Out of fashion for some time, homework seems to be making a comeback But what sort of homework? Are we seeing a return to the repetitive, sterile tasks of yesteryear or is something new on the agenda?

Hopefully it will be the latter, for the traditional view of homework has been strongly and constructively challenged. Projects such as PACT (Parents and Children and Teachers) and IMPACT (Maths with Parents and Children and Teachers) which encourage parents often unrecognised educative abilities have championed imaginative approaches. So have the RSA Parents in a Learning Society Project and a Scottish Office commissioned research project into good practice the results of which underpin The Homework File*, a pack recently distributed to all Scottish schools.

What these projects make clear is that homework is important in its own right and can encourage skills and attitudes hard to foster within the school walls and significantly improve educational performance. But to make it work teachers and parents have to work together.

Professor John MacBeath, of the University of Strathclyde Quality in Education Centre, which undertook the Homework File project, says: “Ideally school and home work should be a seamless cloth. It should be an enrichment and extension of what is going on in school. Or it can be the other way round: schoolwork can just as easily draw on what has been done at home. What it shouldn’t be is work for the sake of it.”

In the primary schools attitudes to homework have been influenced by research on the crucial role of parents in helping children to learn and especially to read. PACT, the shared reading project, and IMPACT are two projects set up to develop the connections between learning at home and at school. Working with schools in England and Wales, IMPACT produces a wealth of materials, which parents and pupils can use as shared homework tasks.

Ruth Merttens, IMPACT’s director, says: “Homework is a vehicle for the involvement of parents in children’s learning.” IMPACT materials which capitalise on the educational potential of such everyday home tasks as measuring ingredients or adding up change “take education into a real life context”.

Schools should have a homework policy, John MacBeath and others argue. A whole-school approach, they argue, assures continuity of approach and means that schools can communicate their policy to parents and enlist their support.

Homework should be spread evenly through the week, which means a centrally worked out schedule. “The most effective way is to have homework diaries, which the form teacher can use to check on other teachers as much as on the children”, MacBeath says.

Interest, support and some monitoring (again using homework dairies) are what pupils most need from parents, he says. Contrary to the myth of parental indifference, research has shown that virtually all parents are interested in helping their children learn, But they may need some help and confidence- boosting from the school to do it effectively. What they don’t need is particularly knowledge.

“Parents can help most by listening rather than telling. If instead of saying ‘this is how we did long division’, parents listen and try to understand, the child then begins to learn,” he adds.

John MacBeath emphasises that it is often the way a teacher introduces a homework project which can inspire or deflate enthusiasm: “A teacher might ask the class just to design a toothbrush, and it might seem very boring. Or she might say ‘Let’s have a brainstorming session’, which would spark some ideas and enthuse the whole class.”

The Homework File. Pounds 25 (Pounds 15 for order of five or more). Faculty of Education, Jordanhill Campus, University of Strathclyde, 76 Southbrae Drive, Jordanhill, Glasgow G13 1PP.

Further details of PACT.

from Hackney Educational Psychology Services, Woodberry Down Centre, Woodberry Grove, London N4 2SH.

Further details of IMPACT from the School of Education, University of North London, Marlborough Building, 383 Holloway Road, London N7 0RN.

The Homework File lists 14 reasons for homework:.

* it can allow practice and consolidation of work done in class.

* allow preparation for future classwork.

* offer access to resources not in school.

* develop skills in using library and other learning resources.

* provide opportunities for individualised work.

* allow assessment of pupils’ progress and mastery of work.

* provide evidence for evaluation of teaching.

* provide training in planning and organising time.

* develop good habits and self-discipline.

* encourage ownership and responsibility for learning.

* provide information for parents.

* provide opportunities for parental co-operation and support.

* create channels for home-school dialogue.

* fulfil the expectations of parents, pupils, teachers and public.