Logistics of homework: theory vs reality

In the second instalment of our 3-part blog series, the round-table tackles the logistical challenges of setting independent study (formerly referred to as homework!)

As before, we were joined by Sir Kevan Collins, education tsar and ex-England Education Recovery Commissioner; year 5/6 teacher and teacher-voice ambassador Sophie Barlett and her colleague year 3 /4 teacher Rebecca Buckland. Heather Abela, parent and senior team member of Learning by Questions chaired the discussion:

“Trying to create a safety net for children through spaces.”

Rebecca: We’ve been really careful about what we choose for homework because we don’t want to grow gaps. It’s got to be truly independent so that those children who don’t have the support of a parent, can still access exactly the same work and still achieve the same sort of levels.

Kevan: Yeah, what some schools are doing is almost trying to create a safety net for children through spaces, for children who couldn’t complete their independent work with support at home. We have to move away from this idea of ‘homework’ to independent work.

“I don’t think it’s about creating new tasks to set as homework… it’s about extending the work you’re doing in class.”

Sophie: Yes, we asked our Head if they might be able to find some time in the school day, and a free adult, who could work with those children that didn’t have adult support at home. Luckily our Head actually found an adult and a space they could use at lunchtime, which is ideal.

Kevan: When you look around the world and you look across different schools, even in England, the more affluent you are, the more you’re buying tutoring, and you’re buying the time for the child and that’s creating gaps. They make the school day longer in some of the high achieving countries, whereas what we’re doing is saying there might be some latent productivity where children could be spending an hour and a half a week, or whatever it is, doing a bit more. If it was in one subject like maths, you’re doing 20% more maths a week!

Heather: But even if you’ve got the space and time for the children to complete it, what about the teachers? There’s so much you’ve got to fit in as a teacher, even the creation of the homework feels burdensome. You’ve got to make it, set it, collect it in, mark it.

Kevan: I don’t think it’s about creating new tasks to set as homework. I think it’s about extending the work you’re doing in class, and finding the pupils independent time to complete that whether it’s in the library, at a lunchtime booster, or at home. It seems to me, we’ve got to find that time somewhere, because the alternative is narrowing the curriculum and we don’t want to do that.

“Kids answer more questions in an hour when they’re presented to them through technology.”

Sophie: A lack of access to technology would be a runner up after workload for me in terms of challenges.

Related content:

Perceptions of homework: Inside the Tick Box with Sir Kevan Collins & Sophie Bartlett

The hallmarks of effective homework with Sir Kevan Collins & Sophie Bartlett

Kevan: Yeah, I think technology helps that a lot, where you don’t have to plan independent study separately. It should almost be built into the resource that this can be extended, so the right sorts of questions and tasks are presented to go deeper, like fluency questions or whatever it might be. It shouldn’t be a burden on the teacher.

Rebecca: Also, if it’s a tool that you’re using within the classroom in your lesson design and you’re giving time for the same product to be used in spaces, the familiarity for the children’s independence is there because you’re training that in school. Another good thing about using technology is that there is consistency there between staff and between classes. If you’ve got job shares, if you’ve got a large school, you’ve got a real level of consistency and offering for homework, which helps parents because it’s the same expectations, so that’s a really helpful aspect of it.

Kevan: Technology is an absolutely fundamental part of life. It’s here to stay. One study found that kids answer more questions in an hour when they’re presented them through technology that gives them immediate feedback, compared to giving them a number of questions on paper.

“Do an audit in school, make sure learning resources can be accessed on different devices.”

Sophie: Yeah, I think technology, like Learning by Questions is very satisfying isn’t it? When children get that automatic feedback, they get the immediate satisfaction of it, whereas on a sheet of paper you definitely don’t get that. And if it’s hand marked, they don’t really care about it because it’s a few days since they’ve done it.

Kevan: I think we should only do independent work if the teacher is supported in it with the right resources. It can’t be another burden on teachers. And the payback has to be that you see progress in the kids.

Heather: Have we been able to make homework equitable? In other words, everybody gets something out of it and we don’t widen the gap? How do we get away from the ‘one size fits all’ homework?

Sophie: Gosh, I’m just trying to think through some of the things we did in home learning. We recorded all the instructions spoken. We reminded them what equipment they would need, how to set up a space for themselves to do the work. Access to devices has been an issue…

Kevan: Yeah, this is where we’re at. I think it’s becoming evident that if you haven’t got access and connectivity to a device, we’ve almost got to step in now as a kind of public service or a state because it’s just not good enough. So do an audit in school, make sure learning resources can be accessed on different devices…

Rebecca: We don’t have lots of money but I’m like, if you’ve got an X-box, you can still access this through the X-box, or a smartphone, or a tablet. it doesn’t matter. If you find a family that doesn’t have something, different ways of accessing it is really useful.

“The resources should have mechanism that adapts if the child is finding it hard…that’s really important I think”

Kevan: And then the other thing is the work itself. And this again, shouldn’t be a teacher’s burden. The work should be designed in a way that has value for everyone, so it doesn’t, mistakenly, take children off to another learning objective they haven’t covered yet. You actually just let the higher achievers go deeper rather than stretching the curriculum faster. Don’t go further, go deeper.

Sophie: I think if the resources have a mechanism that adapts if the child is finding it hard and they’re not being dragged through masses of work that they’re just going to feel awful about. That would be really important I think as well because it affects their self-esteem and their willingness to come back and give it another go.

Kevan: One of the things, going back to the evidence, is that it’s mixed. So I think one of the things when you introduce a new way of doing independent study, is that there is an evaluation of its impact going on at the school level. Setting a policy and just driving along, you may, if you don’t do a bit of checking, be increasing the burden, widening the gap. So be prepared to do an evaluation. There’s no blueprint on this. I think it’s being prepared to roll back and have another go, or look again, and then becoming sure professionally that this is the right way to go for our kids.

You love the idea in theory, but in practice you’ll need:

• to be able to offer spaces for children to complete their independent work if they do not have that at home. Think breakfast clubs, lunchtime sessions, etc.

• to sit down each week and think about which lessons you’d like to extend into independent learning, rather than planning and prepping separate ‘homework’.

• to get that engagement from the children through the medium they love and one they must get to know holistically - technology.

• do a school audit, both within and beyond school, so you know what technology pupils already have access to.

• ready-made resources that adapt to support the ability level of the child.

Learning by Questions is flipping the script on homework and you can discover more about the new independent study feature. Find out more.