“SHOULD HOMEWORK BE ABOLISHED?

: STUDENT’S PERCEPTION ON
NO HOMEWORK POLICY FROM GRADE 11 HUMSS SENIOR HIGH
SCHOOL STUDENTS OF HOLY CHILD COLLEGE OF DAVAO – MINTAL
CAMPUS”

A Qualitative Research

Presented to the Senior High School Department

of Holy Child College of Davao – Mintal Campus

In partial fulfillment of the requirements for

Practical Research 1

Researchers:

Bangcas, Ray

Canarias, Patricia

Gloria, Kyla

Guzon, Sitti

Humaran, Christina

Lauronal, Shane

Lavador, Elaine

Rosales, MJ
 CHAPTER 1:

INTRODUCTION

Rationale

Homework is a vital part of learning, and it is expected by students,

parents, school directors, and teachers. It is an extension of the classroom
which allows students to internalize the information or lessons that has been
presented in class. (Zentall & Goldstein, Seven Steps To Homework Success)

Homework is today an integral part of the educational process; it

makes learning easier and more effective. We have been involved with doing
tasks since school years. Homework is not only a routine aspect of
schoolchildren's lives, but also the key daily interaction between school and
family. However, it often leads to tension between family and school over
control of children's time and over parents' role in education–particularly after
the expansion of mass schooling during the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries.

Homework teaches students to work independently and develop self-

discipline. Homework encourages students to take initiative and responsibility
for completing a task. Homework allows parents to have an active role in their
child's education and helps them to evaluate their child's progress. (Atkinson,
2013)

The obvious aim of assigning homework is to get your child to practice

and strengthen his/ her academic skills. By devoting the proper time to
homework, the child stands a much better chance of making good grades. But
homework has other significant values. Homework can and should be a
character-building for the students and learners within the campus and also
an experience. Handled properly by teachers and parents, homework helps a
child develop emotional and behavioral skills needed in the adult world.
 However, students themselves often fail to appreciate the fundamental
role that homework can play in their education. (North & Pillay) Most of the
students would agree to abolish homework rather than finding an opportunity
to internalize information they have learned from school. Studies from an
educational expert, Brendan Bentley says, “Too much homework can turn
students’ off learning.”

Academics agree that too much homework can harm learning. One of
the studies state that a good homework is 'purposeful, specific, and reinforces
learning'. In 2006, a review of American research conducted between 1987
and 2003 found that "there was generally consistent evidence for a positive
influence of homework on achievement." The review, led by Dr. Harris Cooper
of Duke University, found that evidence was stronger for students in grades
seven to 12 than for kindergarten to grade six, and for when students, rather
than parents, reported how much time they spent doing homework.

The issue is that although if you do something more often you get
better at it, you have to be doing the right thing in the first place. "Homework
has to be purposeful, specific, and reinforce learning. If it's just to finish work,
that may not help the student at all," Mr. Bentley said. In fact, too much
homework can be worse than useless: It can be detrimental.

"For students in grades three or four, more than 20 minutes of

homework can exhaust them. They go into cognitive load, and their ability to
learn goes into a decline," Mr. Bentley said. "They can develop a negative
attitude towards learning. It's about getting the balance right."
 Cognitive load refers to the total amount of mental effort being used: a
heavy cognitive load creates errors or interference. That 20 minutes is not a
guideline for each day: "There needs to be a good argument for having
homework every single night," Mr. Bentley said. "Schools have to understand
why they are giving homework. Without a good purpose and a rationale:
Reconsider it." He says that homework can be ramped up as students get
older, but even in grade 10, research shows that, "if it's more than an hour, it's
a waste of time."

Designing effective homework also depends upon how much the

student is able to learn. "Adults can learn about seven things at a time. For
young children, that's maybe two or three," Mr. Bentley said. "You only need
20 minutes to reinforce that."

However, he says the benefits of homework are not just about

reinforcing learning, and that if it does not turn students off, it can teach
important study habits. He agrees that family time and relaxation can be more
important than homework. "Developing good habits and attitudes through
interaction with parents can be good — every time you interact with your
children, you are teaching assumptions," he said. On the other hand, too
much homework can lead to conflicts with parents. "Parents are keen for their
children to be the best, so they may ask about homework, and may do it for
their children, which defeats the purpose," Mr. Bentley said.

Lastly, Time spent with family after school can be more important than
more study. In other words: Why assign something as homework when it can
be done just as effectively in the classroom? That question becomes even
more important when we consider that homework often takes away from other
important activities. "We are worried about young children and their social
emotional learning. And that has to do with physical activity, it has to do with
playing with peers, it has to do with family time. All of those are very important
and can be removed by too much homework," David Bloomfield, education
professor at Brooklyn College and the City University of New York graduate
center, said. These are just the common issues and problems that some
students are complaining about homework that lead the other country to
abolish homework at schools.

Section 2, Article XIV of the 1987 Philippine Constitution states that:

“The State shall establish, maintain, and support a complete, adequate, and
integrated system of education relevant to the needs of the people and
society”

In 2018, a study conducted in Western Cape Province, South Africa

states that the national discussions on homework reflects on how homework
is perceived, with scholars arguing that homework is a burden for children and
parents, family time has declined, and undermining of interests.( Bempechat
et.al, 2011; Kohn, 2006; Kralovec & Buell, 2000.) No Homework Policy Bill
aims to promote and protect the physical, moral, spiritual, intellectual, and
social well-being of the youth to the end that the youth realize their potential
for improving the quality of life must always be observed. It also seeks to
establish a “No Homework on Weekends Policy” for students to enjoy their
free time and to be able to have a quality time with their family and friends.
(http://www.congress.gov.ph/legisdocs/basic_18/HB03883.pdf)

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this study is to accumulate the possible effects,

advantages and disadvantages of the No Homework Policy Bill in every
students from Grade-11 HUMSS if it will be implemented in Holy Child
College of Davao – Mintal Campus. Through this study, the data collected will
prove if the No Homework Policy Bill will be beneficial for the students or not.
Hence, the research will clarify the argument about the advantages and
disadvantages of abolishing homework.

Research Questions Main Questions Probe Questions:

The following questions The following questions The following questions

are: are: are:

 Why was a no-  What is the  Will No

homework policy importance of Homework
introduced? homework? Policy Bill work
 How will the  What are the in HCCD –
learner from effects of No Mintal Campus
HCCD benefit Homework for the Grade-11
from the no- Policy Bill? HUMSS Senior
homework High School
policy? students?
 Should a no-  Is Homework
homework policy bad or good for
exist in our the Grade-11
school? HUMSS Senior
 How will the High School
parents react to students in
this policy? HCCD?
 Do you see any
challenges with
this new policy
for the students
and teachers in
HCCD?
Theoretical Lens

Benefits of Homework
In Taking Sides (2010), Skinner explains how homework has shown
to increase standardized test scores. Skinner states that homework has
proven to be most beneficial to students in high school and junior high (Noll,
2010). However, there has been a large increase in the amount of homework
that has been assigned to students in elementary school, and they are not
benefitting from it (Noll, 2010). Skinner recommends that teachers evaluate
the amount of homework that is appropriate and beneficial to their specific
grade level (Noll, 2010). Furthermore, "Homework comprised of short regular
assignments is probably the most effective" (p. 318).

In conclusion, homework is proven to produce positive results as

long as the duration and amount are appropriate to the grade level of the
student. Further research shows there are more benefits to homework.

The Battle Over Homework: Common Ground for Administrators,

Teachers, and Parents groups the benefits of homework into four categories:
"immediate academic effects, long-term academic effects, nonacademic
effects, and parental involvement effects" (Cooper, 2007, p. 8). The first three
benefits of homework are ones that affect primarily the student. Immediate
academic effects of homework include retaining the information that is taught
in class, giving the students a time to practice the skills so the students better
understand it, and providing enrichment in the school's curriculum (Cooper,
2007). Students who are older and have better study skills tend to benefit
more from these immediate academic effects.

Cooper goes on to explain that homework has four long-term

academic effects: "promotes better critical-thinking and information-
processing skills, encourages students to learn during their leisure time,
improves students' attitudes toward school, and improves students' study
habits and skills" (p. 8). These long-term academic effects are best produced
when homework "gives children choices, allows them to pursue their deepest
interests, and permits them to work at their own pace" (Crain, 2007, p. 40).
Students are able to grasp and learn new concepts when they are given the
opportunity to experiment with their own interests and curiosities. Therefore,
differentiating homework and offering students a variety of choices is an
absolute must.

Furthermore, some nonacademic effects include developing better self-

discipline, allowing students to learn time management skills, and promoting
independent problem solving strategies (Cooper, 2007). Again, these
nonacademic effects are best obtained when students are allowed to
experiment with their own interests and curiosities. Assigning rote
memorization or activities that drill the skills taught in the classroom may
have the opposite effect if they do not capture the students' attention.

The final benefit of homework Cooper lists is the parental involvement

effects. He and other researchers believe homework is the link between
school and home life. Mary Russo, principal of Samuel Mason Elementary
School in Roxbury, Massachusetts, stresses the importance of homework to
the parents at her school and states that homework should consist of
interactive assignments that the student can complete with a parent or an
older sibling.

The school has even gone so far as to rename homework to

"homelinks." In addition, the school provides workshops for the parents to
attend so they know how to best assist their children with their "homelink"
(Family Education, 2009, I 9-12).

The idea the Massachusetts elementary school uses is also used in

many other schools. Using homework as a link between school and home life
benefits students whose parents are involved in helping with the homework.
Therefore, students whose parents have higher educational backgrounds and
have availability to necessary resources improve their academic skills by
regularly completing homework. Students who have this parental support and
resource availability tend to be from families of higher incomes (Ronning,
2011). So although using homework as a link between home and school
benefits some students, it is not necessarily beneficial to all students.

Burdens of Homework
Despite the benefits researchers have associated with homework,
there are many critics who believe that homework serves only as a nuisance
to both the students and their families, promotes negative attitudes toward
school, prevents students from having time to participate in after-school
activities, takes away from critical family time, and can have harmful effects
on students' mental and physical well-being (Galloway & Pope, 2007; Kohn,
2006; Noll, 2010;

Winerip, 1999). One of the most negative effects of homework is it

takes away from the time children have to be children. "A national survey by
the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan showed that in
1981 6- to 8-year-olds spent an average of 44 minutes a week on homework
(about 9 minutes a school night). By 1997, homework for first to third graders
had nearly tripled, to 123 minutes a week (or 25 minutes a night)." (Winerip,
1999, 8) Winerip's (1999) New York Times' article continues, Martin Burne,
the principal of Deerfield, [in Millburn, New Jersey] said the school really has
no choice -- it must assign homework. "There's a feeling that somehow all of
this extra work and early discipline builds up to give us an edge in
standardized testing." But there is a trade-off, he acknowledged. "To do this,
we are taking away some of the years of adolescence and childhood." c, 11.

Another negative effect of homework is the time it takes away from

families and the stress it creates. Many children are unable to complete their
assignments independently, especially when they are younger, and this
forces parents to serve as homework monitors at night. "One professor of
education, Gary Natriello at Columbia University, believed in the value of
homework until his 'own children started bringing home assignments in
elementary school."'
 (Kohn, 2006, 12) If an educator feels that homework disrupts his own
family life, it would be easy to see how parents with no background in the
field of education easily become frustrated with the routine of homework.

Furthermore, if a child is resistant to complete their homework, it

often creates a battle between parents and children. Waldman (2005) wrote
an online article entitled Homework Hell. In the article she writes, “I hate
homework. I hate it more now than I did when I was the one lugging
textbooks and binders back and forth from school. The hour my children are
seated at the kitchen table, their books spread out before them, the crumbs of
their after-school snack littering the table, is without a doubt the worst hour of
my day.” (4)

If parents describe homework hour at their home as the worst part

of their day, it is probably not a pleasant time for the students who are
completing their homework either. Waldman goes on to say, "The only skills
my children are learning are procrastination and panic" c, 19). Also, Mollie
Galloway and Denise Pope, Ph.D. conducted a survey of 496 high school
students from two upper middle class suburban high schools. The results of
the survey showed that homework and schoolwork were the primary
stressors for the students. In addition, more than half of the students reported
experiencing stress-related physical problems such as headaches, sleeping
difficulties, exhaustion, and/or weight loss or gain.

The more time students spent on homework, the greater the

physical problems were. Some students even dropped extracurricular
activities they enjoyed because of the amount of stress they were
encountering. Along with physical problems, mental problems, such as
anxiety and depression, were also reported (Galloway & Pope, 2007).

Furthermore, in Taking Sides by Noll (2010), Kralovec and Buell

(2010) wrote “End Homework Now”. Buell's research found that homework
was a major contribution in students' decisions to drop out of school.
Kralovec and Buell wrote, "We found that homework often disrupts family life,
interferes with what parents want to teach their children, and punishes
students in poverty for being poor" (p. 310 - 311). It is not fair to discriminate
against students because of their socioeconomic status. Instead, these are
the students we should be concerned about staying in school so they can
increase their likelihood of graduating from high school and finding a
successful lifestyle for themselves. We should be working to help students
break out of the lower socioeconomic status.

In The Myth about Homework, Kohn (2006) states the reason there
are so many negative effects of homework is because teachers are not using
homework in a way that is beneficial to the students.

Homework isn't limited to those times when it seems appropriate

and important. Rather, the point of departure seems to be, "We've decided
ahead of time that students will have something every night (or several times
a week). Later on we'll figure out what to make them do." (p. 4) According to
Kohn, this approach to homework, which many American schools use, does
not promote positive outcomes to students or their families.

Finally, Kohn also makes a claim that research is unable to prove

that homework improves learning. There are many variables which
complicate the analysis of the effects of homework being beneficial or not,
such as the kind of homework assigned, the age of the student, the class the
homework was assigned for, how interested the students were in the
assignment, and if the students actually completed the assigned work. "When
you take into account all of these variables, the bottom line remains that no
definite conclusion can be reached, and that is itself a significant conclusion"
(Kohn, 2006, p. 26). Kohn goes on to say, "The fact that there isn't anything
close to unanimity among experts belies the widespread assumption that
homework helps" (p. 26).

Significance of the Study

 The significance of this study is to accumulate the possible positive and
negative effects on the students if No Homework Policy Bill is implemented in
every school. It also gives additional information about the bill’s impact to the
students’ physical, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual aspects to the parents
and teachers.

Definition of Terms

 Student-a person formally engaged in learning, especially one enrolled

in a school.
 No Homework Policy Bill-"All primary and secondary schools in the
country shall not allow teachers to give any network or assignments to
students from Kinder to Grade 12 on weekends."
 Cognitive Load - refers to the used amount of working memory
resources.
 Homework-schoolwork that a student is required to do at homework or
study done in preparation for a certain event or situation.
 Education - is the process of facilitating learning, or the acquisition of
knowledge, skills, values, beliefs, and habits.

Research Design

The type of qualitative research we used in the study about students’

perspective on No Homework Policy was the case study. It is used to make
the development, productivity, and differences in order to collect the possible
answers of the chosen situation in the study.

Research Participants/ Materials

 These sections of the research paper should be concise. The audience
that is reading the research paper always wanted to know what materials or
methods were used. This chapter presents the materials and the method that
were used by the researchers to conduct and collect data for the study.

By the use of internet access, laptop, and books, it enables to collect

data information from different sites and sources such as the survey of
different experts about homework, no homework policy bill, and more
important details included in the research.

Data Collection

Primary data were collected by the researchers through

observations from the most common opinions of the senior high school
students from Holy Child College of Davao - Mintal Campus and secondary
data were collected by the researchers through the surveys made by experts
from the internet that have already been passed through statistical process. In
addition, researchers made observations, surveys and other method as
presented by the data collection of the study.