Homework or Honework?
Apart from evaluating if learners have understood a concept taught or providing further opportunities to consolidate the information covered, what is the purpose of homework?
The notion of providing an avenue for learners to interact with and potentially grasp concepts on their own in the confines of their home is sometimes overstated and misappropriated.
What if Homework really became #Honework?
The notion of honing (a particular skill) according to the Cambridge Dictionary is “to direct something such as an ability to make it more effective”. For the tasks given outside of the learning environment to contribute to this, they must target the ability in question and have the potential to cause development.
How many times as a learner have you been given an assignment that is totally different or goes far beyond the scope of reference covered in class? As a teacher, how many times have you just assigned an activity because it was in the text or related to the topic?
Is the idea in these instances to provide practice, discombobulate or to cover the text/ syllabus? And the time for completion is another debate in and of itself.
How can Homework be used to direct learners’ ability to become more effective? And how do educators use homework as an avenue for student empowerment and 21st century learning?
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If we take #Finland for example, one of the countries where homework is highly regulated. According to The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development OECD - OCDE which keeps track of such policies globally, Finnish learners are known for doing less homework yet they perform better than learners in countries that always have an assignment pending.
Less really can be more!
How can we use this notion of less is more to champion an approach to homework- that favours the learners’ capacity to really hone what they learn or are about to learn.
Honework is vital to learner progressing in almost every subject matter/ discipline
If we consider honework through the lenses of language teaching- a specialisation which requires honing! How can teachers help their learners to really hone their linguistic prowess: For tasks done outside of class to really allow learners to hone their skills, it seems incumbent on facilitators to:
There is a lot that can be said about the feasibility of homework and also its benefits or lack thereof where learning is concerned. But we cannot deny that practice is needed in order to improve. This practice however, needs to be deliberate, eclectic. So, before you assign another task, ask yourself if this is really just homework or is this honework?