with it can add (or detract) to its value.

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