I believe that homework is necessary, both in grade school and college. However, it needs to be tempered with the wisdom to know when it is too much. When you have 7 classes a day and each teacher assigns homework, then you are talking about a lot of time spent doing homework. We currently have grade school students that, even with help from parents, spend something around 8 hours doing homework assignments each weekend. Friends note that on school nights their children often have 2 to 3 hours of homework between when they get home (5PM-6PM) and when it is time to retire for the night (9PM-10PM).

Heck, I remember decades ago going on Spring Break (1 week) only to be given a 30-page research paper to write and hand in the first day after the break. The paper required many hours in the library, which is difficult to do when your family is taking you on a camping trip during the break!

Teachers (and professors) must realize that they are only one of many that are potentially assigning homework to the student.

  Primary school - detrimental.  Guided instruction has consistently outperformed any type of discovery learning over the past six decades (here is an easily available resource although you can find a lot more detailed work from Mayer & Kirschner as well) - LINK: http://www.aft.org/sites/default/files/periodicals/Clark.pdf  - additionally, I don't have my files with me but there have been some good research-based articles indicating that it's typically not delivering on what you'd think.  Here is a news article referencing one of those works... http://www.newsplex.com/home/headlines/Too-Much-Homework-is-Bad-for-Students-179731641.html

  Secondary school - positive so long as actually used to inform instructional decisions.  If the only reason one assigns HW is to keep students busy at home then it is an utter waste of time.  I will hold the caveat that at this level, reading is crucial as a homework assignment such that students can be equipped with the appropriate background information so that they are better prepared for schema formation and engaging in serious discussion/work.

To clarify, HW given to practice particular lessons learned has merit.  However, I think many overuse it simply to look like they're keeping students busy.  Busyness is not a goal of education - targeted, intentional, and useful methods ought to be employed to help students understand, articulate, apply, and defend positions on these.  If HW matches these and does not force students to wade into "discovery" learning, then it at least has cognitive merit.

homework is excellent as it is a way of reinforcing what is learned in class by allowing the student to revise what is done in class. It helps jog the memory of weaker students and reinforce the learning by brighter students. It allows the teacher to see how the class have actually comprehended what was taught in class. quizzes and research as homework are also useful learning tools as they make the task of learning more enjoyable. In primary schools homework was done monday to Thursday and friday was no homework day so students had the weekend free. While this was good in primary school they expected the same of secondary or high school so it is wise to reflect on the habits you allow to form as sometimes they could be hard to break.

Homework is completely pointless up to age 14 at least. Children have so many other things that they could be doing things to see, books to read, drawings to draw, games to play. It merely gets in the way of real learning. After 14 as you move towards significant gateway exams (in the UK at least) it is needed but strategically and in well-designed ways that really enhance and reinforce learning. At this stage and onwards well-designed homework can be a good idea. However, it should never be set just because 'we always give homework and that is the school policy'.

I believe that homework is necessary, both in grade school and college. However, it needs to be tempered with the wisdom to know when it is too much. When you have 7 classes a day and each teacher assigns homework, then you are talking about a lot of time spent doing homework. We currently have grade school students that, even with help from parents, spend something around 8 hours doing homework assignments each weekend. Friends note that on school nights their children often have 2 to 3 hours of homework between when they get home (5PM-6PM) and when it is time to retire for the night (9PM-10PM).

Heck, I remember decades ago going on Spring Break (1 week) only to be given a 30-page research paper to write and hand in the first day after the break. The paper required many hours in the library, which is difficult to do when your family is taking you on a camping trip during the break!

Teachers (and professors) must realize that they are only one of many that are potentially assigning homework to the student.

Reasonable (and meaningful) homework always makes sense.

If the homework is not suitable (adequate) it discourage student - always.

This applies to all levels of education.

Adequacy is given by level of education.

I think it is important and dependably on study level.  

I think homework is unnecessary except in mathematics. Student knows the syllabus of every term end exam. They have to learn and practice studies of their syllabus at their own pace. In my personal experience with my daughter I have found that unnecessary homework disrupts the process of learning.

it is very important as long as it is not too much,but can be tricky..

for primary  school students ,i think it would be too much to carry on work at home since they are very young. however, for high school ones it should be  different and it should contain one major type term project to complete a survey and get the idea of how one can deal with literature digging which will play an important role in the coming years at the universities.

Thanks all for answers given to this question.

The subject interested me because there are opinions in my country (Romania) that HW is not good and is better for the student to stay after class hour in school to do HW with their teacher. I do not think this is a good solution (due to socio-economic factors), especially as there is an alternative: to put some projects on a educational platform (eg edmodo.com). These projects can be interdisciplinary and thus cover a wider area of knowledge of students.

Dear Cristian,

Here in Malaysia, homework is very important and significant among primary and secondary students as its a platform for them to practise what they have learnt in school and consolidate their understanding but this is done at home at their own space of time. At the university, students are given tutorial questions which they will have to research and work on for a week before its discussed during their tutorial sessions. Whatever said and done, homework has to be in moderation in order not to be deemed as "burdensome".

Hi Cristian,

From what I have experienced during my elementary and high school education in Malaysian context, I personally think that teachers tend to give a lot of homework to their students. This could be due to the education system in my country, they believe homework is able to provide a platform for the students to apply their knowledge. In my humble opinion, I used to compete with my peers during elementary education by using "homework" standard - whoever completes the homework given first would be considered as intelligent student. As can be seen from my situation, homework is actually shaping students' perceptive on their intelligence. It also helps the students to be competitive in academic performance as well because one must studies and revises what he/ she has learnt in order to complete the homework. As a result, homework indirectly provides an input for students to study harder and produces an good output such in excel in tests and examinations. However, students should not be burdened by having a lot of homework. They would have to spend their time on entertainment and leisure activities as well. Overall, homework is still a good thing to be maintained in education system.

James Underwood I disagree being a diligent parent I read to both my son's every night. The object of this exercise was to instill an interest in them to pick up a book. In my case neither of my two boys are readers nor will they lift and read a book. The associate books with school and do not see the leisure value attached to this educational exercise.  The only time school books are lifted is when revision and important exams are on the horizon therefore homework was essential in their case.

Within the Irish education 11 subjects are sat at junior cycle after 3 years an exam is sat then 7 subjects are studied for leaving certificate where points are gained for college entry English iris and mathamatics are mandatory all through secondary school and have to be taken in the junior certificate and in the leaving certificate along with at leaving your 4 selected subjects at junior cert along with the mandatory you do geography history business science cspe woodwork metal work domestic science art technical graphics again you select some of these but you must do science history geography along with maths English and Irish if we waited till children were 14 they would never cope with this level of homework and dropout rates would be even higher. Homework is great discipline it allows them to structure and organise what they are required to have ready for the next day it develops a study routine and allows the transition from primary to secondary to progress smoothly. The foundation of learning principals are already laid ready for the core building blocks classmates and teachers scaffold each child. In primary school learning is fun with nature trips quizzes and outing extra curricular classes so that all their social and emotional needs are met. Learning issues are identified and extra help sought. This can only be achieved by giving homework to assess the child on a continuum.