Are our young children doing too much homework? Photo / 123rf
“Homework in primary school has an effect of around zero”.
We’ve all been there – sitting at the kitchen table, feverishly finishing our spelling while an anxious parent coaxes us along. For generations, homework at an early age has been part of everyday life. But now many experts are questioning its value for primary-aged children, with some calling for it to end altogether.
Currently, in New Zealand, there are no specific Ministry of Education laws mandating or regulating homework. Some schools choose to adopt guidelines like “the 10-minute rule” (10 minutes of homework per school level), others choose to have none.
For Kiwi parents, this can mean drastically different workloads for kids. One Auckland-based parent tells the Herald that her two children, 5 and 8, are often too tired to focus on homework, and it takes away from quality time.
“My 5-year-old is so exhausted when he comes home, and I dread sitting him down and forcing him to do homework - it just feels too much for him after a long day and always ends in a tantrum.”
The mother said her 5-year-old gets spelling words to revise, as well as a book to read with parents, while her 8-year-old comes home with “basic revision, chapter books, maths and some projects”.
“After I empty school bags, get through all that homework and make dinner, do the bath, there’s barely any time for anything else before bed,” she shares.
In recent years, the role of homework has come under critical review globally, with public attitudes to the practice changing.
Countries like Poland and Denmark have gone as far as introducing legislation to ban or limit homework in the first 2-3 years of primary school, and opt for reading revision only up until year 6.
With our own government looking to overhaul the education system, citing poor literacy data and putting a “writing action plan in place”, many have been left wondering exactly what that plan entails, and what role homework plays in it.
Does homework help create more intelligent children? Or does it simply overwhelm their exhausted brains, desperate for rest and play?
Psychologist Nigel Latta has publicly criticised homework in primary schools, suggesting it has no use.
He says most teachers agreed and assigned homework only to appease parents, which made children resent learning.
Child neuroscientist and early childhood expert Nathan Wallis agrees, stating that a child’s behaviour is a reflection of the amount of anxiety they have, and this can directly relate to their feelings about learning.
“Te Whariki, the New Zealand Early Childhood Curriculum, doesn’t talk so much about literacy and numeracy; it talks about wellbeing, belonging and connection. If the 5-year-old does not feel these things, their behaviour will go out the window. The evidence shows that whether you teach a child to read at age 5 or age 7, by the time the child is 8, there is no difference in their abilities.”
According to Professor of Education John Hattie, ONZM, homework at primary school makes a negligible difference to student learning and achievement and a very small positive difference in high school.
“Homework in primary school has an effect of around zero”, he told the BBC.
Hattie suggests it’s better to focus on revising things that have already been taught, rather than new material, which is best handled by a teacher.
“Five to 10 minutes has the same effect as one hour to two hours. The worst thing you can do with homework is give kids projects. The best thing you can do is to reinforce something you’ve already learnt.”
Wallis agrees, stating that at ages 5 and 6 in particular, play is much more critical to a child’s development, and at those ages, children shouldn’t be receiving any homework at all.
“There is no evidence that homework is beneficial - teachers do it because parents expect it, and kids do it because teachers expect it. I would argue that it’s not important.”
With primary school children already spending six hours in structured education, five days a week, and having limited time to experience a parent’s influence, Wallis says the focus needs to shift to creativity, imagination, and play.
“It would be more beneficial to talk to a family member about their day at school for five minutes a day, so there is a connection happening between home and school. You don’t get a better 5-year-old by getting them ready to be a 15-year-old. You get a better 5-year-old by meeting the needs of a 5-year-old.”
So why shouldn’t they be getting homework? Isn’t it important for parents to get involved in their kids’ learning? Wallis says that the answer comes back to what is happening within a child’s brain developmentally at that time.
“Creativity and imagination are the things that underpin human intelligence, not literacy and numeracy. AI is capable of literacy, numeracy and computation, but can’t do creativity and imagination. Children need time to develop that; 5-year-olds should be playing.
“They are developing dispositions that will underpin their learning for the rest of their lives and will basically determine in many ways how intelligent they are. Dispositions are things like persevering through failure, do you give up after one go or persevere, knowing when to ask for help and when to persevere.”
And it seems parents agree with that sentiment, with the Auckland-based mum of two noting, “I genuinely feel my kids get more out of sitting at the kitchen bench, maybe helping me with dinner and chatting about their day, what went right and wrong with it, disagreements with their friends and how I can help them figure that out.”
So why are our tamariki doing homework? And is it time for a total reform on how we view homework, and its place in our education system?
Hattie says it still has its place, but the key is getting it right, not getting rid of it entirely.
“It’s one of those lower-hanging fruit that we should be looking in our primary schools to say, ‘Is it really making a difference?’ If you try and get rid of homework in primary schools, many parents judge the quality of the school by the presence of homework. So, don’t get rid of it. Treat the zero as saying, ‘It’s probably not making much of a difference, but let’s improve it’.”
Wallis agrees, adding that in later years of primary school, it can help prepare children for what’s ahead. But he notes that building a sense of connection is the most important thing in fostering a well-rounded, critically thinking child.
“In the last year of primary school, formal homework could be introduced to prepare the children for high school. Prior to this, homework should just be tasks such as reading with parents or asking your grandparents what their earliest memory is, things that are building connection.”