The research is clear about the value of homework, but how often should you set it? Should it be set months in advance? Or is it better to set it at the end of each lesson?
Here, two teachers share their sides of the argument.
You can still be responsive when setting homework six weeks ahead
David Usher, a director of maths in Merseyside, says:
At my current school, we plan and set homework well in advance, and have found that this is really effective.
I’ve worked in four schools at various levels, and have seen a range of methods for setting homework: from teachers randomly assigning work with no clear overarching plan to a pre-created workbook that all pupils got (and inevitably lost) at the start of the year.
When I started my latest role, I wanted to create a strong rationale around homework for my department. I asked myself: what were we trying to achieve? Were we just ticking an “expected homework” box? Or was the work a meaningful response to what our pupils needed?
I was also very conscious of teacher workload; I didn’t want teachers marking 150 pre-made booklets each week, especially if the work had been set in September with no real connection to learning gaps.
I had all these things in mind when developing our homework policy. What I settled on was an approach that is responsive, but also time-saving.
So, how does it work?
We currently set homework at the start of each half term for the upcoming six to seven weeks, and pupils get somewhere between 30 minutes to an hour each week.
Homework is completed online: a video explains a worked example, and pupils then work through a set of 10 retrieval practice questions to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding. They receive immediate marking and feedback, and the vast majority can access the work without additional support.
At the end of each unit, students sit tests. We complete a detailed analysis of these and provide them with personalised follow-up questions around their areas of weakness. This is the first step in our intervention process, which then leads to informing what teachers will select for homework the following half term.
Each half term, the homework covers six topics, which are chosen either to help close the gaps teachers have identified or reinforce a core concept to form part of the building blocks for an upcoming module.
The feedback from pupils has generally been positive, and our homework completion ratio pre-pandemic was a healthy 80 per cent and above. While this has dipped a little since, it continues to be high, and overall, we’ve found that this method brings about great outcomes.
Bulk setting homework creates a disconnect in learning
Matt Ben David, a chemistry teacher at a North London academy, says:
Research from the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) says that for homework to be effective, it has to be linked with what happens in the classroom. When it is estranged from the classroom, it loses its value. This is a problem: according to the EEF, homework has a positive impact akin to, on average, five months of progress.
If you bulk set or schedule your homework, you are automatically separating it from what you’re doing in class.
Traditionally, homework is a consolidation for the classwork. Lessons don’t always go to plan, and sometimes you don’t cover all the material intended. If students are attempting to consolidate work that they haven’t actually learned yet, you’re going to have problems.
When setting homework, it’s better to err on the side of too easy than too hard: if the content is too tricky for students, they lose motivation and it becomes a never-ending battle to get them to do their homework.
If your homework covers stuff they don’t know yet, clearly they will struggle. This lowers your completion rate, potentially for future homework too. Of course, you could just edit the scheduled task, but if you’re spending time on that, what have you really gained over setting it then and there?
Some set weeks of retrieval practice for homework: but how do you make sure it’s appropriate for that class at that time? What if, when doing your prerequisite knowledge check, you find that your class has the foundation knowledge to handle this lesson, but they’re shaky on what they will need for the upcoming lessons?
If you’ve already scheduled homework, you’re going to spend extra time editing it to add in retrieval on the knowledge missing, or even skipping something somewhere.
Students need to see the relevance of their homework; it has to lead somewhere.
If they consistently do poorly on the same topics, you need to take action and change what you’ve set them for homework. Carrying on like everything is fine risks students missing out on learning.
The trick is to set homework that doesn’t take very long, and then build a routine that involves quickly setting the tasks on a regular basis. Homework, then, will be an extension of your classroom.
