Homework's Failing Grade

Could too much homework be inhibiting children from learning?  Alfie Kohn, author of The Homework Myth, says yes!  In an interview with Maclean's magazine, Kohn says "research shows no academic advantage to homework, particularly for younger children."  He goes on to says that even at the high school level, the effect of homework is questionable.  "At the high school level there is a correlation between homework done and standardized achievement measures, but the correlation is weak. It tends to fall apart when you use more sophisticated statistical methods, and in any case it doesn't show that homework was responsible for the increased achievement."

Does this same view on homework apply at the college level?  The article is only concerned with elementary through high school, where students are in school for 6 to 7 hours a day.  In college, students are in class 2 or 3 hours a day.  The extra four hours of learning must come from somewhere.

To read the whole interview, see

http://www.macleans.ca/topstories/education/article.jsp?content=20060911_133063_133063