Journal #2

My second article is "The Role of Homework in Student Learning Outcomes: Evidence From a Field Experiment." A recent study showed that homework had a positive relationship with achievement. Except, it was reported that students who did homework had higher exam scores, but in another experimental group it was reported that there was no changed in achievement of exam scores. A new study was done with high school students, and it was based on the amount of homework assigned, not on how long students spent on homework. The study was done for high school juniors and consisted of the four main subjects (math, social studies, english, and science). The test recorded SAT verbal and math scores, GPA, four test grades and the averages, and homework grades. Students were either required to do homework in all subjects or no homework in all subjects. The results were that homework required students received higher test scores of 2 to 4 percent higher than students who were not required to do homework. This study concluded that requiring homework raised students' test scores by 5 to 6 percent, and it raises student learning outcomes.

This article goes pretty well with my first article. Both articles proved that homework is a beneficial thing. The articles do contradict themselves, though. My first article said that homework is beneficial but will not result in a significant change of outcome, while my second article says that students who were not required to do homework could have possibly achieved a whole letter grade higher. The study in my first article also only looked at high school science and math, while my second looked at all four main subjects (math, science, social studies, english). Both agree that homework can be beneficial to high school students' academic achievement, but their levels/ways of looking at it are different.

This article, once again, changed my views on the subject. Like I said in my last post, I always believed that homework was only beneficial to math and science courses, but this article proved me wrong. The study proved that required homework helped students academic achievement. This article is not clear on if all subjects had the same results, or if all four subjects were combined together. Many can say that a student may be good at a specific subject, and that the homework is not beneficial to them because they are already knowledgable of the subject. People can say that a student may be terrible at a specific subject, and the homework does not help reinforce a certain topic, but instead confuses the student more (like in my biology homework example in my last post). All in all, this article is saying that no matter what, homework can help students final grades by at least one letter grade. It just depends on the student. Like I said, the student who is knowledgable about the subject may consider it a waste of time, while a student who struggles in the subject could get more confused by the homework and that could lower their grade. It could also go the other way around. A student could be knowledgeable of the subject, but the homework could still help their academic achievement. Homework could also significantly help a student's understanding and achievement who struggles in the subject. Homework depends on the student.

This has brought many new questions to the table about homework being useful to some students, and hurtful or a waste of time to others. How can this problem be fixed? First off, how will students know if homework is helpful or harmful to their achievement in a class? Then because of this, if teachers base their classroom off of this and make homework optional, will the students who benefit from homework then decide not to do it because it is only optional? Could this also affect final grades because homework assignment grades are taken out of the grading system? These past two articles have started to change my position on homework and academic achievement because it seems to be mostly benefiting students' achievement. My next step is to find research based on my new questions. Hopefully there is research done pertaining to my questions, and if not, I will try to find research relating to these specific questions.