Homework in Icelandic Compulsory schools: Its Amount and Students´, Parents´ and Teachers’ Attitudes

Abstract

Extensive research on homework has been carried out over the years, but until recently little has been known about its role in Icelandic schools. The purpose of this research was to investigate the attitudes of students, parents and teachers in Iceland towards homework and to address if and how they could be related to factors such as student gender, age and academic abilities. Further, the research looked at the amount of time spent on homework, and students and parents views on parental homework assistance. The research used data from a large scale research project exploring school and classroom practices in twenty Icelandic compulsory schools.
Teachers (and other school staff) and parents in the twenty schools participated in surveys and a sample of students in Grades 7?10 in 14 of the schools (the schools providing lower secondary instruction). Three schools were purposively selected as schools emphasizing differentiated learning, a policy that has been preferred by the Icelandic educational authorities over some time and 17 of the schools were randomly selected. Teachers answered four different surveys in the school year 2009?2010; the parent survey was conducted in spring 2011 and the student survey in the autumn 2010. There were 7.300 students in the participating schools when data collection started in autumn 2009; 2.119 were randomly selected (two classes in each year group) and answers were obtained from 1.821, or 86%. Questionnaires were sent to the parents of 5.195 students in the twenty schools; one for each home. Answers were obtained from 3.481 parents, or 67%. The response rates in the four school staff surveys were from 80 to 92%.
The majority of teachers (and school administrators), or 78%, considered homework as very or rather important and the teachers of the youngest students were the most determinant in this position (86%). The attitudes of teachers across schools varied greatly but no difference was found between attitudes in the schools purposively selected and those selected randomly. Both students and parents were asked about the amount of homework, and whether they found it appropriate, too little or too much. About 47% of students in Grades 7?10 considered the homework moderate and 62% of parents held the same opinion, whereas 15% of parents felt that the homework was too much and 49% of the students felt the same way. More boys felt that the homework was too much and they also spent less time on it compared to the girls. The most common amount of time spent on homework was 20?39 minutes per day; but the distribution was as follows: 9% of students said they used less than 10 minutes, 19% used 10?19 minutes, 35% used 20?30 minutes, 21% did homework for 40?59 minutes and 16% more than 60 minutes. This is less than the optimal homework time defined by the so-called ‘ten minute rule’ suggested by the National Parent-Teacher Association (Henderson, 1996), suggesting that first graders should have 10 minutes of homework, and 10 minutes added for each grade. According to this rule, that has been supported by homework researchers (Cooper and Valentine, 2001) seventh graders could be given 70 minutes of homework and 100 minutes to the tenth graders. Parents and students generally agree on the amount of time students spent on homework. As a result we can be confident that the amount of homework assigned for most students is well within the limits set by the homework specialists. On the other hand, there are indications of too much homework assignments for some of the youngest students. As an example, 5% of parents of children in first grade and 9% of parents of children in second grade say that their children spend 40 minutes or longer on homework each day, which has to be seen as excessive for that age. Students, who consider themselves as low achievers and parents with children with learning difficulties, and especially those who say their children are not given sufficient assistance in school, describe homework as too demanding, even constraining. These students also spend more time on homework. In their answers to an open question some of the parents described problems in assisting their children with homework, either because they did not have the necessary skills or knowledge or because of difficult home circumstances. Most parents felt that the school makes appropriate demands on them to assist their children with their homework, with the exception that parents of children with learning difficulties, who perceive demands as being too great. The students were positive towards parental homework assistance but they were rather negative towards the homework assignments. Only 18% of students consider the homework assignments interesting where the boys were more negative towards them than the girls. The discussion raises questions about the possibilities of more differentiation regarding homework and more collaboration with parents.improvement and to students.