SHOULD WE PUT A STOP TO HOMEWORK?
It’s a common complaint from parents and children alike: there’s far too much homework. Does it still have a place? And if we ditched it, would our kids be adequately prepared for matric? We explore this contentious issue.
How a Cape Town school prinicpal is getting good results with less homework
THE SUN VALLEY STORY
In 2014, Gavin Keller – principal of Sun Valley Primary and CEO of The Sun Valley Group of Schools – and his team decided to rethink the way they were educating learners. With high drop-out rates, high anxiety levels and children getting too little sleep, change was necessary. So in 2015, the Sun Valley Group of Schools implemented a no-homework policy for their primary school and up to Grade 9 in their high school, assigning learners 20 minutes’ reading time a day instead. They’ve since seen improved academic results, increased motivation and a significant increase in reading. ‘It was more than just homework – that was just one part of the restructuring,’ Keller says. Was the school working towards a 21st century environment? The answer was a resounding “no”. ‘Twentyfirst century children have been brought up in a digital, very dynamic world, but school wasn’t tapping in to that. When we started assessing it, what became very clear was that school is a high-stress, anxiety-based environment and children have no time to be innovative and creative. They need nine hours of sleep and their school day is six-and-a-half hours long, so there’s no time to play – and play drives creativity.’
Keller’s team looked at countries where the school system was working well. ‘Finland is tops academically, at the moment – and they have the least homework,’ he says. ‘Their school day is between three-and-a-half to five hours with no homework right up to matric. Research shows that if the brain is under stress, it shuts down. The brain can take only so much data and then it needs time – through play, rest and exercise – to process it. We redesigned our school to accommodate that. If you create an anxiety-ridden learning space, you reduce performance. We made the school hours as dynamic as possible for a 21st-century, digital brain that loves movement, dance, rhythm and rhyme. The school day ends at 14:15, we get the kids onto the sports fields, they go home and play with their friends,
have family time around the supper table and read in bed. Once we got the classroom teaching right, we could do away with homework.’
The school trialled high-pressure teaching for six months. ‘We implemented weekly testing and called it Wednesday Shine,’ Keller says. Then we did six months with no testing, just an assessment week at year-end, and no homework. Results improved in the latter six months.’
But to completely overhaul the system meant teachers, parents and kids needed to be on board. ‘When I sold it to the kids, I said I’d take homework away if they’d commit to 20 minutes of reading a day. There was 100 percent buy-in and there’s been 100 percent more reading than 20 minutes. Our biggest concern was what the parents would say. From the school governors all the way down, our policy is that the parents aren’t our clients – the children are our clients and the parents are their sponsors. At the end of last term, the kids presented their results to their parents, reflecting on their abilities and goals. Through this they learnt presentation skills, time management and accountability.’
WHAT ABOUT HIGH SCHOOL – AND MATRIC?
‘At Sun Valley we don’t give the children any homework up to Grade 9. From Grade 10 they have “study time” instead,’ Keller explains. ‘The school is open until 4pm so learners can get help. In Grade 9, the General Education Training System (GETC) ends. There’s enough time within the school day to happily meet its requirements. Grade 10, 11 and 12 are about survival skills rather than life skills. The current curriculum for those grades is excessive and repetitive, and is about teaching learners how to write that matric paper so they can get into tertiary institutions.’
WHAT ABOUT COVERING THE SYLLABUS IN LESS TIME? IT’S ALREADY A CHALLENGE.
‘The national syllabus, CAPS (Curriculum and Policy Statement), is a guide to what has to be taught. The argument for homework is that teachers can’t get through the curriculum in school hours. But it’s just a guideline, not a directive. We teach skills and concepts, not content – Google gives you all the answers anyway. I want children to learn where to find information, how to analyse critically, select, summarise, put it in their own words and form an opinion. Good curriculum management is about taking the national curriculum statement and asking: “How can I deliver it effectively?”’
WHAT ABOUT LESS PRIVILEGED SCHOOLS?
‘All schools can ask: “Are we effective in a 21st-century environment? Are we producing children who will be effective at work? What is the workplace asking for?” The workplace wants people who can solve problems, make decisions, stay cool under pressure, collaborate and facilitate change. If you can do these five things, you can face the world. CAPS doesn’t prepare you for that.’
WON’T KIDS GET UP TO NO GOOD IF THERE’S NO HOMEWORK?
‘I don’t think finding work to keep people busy is the answer. We need to create environments in our communities where children are excited to go home because there’s a soccer game, basketball down the road, cricket against a cardboard box with neighbouring friends, netball, hockey, chess – we’ve got to get kids playing.
‘Schoolwork and homework don’t fulfil that purpose. Families don’t play any longer because the kids are always doing assignments at night. We wait until holiday time to spend quality family time together, but we should be doing that every day and the school should model that.
‘We’ve taken flack from parents who enjoy helping their children with homework, though – they feel they no longer have input in their child’s performance. We’ve had to teach them that that doesn’t develop a mindset of growth – one in which the child is capable of doing what needs to be done in a fixed period of time, with confidence.’
WHAT THE REST OF THE WORLD IS DOING
• In Finland, children have shorter school hours than most schools in the world and the least homework of any industrialised nation. There are no gifted programmes, almost no private schools and no high-stakes national standardised tests.
• Hong Kong, Japan, Macao and Singapore had the highest maths scores worldwide in 2012. Educators saw an increase of 17 points or more for every extra hour of homework given.
• A typical 15-year-old in the United States does six hours of homework a week. The National Education Association, the largest labour union in America, suggests an increase of 10 minutes of homework a night with each grade. So a Grade 1 learner will have 10 minutes of homework, while a Grade 3 learner will have 30 minutes. Homework should not exceed two hours a night for high school learners.
• In South Korea, it’s estimated that 15-year-olds spend about three hours on homework a week, and an additional 1.4 hours with a personal tutor and 3.6 hours in after-school lessons.
• Students in Shanghai are said to receive the most amount of homework, with 14 hours a week on average.
• Cheltenham Ladies' College, one of the United
Kingdom's top schools, is reviewing its homework policy over the next five years to address and prevent student depression.