FEATURE: HOMEWORK
Could your students’ homework be doing more for them and you?
For as long as most can remember, homework has been a staple and fundamental part of education.
There are always questions to be asked around this topic. Why is the homework being set? What is its purpose? How is homework being marked, monitored and fed back to students? What barriers are schools facing to ensure homework is a meaningful activity and not just a ‘tick box’ exercise?
The first two questions only you can answer (depending on your given homework task), however, the other questions are where I’m happy to share some thoughts.
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n our final feature this month, we take a look at the subject of homework in the company of Claire Nuttall, a former teacher and now Senior Product Manager, part of Pearson’s Digital and Assessment team. Claire explores how the process of setting homework and managing feedback can be transformed by digital solutions that not only benefit students, but also save teachers valuable time and effort.
Whilst not all educators and students have widespread access to technology at present, we are seeing a huge shift in the potential of digital platforms and solutions to help teachers with key tasks, such as setting and analysing homework. In Pearson’s 2023 School Report, 34% of teachers surveyed shared that since 2021, new technologies have improved student engagement. And 45% expect to see increased use of digital tools in schools in the next 10 years. So, what steps can we take to harness technology to ensure homework is more engaging, impactful, and of maximum benefit to you and your students?
Step 1 - identify your challenges Perhaps the biggest challenge around homework
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www.education-today.co.uk is that of time.
Making sure that the homework being set is engaging, with tasks that are informative and challenging (yet, also fun) for students is no easy (or quick) ask – especially when they need to maintain focus outside of the classroom environment.
In addition to this, there is the constant dilemma of what deadline do you set your students – how long is fair but challenging? The process of setting, marking and providing feedback can also be extremely time consuming, especially when wanting to tailor guidance so it’s as beneficial as possible for students. Managing the output and making sure that it is valuable to both the learner and us as educators can result in delays in providing individual students with specific and useful feedback that not only shows an awareness of the task being completed, but also performance over time and any difficulties being experienced. In a time-poor profession, setting yourself realistic deadlines of when you are able to mark the work (and the implications of whether this will be in school or at home) can often be difficult when trying to maintain a good work-life balance and may well be the element that tips the scale!
Step 2 - think outside the box Digital solutions and platforms are providing viable and exciting options for homework,
April 2024
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