[Maths-Education] Homework
Peter Gates
peter.gates@nottingham.ac.uk
Mon, 12 Feb 2001 21:58:20 +0000
As Dylan says....
>Getting students to do homework (and getting teachers to
>mark it!) is just an incredibly expensive and generally
unproductive
>public-relations exercise.
Assuming that this might have a lot of mileage surely the real question
is not whether homework is useful or not etc, but why it persists, and
how it persists as a social practice. This is not too far away from
arguments on setting - something that Dylan has done a lot of work on
with colleagues. Here again the question isn't about efficacy but
persistence. Hence homework is very useful as a controlling mechanism and
as a positioning mechanism. It clearly helps to position pupils into
goodies and baddies and further reinforces all the other control
mechanisms that go on in the name of teaching.
In a BBC-TV programme in "The Knowledge” series called “The Language
Master” a quite well known American Teacher - Michael Thomas - was
featured teaching students to speak French in a week. The programme
focussed on his approach to teaching, which bought about miraculous
results in a very short time. At one time in this programme, at the end
of the first lesson he told his pupils:
- It is very important when you walk out of here not to practice, not
to try to remember, not to review mentally, not to test yourself. It is
very important to leave it alone.
In short, do no homework. Effective teaching might be enhanced by
leaving well alone. But then again teaching maths isn't about teaching
maths is it....
Who said "Old Labour?! Surely not you Mr Blunkett?
Best wishes,
Peter
**************************************************
Peter Gates
Centre for the Study of Mathematics Education
University of Nottingham
School of Education
Jubilee Campus
Wollaton Road
Nottingham, NG8 1BB
Great Britain
peter.gates@nottingham.ac.uk
Tel: +44 115 951 4432
Fax: +44 115 846 6600
Mobile: 0773 080 8353
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