Introduction
If you have ever been a student, you must have been given and have done homework. This task is often given to the students to review their lessons or to make it easier for them to understand the succeeding lessons.
However, the more homework students are given means less time for them to do the things they want to do after school. Moreover, some students are reluctant to do homework because it was compulsory and not independent study. So, is homework good or bad for students?
The good that homework brings to students
Homework has two advantages:
- It improves student performance
- It helps back up classroom learning and develop good study habits and life skills.
It has been shown that assigning homework to students increases their test scores and chances of passing college exams and gives them a sense of accomplishment from having done it all.
The High School Journal has shown that students who did around an hour of homework scored 40 points higher overall than students who did not do homework every day.
Furthermore, grades were also higher for students who did their homework about 70% of the time compared to those who did not. In addition, the Institut zur Zukunft der Arbeit (Institute for the Study of Labor) or IZA has found that increased homework helps high school students perform better in school and are more likely to go on to college.
The bad that comes out of giving homework to students
Too many assignments can be a burden for students.
Too much homework can have a variety of negative effects on students. In particular, it can affect the physical condition of the student. Too many assignments can cause sleep deprivation, headaches, fatigue, weight gain or loss, stomach problems, and many other negative effects. A survey of California students found that more than half said they have “too much homework,” and the majority said they “feel stressed about schoolwork.”
In addition, students who receive too much homework are at risk of cheating and copying homework assignments from other students rather than benefiting from the benefits of homework.
Homework can create all sorts of disparities.
The Internet and technology that each student is able to use affect his or her technical skills as well as their parents’ financial resources. This creates disparities.
Thirty percent of public school students do not have access to either a well-developed Internet environment or an electronic device suitable for online learning. For these students, it is very difficult to do their homework. For example, they have to go through the trouble of borrowing a computer or an Internet-enabled location to do their research. In the end, students who do not have either of these things in place may not be able to complete their homework, and the effects of this can lead to lower grades.
Conclusion
Homework has both good and bad effects on students, and finding a balance between the amount and the purpose of homework is very important (ProCon, 2020).
Reference
ProCon.org (2020). Homework – Top 3 Pros and Cons. [online] ProCon.org. Available at: https://www.procon.org/headlines/homework-pros-cons-procon-org/.
