Let’s first discuss what we mean by homework.
Homework is a form of a school assignment or practice work that a student needs to do outside the classroom. Teachers give a stipulated timeline to complete the work and students are supposed to have completed their homework so that teachers can check it. One of the major reasons as to why teachers assign homework is to give practice work to learn what was taught in the school in Dubai. Many students are mistaken that teachers give homework just for the sake of keeping the child busy.
Homework also requires the involvement of parents, or another guardian or teacher. Some parents ask teachers to give more homework for many reasons, like keeping the child busy, avoiding play activities, or minimising screen time. This assumption is wrong and negatively affects the child. Instead, opt for a good CBSE school in Dubai that has employed effective measures to assign homework and continuously work on strategies to ensure students’ well-being.
This article aims to answer the question about homework and how too much of it affects your child.
How does it affect the children?
Let’s first begin with how homework affects children.
Often, too much negative light is shed on homework. But, it is important to note that schoolwork fosters learning and engagement outside the classroom. It’s too much homework that affects the learners and how it affects them is worrying.
Learners spend more than a third of their day in school and a good amount of time doing homework. This can overwhelm them and make them look at studying differently. It can even further degrade motivation towards learning, which is the original idea of homework – to foster learning outside the classroom.
● Effect on health: Too much homework can have adverse effects on the students’ physical and mental health. It can minimise the amount of sleep, and lead to irregular eating habits and exhaustion.
● Effect on social life: Children use extracurricular activities or other forms of social interactions to refresh their mind and relax. Too much homework glues the learners to the textbooks and eliminates time and scope for social interaction.
● Effect on academic performance: Most of the homework exercises are designed to reiterate what was taught in the classroom. Moreover, too much of such activities can make students feel burnt out. That means children look for help from their parents to finish the homework. This can degrade children’s inquisitive nature and problem-solving skills, which translates to poor academic performance.
Stressed-out high school students
It becomes a problem when the primary source of stress for high school students is homework. We discussed the effects of too much homework, but it is higher for students in high school. A study conducted on high-performing high schools suggested that students spend more than three hours on homework each day.
Even though it resulted in more enhanced behavioural engagement at the best CBSE school in Dubai, it can also lead to social life imbalance, mental and physical health deterioration, and academic pressure. The study also reported that learners showed physical symptoms of stress such as headaches, anxiety, or sleeping problems.
Moreover, as learners grow and reach high school, the responsibilities also increase. They may have to manage homework with extra or co-curricular activities, entrance exams preparations, school, projects, lab work, and more. When school work requires so much time and effort, it leaves little or no time for other pursuits.
The toll on parents
Let’s take a look at how too much homework affects the parents.
At home, students always turn to the adult guardians for help. Parents may not have the time to help the students with schoolwork, but it is not about that. It is more about how some parents do not possess the expertise to help their children.
Let’s say the child is doing homework for the Arabic language. You cannot expect a non-native Arabic speaker to help with that homework. That’s not it, parents have complained about their children spending too much time on homework when they should be using the time to refresh their minds.
That is why it is ideal to choose a school like GIIS Dubai, a leading CBSE school in Dubai, that can ensure holistic learning for students.
The ideal nature of homework
So, out of quantity or quality of homework, what should the school focus on?
Students often see schoolwork as something that is not useless but rather something that has minimal usefulness. The point is that homework should serve a purpose and a clear view of how it is advantageous to students.
Let’s take a look at how a constructive homework framework looks like:
● Teaching independence and instilling time management skills: It will help if the learners can become self-sufficient while doing the coursework independently. As learners will have to make space to fit homework in their schedule, they will learn essential time-management skills that are also beneficial for further studies. Ultimately, a student’s success is measured by their academic performance and homework bolsters the learning and performance.
● Bolstering the learning: After the school completes a topic or concept covered in class, it stays fresh in the learners’ minds. It will help if the teachers design the exercise that enables the learners to revisit the concept with a different perspective or enhance their understanding of the topic. Ultimately, it should bolster the learning rather than reiterating whatever was covered in the class.
Why should the focus be on quality homework?
● It enables the learners to revise what they covered in the classroom and use the ideal manner that bolsters their understanding.
● It serves the students’ needs and cultivates interest in learning and shapes their inquisitive nature.
● It devises learning goals for the students, making it easier for them to look at the results. Moreover, it teaches them a strategy on how to approach the schoolwork that services the educational needs.
● It makes it easier for parents to review the learner’s performance and the schoolwork even if they are not familiar with the topic or subject.
● It caters to critical thinking of the learners and the teachers’ crucial time-management skills.
Key takeaways
Here are a few vital takeaways from the article:
● Too much homework can have adverse effects on the learners’ physical and mental well being. Some learners even showcase the symptoms of stress like headaches and anxiety.
● Research indicates that a good number of students look at schoolwork as the primary sources of stress.
● The stress level caused by homework is shockingly high among high school students, where they spend more than 3 hours working on it. It adds up to other responsibilities that become a major stress-inducing factor.
● It takes a toll on parents who do not have the expertise with the subject matter and cannot help their children. Moreover, it worries them as children spend most of their time at home working on schoolwork.
● The ideal nature of homework depends on its quality which is steered by the quantity. The framework for quality homework teaches children the importance of being an independent learner and building time-management skills. Furthermore, it enhances their conceptual knowledge.
● Quality homework allows parents to review their children’s performance and school work progress even if they do not possess the subject knowledge.
