[Maths-Education] Homework

[Peter Cave]

In response to Jim Smith's point about homework, it is interesting to note
that as far as I remember (please check) the latest TIMSS study (TIMSS-R)
done (I think) in 1999 included a table suggesting that in most if not all
of the countries whose children scored highly in the tests (e.g. South
Korea, Japan, Hong Kong), children reported that they spent rather small
amounts of time doing homework or studying outside school.  I have a feeling
that children from many of these countries actually reported spending less
time on maths outside school than did their brethren and sustren in less
high-scoring countries, but you should check that.  You can read the latest
TIMSS reports via their website at http://timss.bc.edu .

The question appears to have been carefully worded so that it encompassed
both homework and out-of-school teaching at so-called 'cram schools' , Kumon
schools, etc.

In Japan, in my experience, children at primary schools are usually given
commercially produced 'drills', and homework often consists of doing two or
three pages of these drills a week.  They are designed to fit in with the
textbook units.  There usually seem to be 20 sums or other problems on a
page.  Most children do not go to so-called 'cram school' (juku) during
primary school in Japan, but quite a lot do go to Kumon maths, though I
would guess not many all through their primary career.  There is an article
by Nancy Ukai on Kumon in The Journal of Japanese Studies 20:1 (Winter
1994), reprinted in Teaching and Learning in Japan, edited by Thomas Rohlen
and Gerald LeTendre.

Peter Cave
Lecturer
Department of Japanese Studies
The University of Hong Kong
Pokfulam Road
Hong Kong
petercav@hkucc.hku.hk