Changing Homework to Lesson Extension

I have been doing a lot of thinking about homework recently. Homework is a divisive topic. Teachers generally don’t like homework because it creates more work, more follow-up, more opportunities for students to not complete something so a sanction would have to be applied, more marking to add to the pile. Parents think that homework is an essential follow up to the school day – they don’t measure the effectiveness of homework by task but by time – how much time has their child been forced into the completion of the tasks? Pupils hate homework – after a 5 hour day when teachers had their chance to push, prod, question and stretch their tired brains, they now wanted to prolong the misery with more of the same.

The evidence in relation to the impact on homework is equally inconclusive. No-one really wants to say it out loud but there is very little supporting evidence that homework actually makes any difference to learning outcomes. Some research actually notes that homework (especially within the primary school) could actually be damaging to learning. At the secondary school level, things start to get a bit more complicated – some research suggests that homework does not necessarily have the impact that other intervention methods can have. Other research notes that it is not the impact of the homework task that is important but that pupils are forced into some element of work at home that will allow them to develop ‘working-at-home’ habits that will set a precedent of working other-than-at-school so that when there is a need for revision and preparing for exams, that this has been practiced and is not a new behaviour.

Teachers need to ensure that any work that is set as a piece of homework is going to make a tangible difference to learning. Homework must be something that adds to, or completes a bit of learning. It should follow up and help to embed what had been studied in the class. It should help practice skills or to further test and develop understanding. It should link seamlessly from the in-school lesson and should be something that learners can see a simple and direct link to – they should be able to recognise the relevance of the task and should be able to immediately understand how the completion of any task is only going to improve their learning. They should want to complete the task, not because of a fear of sanction but from a fear of missing out (yes – lesson FOMO!) Alternatively, homework could also be used to test retrieval or as part of an interleaving plan to follow up on previously learnt material. But – it should be immediatedly obvious to the learner about how relevant this piece of work is to their schema.

Lesson Extensions

In thinking about this – I actually think that calling this homework is maybe adding to the problem. Maybe we should rename homework to ‘Lesson extension‘. I think this a more fitting title to what most teachers want (and should) be using homework for. The real use for any teacher in setting work for home is to extend the lesson beyond the classroom; to build further practice of skills or to embed the knowledge and understanding further.

Homework therefore is an important part of creating self-regulated learners.  This ties in with the EEF’s planning framework for home learning[1] notes that, “The most effective learners can self-regulate and organise their approach to learning.  They are aware of their strengths and weaknesses and have well-developed metacognition strategies that will help them to learn.  Metacognition strategies can be taught and are particularly powerful when they are subject-specific.” They also offer up some tips for effective homework (and how parents can help): 

Therefore we can identify  5 key ingredients for lesson extension to be effective:

1. Lesson extension work should be planned as part of (the extension to) a lesson.
2. Lesson extension activities should be short,
3. Lesson extension activities should build on the most recent learning in class (as an opportunity to extend the lesson) or should be an attempt to revise/practice previous learning (as part of a weekly/ monthly/ termly interleaving strategy). 
4. Lesson extensions should be followed up (with relevant consequences, if required).
5. Lesson extensions requires review and feedback. 

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[1] https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/guidance-reports/supporting-parents?utm_source=/education-evidence/guidance-reports/supporting-parents&utm_medium=search&utm_campaign=site_search&search_term=home%20learning