Is a No Homework Policy Academically Helpful to Learning?

Posted on: October 10th, 2017

Homework is a phenomenon which has endured the test of time in almost all calibres of educations. From an early age, students going to first grade to even university students, everybody is assigned homework by their academic institute. Has anybody even considered the reasons why there should be no homework other than the students? Is it actually helpful to the learning process? Is it conducive to administer homework to improve your concentration for younger students or older scholars? If it is not helpful why is it still being administered? If it is helpful, are there certain skills such as art coursework which are more suited for administering in homework? If a student completes all of their homework punctually with complete efficiency does it guarantee success in the latest exam? If completing your homework is the only way to get good grades, how do new students catch up so fast?

Is a No Homework Policy Academically Helpful?

Academic Benefits of No Homework Outweighs Disadvantages

How do Finnish students succeed academically with a no homework policy? Instead of discussing homework tips at the dinner table students in Finland are busy discussing their plans for the evening. In Finland students do not get any homework but still easily outperform there UK peers. Alfie Kohn conducted a research to deliberate if a no homework policy improves learning and whether or not standardised testing has any positive effects or not. He found out quite the inverse to be true, that homework is an unnecessary evil. Homework has more negative effects on students than it has positive effects. Frustration, anxiety, restlessness are just some the emotions which students claim are associated with homework. None of these emotions are productive to learning. Even the students which are at the top of the academic triangle consider it to be an academic burden rather than an enjoyable assignment.

The Purpose of Homework in the Educational System

According to psychologists, the negative effects of homework exceed the advantages of homework. If students are completing their homework thinking that this will somehow help them in the assessments they are sadly mistaken. Just like educational services are bought and sold similarly there is a huge market providing online coursework help to students depending on institutes to assign students with homework. In Finland they have a holistic approach towards education and learning. They believe that education should be family friendly. This may be one of the reasons why teenagers in Finland outperform their European peers. In the rest of the world where homework is regularly administered by educators there have been various researches but not a single investigation could provide any substantial evidence that homework directly effects the academic performance of a student.