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Use these insights from educators—and research—to create homework practices that work for everyone.
Homework tends to be a polarizing topic. While many teachers advocate for its complete elimination, others argue that it provides students with the extra practice they need to solidify their learning and teach them work habits—like managing time and meeting deadlines—that have lifelong benefits.
We recently reached out to teachers in our audience to identify practices that can help educators plot a middle path.
On Facebook , elementary school teacher John Thomas responded that the best homework is often no-strings-attached encouragement to read or play academically adjacent games with family members. “I encourage reading every night,” Thomas said, but he doesn’t use logs or other means of getting students to track their completion. “Just encouragement and book bags with self selected books students take home for enjoyment.”
Thomas said he also suggests to parents and students that they can play around with “math and science tools” such as “calculators, tape measures, protractors, rulers, money, tangrams, and building blocks.” Math-based games like Yahtzee or dominoes can also serve as enriching—and fun—practice of skills they’re learning.
At the middle and high school level, homework generally increases, and that can be demotivating for teachers, who feel obliged to review or even grade halfhearted submissions. Student morale is at stake, too: “Most [students] don’t complete it anyway,” said high school teacher Krystn Stretzinger Charlie on Facebook . “It ends up hurting them more than it helps.”
So how do teachers decide when to—and when not to—assign homework, and how do they ensure that the homework they assign feels meaningful, productive, and even motivating to students?
A 2017 study analyzed the homework assignments of more than 20,000 middle and high school students and found that teachers are often a bad judge of how long homework will take.
According to researchers, students spend as much as 85 minutes or as little as 30 minutes on homework that teachers imagined would take students one hour to complete. The researchers concluded that by assigning too much homework , teachers actually increased inequalities between students in exchange for “minimal gains in achievement.” Too much homework can overwhelm students who “have more gaps in their knowledge,” the researchers said, and creates situations where homework becomes so time-consuming and frustrating that it turns students off to classwork more broadly.
To counteract this, middle school math teacher Crystal Frommert said she focuses on quality over quantity. Frommert cited the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics , which recommends only assigning “what’s necessary to augment instruction” and adds that if teachers can “get sufficient information by assigning only five problems, then don’t assign fifty.”
Instead of sending students home with worksheets and long problem sets from textbooks that often repeat the same concepts, Frommert recommended assigning part of a page, or even a few specific problems—and explaining to students why these handpicked problems will be helpful practice. When students know there’s thought behind the problems they’re asked to solve at home, “they pay more attention to the condensed assignment because it was tailored for them,” Frommert said.
On Instagram , high school teacher Jacob Palmer said that every now and then he condenses homework down to just one problem that is particularly engaging and challenging: “The depth and exploration that can come from one single problem can be richer than 20 routine problems.”
Former educator and coach Mike Anderson said teachers can differentiate homework assignments without placing unrealistic demands on their workload by offering students some discretion in the work they complete and explicitly teaching them “how to choose appropriately challenging work for themselves.”
Instead of assigning the same 20 problems or response questions on a given textbook page to all students, for example, Anderson suggested asking students to refer to the list of questions and choose and complete a designated number of them (three to five, for example) that give students “a little bit of a challenge but that [they] can still solve independently.”
To teach students how to choose well, Anderson has students practice choosing homework questions in class before the end of the day, brainstorming in groups and sharing their thoughts about what a good homework question should accomplish. The other part, of course, involves offering students good choices: “Make sure that options for homework focus on the skills being practiced and are open-ended enough for all students to be successful,” he said.
Once students have developed a better understanding of the purpose of challenging themselves to practice and grow as learners, Anderson also periodically asks them to come up with their own ideas for problems or other activities they can use to reinforce learning at home. A simple question, such as “What are some ideas for how you might practice this skill at home?” can be enough to get students sharing ideas, he said.
Jill Kibler, a former high school science teacher, told Edutopia on Facebook that she implemented homework choice in her classroom by allowing students to decide how much of the work they’ve recently turned in that they’d like to redo as homework: “Students had one grading cycle (about seven school days) to redo the work they wanted to improve,” she said.
According to high school English teacher Kate Dusto, the work that students produce at home doesn’t have to come in the traditional formats of written responses to a problem. On Instagram , Dusto told Edutopia that homework can often be made more interesting—and engaging—by allowing students to show evidence of their learning in creative ways.
“Offer choices for how they show their learning,” Dusto said. “Record audio or video? Type or use speech to text? Draw or handwrite and then upload a picture?” The possibilities are endless.
Former educator and author Jay McTighe noted that visual representations such as graphic organizers and concept maps are particularly useful for students attempting to organize new information and solidify their understanding of abstract concepts. For example, students might be asked to “draw a visual web of factors affecting plant growth” in biology class or map out the plot, characters, themes, and settings of a novel or play they’re reading to visualize relationships between different elements of the story and deepen their comprehension of it.
Simple written responses to summarize new learning can also be made more interesting by varying the format, McTighe said. For example, ask students to compose a tweet in 280 characters or less to answer a question like “What is the big idea that you have learned about _____?” or even record a short audio podcast or video podcast explaining “key concepts from one or more lessons.”
When elementary school teacher Jacqueline Worthley Fiorentino stopped assigning mandatory homework to her second-grade students and suggested voluntary activities instead, she found that something surprising happened: “They started doing more work at home.”
Some of the simple, voluntary activities she presented students with included encouraging at-home reading (without mandating how much time they should spend reading); sending home weekly spelling words and math facts that will be covered in class but that should also be mastered by the end of the week: “It will be up to each child to figure out the best way to learn to spell the words correctly or to master the math facts,” she said; and creating voluntary lesson extensions such as pointing students to outside resources—texts, videos or films, webpages, or even online or in-person exhibits—to “expand their knowledge on a topic covered in class.”
Anderson said that for older students, teachers can sometimes make whatever homework they assign a voluntary choice. “Do all students need to practice a skill? If not, you might keep homework invitational,” he said, adding that teachers can tell students, “If you think a little more practice tonight would help you solidify your learning, here are some examples you might try.”
On Facebook , Natisha Wilson, a K–12 gifted students coordinator for an Ohio school district, said that when students are working on a challenging question in class, she’ll give them the option to “take it home and figure it out” if they’re unable to complete it before the end of the period. Often students take her up on this, she said, because many of them “can’t stand not knowing the answer.”
Former teacher Rick Wormeli argued that work on homework assignments isn’t “evidence of final level of proficiency”; rather, it’s practice that provides teachers with “feedback and informs where we go next in instruction.”
Grading homework for completion—or not grading at all, Wormeli said—can help students focus on the real task at hand of consolidating understanding and self-monitoring their learning. “When early attempts at mastery are not used against them, and accountability comes in the form of actually learning content, adolescents flourish.”
High school science teacher John Scali agreed , confirming that grading for “completion and timeliness” rather than for “correctness” makes students “more likely to do the work, especially if it ties directly into what we are doing in class the next day” without worrying about being “100% correct.” On Instagram , middle school math teacher Traci Hawks noted that any assignments that are completed and show work—even if the answer is wrong—gets a 100 from her.
But Frommert said that even grading for completion can be time-consuming for teachers and fraught for students if they don’t have home environments that are supportive of homework or if they have jobs or other after-school activities.
Instead of traditional grading, she suggested alternatives to holding students accountable for homework, such as student presentations or even group discussions and debates as a way to check for understanding. For example, students can debate which method is best to solve a problem or discuss their prospective solutions in small groups. “Communicating their mathematical thinking deepens their understanding,” Frommert said.
Know which type of cloud backup you want to use and the advantages and disadvantages that come with cloud backups before you trust your data to a third-party provider..
Users everywhere have embraced cloud-based services for a variety of activities, and perhaps the most popular is cloud backup . Considering how much data is created every hour, a reliable and secure backup option is an important strategy. Fueled by affordable bandwidth and capacity optimization technologies, cloud backup is as popular as portable media such as tape, and disk technology such as flash drives and HDDs. This article will examine the pros and cons of cloud backup and offer guidance on selecting a cloud service provider.
Backing up data, databases, files and applications is an essential component of technology DR. This ensures that mission-critical data and systems are available should primary storage platforms become disabled or damaged. Several options for cloud backup are available, including: backing up data directly to a public cloud, such as AWS, Microsoft Azure or Google Cloud; backing up data to a private cloud (e.g., managed by the user); using a third-party MSP to host and manage backups to its cloud service; and cloud-to-cloud backup for data created in SaaS apps, such as Microsoft 365 and Salesforce.
Cloud computing and backup services can be a blend of on- and off-premises components. For example, an IT department could have on-premises control of backup software and, optionally, storage array hardware. This is coupled with off-premises services and/or infrastructure -- e.g., large data centers housing powerful computer, network and storage resources -- to provide additional capacity. Figure 1 depicts a typical cloud backup arrangement.
Cloud backup services are charged back to the customer based on the amount of storage used. Additional pricing factors can include capacity needed, geographic location, network bandwidth used to transmit data or seat -- e.g., number of users accessing the service. There can also be fees for discontinuing the service, for example, so be aware of all possible fees.
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Several advantages can be realized with cloud backup, including the following:
There are also disadvantages to cloud backup, including the following:
When contracting for cloud backup, organizations typically arrange for backup as a service (BaaS). Such service offerings migrate data between the user location and the cloud service provider's (CSP's) data center. As noted earlier, to optimize network bandwidth and reduce latency, backup data typically is deduplicated and compressed before being transmitted to the CSP. Although this is generally an efficient process, it introduces some challenges when data retrieval and recovery are needed.
First, deduplicated backup data must be rehydrated , or returned to its native format and file structure, before it can be recovered to an application. Although rehydration can take time to complete, the time needed to download large quantities of data -- e.g., VMs, databases, applications -- from the CSP to the user can be considerable, and can be inconsistent with previously approved recovery time objectives .
Addressing this challenge is an offering called disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS). Among the options possible with such an offering, users might be able to run key business applications as VM instances in the vendor's cloud. Although this can save valuable production time, the user must ensure that the application will run adequately in the provider's cloud.
In DR situations where a cloud-based interim production environment is created, additional costs can be incurred for high-speed storage resources or sufficient network bandwidth to facilitate hundreds and maybe thousands of concurrent user sessions. In such situations where users are suddenly dependent on the CSP this can introduce heretofore unknown variables that could affect quality of service.
Numerous firms offer a variety of cloud backup services . As with any venture that takes an IT department outside the four walls of its infrastructure, due diligence is required. The following are examples of questions to ask when evaluating vendors:
Table 1 compares the leading cloud backup vendors based on several important factors.
In addition to AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud, many other vendors offer cloud backup, including the following:
The use of cloud technology for data storage is hugely popular , and the many options available make it an important choice to most businesses -- regardless of size -- as well as individual users. The many options also mean that prospective users must do their homework, compare offerings and pricing structures, as well as availability of SLAs, when making an informed decision.
How to protect data in the cloud
6 best practices for choosing a cloud backup provider
Cloud backup vs. traditional backup: Advantages, disadvantages
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Homework can be both good and bad - there are both advantages and disadvantages of homework. In general, it's often the case that it depends on the type of homework that is assigned. Well-planned homework used in moderation and agreed upon by teachers, parents and students can be helpful. But other homework can cause serious stress ...
Homework has long been a source of debate, with parents, educators, and education specialists debating the advantages of at-home study. There are many pros and cons of homework. We've examined a few significant points to provide you with a summary of the benefits and disadvantages of homework. Check Out The Pros and Cons of Homework
Adding on extra hours to all of these demands is a lot for children to manage, and prevents students from having extra time to themselves for a variety of creative endeavors. Homework prevents self discovery and having the time to learn new skills outside of the school system. This is one of the main disadvantages of homework. 4.
3. It teaches time management skills. Homework goes beyond completing a task. It forces children (and parents, to some extent) to develop time management skills. Schedules must be organized to ensure that all tasks can be completed during the day. This creates independent thinking and develops problem-solving skills.
Homework does not help younger students, and may not help high school students. We've known for a while that homework does not help elementary students. A 2006 study found that "homework had no association with achievement gains" when measured by standardized tests results or grades. [ 7]
The advantages of homework are that they give students time to master the materials and to pursue essential learning such as reading books that would consume copious amounts of classtime. Homework can also cultivate independence, research, time management, planning and prioritization skills. ... The following are potential disadvantages of ...
Explore the advantages and challenges of homework, its impact on students, and discover strategies for managing it effectively. ... To homework or not to homework, that is the debate. The topic of homework has been a long-standing debate in the education community. On one hand, proponents argue that it reinforces learning and prepares students ...
Homework proponents also cite the nonacademic advantages it might confer, such as the development of personal responsibility, good study habits and time-management skills. But as to hard evidence of those benefits, "the jury is still out," says Mollie Galloway, PhD, associate professor of educational leadership at Lewis & Clark College in ...
Yes, and the stories we hear of kids being stressed out from too much homework—four or five hours of homework a night—are real. That's problematic for physical and mental health and overall well-being. But the research shows that higher-income students get a lot more homework than lower-income kids.
While some argue that homework is a vital component of a well-rounded education, others question its effectiveness and impact on students' well-being. In this blog, we will delve into the advantages and disadvantages of homework to gain a balanced perspective on its importance. Advantages of Homework: 1.Reinforcement of Learning:
Too much homework can be harmful. Homework disadvantages low-income students. There is a lack of evidence that homework helps younger children. This article was published on February 25, 2022, at Britannica's ProCon.org, a nonpartisan issue-information source. Some say homework improves student achievement, reinforces learning a life skills ...
The more homework a student doe s, the better it is for their grades. 3. It increases student engagement and motivation. Homework has been proven to increase student engagement and motivation. When done correctly, homework can help students learn by engaging them in challenging tasks and helping them develop skills.
Homework has been in the headlines again recently and continues to be a topic of controversy, with claims that students and families are suffering under the burden of huge amounts of homework. School board members, educators, and parents may wish to turn to the research for answers to their questions about the benefits and drawbacks of homework.
Homework has been a long-standing educational tradition, but it has also been a topic of debate. While some believe it reinforces learning, others argue that it adds unnecessary stress to students.In this article, we'll delve into the advantages and disadvantages of homework to provide a comprehensive understanding of its impact on students and their learning journey.
Teens cite homework as causing stress, but homework does have advantages as well as disadvantages. Homework's merits have been debated for decades, with parents, educators, and education specialists debating the advantages of at-home study. There are many pros and cons of homework. We've examined a few significant points to provide you with ...
List of the Advantages of Why Homework Should Be Banned 1. Homework creates a longer day for students than what parents work. There are times when parents need to bring work home with them after a long day of productivity, but this time is usually part of a compensation package. Students do not receive the same luxury.
Pro 2: Homework helps to reinforce classroom learning, while developing good study habits and life skills. Students typically retain only 50% of the information teachers provide in class, and they need to apply that information in order to truly learn it.
Replying to a Facebook post by Hull Live, one teacher said it was "a pain sourcing, copying, chasing and marking it", while other parents said homework placed undue stress on young children ...
One of the positive effects of homework is that it helps to encourage the discipline of practice. Repetition is necessary to get better at skills. Practising the same problem over and over helps to reinforce the discipline of practice. Homework helps make concepts more clear and helps to build a career in the future. 2.
Limited Free Time: Spending excessive time on homework may leave students with limited free time for relaxation, hobbies, and social activities. This lack of downtime can negatively impact students' overall well-being and mental health. Negative Attitudes Towards Learning: For some students, homework assignments may create a negative attitude ...
Advantages of Homework. Superpower - Homework acts as a magnificent fortress, fortifying the concepts you learn in class and helping them stick to your mind like glue. By practicing what you've learned through homework exercises, you strengthen your understanding and boost your memory power. Just like a superhero honing their skills ...
Boosts Memory Retention. Homework provides practice time to recall concepts discussed in class, thereby enabling students to memorize facts and figures taught at school. One of the advantages of homework is that it sharpens memory power and concentration. 6. Enables Parents to Track a Student's Performance.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Homework. The term "homework" or "homework assignments" refers to a list of tasks students are expected to do outside the classroom by their teachers. Required reading, writing or typing tasks, mathematical problems to solve, content to be examined before an assessment, or other activities to practise are ...
A 2017 study analyzed the homework assignments of more than 20,000 middle and high school students and found that teachers are often a bad judge of how long homework will take. According to researchers, students spend as much as 85 minutes or as little as 30 minutes on homework teachers imagined would take students one hour to complete.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Applying the Silent Way in Teenag Nowadays, there are countless methods and techniques for learning a new language, each promising to be the key to fluency. Among them is the Silent Way, a unique approach developed in the 1960s by Caleb Gattegno, which emphasizes student autonomy and minimal teacher intervention. While this method offers several advantages ...
Advantages and Disadvantages in the Markets The Sharpe ratio's primary advantage in the markets is its comprehensiveness in accounting for both systematic and unsystematic risk. This makes it particularly useful for evaluating standalone investments or portfolios with varying levels of diversification.
Cloud backup disadvantages. There are also disadvantages to cloud backup, including the following: Initial full backup time constraints. Depending on the total capacity of data to be backed up, the first full backup and/or full recovery of on-site data could prove to be too time-consuming and impactful on production systems. It might be necessary to schedule initial or full backups after hours ...