students are overloaded with homework

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Overloading students with too much homework takes a toll on their mental health

By Angelina Halas October 15, 2019

Not all professors always take into consideration what students have going on outside the classroom and what they might be experiencing personally. This may affect their ability to excel with their assignments, inside and outside of class.

A study from Psychology Today found that 44.2 percent of college students named academics to be something traumatic in their life or something too hard to handle.

The site states “that number is 10 percent higher than any other stressor, including problems with finances or intimate relationships.”

Sophomore biology major Ash Angus finds that academics is a big stressor in her life, as professors don’t take into consideration what students have going on outside the classroom, like familial pressure.

“With parents, especially if your parents are not from America, they have very high expectations of you and they want you to aim higher and higher in life because they weren’t given the same opportunities that you were,” Angus said.

She continued on to explain her belief that professors don’t consider that students have other obligations than just classwork.

According to the American Psychology Association , 41.6 percent of college students have anxiety and 36.4 percent have depression. Angus believes that this could easily be linked to not having a good life balance of school work and outside activities.

“It is dependent on your major, but I feel like most professors pile on a lot of work,” she said. “They don’t even think about the other responsibilities you have like a job, other classes or clubs, a social life and trying to take care of your own mental health.”

Marianne Stenger , a freelance writer and journalist, found in a study that only six percent of college students find their homework to be useful in terms of preparation for tests, quizzes and projects.

Angus feels that she has no time to rest and has been only getting four or five hours of sleep because she’s always up doing homework.

Psychology professor Dr. Maya Gordon admits that she thinks about what students have going on outside the classroom and tries to give reasonable time and due dates, but she tends to think about it more when students come up to her individually.

“Just communicate with me,” Gordon said. “I understand things happen for whatever reason so just let me know. I know students juggle a lot.”

Gordon continued to explain that she presents herself in the classroom in a way that she hopes students feel encouraged to come to her if they are struggling. She also said that if she notices something is incomplete, she will reach out to that student herself to make sure everything is okay.

Gordon admits that because she is a psychologist, she might be more in tune to what students are internalizing and their emotional needs, so she structures her work around that.

“I don’t want students to have an assignment that stresses them and keeps them up at night,” Gordon said. “I don’t want them to not do their best work because they are stressed out.”

Gordon points out that she believes school should be fun and something exciting, not something that stresses students out.

“I don’t want work to take a toll on the health of a student,” she said. “That just takes away the value of an education.”

Gordon explains that within the Cabrini staff, there are a mix of teachers and some are not like her.

“Some professors aren’t as in tune into emotional states or pay as much attention. I think that’s because sometimes they forget, they’re so far removed from when they were a student. They forget what it’s like to be on the other side,” Gordon said.

Despite Gordon acknowledging students responsibilities outside the classroom, she does say that it’s up to the students to let her know if something needs to be changed to help them out.

“I don’t know if you don’t tell me. Just touch base with me. I have no problem adjusting the syllabus or getting rid of the textbook if it’s not helpful. But I only know that if students tell me,” she said.

Italian professor Tiziana Murray is on the same side as Gordon, accepting what students have going on outside of class when it comes to distributing homework.

“I give my students a whole week to do homework. I’m not very strict with the due dates,” Murray said.

Murray is also open to students coming to her if they need help. She said that now she has a more open schedule which allows for students to come see her more, whether that’s for an academic reason or just for support.

She continues to explain that she has a constant connection with her students because she’s always available through email and she will also reach out through there if it’s needed.

In her class, she gives students ways to deal with stress, along with supplying a PowerPoint.

“I want to be there for the mental and the physical support,” Murray said.

She allows for student feedback by asking them in class how they felt about the quizzes and the tests assigned.

“I’m open to change. Students should feel comfortable coming to me because I’m flexible enough. I will support a student if they want to be supported,” she said.

Even though professors are trying to accommodate with student’s mental health and outside activities, not all students know that the option is there to speak up and ask for help.

“They don’t take into consideration what I have going on unless I go to them first and talk to them about it,” Angus said. “I feel like they see you as just a student rather than a whole person. They see you as just a student with your letter grade or your GPA rather than a human being.”

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Is it time to get rid of homework? Mental health experts weigh in.

It's no secret that kids hate homework. And as students grapple with an ongoing pandemic that has had a wide range of mental health impacts, is it time schools start listening to their pleas about workloads?

Some teachers are turning to social media to take a stand against homework. 

Tiktok user @misguided.teacher says he doesn't assign it because the "whole premise of homework is flawed."

For starters, he says, he can't grade work on "even playing fields" when students' home environments can be vastly different.

"Even students who go home to a peaceful house, do they really want to spend their time on busy work? Because typically that's what a lot of homework is, it's busy work," he says in the video that has garnered 1.6 million likes. "You only get one year to be 7, you only got one year to be 10, you only get one year to be 16, 18."

Mental health experts agree heavy workloads have the potential do more harm than good for students, especially when taking into account the impacts of the pandemic. But they also say the answer may not be to eliminate homework altogether.

Emmy Kang, mental health counselor at Humantold , says studies have shown heavy workloads can be "detrimental" for students and cause a "big impact on their mental, physical and emotional health."

"More than half of students say that homework is their primary source of stress, and we know what stress can do on our bodies," she says, adding that staying up late to finish assignments also leads to disrupted sleep and exhaustion.

Cynthia Catchings, a licensed clinical social worker and therapist at Talkspace , says heavy workloads can also cause serious mental health problems in the long run, like anxiety and depression. 

And for all the distress homework  can cause, it's not as useful as many may think, says Dr. Nicholas Kardaras, a psychologist and CEO of Omega Recovery treatment center.

"The research shows that there's really limited benefit of homework for elementary age students, that really the school work should be contained in the classroom," he says.

For older students, Kang says, homework benefits plateau at about two hours per night. 

"Most students, especially at these high achieving schools, they're doing a minimum of three hours, and it's taking away time from their friends, from their families, their extracurricular activities. And these are all very important things for a person's mental and emotional health."

Catchings, who also taught third to 12th graders for 12 years, says she's seen the positive effects of a no-homework policy while working with students abroad.

"Not having homework was something that I always admired from the French students (and) the French schools, because that was helping the students to really have the time off and really disconnect from school," she says.

The answer may not be to eliminate homework completely but to be more mindful of the type of work students take home, suggests Kang, who was a high school teacher for 10 years.

"I don't think (we) should scrap homework; I think we should scrap meaningless, purposeless busy work-type homework. That's something that needs to be scrapped entirely," she says, encouraging teachers to be thoughtful and consider the amount of time it would take for students to complete assignments.

The pandemic made the conversation around homework more crucial 

Mindfulness surrounding homework is especially important in the context of the past two years. Many students will be struggling with mental health issues that were brought on or worsened by the pandemic , making heavy workloads even harder to balance.

"COVID was just a disaster in terms of the lack of structure. Everything just deteriorated," Kardaras says, pointing to an increase in cognitive issues and decrease in attention spans among students. "School acts as an anchor for a lot of children, as a stabilizing force, and that disappeared."

But even if students transition back to the structure of in-person classes, Kardaras suspects students may still struggle after two school years of shifted schedules and disrupted sleeping habits.

"We've seen adults struggling to go back to in-person work environments from remote work environments. That effect is amplified with children because children have less resources to be able to cope with those transitions than adults do," he explains.

'Get organized' ahead of back-to-school

In order to make the transition back to in-person school easier, Kang encourages students to "get good sleep, exercise regularly (and) eat a healthy diet."

To help manage workloads, she suggests students "get organized."

"There's so much mental clutter up there when you're disorganized. ... Sitting down and planning out their study schedules can really help manage their time," she says.

Breaking up assignments can also make things easier to tackle.

"I know that heavy workloads can be stressful, but if you sit down and you break down that studying into smaller chunks, they're much more manageable."

If workloads are still too much, Kang encourages students to advocate for themselves.

"They should tell their teachers when a homework assignment just took too much time or if it was too difficult for them to do on their own," she says. "It's good to speak up and ask those questions. Respectfully, of course, because these are your teachers. But still, I think sometimes teachers themselves need this feedback from their students."

More: Some teachers let their students sleep in class. Here's what mental health experts say.

More: Some parents are slipping young kids in for the COVID-19 vaccine, but doctors discourage the move as 'risky'

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Education scholar Denise Pope has found that too much homework has negative effects on student well-being and behavioral engagement. (Image credit: L.A. Cicero)

A Stanford researcher found that too much homework can negatively affect kids, especially their lives away from school, where family, friends and activities matter.

“Our findings on the effects of homework challenge the traditional assumption that homework is inherently good,” wrote Denise Pope , a senior lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Education and a co-author of a study published in the Journal of Experimental Education .

The researchers used survey data to examine perceptions about homework, student well-being and behavioral engagement in a sample of 4,317 students from 10 high-performing high schools in upper-middle-class California communities. Along with the survey data, Pope and her colleagues used open-ended answers to explore the students’ views on homework.

Median household income exceeded $90,000 in these communities, and 93 percent of the students went on to college, either two-year or four-year.

Students in these schools average about 3.1 hours of homework each night.

“The findings address how current homework practices in privileged, high-performing schools sustain students’ advantage in competitive climates yet hinder learning, full engagement and well-being,” Pope wrote.

Pope and her colleagues found that too much homework can diminish its effectiveness and even be counterproductive. They cite prior research indicating that homework benefits plateau at about two hours per night, and that 90 minutes to two and a half hours is optimal for high school.

Their study found that too much homework is associated with:

* Greater stress: 56 percent of the students considered homework a primary source of stress, according to the survey data. Forty-three percent viewed tests as a primary stressor, while 33 percent put the pressure to get good grades in that category. Less than 1 percent of the students said homework was not a stressor.

* Reductions in health: In their open-ended answers, many students said their homework load led to sleep deprivation and other health problems. The researchers asked students whether they experienced health issues such as headaches, exhaustion, sleep deprivation, weight loss and stomach problems.

* Less time for friends, family and extracurricular pursuits: Both the survey data and student responses indicate that spending too much time on homework meant that students were “not meeting their developmental needs or cultivating other critical life skills,” according to the researchers. Students were more likely to drop activities, not see friends or family, and not pursue hobbies they enjoy.

A balancing act

The results offer empirical evidence that many students struggle to find balance between homework, extracurricular activities and social time, the researchers said. Many students felt forced or obligated to choose homework over developing other talents or skills.

Also, there was no relationship between the time spent on homework and how much the student enjoyed it. The research quoted students as saying they often do homework they see as “pointless” or “mindless” in order to keep their grades up.

“This kind of busy work, by its very nature, discourages learning and instead promotes doing homework simply to get points,” Pope said.

She said the research calls into question the value of assigning large amounts of homework in high-performing schools. Homework should not be simply assigned as a routine practice, she said.

“Rather, any homework assigned should have a purpose and benefit, and it should be designed to cultivate learning and development,” wrote Pope.

High-performing paradox

In places where students attend high-performing schools, too much homework can reduce their time to foster skills in the area of personal responsibility, the researchers concluded. “Young people are spending more time alone,” they wrote, “which means less time for family and fewer opportunities to engage in their communities.”

Student perspectives

The researchers say that while their open-ended or “self-reporting” methodology to gauge student concerns about homework may have limitations – some might regard it as an opportunity for “typical adolescent complaining” – it was important to learn firsthand what the students believe.

The paper was co-authored by Mollie Galloway from Lewis and Clark College and Jerusha Conner from Villanova University.

Media Contacts

Denise Pope, Stanford Graduate School of Education: (650) 725-7412, [email protected] Clifton B. Parker, Stanford News Service: (650) 725-0224, [email protected]

Too Much Homework Hurts Your Students. Here’s What to Do Instead.

• Post author: The CTTL
• Post published: February 28, 2019
• Post category: Teaching Strategies

At the CTTL , we’re focused on using the best of Mind, Brain, and Education Science research to help teachers maximize their effectiveness and guide students toward their greatest potential. Doing that often means addressing what we like to call “Learning Myths”—those traditional bits of teaching wisdom that are often accepted without question, but aren’t always true. We also like to introduce new insight that can change the classroom for the better. In our Learning Myths series, we’ll explore true-or-false statements that affect teacher and student performance; for each, we’ll dive into the details that support the facts, leaving teachers with actionable knowledge that they can put to work right away.

True or False? Homework should be given every night, as this routine promotes learning.

Answer: False! Nightly homework is unnecessary—and can actually be harmful.

Homework for homework’s sake, or homework that’s not tied into the classroom experience, is a demotivating waste of your students’ time and energy. The Education Endowment Foundation Teaching and Learning Toolkit puts it this way: “Planned and focused activities are more beneficial than homework, which is more regular, but may be routine or not linked with what is being learned in class.”

How might teachers put this insight into action?

Homework, in itself, isn’t a bad thing. The key is to make sure that every homework assignment is both necessary and relevant—and leaves students with some time to rest and investigate other parts of their lives. Here are four key mindsets to adopt as an educator:

Resist the traditional wisdom that equates hardship with learning. Assigning constant homework is often tied into the idea that the more rigorous a class is, the better it is. However, according to research from Duke University’s Professor Harris Cooper, this belief is mistaken: “too much homework may diminish its effectiveness, or even become counterproductive.” A better guideline for homework, Cooper suggests, is to assign 1-2 hours of total homework in high school, and only up to 1 hour in junior high or middle school. This is based on the understanding that school-aged children are developing quickly in multiple realms of their lives; thus, family, outside interests, and sleep all take an unnecessary and damaging hit if students are spending their evenings on busy work. Even for high schoolers, more than two hours of homework was not associated with greater levels of achievement in Cooper’s study.

Remember that some assignments help learning more than others—and they tend to be simple, connected ones. Research suggests that the more open-ended and unstructured assignments are, the smaller the effect they have on learning. The best kind of homework is made of planned, focused activities that help reinforce what’s been happening in class. Using the spacing effect is one way to help students recall and remember what they’ve been learning: for example, this could include a combination of practice questions from what happened today, three days ago, and five days ago. (You can also consider extending this idea by integrating concepts and skills from other parts of your course into your homework materials). Another helpful approach is to assign an exercise that acts as a simple introduction to material that is about to be taught. In general, make sure that all at-home activities are a continuation of the story that’s playing out in class—in other words, that they’re tied into what happened before the assignment, as well as what will happen next.

When it comes to homework, stay flexible. Homework shouldn’t be used to teach complex new ideas and skills. Because it’s so important that homework is closely tied with current learning, it’s important to prepare to adjust your assignments on the fly: if you end up running out of time and can’t cover all of a planned subject on a given day, nix any homework that relies on it.

Never use homework as a punishment. Homework should never be used as a disciplinary tool or a penalty. It’s important for students to know and trust that what they’re doing at home is a vital part of their learning.

Make sure that your students don’t get stuck before they begin. Teachers tend to under-appreciate one very significant problem when it comes to homework: often, students just don’t know how to do the assignment! Being confused by the instructions—and without the means to remedy the situation—is extremely demotivating. If you find (or suspect) that this might be a problem for your students, one helpful strategy is to give students a few minutes in class to begin their homework, so that you can address any clarifying questions that arise.

In order for students to become high academic achievers, they have to be learning in a way that challenges them at the right level— much like the porridge in the Goldilocks story, it’s got to be just right. Homework is a great tool, but it must be used wisely. Part of our role as teachers is to make sure that the time we ask our students to give us after they leave class is meaningful to their learning; otherwise, the stress and demotivation of “just because” homework can be detrimental to their well-being. As the CTTL’s Dr. Ian Kelleher advises, “The best homework assignments are just 20 minutes long, because those are the ones that the teacher has really planned out carefully.” Put simply: quality beats out quantity, every time.

Here at the CTTL, we’re all about quality over quantity. Case in point: our newest endeavor, Neuroteach Global , helps teachers infuse their classroom practices with research-informed strategies for student success—in just 3-5 minutes a day, on a variety of devices.

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Credit: August de Richelieu

Does homework still have value? A Johns Hopkins education expert weighs in

Joyce epstein, co-director of the center on school, family, and community partnerships, discusses why homework is essential, how to maximize its benefit to learners, and what the 'no-homework' approach gets wrong.

By Vicky Hallett

The necessity of homework has been a subject of debate since at least as far back as the 1890s, according to Joyce L. Epstein , co-director of the Center on School, Family, and Community Partnerships at Johns Hopkins University. "It's always been the case that parents, kids—and sometimes teachers, too—wonder if this is just busy work," Epstein says.

But after decades of researching how to improve schools, the professor in the Johns Hopkins School of Education remains certain that homework is essential—as long as the teachers have done their homework, too. The National Network of Partnership Schools , which she founded in 1995 to advise schools and districts on ways to improve comprehensive programs of family engagement, has developed hundreds of improved homework ideas through its Teachers Involve Parents in Schoolwork program. For an English class, a student might interview a parent on popular hairstyles from their youth and write about the differences between then and now. Or for science class, a family could identify forms of matter over the dinner table, labeling foods as liquids or solids. These innovative and interactive assignments not only reinforce concepts from the classroom but also foster creativity, spark discussions, and boost student motivation.

"We're not trying to eliminate homework procedures, but expand and enrich them," says Epstein, who is packing this research into a forthcoming book on the purposes and designs of homework. In the meantime, the Hub couldn't wait to ask her some questions:

What kind of homework training do teachers typically get?

Future teachers and administrators really have little formal training on how to design homework before they assign it. This means that most just repeat what their teachers did, or they follow textbook suggestions at the end of units. For example, future teachers are well prepared to teach reading and literacy skills at each grade level, and they continue to learn to improve their teaching of reading in ongoing in-service education. By contrast, most receive little or no training on the purposes and designs of homework in reading or other subjects. It is really important for future teachers to receive systematic training to understand that they have the power, opportunity, and obligation to design homework with a purpose.

Why do students need more interactive homework?

If homework assignments are always the same—10 math problems, six sentences with spelling words—homework can get boring and some kids just stop doing their assignments, especially in the middle and high school years. When we've asked teachers what's the best homework you've ever had or designed, invariably we hear examples of talking with a parent or grandparent or peer to share ideas. To be clear, parents should never be asked to "teach" seventh grade science or any other subject. Rather, teachers set up the homework assignments so that the student is in charge. It's always the student's homework. But a good activity can engage parents in a fun, collaborative way. Our data show that with "good" assignments, more kids finish their work, more kids interact with a family partner, and more parents say, "I learned what's happening in the curriculum." It all works around what the youngsters are learning.

Is family engagement really that important?

At Hopkins, I am part of the Center for Social Organization of Schools , a research center that studies how to improve many aspects of education to help all students do their best in school. One thing my colleagues and I realized was that we needed to look deeply into family and community engagement. There were so few references to this topic when we started that we had to build the field of study. When children go to school, their families "attend" with them whether a teacher can "see" the parents or not. So, family engagement is ever-present in the life of a school.

My daughter's elementary school doesn't assign homework until third grade. What's your take on "no homework" policies?

There are some parents, writers, and commentators who have argued against homework, especially for very young children. They suggest that children should have time to play after school. This, of course is true, but many kindergarten kids are excited to have homework like their older siblings. If they give homework, most teachers of young children make assignments very short—often following an informal rule of 10 minutes per grade level. "No homework" does not guarantee that all students will spend their free time in productive and imaginative play.

Some researchers and critics have consistently misinterpreted research findings. They have argued that homework should be assigned only at the high school level where data point to a strong connection of doing assignments with higher student achievement . However, as we discussed, some students stop doing homework. This leads, statistically, to results showing that doing homework or spending more minutes on homework is linked to higher student achievement. If slow or struggling students are not doing their assignments, they contribute to—or cause—this "result."

Teachers need to design homework that even struggling students want to do because it is interesting. Just about all students at any age level react positively to good assignments and will tell you so.

Did COVID change how schools and parents view homework?

Within 24 hours of the day school doors closed in March 2020, just about every school and district in the country figured out that teachers had to talk to and work with students' parents. This was not the same as homeschooling—teachers were still working hard to provide daily lessons. But if a child was learning at home in the living room, parents were more aware of what they were doing in school. One of the silver linings of COVID was that teachers reported that they gained a better understanding of their students' families. We collected wonderfully creative examples of activities from members of the National Network of Partnership Schools. I'm thinking of one art activity where every child talked with a parent about something that made their family unique. Then they drew their finding on a snowflake and returned it to share in class. In math, students talked with a parent about something the family liked so much that they could represent it 100 times. Conversations about schoolwork at home was the point.

How did you create so many homework activities via the Teachers Involve Parents in Schoolwork program?

We had several projects with educators to help them design interactive assignments, not just "do the next three examples on page 38." Teachers worked in teams to create TIPS activities, and then we turned their work into a standard TIPS format in math, reading/language arts, and science for grades K-8. Any teacher can use or adapt our prototypes to match their curricula.

Overall, we know that if future teachers and practicing educators were prepared to design homework assignments to meet specific purposes—including but not limited to interactive activities—more students would benefit from the important experience of doing their homework. And more parents would, indeed, be partners in education.

Posted in Voices+Opinion

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By submitting my email address. i certify that i am 13 years of age or older, agree to recieve marketing email messages from the princeton review, and agree to terms of use., homework wars: high school workloads, student stress, and how parents can help.

Studies of typical homework loads vary : In one, a Stanford researcher found that more than two hours of homework a night may be counterproductive. The research , conducted among students from 10 high-performing high schools in upper-middle-class California communities, found that too much homework resulted in stress, physical health problems and a general lack of balance.

Additionally, the  2014 Brown Center Report on American Education , found that with the exception of nine-year-olds, the amount of homework schools assign has remained relatively unchanged since 1984, meaning even those in charge of the curricula don't see a need for adding more to that workload.

But student experiences don’t always match these results. On our own Student Life in America survey, over 50% of students reported feeling stressed, 25% reported that homework was their biggest source of stress, and on average teens are spending one-third of their study time feeling stressed, anxious, or stuck.

The disparity can be explained in one of the conclusions regarding the Brown Report:

Of the three age groups, 17-year-olds have the most bifurcated distribution of the homework burden. They have the largest percentage of kids with no homework (especially when the homework shirkers are added in) and the largest percentage with more than two hours.

So what does that mean for parents who still endure the homework wars at home?

Read More: Teaching Your Kids How To Deal with School Stress

It means that sometimes kids who are on a rigorous college-prep track, probably are receiving more homework, but the statistics are melding it with the kids who are receiving no homework. And on our survey, 64% of students reported that their parents couldn’t help them with their work. This is where the real homework wars lie—not just the amount, but the ability to successfully complete assignments and feel success.

Parents want to figure out how to help their children manage their homework stress and learn the material.

Our Top 4 Tips for Ending Homework Wars

1. have a routine..

Every parenting advice article you will ever read emphasizes the importance of a routine. There’s a reason for that: it works. A routine helps put order into an often disorderly world. It removes the thinking and arguing and “when should I start?” because that decision has already been made. While routines must be flexible to accommodate soccer practice on Tuesday and volunteer work on Thursday, knowing in general when and where you, or your child, will do homework literally removes half the battle.

2. Have a battle plan.

Overwhelmed students look at a mountain of homework and think “insurmountable.” But parents can look at it with an outsider’s perspective and help them plan. Put in an extra hour Monday when you don’t have soccer. Prepare for the AP Chem test on Friday a little at a time each evening so Thursday doesn’t loom as a scary study night (consistency and repetition will also help lock the information in your brain). Start reading the book for your English report so that it’s underway. Go ahead and write a few sentences, so you don’t have a blank page staring at you. Knowing what the week will look like helps you keep calm and carry on.

3. Don’t be afraid to call in reserves.

You can’t outsource the “battle” but you can outsource the help ! We find that kids just do better having someone other than their parents help them —and sometimes even parents with the best of intentions aren’t equipped to wrestle with complicated physics problem. At The Princeton Review, we specialize in making homework time less stressful. Our tutors are available 24/7 to work one-to-one in an online classroom with a chat feature, interactive whiteboard, and the file sharing tool, where students can share their most challenging assignments.

4. Celebrate victories—and know when to surrender.

Students and parents can review completed assignments together at the end of the night -- acknowledging even small wins helps build a sense of accomplishment. If you’ve been through a particularly tough battle, you’ll also want to reach reach a cease-fire before hitting your bunk. A war ends when one person disengages. At some point, after parents have provided a listening ear, planning, and support, they have to let natural consequences take their course. And taking a step back--and removing any pressure a parent may be inadvertently creating--can be just what’s needed.

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Don’t Overload Students: Assigning Too Much Work Discourages Learning

H as your to-do list ever been so long that you felt physically drained at the thought of everything that needed to be done?

New   research  has shed some light on the reason behind this feeling and shows that overloading students causes not only academic stress, but also takes a toll on students’ mental and physical health, which, unsurprisingly, hinders learning.

The study, led by Mollie Galloway from Lewis and Clark College, shows that although students who spend more time doing homework are sometimes more behaviourally engaged in school, they also tend to be more anxious, and report more physical symptoms due to stress.

“Although the students in our study were averaging more than three hours of homework per night, most did not find this homework engaging, nor did they feel it enhanced their learning,” says Galloway.

“Because homework tends to acts as a stressor in students’ lives, their bodies must find a way to respond or react to this stressor, and although research has shown that some level of stress can be healthy, chronic stress can induce negative physical, mental, and behaviour outcomes,” she explains.

The researchers surveyed over 4,000 students to determine the role that this additional work played as a stressor in their lives.

By asking questions like “How often do you try as hard as you can in school?” and “How often do you complete your school assignments?” they were able to paint a picture of students’ level of behavioural engagement.

The mental and physical well-being assessment consisted of questions like “How often do you feel stressed about your academic experience?” as well as enquiries about stress-related health problems such as headaches, weight gain and sleep difficulties.

Only 6% of students said they found their homework “very useful” in preparing them for learning, tests, papers or projects, and many experienced stress, compromised health and a lack of balance.

Students also voiced their frustration with their workload, saying things like; “There’s never a time to rest, there’s always something more you should be doing;” “It can feel like you are drowning;” and “My body crashes when I’ve done maybe half of my homework.” 

Based on such student feedback, the researchers speculate that homework overload can actually limit a person’s capacity to learn.

“Our study suggests that [students who are overloaded] experience higher levels of stress and more physical problems like sweating, headaches, exhaustion, stomach problems, and/or sleeping difficulties,” notes Galloway.

“In addition, these students report a general lack of balance in their lives, feeling like they need to choose completing their homework over engaging in social, physical, and restorative activities that could support their well-being.” 

Previous research has also shown that assigning too much work can diminish its effectiveness and even make it counter-productive. Clearly, just because students are doing more work, doesn’t mean they are actually learning more.

But what can teachers do make sure that they assign enough work without frustrating and overloading students?

Dr. Galloway notes that any work assigned to students should have a clear purpose and benefit, and should be designed to cultivate learning and development.

She also suggests the following tips for finding the right balance:

• Students and teachers should generally align in their description of the purpose of homework (that is, students should be able to identify the purpose)
• Teachers should not simply check-off homework as “complete” or “incomplete.” Homework should be incorporated or utilized in the lesson to facilitate the learning experience.
• Students and teachers should engage together in co-constructing homework assignments. In such co-construction, students can identify various ways to build upon and expand their learning of a topic or concept.  This also provides opportunities for students to bring their strengths; creativity; cultural ways of learning; and community assets to the learning process.

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How to Reduce the Cognitive Load on Students During Lessons

A look at ways teachers can refine their practices to help ensure that students absorb and process information so they can retrieve it later.

Our active working memory is amazing. It’s where thinking takes place. New information gets mixed in with things already stored in your long-term memory and is processed. Some of what you process gets written back into your long-term memory—this is learning.

Yet, our active working memory also presents a huge bottleneck to learning. Research suggests it only holds three to five items for 10 to 20 seconds . Yikes. The demands we place on our very limited active working memory are known as cognitive load. 

If the total cognitive load on students is too high, learning is hard or impossible. One scenario is that their working memory just can’t hold all the new stuff at once (we’ve all felt like this at times). Or, they might have enough capacity to hold and process everything but no “extra” space to write schema in their long-term memory. This presents itself as students being able to do a task in class but not being able to do it later. If it hasn’t been stored in long-term memory, it hasn’t been learned.

As a classroom teacher, these two scenarios probably sound familiar. So what can we do about it? There are two easy areas in which to start.

Area 1: Reduce Extraneous Cognitive Load

Anything that isn’t intrinsic to the learning task itself or isn’t part of the process of helping it stick in students’ long-term memory is extraneous cognitive load. Always be on the lookout for extraneous cognitive load, and eliminate it wherever you find it. Here are some examples.

Give better assignments: Give clear instructions for assignments, especially homework. Even though you’re busy, always ask yourself, “Could I be clearer?” Edit for clarity if you have any doubt. Remember that your students are novice learners in the subject whereas you’re an expert. To help things be clear and simple, keep these details in mind:

• Number each step.
• Ensure that all students have easy access to all resources they need. Alter your assignments if this isn’t the case.
• Make sure that necessary knowledge and skills are already in place. If not, adjust your assignments.
• Have students submit work in a limited number of ways.
• Research suggests that the quality of homework assignments is much more important than the quantity . Make assignments highly integrated with what is going on in class rather than as an add-on.

Improve the work environment: Reduce unnecessary noise in class. If you want to play music in class, deliberately choose when, knowing that for some students it will add significant extraneous cognitive load.

• The research on listening to music is interesting and nuanced. Music clearly adds extraneous cognitive load , but for some students performing some tasks, this might be offset by positive impacts on things like stress or attention. Have ongoing discussions with students to help them honestly find what works for them when.
• Avoid visual clutter in your classroom. Everything there should have a purpose—design, don’t decorate. Have less on show at once, and rotate it as the year goes on. Can you find three things in your room to remove that would make it better?

Present information more effectively: Try following Rich Mayer’s principles of multimedia learning when presenting slides:

• Only provide the information that the learner needs. This usually means simple text and simple visuals directly related to the topic being taught.
• Use humor with caution, and only when it amplifies the idea you’re trying to teach. Beware of cartoons and funny images that become seductive details. Students remember these but not the key points.
• Give students verbal cues to what they should be looking at—don’t make assumptions.
• Reduce the amount of text where possible. Narration plus text to read creates cognitive overload, so don’t read out your slides. Prompt students to read the text, and give them time to do so with you being silent.

Nurture each student’s sense of belonging: Every student brings a lot more than just their book bag to your class. To what extent do you aid identity validation? To what extent do you help each student feel safe, build their trust, and feel that their unique story matters in your class? To what extent do you work to eliminate identity threat in all its forms? To what extent do you help build each student’s sense of social belonging and academic belonging? 

• For many students, for many reasons, much of their active working memory may be taken up with things not related to the topic of your class. The work we do for diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging is vital for a great many reasons. It’s important for teachers to pay attention to its impact on working memory and cognitive load, and thus on learning.
• Build routines and rituals that make your room a safe, predictable place by investing time early on to build a positive classroom culture and relationships.

Area 2: Use Scaffolds to Reduce Demands on Working Memory

Add scaffolds: These help students to offload some of their thinking onto paper so that they have less “new stuff” to hold in their working memory at once. The first rule of scaffolds is that they should be temporary—phased out over time, though some students may need them brought back occasionally. Here are some examples:

• Use visual planning sheets to help organize your thinking for a piece of writing or to lay out some steps of a problem in math. Tell students, “By writing some of this down, you are freeing up some space in active working memory so that you can think more deeply.”
• Allow students to have a note card with quotations on it for the first essay of the year so that they can focus on the mechanics of the essay. Explain why you’re doing this.
• Have students make a temporary help sheet for a tough verb tense in Spanish.
• Allow students to use an equation sheet at the start of a physics unit.
• Use a single-column rubric in the “coming up with a plan” stage and for check-ins during a project, as well as at the end.
• Deliberately plan short activities at the start of a topic to help students “awaken” and connect their prior knowledge and experiences to the new topic, rather than making assumptions or leaving this to chance.

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Suggestions, homework overload is hurting students’ lives—and our learning.

During hybrid learning last year, I would generally spend one to two hours on homework per night. That allowed me time to focus on extracurricular activities and excel in my classes. I was also able to receive a consistent amount of sleep every night—often up to nine hours—a crucial factor in a student’s health.

This fall, things changed drastically. After the first two weeks of school, I was getting assigned about three to four hours of homework each night, with minimal time to focus on outside activities; my love of learning was diminishing, along with my time for other passions. I lost sleep and grew more anxious.

Originally I believed that my stress was due to the transition from sophomore to junior year, a daunting one I convinced myself I wasn’t prepared for as the work rolled in. Soon, though, in speaking with others, I realized that the homework load had meaningfully increased since last year across all grades, at the cost of students’ wellbeing.

“Once we got back to school teachers became a lot more enthusiastic about what they think is a normal school year and the work that comes with that,” senior Harrison West told me.

In an interview, Assistant Principal of School Life Quinn Killy said that GDS recommends certain limits for the amount of homework students may receive each night. “It’s 70 minutes per class, with flexibility for UL classes,” he said.

Seventy minutes is a substantial amount of work to assign for one class. It leaves scarce time for students to participate in activities outside of school. Both the anticipation of hours of work and the fear of performing poorly amplify stress. 

During the spring sports season, I get home at about 6:15 p.m. It worsens my stress to know that losing sleep may be a necessary sacrifice to keep up with my classes. 

It is the duty of both teachers and administrators to listen to students when they express concerns that the extent of their workloads is doing more harm than good. A guideline of 40 to 50 minutes of homework per class would be a good place to start, because it would allow students more time to dedicate to relaxing and their activities.

Especially in a rigorous environment like GDS’, teachers often overlook the mental strain an excessive amount of homework causes for students. The pressure to succeed discourages students from devoting time to activities they enjoy or to rest. Administrators and teachers alike need to reconsider the amount of stress their students experience from homework.

Ironically, assigning students an excessive amount of work can actually take away from our learning as well. With the pressure to get so much done in a single night, students forget how enjoyable and fulfilling learning can be.

In a less work-heavy environment, students would retain more material because they are not forced to cram so much information each night. When students feel like what we are learning is actually sticking, we grow more engaged in our academic pursuits.

Junior Zaira Chowdhury told me that the 70-minute guideline has hindered her ability to participate in extracurricular activities she had originally hoped to because of the amount of time she needs to spend on academic work. “It’s completely unreasonable,” she said. “I wanted to do rock climbing but I wasn’t able to simply because of the amount of work I have.” 

The 70-minute guideline for homework per class strips students of a substantial portion of the day. A 40- or 50-minute guideline would allow students to appreciate learning rather than feeling burnt out after spending an hour or more on a single class.

Giving less homework may actually produce better results

Rachel Basinger December 19, 2018

Too much homework is the perennial complaint of students. When you are often hearing complaints of being overworked it can be hard to ascertain when it’s a legitimate concern or when students are just trying to take the path of least resistance. As a teacher, you want to make sure that you find a healthy balance — because if you give too little homework, students will be bored, but if you give too much, they will be overwhelmed.

In my years of teaching, I’ve found that giving less homework may actually produce better results. Here are a couple of reasons why you might want to consider reducing your students’ homework load.

5 reasons why students should get less homework

1. Students are encouraged to learn

The goal of school should be to teach students how to learn and to love learning. You don’t just want to hand your students fish; You want to teach them how to fish. Lectures, discussions, and readings should all engage students and encourage them to get involved in the material.

Too often, though, teachers are overwhelmed and assign homework to try to cover material that didn’t have enough time to cover in class. Educators should avoid letting the homework “teach” the class. Instead, it should be used to practice what’s been covered in class or to give a very brief introduction to new material.

Homework assignments, when given, should at least be engaging. Try to find assignments that your students might enjoy, like creating a Facebook profile or blog for a character from a Shakespeare play you’re reading. I’ve found that when students have a more manageable homework load, they’re more excited about school and learning in general.

2. They are better rested and focused

Something that teachers need to remember is how very long school days can seem for students, especially for high schoolers, if they have hours and hours of homework. They normally arrive at school between 7 and 8 a.m., stay in school until 3 p.m., may have after-school activities until 5 or 6 p.m., and may not be able to start on homework until 7 or 8 p.m. after eating dinner. Even if your students have a homework load of just 1–2 hours, that means they won’t be able to get to bed until 9–10 p.m.

Sleep is incredibly important for growing children and teenagers. While students can definitely choose to pull all-nighters or stay up late for non-school-related reasons, teachers should strive to minimize the impact that homework and school have on their students’ sleep. Assigning less homework will likely mean that your students will have the opportunity to get more sleep, which means they’ll be more awake and engaged in class the next day.

3. Free time makes them well-rounded

Many students, especially high schoolers, associate school with a room they’re trapped in for a good portion of their lives, and they want nothing more than to be outside of that box. Obviously, students (and people in general) can use their free time unproductively, like spending hours at a time on social media and browsing the internet. But many students feel like their homework load prevents them from doing fun things that they like.

It’s important for students to have a life outside of school, and assigning less homework means that they have more time for such activities. Students should be well-rounded individuals; If they’re overloaded with homework, they won’t be able to develop in other areas. As a teacher, because you are so involved with it, it’s easy to just subconsciously act as if students have the same degree of interest in school. The reality is that students desperately want a life outside of school, and you’ll be a more successful teacher if you encourage them to develop that in healthy ways.

4. A balanced workload supports mindfulness   

Students generally complain about homework because they are overworked. Overall, I believe many students are okay with homework, and reviewing and practicing what they learn in school. But because each teacher thinks their class is most important, students often end up with several hours of homework a night. That said, it’s important that you and your colleagues are in conversation about what assignments you all are giving each week. You don’t want your students to end up with 4–5 hours a day of homework.

I know when I was in college, I really disliked the homework load for some classes because there was just too much. I was a good student and always did everything I was assigned, but when I had to read forty 8.5 x 11 pages between a Tuesday and a Thursday for just one class, I was incredibly overwhelmed. It was just so much information to cram into such a short time — naturally, I really could not absorb it all. You never want to put your students in a position where they are floundering because of their workload. If you lessen the load just a bit, you’ll have less tired and more mindful, alert students.

5. Family time is valuable to wellbeing

This last point is often forgotten. Students should have the opportunity to hang out with their families in the evenings. With many couples now both working full-time, students often end up seeing their teachers more than they see their parents! While we can’t go back to the days on the farm where families worked together and saw each other all the time, teachers can at least encourage their students to spend some extra time with their families. And while high schoolers may not appreciate it now, they will appreciate it later.

If students did one less hour of homework and had one more hour of time with their families to play a game, watch movies, or just talk, it would contribute greatly not only to the health of the family but also to the wellbeing of the student. It also minimizes discipline issues as parents would be more involved in their children’s lives.

The verdict: Kids should have less homework

By assigning less homework, you’ll likely find that students will love learning, get more sleep, enjoy themselves more with outside activities, be less overworked, and have more time to spend with family.

If you want to give this a shot, you should think about practical ways that you can reduce your students’ homework load. For homework, I originally assigned five discussion questions that my students had to answer and three that they had to write short responses to. Later, I decided to change that to two discussion questions and two written-response questions. I found that the results were significantly better because the students were much more inclined to do the homework!

For you, maybe it’s reducing the number of questions like I did. Maybe it’s assigning fewer pages of reading. And maybe it just means being more diligent in class so you can cover more material. Whatever it is, know that giving less homework to your students will likely produce better results in class!

Photo credit: PhotoMIX-Company ; hdornak / Pixabay.com

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3 Best Solutions for Students Who Struggle with Information Overload to Achieve Academic Success

by Dana Stahl | Jul 27, 2020 | Articles

Every student experiences information overload at some point.

As subjects get more complex and assignments start piling up, it is unavoidable.

However, students who struggle consistently with information overload may not experience academic success because they don’t know how to assimilate the volume of information they’re receiving.

As a Learning Specialist, I’ve worked with children and their families for over 35 years.

In my course, The ABCs of Academic Success , there’s a series of steps for parents to follow to help reduce information overload for your child and help them thrive academically.

These easy-to-follow steps apply whether they are physically in school or learning virtually.

A student who struggles with information overload often underperforms due to receiving too much information at one time.

The sheer volume of content received is temporarily overwhelming.

It may feel as if a circuit breaker shuts down and your child may become too exhausted to continue processing additional information.

This inability to absorb and process content, information and instructions received from a teacher in class can fuel stress and anxiety, which further impedes your child’s ability to assimilate material.

Under moments of anxiety and panic, the brain becomes unable to form the neural connections needed to create and maintain the memories of what your child is learning.

These feelings block access to higher executive functioning in the frontal lobe of the brain.

So here are 3 easy ways your child can resolve information overload.

1. Overcome Information Overload to Achieve Academic Success by Breaking the Task into Smaller Bits

Then imagine having to eat more than one whole cake.

Just the idea seems uncomfortable, overwhelming and impossible, right?

If your child is experiencing information overload, the influx of new material coming their way might feel a bit like this.

It’s almost like a deluge they can barely keep up with, let alone understand, absorb and respond to.

They may well be able to eat the whole cake by themselves the first time – but would still need to eat it piece by piece, bite by bite.

In order to break down the intimidating volume of information into manageable segments, I recommend the strategy commonly referred to as “Smash the Task.”

Breaking assignments down into a series of smaller tasks, each with their own deadline, can prove very helpful as compared to working on intensive projects without any particular roadmap of how to complete them.

Conducting classes or study sessions at home in small 15-20 minute sections can help reduce information overload because it is aligned with how the brain learns.

The great news is that being able to check off those smaller sections as completed releases a chemical in your child’s brain called dopamine.

This is known as the motivation molecule and creates the desire to do more of what makes your child feel good.

“Smashing the task” into a set of smaller tasks during class or at-home studying, with breaks in between, allow students to pace themselves as they learn.

Overall, the brain does not learn well when focusing for long stretches of time.

In fact, neuroscientists have established that the longer the time spent learning without taking a break and without making an attempt to recall or retain what is learned, the faster the rate of forgetting.

Typically, the memory of what you learn at the beginning of a lesson, and what you learn at the end, is the strongest.

This is called primacy and recency, respectively – and the longer the gap in between the beginning and the end, the more that is forgotten.

Not only would your child benefit from shorter learning sessions, which allow them to absorb and process information in more digestible portions, doing so with short breaks in between helps build recall.

When the brain is focused on learning new things, it does not have the time to examine what it is learning, make connections between this information and engage in making sense of the information so that your child can apply it.

Just by incorporating short 5-minute breaks between 15-20 minute study sessions can make a huge difference and significantly reduce information overload.

As their brain idles while your child gets a snack, walks around, plays with pets, etc., and no longer needs to focus hard on learning, it naturally sorts through what it learned, makes associations, and consolidates it in long-term memory.

Thus, when your child goes back to learning, you can review what they just learned and create a solid foundation on which to place new information.

This is a much better, brain-friendlier approach to learning, rather than bombarding a child with all the information they need to learn all at once.

Due to the information overload from the sheer volume of information, your child’s ability to process any of it becomes overloaded and like a circuit-breaker, might shut down.

Remember, completing an assignment lights up the brain’s reward pathways and boosts their dopamine production; the resulting sense of reward and satisfaction makes the brain crave more of the feeling.

As a result, your child is more likely to feel accomplished and happy due to successfully completing a task, and truly feel motivated to move on to the next one.

This is not possible if the child is asked to complete an entire project as they might feel burdened and confused by the size of the challenge, which leads to low dopamine levels, and a lack of motivation.

2. Overcome Information Overload with Time Management

You might notice your child spacing out or shutting down due to the sheer number of things they are expected to get done for school.

Rather than being unable to complete these tasks, they may be struggling to understand where to start, in what sequence, and how to balance all their assignments while meeting the deadlines.

Time management and organization can help your child regain control of their workload, and know how to pace themselves so they avoid feeling overloaded.

In The ABCs of Academic Success , I’ll show you how to keep and regularly update calendars and planners allowing you to sort through your child’s assignments and keep deadlines in one place.

Then, whenever they need to check and get an idea of how much they need to do, or how much time they have to complete their assignments, they will have a large wall-calendar or a digital calendar created that lays it out visually for them with color-coded-due dates.

This may be a lot easier for your child to process since they can “see” how much time they have before a deadline and how much needs to be accomplished in between deadlines.

They can then smash-the-task and break the assignments down with micro-deadlines in between.

Planning ahead and having a routine to refer to, removes the uncertainty which often accompanies information overload.

To ensure your child is regularly updating their calendars with the things they need to do, run an overview with them daily, and request teachers to do the same.

Digital planners and calendars installed into your child’s devices may also be helpful, as if they forget to check their planner, the automatic notifications can alert them of pending commitments.

3. Overcome Information Overload Through Organization

If your child is keeping all their notes, handouts, and homework in one binder, they may easily feel overwhelmed, misplace items or overlook important papers and information.

I recommend categorizing all study materials in a meaningful and logical way to minimize information overload and anxiety.

Color-coding sections of your notes for a chapter by breaking them down into sub-topics, for instance, allows your child to easily pinpoint the information they need.

It also helps them naturally break down what they need to learn – or “smash- the-task” as I discussed above.

Separating subjects into different folders or binders also ensures that they don’t lump everything they need to do in the same place and risk being intimidated by a confusing mass of information.

Being able to locate what you need when you need it restores a sense of control over learning, which prevents experiencing overload.

It also ensures that no essential piece of information or homework is forgotten or overlooked.

Quizzes and tests need to be kept in a separate folder at home as this is the material that teachers have determined is most important to understand, and the content on quizzes and tests will most certainly be on unit tests, and final exams.

In order to cultivate basic organizational skills as a habit to help your child cope, you can go through the binders and notes with your children at the end of each school week, making this a part of their academic maintenance routine.

In The ABCs of Academic Success , not only will you receive a free 15 minute consultation with me, but I will share with you success solutions that have worked for more than 35 years.

These are all simple and effective strategies on how to tackle not only information overload, but other learning issues your child might be facing.

Which of these 3 best solutions for students who struggle with information overload to achieve academic success are you thinking of trying first?

I would love to know how they work out for you!

As an Educational Consultant and Learning Specialist for over 30 years, Dana created an easy-to-follow, step-by-step online course called  The ABCs of Academic Success  so you can help your child thrive academically!  Check it out and get a free 15 minute consultation with Dana too.

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More than two hours of homework may be counterproductive, research suggests.

A Stanford education researcher found that too much homework can negatively affect kids, especially their lives away from school, where family, friends and activities matter.   "Our findings on the effects of homework challenge the traditional assumption that homework is inherently good," wrote Denise Pope , a senior lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Education and a co-author of a study published in the Journal of Experimental Education .   The researchers used survey data to examine perceptions about homework, student well-being and behavioral engagement in a sample of 4,317 students from 10 high-performing high schools in upper-middle-class California communities. Along with the survey data, Pope and her colleagues used open-ended answers to explore the students' views on homework.   Median household income exceeded $90,000 in these communities, and 93 percent of the students went on to college, either two-year or four-year.   Students in these schools average about 3.1 hours of homework each night.   "The findings address how current homework practices in privileged, high-performing schools sustain students' advantage in competitive climates yet hinder learning, full engagement and well-being," Pope wrote.   Pope and her colleagues found that too much homework can diminish its effectiveness and even be counterproductive. They cite prior research indicating that homework benefits plateau at about two hours per night, and that 90 minutes to two and a half hours is optimal for high school.   Their study found that too much homework is associated with:   • Greater stress : 56 percent of the students considered homework a primary source of stress, according to the survey data. Forty-three percent viewed tests as a primary stressor, while 33 percent put the pressure to get good grades in that category. Less than 1 percent of the students said homework was not a stressor.   • Reductions in health : In their open-ended answers, many students said their homework load led to sleep deprivation and other health problems. The researchers asked students whether they experienced health issues such as headaches, exhaustion, sleep deprivation, weight loss and stomach problems.   • Less time for friends, family and extracurricular pursuits : Both the survey data and student responses indicate that spending too much time on homework meant that students were "not meeting their developmental needs or cultivating other critical life skills," according to the researchers. Students were more likely to drop activities, not see friends or family, and not pursue hobbies they enjoy.   A balancing act   The results offer empirical evidence that many students struggle to find balance between homework, extracurricular activities and social time, the researchers said. Many students felt forced or obligated to choose homework over developing other talents or skills.   Also, there was no relationship between the time spent on homework and how much the student enjoyed it. The research quoted students as saying they often do homework they see as "pointless" or "mindless" in order to keep their grades up.   "This kind of busy work, by its very nature, discourages learning and instead promotes doing homework simply to get points," said Pope, who is also a co-founder of Challenge Success , a nonprofit organization affiliated with the GSE that conducts research and works with schools and parents to improve students' educational experiences..   Pope said the research calls into question the value of assigning large amounts of homework in high-performing schools. Homework should not be simply assigned as a routine practice, she said.   "Rather, any homework assigned should have a purpose and benefit, and it should be designed to cultivate learning and development," wrote Pope.   High-performing paradox   In places where students attend high-performing schools, too much homework can reduce their time to foster skills in the area of personal responsibility, the researchers concluded. "Young people are spending more time alone," they wrote, "which means less time for family and fewer opportunities to engage in their communities."   Student perspectives   The researchers say that while their open-ended or "self-reporting" methodology to gauge student concerns about homework may have limitations – some might regard it as an opportunity for "typical adolescent complaining" – it was important to learn firsthand what the students believe.   The paper was co-authored by Mollie Galloway from Lewis and Clark College and Jerusha Conner from Villanova University.

Clifton B. Parker is a writer at the Stanford News Service .

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Home » Blog » Homework Overload: How Much Homework is Too Much?

Homework Overload: How Much Homework is Too Much?

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The Homework Misperception

The vision of a diligent pupil determinedly studying, reading, and practicing lessons for hours every evening is an image that we often associate with intelligence and the kind of focus that we expect of high-performing students. This construct, however, is often misleading. Young people develop their interpersonal, social, and physical wellness skills during their youth, along with their intellect. Students that spend every hour of their afternoons, evenings, and weekends on homework are at risk of unhealthy levels of stress on top of the kind of sedentary lifestyle that, if persistent, can be problematic. Where then, is the optimal tipping point between enough work to help students solidify learning and too much that it becomes unhealthy?

The Ten-Minute Rule

Years of research into the benefits and risks of homework indicate that while it is an effective learning tool for high school students, it is less necessary for elementary and middle school students. The National Parent Teacher Association (PTA) and the National Education Association (NEA) advocate for teachers to follow the ten-minute rule. This guideline recommends that students receive, on the aggregate, ten-minutes of homework per grade level. So a fourth grader would have no more than 40 minutes of practice work after school hours. By following this rule, students receive more practice work—and the benefits it offers relative to enabling students to develop student skills—as they age and mature.

Quality or Quantity?

While the ten-minute rule offers an easy-to-follow, quantitative approach to homework management, some parents and student advocates argue that it’s not the quantity of homework that matters, but the quality of it. They believe that homework should reinforce crucial concepts and be tailored to the needs of each student, rather than accomplish a time requirement. After all, they argue, students learn at different speeds. What might take one student ten minutes might take another thirty. How then, can the ten-minute rule be equitably applied to students across a classroom? As a teacher, ask yourself if the work you are giving your students is worth the time spent.

When Too Much Homework Can Cause a Burnout

The other possible risk of a homework distribution methodology predicated on higher expectations as students age is the risk of high school student burnout. High school students facing social and athletic expectations and the stress of college applications, SAT prep, or post-graduation expectations are at risk of astronomical stress levels. Add to their pile of pressure, evenings packed with homework, and it’s no surprise that youth feel they are under as much stress as their parents.

How to Safely Manage Your Students’ Homework Impact

Depending on the grade level that you teach, you will either have total or partial control over how much homework you are assigning to students. If you are a middle or high school teacher who shares instruction with fellow teachers, maintain an open dialogue about planned assignments. Collaborate to ensure time-consuming projects, writing assignments, or study needs do not overlap to avoid days or weeks of excessive at-home work. 

For elementary school students, promote other sources of proven academic improvement skills other than homework. Studies show that evening reading, particularly with parents, can be a more influential factor in academic improvement than homework. Similarly, studies show that a more reliable predictor of academic achievement for elementary and middle school students rather than homework is family meals. By freeing-up students by assigning less homework, you can hopefully give families more quality time to spend together.

The last step that you can take to monitor your students’ homework efforts is to simply ask your class how long their homework assignments and study sessions take per evening. Based on their feedback, adjust your homework strategy accordingly. Remember that you can help shape your students’ development comprehensively—intellectually, emotionally, socially, and physically—as long as they have the time and space to achieve the appropriate balance in their lives.

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Learning vs. “Getting By”: Students Stressed with Homework Overload

Jae C. Hong

Students solve problems in a pre-calculus class.

Destiny Albrecht , Staff writer September 16, 2022

When finally getting home after a full day of school, a two hour sports practice and five hour work shift, what student is eager to get to their desk, lay out all of their papers and start on the three hours of homework they have ahead?

When it comes to balancing school with a selection of several other activities such as extracurriculars and jobs, it can get stressful. With homework every night and an after school sport or job, there is no time for students to play catch-up.

Many students handle a busy schedule like this every week. A survey sent out to students said 68% work a job during this school year, 57% of them play a sport as well. How do they juggle homework assignments, tests and projects with hours of work and extracurriculars?

“It definitely gets stressful at times,” senior Mackenzie Petry said. “I feel super overwhelmed with practice five days a week. Not to mention, working 25 hours a week during the school year.” 

Yet, several chapters of reading or multiple papers to write are presented with tomorrow as a due date. 53% of students said that they have homework in three to five classes every day.

Students feel pressured when it comes to the amount of homework in each of their classes. “I think that homework is important but sometimes it is way too much for someone who has a full course load as well as extracurricular responsibilities,” senior Nathan Hollis said.

Teachers should keep in mind that students are getting multiple assignments from other classes as well, so adding their own to the agenda can make it difficult to stay on track.

In many students’ opinions, homework is essential to the learning experience, but the quantity for each and every night is unnecessary. Finland uses a school system that does not give out homework as often as the United States does, and they have one of the highest ranked education systems in the world, according to the New York Times.

“We are just learning how to make it by and not what we really should be learning,” Petry said.

Even during class, students aren’t paying attention because they are trying to complete either the homework assignment given last night that they didn’t have time to finish or the newest release of work so they don’t have homework that night.

As a result, they’re not learning the material being presented that day, which causes them to fall behind schedule. So really, is the cycle never-ending? More work will have to be done in the long run anyways. 

For teachers, this isn’t good either because requirements aren’t met, causing the students’ grades to decrease. Lesson plans could fall apart just like that, causing stress for the teachers as well.

While a lot can be said about the amount of assignments, students also struggle with procrastination, making matters worse. 82% of them fight the urge to wait until a later time to do their work. This causes more stress in the future as well. 

Many students suggest tips such as scheduling a study hall during the school year, putting the phone and other distractions away when working on assignments or having a planner to organize homework for each day.

While these are great recommendations, a number of students requested more time to work on homework during class. Some even suggested spacing out the assignments so they have the opportunity to actually understand and do well on it.

“In my opinion, I think teachers should be giving minimal homework in the first place,” Petry said. “The schedule is way overloaded. College kids may get assignments but not near as many and especially ones that are due as fast as our turn around. Ultimately, isn’t college what they’re supposed to be preparing us for?”

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How can schools help, limit homework, coordinate the workload across classes, rethink the schedule, provide student and parent education, what teens need to know.

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We've seen an uptick in students with anxiety. It just wasn't this bad a few years ago.They are so driven. They want to be in all these activities and take all these AP classes, and then they get stressed out because they are overscheduled. They act like they've got it all together, then the smallest thing has them in tears or leads to a meltdown.We have a lot of students who are perfectionists, especially girls. I give a simple homework assignment that shouldn't take longer than 30 minutes. They come back with something way beyond what they needed to do.There's this hyper-competitiveness, that if you are not the best , you're nothing. If their paper isn't better than everyone else's, they feel like they failed. And heaven forbid they get a B on something. To them, it may as well be an F .

• Experience learning as joyful and exciting.
• Read for pleasure.
• Play a game where winning doesn't matter.
• Figure out who they are and what they value.
• Fall in love, not with a person, but with a passion.
• Discover not what the world can do for them, but what they can do for the world.
• Reflect, wonder and dream, breathe, and live in the moment.
• School is not the real world and that in the real world, the rules will differ from place to place.
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Guiding Questions

➛ Does your school feed into the culture of high-achieving, overwhelmed, "rudderless box checkers" that Vatterott describes? In what ways?

➛ What changes to existing school practices, like homework, could help lift the burden off your student population?

Abeles, V. (2015). Beyond measure . New York: Simon and Schuster.

Pope, D., Brown, M., & Miles, S. (2015). Overloaded and underprepared: Strategies for stronger schools and healthy, successful kids . San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Vatterott, C. (2015). Rethinking grading: Meaningful assessment for standards-based learning . Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Vatterott, C. (2018). Rethinking homework: Best practices that support diverse needs (2nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

• 1 For resources to reduce student stress and educate parents, visit www.challengesuccess.org .

Cathy Vatterott is professor emeritus of education at the University of Missouri–St. Louis. Referred to as the "homework lady," Vatterott has been researching, writing, and speaking about K–12 homework for more than 20 years.

She frequently presents at a variety of state and national educational conferences and also serves as a consultant and workshop presenter for K–12 schools on a variety of topics.

ASCD is a community dedicated to educators' professional growth and well-being.

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Homework overload gets an 'F' from experts

It seems the smoke has barely cleared from those Fourth of July celebrations, but in many parts of the U.S., parents are trying to light fires under their kids in an effort to get them studying for the new school year.

Unfortunately, new research shows the amount of time kids clock in out of school may not pay off.

Kids who do more homework actually perform worse on standardized tests , according to research by Sydney University educational psychologist Richard Walker, author of the forthcoming book, Reforming Homework: Practices, Learning and Policies .

Homework only boosts student scores in the final three years of high school, says Walker, and only these older high school students should be doing a couple of hours of homework a night. Younger students only benefit from small assignments, if they’re getting help at home.

But that's not the end of the homework hurdles.

High-achieving students who are swamped with homework can suffer from poor mental and physical health, says Stanford University professor Denise Pope.

In fact, findings consistently show that homework has very limited value in the elementary grades.

In response to this new research, many educators are acknowledging homework’s flaws (much to the delight of students, no doubt). Homework now only accounts for 10 percent of a student’s grade in the Los Angeles Unified School District. And other school districts state they expect high schoolers to spend only about 30 minutes of homework for each class.

Some schools are assigning even less.

Tera Maxwell’s three children -- ages 2, 5, and 8 -- don’t have any homework at the Montessori International Children’s House in Annapolis, Maryland.

“When you make homework mandatory, it becomes a chore, rather than a joyful activity,” she says.

Other organizations -- such as the National PTA -- go with a policy supported by Duke University social psychologist Harris Cooper, who advises giving students about 10 minutes of homework each night, per grade level starting in first grade. According to Cooper's recommendation, a fifth grader would have about 50 minutes of homework per night.

While Cooper, author of The Battle over Homework: Common Ground for Administrators, Teachers, and Parents , has found homework at every grade level does improve test scores, too much can be detrimental.

How much is too much?

At the middle school level, students max out after 90 minutes, according to Cooper. High school students show diminishing returns somewhere between 90 minutes and two and a half hours. In elementary school, small take-home assignments may help form study habits.

Unfortunately, what may seem a ant-sized assignment to a biology teacher may come across as a whale of a project to a student in the class.

Research shows the majority of teachers underestimate the amount of homework they give by 50 percent, says Ann Dolin, author of Homework Made Simple: Tips, Tools, and Solutions for Stress-Free Homework .

“That’s a huge discrepancy," she says.

Another problem for the homework fatigued? The home itself.

When kids are working in the classroom, they are usually quiet and focused, says Dolin. But at home, they are distracted by TV, siblings and other family responsibilities.

“Teachers base their homework load on what they see their students accomplishing in class," she says. "But often, this is far different than what goes on at home."

According to a survey by the U.S. Dept of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics, the majority of ninth graders spend less than three hours on homework or studying during a typical school day. But there’s a huge variation in the amount of homework students are doing, say experts.

“We have a whole lot of students who don’t do nearly enough homework at the high school level and we see a decent number of students who probably do too much homework at the other extreme,” says Jim Hull, a senior research analyst at the Center for Public Education.

At the Bay School in San Francisco, teachers not only limit the load they assign, they also carefully choose the types of assignments.

“That’s how you produce someone who is an expert,” says the school’s Academic Dean Andy Shaw, who says he tries help parents understand that more is not always better. “The idea that you might send your kid to school that gives less homework is a scary one. In our society, the amount of homework has become a proxy for rigor.”

He also points out that his students have more time to step away from their coursework to focus on other activities and become more well-rounded people.

“Time spent with family, constructing engineering projects, volunteering, or being involved in musical theater can end up changing a student’s life just as much as what goes in classroom,” he says.

Dawniel Patterson Winningham, mother of a 16-year-old son who plays football and two 14-year-old twin daughters who play basketball, says her teens are busy enough with their afterschool activities.

“I have seen them stay up as late as midnight trying to juggle both extracurriculars and homework,” says the Houston, Tex., mom.

Shaw says the importance of a teen’s sleep is one of the reasons behind the low-homework policy at his school.

“We can’t mandate a bedtime, but we’ve reduced the amount of homework so the students can get more sleep," he says. "That’s good for them physiologically and intellectually -- they perform better when they get more sleep.”

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How Heavy Workload Affects Student Learning Outcomes

The workload of a student is an essential aspect of their academic experience, which can influence their learning outcomes, academic achievement, and well-being. While there is no universal definition of what constitutes a heavy workload, it can be generally defined as the amount of academic work a student is expected to complete within a given time frame, such as a week or a semester. This article will examine how heavy workload affects student learning outcomes, with a particular focus on its impact on academic performance, motivation, and mental health.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Impact on Academic Performance

A heavy workload can have both positive and negative impacts on academic performance. On the one hand, a moderate workload can challenge students and motivate them to perform well. A study by Conley and French (2014) found that moderate academic demands lead to higher levels of motivation and academic achievement among high school students. However, when the workload becomes too heavy, it can have a detrimental effect on academic performance. A study by Dervin and Risquez (2015) found that a heavy workload leads to stress, burnout, and poor academic performance among college students.

Moreover, the impact of workload on academic performance can vary based on the type of workload. For instance, a heavy workload that consists of reading assignments may not necessarily have the same impact as a heavy workload that requires students to complete complex projects or assignments. In a study by Cavanagh et al. (2016), it was found that heavy writing assignments can have a more significant impact on academic performance than heavy reading assignments.

Impact on Motivation

Motivation is an essential factor that determines students’ engagement in learning activities, which is closely related to their academic performance. A heavy workload can affect students’ motivation in different ways. On the one hand, a moderate workload can motivate students to work harder and challenge themselves, leading to increased motivation and engagement in learning activities. On the other hand, when the workload becomes too heavy, it can lead to decreased motivation, apathy, and disengagement from learning activities.

In a study by Greene and Azevedo (2017), it was found that a heavy workload leads to a decrease in students’ intrinsic motivation, which refers to the internal drive to engage in an activity because it is interesting or enjoyable. Furthermore, a heavy workload can also lead to decreased extrinsic motivation, which refers to external incentives, such as grades or rewards, that motivate students to engage in learning activities. Therefore, it is essential to find a balance between academic demands and students’ motivation levels to ensure optimal learning outcomes.

Impact on Mental Health

A heavy workload can also have a significant impact on student’s mental health, leading to stress, anxiety, and burnout. A study by Rosenthal et al. (2016) found that a heavy workload is one of the primary sources of stress among college students, which can have a negative impact on their mental health and academic performance. Moreover, a heavy workload can also lead to a lack of sleep, which can further exacerbate the negative impact on mental health.

In addition, the impact of workload on mental health can vary based on student’s individual characteristics, such as their personality, coping strategies, and social support. For instance, a study by Chen and Li (2019) found that students with high levels of resilience and social support were better able to cope with heavy workloads and experience less stress and anxiety.

Strategies to Mitigate the Negative Effects of Heavy Workload

To mitigate the negative effects of a heavy workload, educators can implement various strategies to ensure a balance between academic demands and students’ well-being. These strategies include:

• Providing clear guidelines and expectations for assignments and projects
• Offering support and resources, such as tutoring or study groups, to help students manage their workload effectively
• Encouraging students to prioritize their workload and break down larger assignments into smaller, more manageable tasks
• Offering flexibility in assignment deadlines or providing opportunities for extensions in cases of extenuating circumstances
• Encouraging self-care practices, such as exercise, mindfulness, and social support, to help students manage stress and maintain their mental health.

Furthermore, educators can also consider implementing alternative learning methods that reduce the workload while maintaining the same level of academic rigor. For instance, blended learning approaches that combine online and in-person instruction can provide students with more flexibility and reduce their workload while still allowing them to engage in meaningful learning experiences.

In conclusion, a heavy workload can have significant effects on student’s academic performance, motivation, and mental health. While a moderate workload can be beneficial in motivating students and improving academic achievement, a heavy workload can lead to stress, burnout, decreased motivation, and poor mental health. Educators can implement various strategies to mitigate the negative effects of heavy workloads and ensure a balance between academic demands and students’ well-being. By doing so, they can help students achieve optimal learning outcomes and maintain their mental and physical health.

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Archbishop mcnicholas high school's official online newspaper; news for the students, by the students, homework overload overloads students.

A common complaint among students is that they are overloaded with homework — a true, yet unfortunate, statement. While homework can be conducive to learning in some cases when presented in moderation, a homework overload isn’t helpful nor productive. A 2013 study from Stanford University published in The Journal of Experimental Education found that high school students experience multiple negative health effects and societal alienation as a result of homework overload. The study suggested that more than two hours of homework per night is counterproductive, but the average high school student had an average of over three hours of homework per night.

Studies are finding that homework isn’t actually as effective as generally believed. As ConnectUS , a global issue oriented publication, stated in a 2015 article , “homework is not a guarantee that students will master skills and absorb what they learned from school.” If a student receives too much help or answers on their homework, whether it’s from a parent, tutor, or online, then the student isn’t actually learning and the homework is entirely irrelevant. In addition, if a student already knows and has mastered the material that the homework covers, then the homework is simply busywork and a waste of time.

Stress and frustration is another major argument against homework. If the student is not yet equipped to complete the homework and they are confused on the subject, then they can easily begin resenting the homework and the class itself. If students come to have a hatred for the subject that they are studying, then the effort they put into the class as a whole will diminish, and they will be less motivated. “Homework can be a stressor instead of a motivator. If bombarded with lessons at school and even at home, children might lose interest and, worse, dread school days,” the same ConnectUS article said. It is difficult to be adequately productive in a negative environment. Furthermore, stress and frustration in school can make students tense and more likely to ‘lose their cool,’ which has potential to strain friend, family, and romantic relationships and threatens overall well-being.

Another negative point on homework is that it takes away from students’ sleep and social life, both of which are important in aging teenagers. A constant overload of homework forces students to stay up late and suffer a lack of sleep, making it harder to absorb information from both the homework and classes the next day. This is especially true with the many extracurriculars after school, making students already tired by the time they are able to begin homework. OccupyTheory , an online publication focusing on social and economic equality, summarized this point in a Jan. 2015 article , stating, “a young mind needs to be nurtured, not pushed.” Regarding social life, it is important in maturing teens that they develop the necessary social skills for adult life. If students are neglecting their social life to finish homework, then they will be unprepared for many intricacies of adult life and will fail to be properly well-rounded individuals.

It is also important to note that homework often comes in the form of ‘blanket’ assignments. Because each student is at a different level of intelligence and subject understanding, general homework assignments aren’t necessarily helpful, and need to be more customized per student. “What might be helpful and easy for students who are good in a certain subject might be useless [or] difficult to students who have different levels of intelligence,” the ConnectUS article said.

There is some merit to homework. First, it compensates for the insufficient time spent in the classroom. While it may seem like seven hours of school is plenty of time for learning, those seven hours are split into eight separate periods that focus on different subjects, each of which is not near enough time to cover entire concepts. This is partially why many schools have opted for block day schedules, so that classes double in time. Homework, therefore, offers more time for students to master subjects, and lets teachers easily assess student subject mastery.

Students are also able to learn discipline from homework. It forces students to prioritize their time and learn to focus and police themselves so that they complete their homework on time. “not giving students school work at home might make them derelict with their studies and be lazy,” the ConnectUS article said. The OccupyTheory article agreed, saying that there are few other areas before adulthood where students are able to form necessary self-disciplinary skills. “[Students’] sense of punctuality is also sharpened by having to adhere to deadlines. Knowing that their grades and potential future depend on their ability to turn work in on time does wonder for their personal accountability,” it added.

The best way to combat unreasonable and unhealthy homework and benefit both teachers and students is for teachers to make sure they have a reason when assigning homework. While homework itself isn’t necessarily negative, it can become a problem when students receive too much of it, leading to many problems. One suggestion for teachers is to make some homework optional. Once a student understands the material well, then they could be permitted to stop. This allows the students less stress, while still making sure that the homework has accomplished its goal. It will be up to the students to decide when they understand the material completely though, which could prompt some to quit early. If they do choose to quit early, then it will only hurt themselves and reflect in their grade.

As long as the assigned homework is accomplishing something, such as committing a new concept to memory through repetition, evaluation student understanding, or allowing time to properly finish class work, then it’s entirely reasonable. Otherwise, an overload of homework only overloads student brains.

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Students are overloaded with homework now a days from school, rather than home work some bilieves that school should focus and give more time to other activities which will help their growth as the burden they loose their skill and abilities.Do you agree or disagree.

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