Generally, students feel that homework is illegal. They do not believe it is beneficial to them. However, their percpective can be changed once they uncover the link between doing homework and academic achievement.
Does homework improve academic achievement? The short answer is yes.
Yes, homework improves academic achievement of students. Consistently doing homework leads to students improving study methods, bolstering learning, and gaining knowledge that boosts students capacity to attain higher grades in exams.
The long answer is more complicated. Yes, studies indicate that homework improves academic achievement. Research links high school students' engagement and performance in homework to higher grades in standardized tests while also leading to higher chances of college attendance. Unfortunately, homework is a double edged sword. Too much homework is harmful to students since it builds homework stress and anxiety that leads to sleep deprivation, mental health problems, and health problems. Eventually, these outcomes curtail student performance resulting in lower grades in standardized tests.
For us to understand whether homework improves academic achievement, we have to uncover several truths. First, we have to uncover the cons and pros of doing online homework in relation to academic achievement. Secondly, we have to uncover the extent to which doing homework is beneficial to academic achievement as well as uncovering to what extent doing homework become detrimental to academic achievement. This discussion will provide a safe pathway on how we can use homework to spur academic achievement that avoids the negative impact of homework on academic achievement.
How homework improves academic achievement
According to “When is Homework Worth the Time?” a High School Journal article by Adam V. Maltese, Robert H. Tai, and Xitao Fan, when student engage in studying and doing homework for 31 to 90 minutes per day, they score 40 points higher on SATs mathematics exam than their contemporaries who did not spend time doing homework.The higher score on the SAT test is evidence of the impact of doing homework in improving studying habits, learning, and building knowledge.
Yet, Maltese, Tai, and Fan (2012) journal article is not the only research affirming the positive impact of homework on academic achievement. Cooper, Robinson, and Patall (2006), “Does Homework Improve Academic Achievement? Notes that students who did homework attained higher grades in standardized tests than 69% of their fellow students who did not do homework. Bas, Sentürk, and Cigerci (2017), “Homework and Academic Achievement: A Meta-Analytic Review of Research” notes that between 64% to 72% of students who did homework attained higher academic performance. Kalenkoski and Pabilonia (2014), “Does High School Homework Increase Academic Achievement?” notes that doing homework also increased the probability of college attendance.
How does homework curtail academic achievement
Most students believe that they have too much homework. About 59% of students in a California high school identified that they had too much homework.
The primary cause of stress among students is homework. Actually, 82% of students in the polled high school noted that they always feel stressed from homework. They note that this stress leads them to have “headaches, exhaustion, weight loss, and stomach problems.” The impact of stress affects the ability of students to study leading to academic achievement failing as they do homework.
Teachers rely on student feedback from homework to evaluate student progress as well as guide them on areas they should tackle. The fear of doing homework, such as Aplia online class, among students leads them to cheating while doing homework by copying other students assignment or seeking help from family. The result of cheating is that teachers cannot identify concepts that students are struggling with since students have cheated while doing homework.
The secret to attaining the best benefits of homework? Study for over 1 hour
Maltese, Tai, and Fan (2012) journal article points out that the recommended time for doing homework to achieve higher academic performance by 40 points is 31 to 90 minutes. According to Kalenkoski and Pabilonia (2014) exceeding this by 3 hours per week guarantees college attendance. Indicatively, considering a 6 day school week, an additional 3 hours per week is about 30 minutes per day. As such, to guarantee college attendance, students have to read for 61 minutes to 120 minutes per day.