Skip to main content icon/video/no-internet
icon backReturn to Entries

Homework in Diverse Families

This entry discusses the purposes of student homework, the roles and influence of family involvement in homework, and broader contextual issues that often affect homework and school success among students from diverse families. Steps that schools and teachers may take to invite and support diverse families' increasingly effective engagement in students' homework and school learning are suggested.

Purposes of Homework

Homework is generally assigned by teachers as a means of providing important support for student learning and school achievement. Implicit in its label, homework assignments are usually intended to motivate student engagement in activities pertinent to current school-based learning in the student's home context. In creating and assigning homework, teachers often assume that students will be able to draw on family resources and help as needed to successfully complete homework activities. Homework may also fill a related goal for many teachers: to give students' families relatively regular opportunities to see the topics and tasks integral to students' current classroom work and learning. Many in schools generally expect that students' families will indeed support their homework efforts, as is possible within the framework of family resources and knowledge. This expectation is consistent with broad societal understandings that homework is a normal part of students' school learning processes, from the early grades through high school. It is also consistent with the broad societal understanding that parents are normal and often important participants in their children's developmental and learning processes. In recent decades, the settings in which students engage in “home” work have expanded for many to include (in addition to or in place of home) varied community settings, such as after-school programs and organizations focused on supporting children and youth (e.g., Boys & Girls Clubs, YMCA and YWCA programs, local libraries). Such community settings often offer varied nonfamily sources of homework support, such as community volunteers, mentors, access to computers and books, and other learning resources.

The specific purposes of homework often vary widely across student developmental levels, instructional content, teachers' goals for assignments, teachers' understanding of sources of support that will likely be available for homework help, and educational system guidelines. In most circumstances, the ultimate goal of homework is students' development of stronger knowledge and understanding of core content, facts, methods, and principles than would likely be possible if students' engagement with all aspects of the curriculum were limited to the classroom and to the school day. Consequently, homework assignments most often include specific tasks intended to further structure, develop, and support students' out-of-class learning activities in ways believed likely to (a) promote further student engagement with material being learned in the class and, in so doing, (b) support further development of students' abilities to understand and use the content, methods, and principles associated with varied domains of the school curriculum.

Effectiveness of Homework

The likelihood that homework assignments will in fact reinforce and further develop students' classroom-based learning is generally greatest when homework assignments are well conceptualized, developmentally appropriate, interesting to the student (to at least some reasonable extent), and—consistent with most schools' and teachers' expectations—when students are able to interact with knowledgeable others in the home or community, as needed, about questions related to successful completion of homework. These needs, questions, and activities may emerge at a number of levels. They may include: the creation of appropriate structures and provision of resources for the accomplishment of homework (e.g., space, materials, minimal distractions); guidance and help with homework content, methods, and tasks (as consistent with family members' or others' knowledge, capabilities, time, and resources); varied supportive behaviors, such as help in understanding directions and thinking through questions, and encouragement for student effort; specific instruction related to homework content (e.g., modeling an approach to problem-solving, explaining a concept confusing to the student) as may be possible within the framework of family members' knowledge; and provision of access to other sources of support if and as family and other helpers' resources are insufficient to the tasks posed by varied homework assignments. Because such supports are often quite important for many students' successful completion of homework, homework outcomes and learning are often strongest when students' families and supportive network persons (a) are knowledgeable about the goals, purposes, and basic content of homework, (b) are familiar with productive approaches to supporting the specific learning tasks required across varied assignments, and (c) are able to offer varied forms of support appropriate to the student's level of development and learning.

...

  • Loading...
locked icon

Sign in to access this content

Get a 30 day FREE TRIAL

  • Watch videos from a variety of sources bringing classroom topics to life
  • Read modern, diverse business cases
  • Explore hundreds of books and reference titles

Read next

More like this

Sage Recommends

We found other relevant content for you on other Sage platforms.

close

Have you created a personal profile? Login or create a profile so that you can save clips, playlists and searches

close
close
close Signed In to profile You are signed in as:
close
Logged in Institution Institution