Decreasing Homework Excuses and Increasing Homework Hand-Ins

Abstract

As expectations have increased for student performance on state and federally mandated examinations, teachers have experienced increased pressure to teach students a substantial amount of material in a short amount of time. Teachers assign homework in an effort to teach the required material effectively and efficiently, but this effort is thwarted as students often return with unfinished work. This thesis project charts the discussion around homework since its inception and explores not only the reasons that teachers assign homework but the reasons students fail to complete it. The author conducted her research on her own class of sixth grade students from an urban school district. Aspects of this research included students’ feelings about homework, how completing homework affected their comprehension of material, and how implementing different strategies influenced attitudes toward and completion rates of homework. For this research, the different strategies utilized were giving time in class to begin homework and providing parents with expectations for homework. The author found that implementing these strategies generated more positive attitudes toward homework and a higher percentage of completed homework, but also notes the results would have been more conclusive had she employed a control group and made less subjective survey questions.