Homework for Parents

The researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin, the Leibniz Institute for Science Education in Kiel, and Humboldt University in Berlin, wanted to understand why homework often becomes a "battlefield" for students, parents, and teachers.

The study's findings, said a researcher, suggest parents and teachers could help improve students' homework effort by
improving students' beliefs that they can do well,
increasing their interest in the subject and
providing a sense that the assignments are useful.

So there it is right there. The answer is not 42. It is doing those three simple things. Now I offer a simple test for anyone who wants to understand some of the problems with homework. Take these three simple steps as your homework assignment.

Do you believe you could do well at implementing these simple steps? What would it take to improve your belief that you can do well at implementing these simple steps?

Has reading these steps increased your interest in the subject of improving student’s homework effort? What would it take to increase your interest in the subject?

Do you have a sense that this assignment (understanding and implementing these steps) is useful? What would it take to give you a sense that this assignment is useful?

So how did I do on this homework assignment? Well I don’t believe I could do well at implementing these simple steps. There are all abstract statements describing desired outcomes. What I need is plans to reach those outcomes. Furthermore, I don’ even know what it means to “do well” on these tasks. So I also need a way to measure progress in doing well. That is what it would take to improve my belief I can do well at these tasks.

Was this assignment useful? Only in the sense that it provided an illustration of how to sound knowledgeable while saying nothing worth knowing. Does that ever happen in homework? You be the judge.