Homework's Value: Is It Worth the Fuss?

HOMEWORK’S VALUE: IS IT WORTH ALL THE FUSS? 1

Homework’s Value: Is It Worth All the Fuss?

Kjell Fenn

HOMEWORK’S VALUE: IS IT WORTH ALL THE FUSS? 2

HOMEWORK’S VALUE: IS IT WORTH ALL THE FUSS?

Abstract

This paper includes a reference list of literature relating to

the effects of homework on students’ academic and behavioral

attitudes toward school. Expectancy-value theory is the

theoretical framework. Homework is a contentious topic and has

been since the end of the 1800s. While the evidence that

homework can, in some cases, increase the achievement scores of

students is suspect, there is evidence suggesting that homework

does little more than frustrate kids. An underlying assumption

about homework is that it is valuable. Many students do not

value homework in general and others do not value specific

homework. This devaluing of assignments often results in

choosing not to do the work or poor performance on the task. The

lack of motivation and even aversion causes the students to

perform poorly on the homework which affect their overall grade.

Students’ attitudes toward homework are quite negative which

affects their attitude toward school both academically and

behaviorally. The attitudes that students have toward school will

affect their performance in school and learning in general.

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Keywords: homework, student achievement, student

motivation, expectancy-value theory, history of homework,

goals of education

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Homework’ Value

The homework debate in America has two clear and opposite

sides: those in favor of it with some wanting more and those

opposed to it with some wanting to abolish its practice entirely.

Homework has been the source of frustration for students for

decades. Students often complain about it, in terms of amount,

frequency, and uselessness. Teachers are often annoyed when

students don’t turn homework in, especially if the work was

necessary for the present day’s lessons or activities. Parents

lament the hours used for homework instead of play, pleasure

reading, socializing with friends, or engaging in hobbies.

Currently, there is no consensus of the value of homework

(Tokarski, 2011; Trautwein & Köller, 2003).

There are many proponents of homework, however, who praise

its virtues, namely that it increases achievement (Cooper, 1989;

Cooper & Valentine, 2001) and fosters responsibility and good

character (Doyle, 1990). They claim that for high school

students, homework helps them learn as evidenced by increases in

standardized test scores. Others (Kohn, 2007, Jan/Feb 2007;

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Kralovec, 2007; Skaggs, 2007) state that homework does nothing

but aggravate students, parents, and teachers.

Definitions

Homework

Homework is defined as any teacher-assigned work that is

designed to be completed outside of the class time (Cooper,

1989). This is presumably at home, but can be finished in

another class, such as a study hall. The assignment is typically

in the form of worksheets or questions from textbooks but can

also include skills to be practiced, text to be read, and

projects. Also, homework can be to bring an item or materials to

class (e.g., for a class project) or viewing a video or other

online presentation. Homework is intended to be completed in a

setting other than the classroom. Because kids have to do work

at home, there is a tendency for them to feel negative about

schoolwork. One of the arguments against homework is that it

kills the love of learning (Kohn, 2007; Kralovec, 2007;

Vetterott, 2007). Kids want to learn; they are naturally curious

creatures. The motivation to do homework is dependent on the

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future goal attainment and the value given to the task (Eccles &

Wigfield, 2002).

Learning and its Historical Meaning

Learning is defined as a change in an individual’s knowledge

and skill set caused by experience (Slavin, 2012). Historically,

the goal of education has been for student learning, although

this has taken different forms and specificities. Gutek (1995)

explains that in Athens and Sparta, education’s role was to

develop proper habits and predispositions while in ancient Rome,

transmitting traditions and values was the purpose. During the

medieval period, education turned more religious as teachers and

scholars taught the Scriptures and Latin to the people. The

scholastics brought the universities as a way to train people in

specific professions, such as doctors, lawyers, teachers, and

priests. The Renaissance emphasized humanism which often fought

against the religious teachings. They focused on exploration in

terms of the past, such as classical literature and art, and the

future, such as new lands. The Enlightenment used education to

promote more individual freedom and curiosity, foe example,

Rousseau’s natural learning and Pestalozzi’s object lessons,

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Froebel’s kindergarten and Montessori’s discovery methodology.

Education in early American history taught cultural values and

literacy so the people could read and write and become an

integral part of the citizenry, fulfilling civic duties and

responsibilities. Until recently, beginning in the late 1800’s,

homework was not a pedagogical tool because it did not aid in

student learning.

Method

An extensive search of research articles was conducted using

resources and databases available through Liberty University’s

online research library. The most useful databases were EBSCO

and ERIC. The following key words were used to help narrow

search results: homework, effects of homework, student attitude, achievement,

and expectancy-value motivation. Textbooks from other classes were also

of great benefit for this literature review, namely Gutek’s

(1995) A History of the Western Educational Experience.

Guiding Questions

First, determining the history of homework (why was home study

ever begun) was important information to discover. If homework’s

beginnings are no longer relevant, is homework itself relevant?

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Second, the expectancy-value model is the theory in which the

following hypotheses were generated: because students do not

place high value on homework, they tend to either (a) not do the

work at all, or (b) do it poorly. This tendency creates poor

grades: will it cause poor attitudes toward school in general and

a specific negative attitude toward academic learning?

Literature Review

The History of Homework in America

The debate about the utility of homework – its usefulness as

a whole – has been going on for a very long time, and, at times,

it has raged. In the early part of the 20th century, homework

was given a laundry list of dirty names, such as “school

imperialism”, “legalized criminality”, “a sin against childhood”,

and “mental abortion” (Gill & Schlossman, 1996, 2004). In that

same era, homework was blamed for poor health, including high

blood pressure, lack of sleep, back problems, general sickness,

eye strain, anxiety, malnourishment, tuberculosis, heart disease,

and even death (Gill & Schlossman, 1996).

Antihomework sentiment was strong and powerful, and not only

supported by educators. In the early 1900s, Edward Bok, editor

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of Ladies Home Journal, used his magazine articles to stoke the

fires of antihomework for years (Kralovec, 2007). Two

physicians, Dr. Winthrop Talbot and Dr. Woods Hutchinson, both

lamented the ills that homework caused, and a county medical

society in California decried homework’s damaging effects on kids

(Gill & Schlossman, 1996). It was determined that the more kids

stayed inside the house to do their homework, the less time they

spent outside playing and getting exercise, two necessary

ingredients for healthy and growing bodies. The crusade against

homework gained popularity throughout America as many States,

districts, and schools limited or even abolished homework (Gill &

Schlossman, 1996, 2004).

With the political and cultural shifts of society, the

antihomework revolution waned. When Sputnik was launched in the

50s, the U.S. claimed that the school system of America had

failed and the way to fix it was through homework. In the late

60s, with the need for more individual freedom, particularly

freedom from the establishment, homework was again limited

(Kralovec, 2007). This was followed by the U.S. Department of

Education’s 1983 publication A Nation at Risk that decried the

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failing education system, likening intellectual mediocrity to an

advancing army. The publication specifically cited homework as a

way to hold back the enemy. Heavy homework loads showed a deep

commitment to education’s fight against academic apathy (Gill &

Schlossman, 2004).

A Historical Purpose of Homework

To better understand, it is important to know why homework

was created in the first

place. The history of homework is rooted in the drill and

memorization practices of the late

1800s, when students were asked to recite vast quantities of

material. Children had to prepare for lengthy oral recitations

of historical facts, geography facts, math facts, grammar rules,

poetry and literature selections (Gill & Schlossman, 1996). In

the early 1900s, the progressive educators who pushed for an

education of the “whole child” philosophy saw homework as a relic

of times past and as unnecessary because the classrooms should

not rely on drill and memorization, but on hands-on activities,

experimentalism, and problem-solving (Gutek, 1995).

A Modern Perspective of Homework

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The question for the modern age has been: does homework

actually increase student achievement? Some would argue

unequivocally yes (Cooper, 1989; Cooper & Valentine, 2001; Doyle,

1990; Marzano & Pickering, 2007). However, much of Cooper’s

research (1989; Cooper & Valentine, 2001), which has been the

foundation for most homework advocates, has been denounced by

critics (Kohn, 2007a, 2007b; Maltese, Tai, & Fan, 2012; Trautwein

& Köller, 2003; Trautwein, Lüdtke, Kastens & Köller, 2006) who

claim that the research results are massaged to get a positive

result or methodologically unsound and weak. The literature on

the actual increases in student achievement is unclear, but there

is some that does support a moderate time on homework in the high

school as having some benefit. Homework in the elementary level

has no academic benefit and in the middle grades (6-8) there is

little increase in student achievement (Cooper, 1989; Cooper &

Valentine, 2001; Gill & Schlossman, 2004; Maltese, Tai, & Fan,

2012). One of the complaints against the pro-homework evidence

is that student achievement is defined by standardized test

scores (Cooper, 1989; Cooper & Valentine, 2001; Maltese, Tai, &

Fan, 2012; Marzano & Pickering, 2007; Zhu & Leung, 2011) but

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standardized test scores mean very little in terms of actual

learning (Kohn, 2000; Popham, 1999).

Purposeful homework in the high school can have positive

achievement outcomes (Heitzman, 2007; Tokarski, 2011); however,

the assumption is that the assignment be purposeful. Too many

homework assignments have no value, but are assigned because a

teacher is supposed to give homework (Kohn, 2007; Kralovec, 2007;

Vatterott, 2009). One can see that the discussion on homework is

confusing (with so many respected proponents for and against,

e.g., Cooper and Kralovec) and messy (so many research studies

claiming homework effects achievement positively and negligibly,

e.g., Marzano (2007) and Kohn (2006)). The question becomes: is

homework worth all of the fuss that it creates? If homework does

increase high school standardized test scores, but those same

scores do not reflect actual learning, does that correlation

signify anything of value? If students do not value the homework

assigned, how will it impact their grades? If students regularly

receive poor grades and valueless work which add to the poor

grades, will their attitudes toward school be negative? Will the

innate desire to learn be stunted because of homework?

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Expectancy-Value Theory as a Theoretical Framework for the

Questions about Homework

Expectancy-value motivation is based on the belief that a

person’s motivation to achieve depends on his or her expectations

of a positive reward (Slavin, 2012). An individual’s choice,

persistence and performance are explained by their beliefs of how

well they think they will do on the activity and the extent to

which they value the activity (Eccles & Wigfield, 2002; Hood,

Creed, & Neuman, 2012; Trautwein, Lüdtke, Kastens, & Köller,

2006; Wigfield & Eccles, 2000;). Trautwein, Lüdtke, Kastens, &

Köller (2006) used expectancy-value theory as the framework to

study students’ effort on homework. They define expectancies in

the form a hypothetical question: Can I succeed on this task or activity?

And they define value as: Why do I want to do this activity?

Many studies show that expectancy-value theory can be used

to predict the achievement-related behavior in students

(Bembenutty, 2010; Eccles & Wigfield, 2002; Wigfield & Eccles,

2000), attitudes (Abu-Hilal, Abdelfattah, Abduljabber & Marsh, in

press; Hood, Creed & Neuman, 2012), and amount of effort expended

on work (Trautwein et al., 2006).

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Expectancy-value theory has two constructs: expectancy (the

belief of successful achievement; also called perceived

instrumentality (Bembenutty, 2010) in which the performance on a

current task is perceived as being instrumental to a future

task’s attainment) and value (the significance placed on the

activity). Value has four primary facets: attainment value,

intrinsic value, utility value, and cost (Eccles & Wigfield,

2002). Attainment value is the personal importance of doing well

and its relevance to self-competence and how others view self

(“Is it important that I do well on this homework?”). Intrinsic value is the

enjoyment of doing the activity for its own sake (“Is this homework

enjoyable?”). Utility value is future-oriented in that it relates

to current and future goals (“Does this homework have future benefits?”).

Cost is the critical aspect of value; it is concerned with the

negative elements of engaging in the task (“Is there something else I’d

rather be doing than this homework?”).

Key Findings

The Value of Homework

The value of homework is viewed by some as beneficial and

others as a waste of time. Historically, homework was used for

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drill, rote memorization and recitation, methods that are

outdated in modern pedagogy. Prior to the institution of

homework, schools were places of character-building, passing on

traditions, and creating civic-minded citizens, not places of

high test scores. The empirical evidence is unclear to date as

to whether homework actually increases student achievement

(Trautwein & Köller, 2003). There are studies that suggest that

homework does increase student achievement at the high school

level, but these studies are criticized for methodological

weaknesses and poor designs. Using standardized tests to measure

student achievement is also viewed as a poor measurement tool

because the tests are ineffective measures of learning (Kohn,

2000).

The Nonacademic Effects of Homework

Sir Ken Robinson (2013) states that standardized tests

should be diagnostic, not measures of learning. He goes on to

claim that the testing environment in our schools has created a

culture of compliance instead of a culture of curiosity. It is

unclear in schools what homework’s actual value is, academically

and behaviorally. There are some who assert that homework

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teaches responsibility and time-management (Cooper, 1989; Cooper

& Valentine, 2001); however, Bembenutty (2010) found that self-

regulated students were more responsible and have superior time-

management skills than naïve self-regulated learners which points

to a student’s personality and disposition as a cause for

responsibility and time-management more than performing tasks

such as homework. Galloway, Conner, & Pope (2013) found that

homework was a primary stressor in students’ lives. They suggest

that if “homework is intended to facilitate student learning,

improve study habits, and foster skills such as personal

responsibility, students in our study suggest we are off track”

(p. 506).

Homework’s Value to Students

Based on expectancy-value theory, homework is not likely to

engage students’ motivation to do the task. The value of

homework is not clear to students. How many students answer

affirmative to the following questions: “Is it important that I do well on

this homework?” “Is this homework enjoyable?”, “Does this homework have future

benefits?”? If they answer no, then the motivation to do the

assignment and/or do it well are likely to be negative. When it

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comes to cost of doing the homework, many students will answer “Is

there something else I’d rather be doing than this homework?” in the

affirmative which will lead to poor performance or not doing the

homework at all. As a result of the use of homework, students’

interest in learning has lessened and even become negative (Kohn,

2007).

Homework’s Value to Teachers

Teachers often fight with students over homework completion

and grading (Gill & Schlossman, 2004) and have to create ways to

keep on top of homework (Kazmierzak, 1994). Is it worth all of

the fuss when there is no clear evidence to suggest that homework

increases student learning?

Homework’s Value to Students with Disabilities

Since the reauthorization of IDEA in 2004, inclusion of

students with disabilities into general education classrooms has

become commonplace. Homework is especially difficult for

students with disabilities, such as autism spectrum disorder

(ASD) and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD)

(Hampshire, Butera, & Bellini, 2011; Langberg, Molina, Arnold,

Epstein, & Altaye, 2011). For students with ASD who exhibit

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deficits in organization and problem-solving skills, homework

often proves to be frustrating which can lead to problem

behaviors (Hampshire et al, 2011). Students with AD/HD have

significant problems with homework, both in engaging in the

activity and sustaining effort in the task (Langberg et al.,

2011). These problems with homework can lead to poor behavior

and cause severe frustration.

Recommendations

Use Homework Sparingly

Homework should be the exception and not the rule in

schools. It is the default setting of our classrooms to simply

assign homework for its own sake. There is a belief in education

today that more homework is better regardless of its relevancy to

today’s pedagogy or to the course itself. Homework has no solid,

empirical evidence to support its positive effects for student

learning. Instead, it saps energy and intrinsic motivation of

students to learn. Because many students do not value homework,

they do it poorly or not at all. The perception that homework

has no value and the resultant poor performance diminishes the

innate curiosity to learn and creates negative attitudes about

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school. It is recommended that the culture of homework be

changed from ‘regularly assign homework’ to ‘assign homework only

when it’s necessary’.

Design Purposeful Homework

A second recommendation is that teachers clearly express the

purpose (i.e., value) of the homework. Any homework assigned

should be viewed as a targeted, deliberate activity used

sparingly, especially with students with disabilities. Avoid long

lists of drill practice and ‘finish what we didn’t in class’

assignments as these are perceived as having little value.

In conclusion, it is this author’s belief that homework has

been an overused – and often misused – pedagogical tool.

Currently, homework is not worth all of the fuss teachers,

students, parents, and administrators put into it. It is rarely

based on the curriculum or the standards. It is frequently

implemented without planning or regard for students’ lives; it is

often of little or no value whatsoever. However, if schools

adopt an ideology that homework is one of a hundred various

strategies that teachers can use, than the benefits will be seen

in both the academic and behavioral (i.e., motivational) lives of

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the students. When students like school, they will love learning

and maintain their innate curiosity which is, and has been, the

chief aim of education.

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