[Maths-Education] Homework

[Jim D.N. SMITH(EDS)]

I have looked through the site and looked at the Ofsted research on the
nature and frequency of setting homework.

http://www.dfee.gov.uk/homework/index.htm

There is no research evidence presented that homework is effective in
improving learning. It is simply taken as self-evident.

If it were that simple, surely evidence could be brought forward and
presented to back up the rhetoric. How much homework do our 'more
successful' competitor countries set, for example? Does double homework
result in double learning? What is the relationship?

In the rush to give our children more and more work and stress, is it
worth stopping to check that the benefits actually exist ?

Common-sense is unexamined theory.

Jim D N Smith BSc MEd BA
Mathematics Education Centre
School of Education
Sheffield Hallam University
36 Collegiate Crescent
Sheffield
S10 2BP

http://www.shu.ac.uk/schools/ed/teaching/dns/
http://www.shu.ac.uk/schools/ed/centres/ma.html

0114 225 2349 desk
0114 225 2339 fax

d.n.smith@shu.ac.uk