Should Elementary Teachers Give Homework? (The Ultimate Guide)

Homework completion among high school students is connected with higher academic performance. In elementary school, however, no link has been observed between homework and academic gains. These findings now raise the question of whether teachers should still give homework.

Elementary teachers should give homework. However, elementary students must spend 10 minutes at most on homework each night per grade level. Any homework done beyond this limit becomes less beneficial for children.

The rest of this article will discuss the purpose of giving homework and some arguments surrounding it. This article will also provide teachers with recommendations on what the right amount of homework should be.

Table of Contents

What Is the Purpose of Giving Homework?

Setting clear purposes for giving homework has been proven to contribute to a student’s academic success.

Giving homework can serve three main purposes, namely: practice (which helps students reinforce learned concepts), preparation (where the student performs research ahead of upcoming classes), and extension (which focuses on a student’s application of learned concepts).

When homework assignments are aligned with the teacher’s intended purposes, students are more likely to get deeply immersed in their tasks. Students also tend to better understand the end goals they are expected to meet.

Given this, it’s essential to know what purposes a teacher must have before giving a homework task. This ensures that the homework assignment is beneficial to the student rather than counterproductive.

A study published in 1990 suggests that a teacher should start by identifying what type of homework they are going to give, with tasks being reduced to three main kinds:

Practice

Preparation
Extension

Practice Homework

Practice exercises are designed to reinforce or apply the student’s recently learned information. This homework can be typically seen when a teacher assigns a take-home arithmetic problem so that a student can practice the questions independently.

The caveat on giving such homework is that the task is not very engaging. The more able students who are already confident with the content would only be doing the task for the sake of its completion.

On the other hand, the less able students may find it too challenging and give up. Teachers, in the end, are faced with the challenge of making practice assignments individualized and student-specific, which aids in the individual needs of the students.

Preparation Homework

On the other hand, there are preparation homework tasks where an assignment is intended to provide the student with sufficient background knowledge for the next day’s topic or discussion.

Teachers are advised to provide students with specific guidelines when proceeding with preparation assignments. In assigning a reading, for instance, you can be guided by the following questions:

Why should the students read the selected reading?
Does the reading offer important new information or concepts?

How is it related to the previous topics in the subject matter?

Teachers can also explore other preparation tasks, like asking students to observe their surroundings outside of school or to conduct additional research on a topic.

Extension Homework

Extension assignments aim to extend the student’s work beyond what was started in class. They are designed mainly to foster independence, creativity, and inventiveness in the pursuit of knowledge. As a result, these tasks lean more toward individual application and inquiry, with the output being more authentic as the whole process is student-initiated.

Knowing these three basic kinds of homework provides a starting point for teachers on the purpose they want their students to get. With all this considered, elementary teachers are now one step towards giving homework that would best benefit their students.

5 Reasons For Homework

In this section, reasons for homework will be discussed concerning the interests and perspectives of students, parents, and teachers alike.

1. Homework Serves Important Academic Functions

The most obvious benefit is that homework aids in the academic functions that underlie the very purpose of giving homework. Such assignments help in the completion of students’ unfinished work in school so they don’t fall behind in their studies.

Moreover, homework enables students to revise and consolidate what they have learned in the classroom. As the saying goes, “practice makes perfect.”

Through specific types of homework, students are better prepared for lessons and assessments, which will boost their self-esteem and confidence. It can also fuel students to expand their knowledge of concepts further.

Finally, if implemented correctly, homework can fuel a child’s curiosity and inquiry into a particular topic and beyond.

2. Homework Helps in the Student’s Personal Development

Primarily, homework is set to aid in a student’s learning process.

At the same time, doing homework is believed to teach students the necessary skills they will need in their later years. This aspect of giving homework is one of its non-academic functions.

To illustrate this, a study exploring the views of primary school teachers in Hong Kong outlines that most teachers assign homework tasks to develop positive virtues in their pupils, such as:

Time management
Personal responsibility
Accountability

Self-discipline
Independence
Initiative

Some parents of elementary students express their agreement for this reason. They believe that it is a step toward future schooling and preparation on how the system works. Additionally, this belief is reasonable as parent involvement in their child’s education declines over time, so becoming self-dependent is essential.

3. Homework Promotes Communication

Giving homework promotes communication not only between the teacher and the students but even the parents and the wider community. Essentially, all stakeholders in the child’s education are made aware of the student’s performance status in the following ways:

Home-school communication: Teachers become aware of students’ understanding of a specific topic through homework. At the same time, sudden deterioration of performance might indicate home-life issues, which could help the teacher understand the non-academic aspects of their student’s life.

Parent-child communication: Children whose parents assist in their homework or provide support to them tend to fare better in learning outcomes. Parents can take advantage of the opportunity to work and bond over their child’s learning. In addition, completing homework tasks can act as a much better alternative to screen time (watching TV or using devices like tablets and phones), which parents would unquestionably welcome.
Parent-school communication: Parents who supervise their child’s homework can better observe and understand the teacher’s learning intentions and methods. Such situations are beneficial in developing homework policies in which parents are active contributors.

Essentially, through effective homework routines, teachers can build stronger relationships with parents.

4. Homework Complies With School Requirements

Some district or school policies may require that all students do a set amount of homework for a certain period each week. These directives may be aligned with the belief that a “good school” gives take-home tasks.

With school league tables and inspection evaluations being so prominent, schools are under pressure to raise academic standards constantly. For some administrators, setting homework is a straightforward response to addressing the complex matter of boosting academic achievement.

5. Homework Eases Time Constraints

For some teachers, assigning homework can help ease time constraints on the amount of curriculum material they need to cover in school.

Class time can be spent more on activities that require teacher support rather than tasks that can be done independently by the student.

Furthermore, homework can reduce the student’s time spent inside the classroom. They are instead allowed to have more time for themselves, provided they can effectively manage their time outside of school.

5 Reasons Against Homework

While there are substantial reasons for giving homework, there are also reasons against it. These reasons are often due to the disparity between the viewpoints of students and adults.

Adults often perceive homework as something beneficial to students in the long term. However, this perspective on homework does not always translate to the students.

The reason for this is that students are more likely to focus on the immediate benefits of a particular activity, so the appreciation and acknowledgment of homework’s purposes are sometimes lost on children. Here are five reasons against elementary teachers assigning homework.

1. Homework Can Be Disengaging for Students

Research studies have found that many pupils across different grades believe that their homework is far from engaging. This view is due to homework being:

Routine and predictable.
A repetition of what has already been discussed in school.
Not challenging enough for students.

Too challenging and confusing for students

The level of engagement offered by homework is often limited. Therefore, students lack motivation when completing tasks, so learning and understanding become rudimentary.

Due to the common reasons why students find homework uninteresting, homework risks being labeled as a waste of time. When children reach this point, teachers must go back to the purpose of giving homework.

The teacher is advised to reflect on the homework methods they are currently utilizing. As mentioned previously, homework should be challenging and stimulating enough to provide its intended purpose to the students.

2. Homework Takes Away From Other Interests

Children should be encouraged to pursue a wide range of interests, as a balanced régime will help them become well-rounded individuals.

Having the time and energy to spend on other things will also raise students’ self-awareness about what they are good at and what makes them happy. For instance, they might discover that they really enjoy playing musical instruments, or that they are a talented artist.

The requirement to complete homework tasks takes valuable time and effort away from other pursuits. Students already spend an average of seven to eight hours at school. Instructing them to dedicate extra time to their studies can be draining and unproductive to their development.

3. Homework Does Not Guarantee Academic Progress

Sometimes, the purpose of a homework assignment is not appreciated. This phenomenon may be due to a misguided view of homework, especially among elementary school students and teachers.

Some students may do their homework for purposes other than its intended ones. For example, many young children do their homework to avoid getting into trouble at home or school.

These instances lead to a lack of recognition and acknowledgment of the purpose of the homework.

Numerous studies have shown that there isn’t a clear correlation between more homework and higher levels of academic success.

While homework may benefit some students to improve in specific subjects, it can lead to resentment and negative attitudes toward studying for others, thus having an adverse effect.

Therefore, the quality of homework should always come before quantity. Doing so will make homework more effective and more likely to produce the desired outcomes for the students.

4. Homework Can Cause Issues at Home

Family life can also be negatively impacted when teachers set homework. Parents frequently view homework as an additional chore, needing to supervise and ensure that their children complete it.

Surveys also reveal that homework can cause great anxiety among both parents and students. Parents may feel inadequate or lacking the skills needed to support their children with assignments. Additionally, students may feel extra pressure when working with parents around.

All of these factors result in negative feelings developing within the household. Ultimately, homework can put a strain on parent-teacher relations.

As teachers, it is essential to consider that not all students have adequate learning settings in their homes. It will all boil down to how well teachers know their students and how they modify their homework-giving method accordingly.

5. Homework Thwarts Being Social and Active

As children grow up, their interest in other social activities also grows. To this end, another perceived cost on the part of the students is that homework tends to be solitary in nature.

For kids, doing homework lessens the time spent with their family and friends. At such a crucial moment in their lives, elementary students should have the time and opportunity to develop their social skills through healthy interactions, both at school and outside.

Furthermore, most homework projects are written tasks that require students to sit at a desk. These assignments can take anywhere between half an hour to two hours to complete. Young children being sedentary for long periods can cause health problems like obesity.

These issues can be solved by reconfiguring homework tasks into group activities. Teachers can set practical tasks where family and friends can participate, promoting movement and social interactions while learning.

What’s the Right Amount of Homework?

At this point, we already know that homework tasks have their pros and cons. They can be helpful but only up to a certain extent. As elementary school teachers, it is essential to know the right amount of homework to increase the efficacy of take-home assignments.

The right amount of homework, according to the National Education Association, is ten minutes of homework a night per grade level. This recommendation means that elementary students should receive between 10 to 50 minutes of homework assignments each day, depending on their age.

Any homework that goes beyond this time limit can lead to the following negative effects on students:

Boredom
Burnout
Less time for family and recreational activities

Lack of rest
Increased stress and anxiety

Unfortunately, the ten-minute rule is not applied uniformly within academic institutions. The study led by Robert M. Pressman and his colleagues in 2015 showed that elementary school students typically receive three times the recommended homework load.

The challenge now lies in the hands of teachers. The following paragraphs contain some practices that teachers and schools should find useful.

1. Adhere to the Ten-Minute Guideline

The process by which schools and educators give homework needs to change. It will make a more significant difference if school administrators are the ones who initiate reform in homework policies.

Adherence to the ten-minute guideline must be institutionalized. This initiative can be achieved if educators put more emphasis on the quality of homework and not on the quantity.

Teachers may start first by grasping the pedagogical advantages of homework. They can then proceed to schedule homework strategically. Assign tasks only when it is most beneficial and not whenever possible.

2. Create Engaging, Relevant, and Creative Tasks

Homework tasks are more successful if students understand their purposes. One great way of communicating this is by relating the learning to real-world applications. Find out what students are interested in or are curious about and make connections to these. Consequently, learning becomes significantly more meaningful and engaging.

Another way to boost engagement is by infusing creativity into the assignments set. Opt for practical, hands-on tasks that require students to interact with others as much as possible.

Catherine Thimmesh’s talk about creativity in the classroom can also be applied to homework setting. She outlines the importance and benefits of creativity and suggests that creative prompts can be surprisingly easy to implement (in only five minutes or less). Watch the video here:

3. Involve Parents in a Healthy Way

To prevent the likelihood of family disputes about doing homework, parents must be given the role of mentors and support agents rather than tutors or instructors. This arrangement will remove the pressure on parents who feel nervous or frustrated when overseeing their children doing homework.

Additionally, parents can support their kids by providing them with the necessary tools to complete assignments. These tools could be in the form of a designated peaceful study area or books and digital resources.

Finally, parents can help ensure that their child spends the appropriate amount of time working on tasks, depending on the grade level, and free from distractions.

Final Thoughts

There are many considerations related to the effectiveness of homework activities given to elementary students. First and foremost, teachers must be clear about their intended objectives upon giving homework tasks instead of assigning homework for the sake of it.

Furthermore, they must take into account the arguments for and against setting homework. To put all these things into perspective, teachers should always weigh the right amount of homework in relation to students’ grade level and choose quality over quantity.