Housework to become listed as homework

By BETH CATLEY — The Nelson Mail — source

An uncon­ven­tional approach to home­work is being tri­alled by at least one Nelson primary school, as prin­cipals through­out New Zealand grapple with con­flict­ing view­points on the bene­fits of send­ing school­work home.

Enner Glynn School in The Ridgeway, Stoke, has intro­duced what it calls home­work grids in some of its classes, which allow stu­dents to include tasks such as wash­ing dishes or music les­sons within a fort­nightly list of home­work tasks.

Principal Isaac Day said research by Auckland University edu­ca­tion pro­fessor John Hattie ques­tion­ing the bene­fits of home­work had been one reason prompt­ing the changes.

Professor Hattie found no evid­ence home­work helped improve stu­dents’ time man­age­ment or study skills, and primary schools through­out the coun­try have been con­sid­er­ing ditch­ing tra­di­tional home­work meth­ods in favour of new ways of doing things. Wellington’s Karori Normal School has told par­ents pupils should read com­ics and the backs of cer­eal pack­ets to improve their reading.

“Rather than home­work being a drag on everyone’s time, we’re look­ing at mak­ing home­work more inclus­ive,” Mr Day said.

“One of the argu­ments against home­work is it’s not good in the fam­ily envir­on­ment, because you tend to be able to opt out of fam­ily stuff, like doing dishes, etc. We’re look­ing at ways to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

Including every­day tasks as home­work taught chil­dren about the import­ance of par­ti­cip­a­tion and con­trib­ut­ing, which were part of the national cur­riculum, Mr Day said.

It was also import­ant home­work was closely linked with stu­dents’ classroom learn­ing, he said.

The school was integ­rat­ing the dif­fer­ent meth­ods and Mr Day said it was con­tinu­ing to con­sult with par­ents about home­work as part of an ongo­ing review.

Birchwood School prin­cipal Chris Herrick said his school was car­ry­ing out a review as part of its imple­ment­a­tion of the revised cur­riculum, in which the future of home­work would also be examined.

‘Mr Herrick said he was not in favour of doing away with home­work alto­gether. “I think the argu­ment, to be hon­est, is between less effect­ive home­work and more effect­ive homework.”

Other Nelson schools con­tac­ted by The Nelson Mail were con­tinu­ing to give pupils home­work, although prin­cipals con­ceded send­ing work home was a “fraught issue”.

Henley Primary School prin­cipal John Armstrong said how much home­work, and what type, to give chil­dren was “fraught with difficulties”.

“I don’t like the idea of kids sit­ting down spend­ing hours and hours on maths prob­lems that they’re get­ting frus­trated with, where they would be bet­ter off work­ing through those with a teacher, and some­times it’s dif­fi­cult for par­ents who may not feel skilled in help­ing with a par­tic­u­lar technique.”

However, he believed help­ing with home­work was a good way for par­ents to engage with their children’s learning.

Mr Armstrong said that while Professor Hattie’s research sug­ges­ted home­work was of little bene­fit, other stud­ies had reached the oppos­ite conclusion.

He would rather see chil­dren occu­pied with a small amount of use­ful home­work than play­ing video games or watch­ing tele­vi­sion all evening.

St Joseph’s School prin­cipal Mike Burton said while he “sat more in John Hattie’s camp” , the school had con­sul­ted par­ents and most wanted home­work for their children.