Why do teachers assign homework?

This is a common question students ask themselves, their parents, and teachers time and time again. Every institution assigns a lot of homework regularly to ensure their students keep learning, practicing, and testing themselves at home through these assignments. Although it is common, it is taken for granted by many students and not given enough importance.

Whenever a teacher visits the classroom, the question should not be whether to give a child homework- it should be what to assign. Every traditional educator stresses the importance of homework no matter how much modern-day educationalists consider practical activities and diversified learning methodologies.

Let’s understand why schools and teachers believe in assigning homework as a learning activity;

Because of compulsion

For most teachers, a school management system already has an assigned set of rules. They must follow most of it and make changes in the topics for achieving the same target.

For example, when the school has values dictating every student must practice the work and lessons they learn regularly. A teacher might do this by assigning quiz activities that students can fill online and get immediate results or project works, assignment sheets, etc.

The constant compulsion comes necessarily from the upper management, a teacher does not have a lot of control over the way they take classes since the basic rules remain the same for all grades. If the rule is to allot marks to completed assignments, classwork, and examination sheets, a child will try completing these tasks to score better. Hence, it is how institutions are shaped, and how our educational systems provide liberties for an institution.

It is the norm

Teachers also assign homework because it is the general norm, accepted among all shareholders of the educational system. A parent is satisfied that their child is doing something at home related to school activities. A student is happy with how well they can answer questions and revise subjects with the help of an assignment. An institution is pleased with the number of students who turn up with their assignments and score well. Sometimes, this general order of things might be disturbed when a teacher tries to introduce the modern concept of learning.

The best way to deal with the general norm is to ease students and parents into it first. If a child likes to follow a learning methodology, instead of completing assignments at home, while benefiting their classroom productivity and learning progress, the teacher and parent would be satisfied too. In such situations, the commander institution is bound to follow this setup and consider other ways of improving academic and personal performance.

It benefits the students

All the problems with assigning homework should not make us believe that completing an assignment is not helpful at all. It can assist a child in the following ways;

• Students can set academic goals by the amount of progress made through the completion of assignments.
• Learn time management skills.
• Understand responsibility.
• Improves memory since practicing topics in the form of writing answer sorry column concepts is useful for memory retention.
• Allows complete division of concepts regularly, reducing the amount of work and effort put into before examinations.
• Keeps a child up to date with information.
• Motivates students to study. Regular learning activities after returning home are reliable disciplinary activities and are good to maintain. It also promotes self-learning patterns.

To fill the gap

What do you think students do after they go back home? Take a bath, eat something, relax, go for fun and socializing activities, and once they are refreshed they might sit and study. Having no compulsion to study makes a child believe that the task for the day is done; they have done their part in school and can continue where they left off the next day at school itself.

Students should remain in touch with academic activities and accelerate this, and assignments or homework might be useful. Unless there are other innovative activities, or urgent ones such as an examination, the student should stick to doing their homework. Thankfully, when looking for institutions, you can find school values in the admission management software itself. Every institution has traditional, modern, or mixed values. Choose the right one for yourself!

The next time you question you doubt the usefulness of the homework, try to think of other activities that might benefit you. Keep a positive outlook towards completing assignments, and try to make the best out of this traditional program method of academic progress.