STUDENT'S ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT

Student's Academic Achievement

Student's Academic Achievement

Introduction and history

Defining homework, it is a significant learning activity that is aimed at letting the students acquires knowledge and reinforces the learning experience in schools in a practical way. It is an important part of a school program that can take place in a variety of settings like at home or in the community. Earlier in the 20th century, it was perceived that homework is a mental exercise that enhances the mental health of the child strengthens the 'mind muscle'.

1940's were the era when the focus shifted from exercising the 'mind muscle' to enhancing the practical problem solving skills, where (Madaus & Kellaghan 1993) wrote "Compulsory homework does not result in sufficiently improved academic accomplishments". This perception was further enhanced by the Russians taking the lead in the space leaving US policy makers to think that the present standards of education does not yield enough returns for students to comply by complex high tech knowledge acquisition. A further movement against homework propped up in 1960's as is evident by “Whenever homework crowds out social experience, outdoor recreation, and creative activities, and whenever it usurps time devoted to sleep, it is not meeting the basic needs of children and adolescents”.

This asserted negative consequences of putting unneeded pressures on students through homework, or the 'mind muscles' drill. Nevertheless, the US policy makers have always assumed school homework programs as a means of heightened achievement in students. This has a reason, the nation's educators were very much influenced by the state mandate of elevating and enhancing the education standards up to not the optimum but maximum level (this was the case in 1980's & 1990's). But that gave room for parents to worry about their children being stressed out due to excessive amounts of homework. Nevertheless, a current survey of “803 parents of public school students revealed that 64 percent of parents believed that their child was getting "about the right amount" of homework, 25 percent believed that their child was getting "too little" homework, and only 10 percent believed that their child was getting "too much homework"” (Volder and Lens 1982).

(Bishop 2001) finds out that “homework has many potential nonacademic benefits as well, most of which relate to fostering independent and responsible character traits”. Furthermore, “homework can involve parents in the schooling process, enhancing their appreciation of education and allowing them to express positive attitudes toward their children's achievements and accomplishments”.

Homework and student's achievement

Diener and Dweck (1978) suggests that the all but significant activity for building the knowledge required for future success in reading is reading aloud to children. Many studies in the area suggest that students who do homework have greater achievement levels than students who do not do homework. Cooper (1994) suggests that the “supervised study has a more positive effect than homework in the elementary grades up to Grade 6, whereas homework is more effective for junior high (Grades 7-9) and high school ...