Value of homework queried by principals [IrishTimes]
- Published: 08 October 2010
HOMEWORK MAY be the bane of children’s lives but school principals are also questioning its value.
In its submission to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education, the Irish Primary Principals’ Network said there was “little evidence to suggest that homework as we currently know it has any real benefit”.
The network’s director Seán Cottrell said the role of homework in the education system needed serious research and analysis.
He said homework caused stress between parents and children and eroded quality time in the evenings. It also had an impact on teaching time, he said, as time was lost correcting homework.
There was evidence to suggest that some teachers gave homework because parents expected it, he said. Some parents believed that a teacher who gave a lot of homework must be a good teacher. However, all the evidence showed that effective teaching in the classroom was more valuable than homework.
Full Story: www.irishtimes.com
