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Homework 1
Running head: PERCEPTIONS OF HOMEWORK
Perceptions of Homework in Foreign Language Classes
by
David M. Wolfe
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the M.Ed. in Secondary Education, The University of Arizona
South,
Approved by:
Dr. Kralovec
April 29, 2013
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Homework 2
Table of Contents
Table of Contents Page 2
Abstract Page 3
Literature Review Page 4
Description of the Problem Page 6
Data Collection Page 8
Data Analysis Page 10
Findings Page 12
Table 1 Questionnaire Page 12
Table 2 No Homework Page 14
Table 3 Final Survey Page 14
Conclusions Page 16
Final Comments Page 19
References Page 20
Appendix A Codes Page 21
Appendix B Action Research Proposal Page 26
Appendix C Action Research Proposal Summary Page 40
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Homework 3
Perceptions of Homework
David M. Wolfe
April 9, 2013
Abstract
The focus of this study is on whether or not homework is beneficial to student learning.
In the debate over homework, parents, teachers and students sway back and forth over whether it
should be used in the classroom or not. Proponents believe that homework should be used to
support classroom learning. In foreign language classes for example, students need to study
concepts outside of class in order to support language acquisition in the classroom. One may ask,
if a student can get all of their study time in during the regular class period, is homework still
beneficial? The research questions for this study were: What are student's perceptions of
homework in foreign languages and what happens when students do not have homework? To
answer these questions, three participants were provided opportunities in a selected classroom to
utilize homework and to experience learning concepts without it. The timeframe for this project
was six weeks. The project was completed at a public charter school in the Cochise County
District. The information was gathered through surveys, journals, and worksheets. The findings
show that students did perceive homework to be beneficial. They stated that they were not
always prepared for activities or assessments when they did not have it. It is too early to draw
large scale generalizations for all students in foreign language classes regarding how homework
is or is not beneficial; however, the indicator from study participants for future work is that
homework can be beneficial for students who are trying to learn foreign languages.
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Homework 4
Literature Review:
According to the article "MFL Homework in Year 9 French: Rising to the Challenge" by
Hunt, Barnes, Redford (2009) homework should be revised in order to make it more interesting
and engaging for students. The study was set in the United Kingdom, and dealt with French as a
foreign language, and the other was set in Malaysia with English as the foreign language being
discussed in terms of homework. Specifically, this action research project aimed to find out
what types of homework the students preferred, and what kind of engaging homework would be
preferred by students. The project analyzed surveys and created an interactive project for the
students to do outside of class (though the project could also have been done in class to great
effect). All of the data collected was analyzed using a gender comparison. Hunt, Barnes, Redford
work was one of the first studies to analyze homework use with foreign languages.
Along the same lines, North and Pillays (2002) work "Homework: Re-examining The
Routine" described their survey of Malaysian English teachers use of homework. They
surveyed what types of homework were used and how teachers responded to it. The survey did
not include information on the ratio of males to females in the class, what the age groups of the
students were, and what their social status was (middle class, upper class, lower class, etc). The
conclusions drawn from this survey were that homework and teaching instruction, in terms of
homework, needed to be revised. Teachers needed to be instructed on how best to create and use
homework, including working with other teachers who are in the same field to coordinate
homework assignments and create assignments that engage students. One of the major
conclusions drawn by North and Pillay is that teachers should not simply use give busywork and
then blame the students for low scores. They also encouraged immediate and drastic changes in
the homework process in order to help students. These findings set the stage for the work
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Homework 5
conducted in this paper because this action research project analyzed how students perceived
homework in a foreign language class and whether students found homework as beneficial to
foreign language education.
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Homework 6
Project Description:
Research question: What are student's perceptions of homework in foreign languages?
Sub-question: What happens when students do not have homework?
Setting:
The setting for this project was a public charter school in Southeast, Arizona. The setting
was urban, with the general demographics being students equally divided between male and
female. When it comes to ethnicity, there are students of African American, Mexican American,
Caucasian, and Asian American descent. According to the 2011 census results, a majority of the
population in this area is currently white, with a percentage of 88.1% followed by Hispanic or
Latino at 32.6%, Black at 4.8%, American Indian at 1.7%, and Asian at 2.1% (U.S. Department
of Commerce United States Census Bureau, 2011). The size of the school was equivalent of a
normal sized public charter high school, and the student grade levels ranged from ninth to twelfth
grade. Based on this information, the Socioeconomic Status of this vicinity is what we would
currently call middle class, or working class, with some lower class citizens, as well. Only 8.9%
of this area is considered under the poverty level. Additionally, 90.8% of the population in this
area is at least high school graduates, while 28.2% of the population in this area has at least a
bachelor's degree.
Participants:
There were three study participants. Race and grades were not factors in participant
selection. Students who participated in this action research project were all in the tenth grade due
to the fact that my fourth participant, a senior, had to withdraw from the class due to graduation
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Homework 7
requirements. Participants were all sixteen years old. Before this project began, I had already
taught two of the three students in the previous semester, and the student that I had not taught
before was already familiar with me from my observing classes at the school from the previous
semester. The fourth student, who withdrew, was also in my class last semester. At the
beginning of the semester, I asked for volunteers in both of my Spanish B classes. These three
students volunteered. Grades and performance in Spanish A were not a factor in deciding who
would participate and who would not.
Timeframe:
The timeframe for this action research project was six weeks. There were two phases to
the study; the first phase was three weeks long and students were given homework. The second
phase was also three weeks and removed homework from instruction.
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Homework 8
Data Collection:
Research question: What are student's perceptions of homework in foreign languages?
Qualitative: To answer this, students were given questionnaires about whether or notthey believed that they can learn better with or without homework, such as fill-in-the
blank answers and reviewing material. This can be found in Appendix A. Students also
wrote in their journals about the effectiveness of the homework. Journal entries were
done once per week; the writing was done in class with a total of three journal entries
completed at the end of the project timeline. The journals were collected at the end of
each three week period. The questions can be found in Appendix B, which is the Action
Research Project Proposal.
Quantitative: This question was answered by the surveys given. Students were givenhomework (such as worksheets for review purposes) to do for the first three weeks.
Sub-question: What happens when students do not have homework?
Qualitative: Students were given a survey, in which they were asked if they thinkthat homework is beneficial or not, and why or why not this was the case.
Students wrote in their journals, again once a week for three weeks, about what
uses homework could have in these three weeks. The specific question, prompt,
will be found in Appendix B.
Quantitative: Students were not given homework for three weeks. Studentsgrades were compared to the previous three weeks to look for differences.
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Homework 9
Upon the conclusion of these two sections, the three weeks of homework and no homework, a
final survey was given in which students were asked to reflect on their experience. The prompt
for this survey can be found in Appendix B.
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Homework 10
Data Analysis:
Research question: What are student's perceptions of homework in foreign languages?
The data was analyzed by comparison of the survey statistics, grades with or without
homework, and the analysis of the journal entries. The results were broken down to include,
high grades versus medium or low grades, and also statistics based on grade levels (ninth grade,
tenth grade, eleventh grade, twelfth grade). To preserve the identity of the surveyed students, real
names were replaced with pseudonyms (for example: dragon, firefly, etc).
The first data points collected were codes one through six respectively from Appendix A.
This was the first survey, specifically the pre-project survey, in which the participants (Patton,
Ike, Bradely) gave their opinions on homework, and whether they thought that their minds would
change about homework in foreign languages. This was done on the Thursday before the actual
project began. Also, the first worksheet was given out on this day to be due in seven days. This
survey was collected upon completion.
The second part of this research project was the three weeks of homework, which in this
case consisted of three worksheets and three journal entries. Each Thursday, the day that the
worksheet was due, the participants would react to the helpfulness of the worksheet as a review
sheet. The participants retained their journals through the entire six weeks, though. These first
journals were categorized as codes seven and eight.
The third part of this research project was the three weeks in which no worksheets were
assigned. The participants wrote three journal entries for this time, too. In this section, they
wrote about whether not having a worksheet hindered their better understanding of the topics
discussed, as well as what they would have like said worksheet for the week to be on. After the
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Homework 11
six weeks were over, all the journals were collected. The codes for this data collection were
codes nine and ten.
The last section of the data collection consisted of an exit survey. In this survey the
students were asked if their opinion on homework had changed, if they preferred having
worksheets, how not having the worksheets affected their learning, and finally what they did to
supplement those worksheets. The surveys were collected upon completion, just like the
entrance survey. The data from this survey made up codes eleven through fourteen.
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Homework 12
Findings:
To recap, this project seeks to answer the question of whether or not homework is
perceived as important by students in a foreign language class. Specifically, the idea was to see
if homework was helpful for students learning foreign languages, and how not having
worksheets (the homework) could impact their studies. The school where this action research
project was done used the Spanish A+ system of learning. The students could take their
notebooks home, but they did not have access to Spanish books. The learning that they gained,
and the notes that they took, were based on the lessons taught by the researcher during the course
of the class period. Survey questions and answers can be found in Appendix A called "Code."
The surveys were broken down into fourteen codes, each one of which has three answers.
The first question participants were asked was "What are student's perceptions of
homework in foreign languages?" Based analysis, the students spent little to no amount of time
on Spanish homework. The participants reported thinking that homework could be beneficial if
it was limited to small amounts.
The first response can be seen in Table 1 (Questionnaire) below, for which the data was
collected during a Thursday Spanish class in January 2013:
Table 1: Survey response for benefit of homework.
Question Name Answer
Is homework helpful?
Patton Yes
Ike Yes
Bradley Yes
Is it beneficial?
Patton Yes
Ike No
Bradley Yes
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Homework 13
There was a one hundred percent response in the favor of homework being helpful to
students. When asked if the students thought homework was beneficial, two indicated that it
could be helpful if it were intended to review, while the third participant thought it was a waste
of time, as it is the teacher's responsibility to teach the subject. Student journal responses
showed over the first three weeks these perceptions remained consist. Two of the three
participants found it useful for a review and preparation for the next chapter (both of these
chapters were on house and home).
When asked about the techniques used to supplement homework the answers were again
varied. The answers ranged from writing everything down, which showed up once, to studying
hard and practicing outside of class which was the answer that the others gave. Students
commented that they liked a review worksheet.
The time spent on homework for foreign languages varied based on the participant, but
the supplement for not having homework was very similar. Specifically, all the participants
realized that they needed to study more when they were not receiving worksheets or other types
of homework as reinforcement.All three participants found the assignments harder to learn
without the review worksheets assigned as homework. The main idea here was that without the
review, they sometimes forgot some of the material, even with access to their notes, or even
forgot to study in total. See Table 2 (No Homework) for student responses on how they handled
not having homework, data was collected in a Thursday Spanish class in March 2013:
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Homework 14
Table 2: No Homework Responses
Question Name Answer
Did not having homework negatively
affect your studies?
Patton Yes
Ike Yes
Bradley Yes
What techniques did you use
to remember the course material when
you did not have homework?
Patton Nothing.
Ike
Staring at the paper and reading the words over &
over again.
Bradley
I really don't study my notebook often unless there's a
test coming up.
When participants were asked if their ideas about homework had changed during the six
weeks of the project they stated:
Patton: "Yes it has because it helped in Spanish."
Ike: "Yes homework is very helpful."
Bradley: "Only in Spanish. Every other subject I can remember, but since Spanish is a
new language, I would welcome homework for this class."
Each participant perceived that at the end of the study, homework was helpful to their
learning of Spanish. Table 3 (Final Survey), taken in a Spanish B class on Thursday March 7,
2013 shows the following results:
Table 3: Final Study Survey
Question Name Answer
Has your opinion on homework
changed over the past six
weeks?
Patton YesIke Yes
Bradley Yes
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Homework 15
The idea here seems to be that for Spanish; at least, homework was beneficial and helped the
students focus on what to learn.
It should also be noted that no conclusions could be made in terms of worksheets and
grades. Grades did not seem to either increase or decrease in relation to worksheet scores. As
such, there did not seem to be any indicator that the participant's grades were adversely affected
by not having homework. Perhaps a longer study would be more conclusive, but over six weeks
the data is not enough to be conclusive.
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Homework 16
Conclusions:
Based on the data collected, some basic conclusions about this action research project on
homework and the use of review sheets can be made. At the beginning of the study, the three
participants already had some appreciation of homework. None of the participants thought that
their thoughts on homework would change based on the study. Two out of three spent some time
studying their foreign language notes, in this case Spanish, as some type of homework. Two of
the three participants thought that homework could be beneficial to them, while the other said
that good teachers made it irrelevant. All three participants found the worksheets useful and that
they helped them towards the next activity of grammar being taught. Based on this, then, we
have a positive perception of homework so far.
When participants were asked if not having homework assignments helped or hindered
them, they said they would have liked homework. Participants stated that they wanted all three
topics covered in the course that week on the sheet. All three participants said they were
hindered by the lack of worksheets, and would have wanted a worksheet. This was stated
numerous times in conjunction with material review and participants wanting a midterm review
sheet covering everything.
Study participants perceive homework in foreign language classes as a good thing, as
long as the homework is not too long, and at the same time is beneficial to them. I believe that it
is importantto add that the homework assignment should nevercover any material that has not
been covered in class yet, and the review sheet should not be more than ten problems at the most.
Ideally the assignment should not be designed to take more than ten minutes. This is a
conclusion that I have gained from my data collection, and from interacting with my students.
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Homework 17
A good assignment would review and reinforce what was learned, and thereby help prepare the
students for the next day's grammar and vocabulary topic. When it comes to the question of
what happens when students do not have homework, the issue is a bit more complicated. The
fact remains that when it comes to foreign languages, students cannot simply go to class for 220
minutes per week, and then do no work outside of class, especially when they do not have access
to a textbook outside of class, which was the case with these students. Therefore, students really
need to do some form of outside work, be it studying their notes or creating their own examples
using the material discussed in the class.
With the small sample size, as well as the short time period that the action research
project took place, conclusions are limited to the perceptions of study participants and their
experiences. For larger generalization on the benefit of homework in foreign language courses, a
larger groups of participants over the course of an academic or multiple academic years is
needed. It can be stated that based on the information gathered, students did find that homework
is a necessity for learning foreign languages. This seemed especially relevant for the students
that participated, because of the fact that students do not have access to books such only their
own personal notes, as well as the examples that they themselves wrote down outside of class.
With worksheet review sheets, the students could at least get feedback on how they are doing in
their studies outside of the classroom. With worksheets they would also get an idea of what they
need to focus on in their studies, and it could also give the teacher extra information on what he
or she needs to focus on more when it comes to re-teaching the different topics that were
discussed. More research is needed, but from what can be concluded with these study results,
students in this study perceived homework in foreign languages as a positive thing. This may
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Homework 19
Final Comments:
If I were to redo this project, I would extend the duration of the timeline. Instead of a six
week study, a semester long study with more participants would be beneficial to further
exploring students perceptions of homework. Three participants in a study is a small margin for
investigating statistical significance of responses. It would also benefit this work to do research
in multiple foreign language classes, to see if perhaps the language itself is a factor in how
helpful homework can be as an asset. Perhaps, for example, German would be less likely to need
homework than Spanish, or vice versa.
It would be interesting to compare the perceptions of homework versus busywork. The
disparity for students doing "busywork" was the same as for homework for study participants.
One participant said they spent the rest of the night on assignments, while the others ranged from
fifteen minutes to two hours. Students perceived this as being a major difference to indicate an
emphasis on busywork. This action research project did not really affect or change my stance on
teaching foreign languages. If anything, it did reinforce my beliefs that some homework is
necessary for learning foreign languages.
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Homework 20
References
Hunt, M., Barnes, A., & Redford, J. (2009). MFL Homework in Year 9 French: Rising to the
Challenge.Language Learning Journal,37(1), 35-49.
Kohn, Alfie.Abusing Research The Study of Homework and Other Examples. (2006).
www.alfiekohn.org
Kraloved, Etta. (2007). New Thinking About Homework. Encounter Education for Meaning and
Social Justice, Volume 20 (Issue 4), Pages 3-7.
North, Sarah, Pillay, Hannah (2002). Homework: Re-examining the Routine. ELT Journal
Volume 56/2, 137-145.
U.S. Department of Commerce United States Census Bureau, 2011. Retrieved from
http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/04/04003.html.
http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/04/04003.htmlhttp://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/04/04003.htmlhttp://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/04/04003.html7/28/2019 Action Research Report-Wolfe-Final Draft
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Homework 21
Appendix A:
Codes
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Homework 22
Appendix A: Codes
Appendix A Questions/Codes 1-6 Names Answers
What is your opinion about homework?
Patton
It is good but not in large
quantities.
Ike
I think it's helpful on things that
take practice.
Bradley
It sometimes helps me understand
things better.
Do you think your opinion on homework
could change with this research project?
Patton No.
Ike I doubt it.
Bradley No.
How much time do you spend every night
doing homework for foreign language classes?
Patton At least an hour
Ike None.
Bradley I spend some studying before tests.
How many hours a night do you spend doing
busywork?
Patton The rest of the night
Ike 1/4 of an hour
Bradley Approximately 2 hours.
Is the time spent doing homework beneficial?
Patton help it make things easyer
Ike
No because the teachers do their
job.
Bradley
Yes, it helps me think about it and
understand evern when I'm outside
of class.
What techniques do you think would be
beneficial to use if no homework were
assigned?
Patton study and good teacher
Ike Writing everything down.
Bradley
Studying, and practicing outside of
class.
Journals 1-3. Codes 7, 8. Names Responses
Journal 1
Did this homework assignment help or hinder
you in the understanding of the topics
discussed this week?
Patton
It helped me allot to understnading what we
were learning.
Ike
It did not help me remember the lesson, mission
failure
Bradley
It helped me remember all the things we
learned
and studied about.
Did the homework assignment help prepare
you for the next day's topic?
Patton No response.
Ike No response.
Bradley Will help me in future tests and lessons.
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Homework 23
Journals 4-6/ Codes 9-10 Name Responses ExplanationJournal 4
Did not having homework help or hinder
you in your understanding of the topics for this
week?
Patton
I would like to have homework for this
class
Ike Not having the worksheet hindered
my learning of Spanish.
Bradley
I would hav liked a worksheet this
week
because they helped me memorize
new
material.
If you had to choose one homework assignment
for the topics covered
this week to help you further your
understanding, what would it have been?
Patton
The topic I would of chose the hold
chores
sic. [household] I could not remember.
Ike
I would choose a worksheet over stem
changing verbs.
Journal 2
Did this homework assignment help or hinderyou in the understanding of the topics
discussed this week?
Patton I fell it was very helpful.
Ike
It was helpful in learning the Spanish we were
going over.
Bradley
Since the units and lessons are becoming morechallenging,
I feel the homework worksheets help me.
Did the homework assignment help prepare
you for the next day's topic?
Patton Yes.
Ike
It refreshed my memory. It did help me
prepare.
Bradley Yes.
Journal 3
Did this homework assignment help or hinder
you in the understanding of the topics
discussed this week?
Patton Yes it helped.
Ike
I already knew everything on the worksheet so it
was boring.
Bradley
The previous worksheet made some of the new
words easier
to memorize.
Did the homework assignment help prepare
you for the next day's topic?
Patton Yes it did because this wore both reviewey.
Ike It did not help me prepare for the next lesson.
Bradley
It will help me with tests and when some words
need special conjugation.
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Homework 24
Bradley
Stem changing problems and verb
conjugation.
2 unit
topic.
Journal 5
Did not having homework help or hinder
you in your understanding of the topics for this
week?
Patton
It was hard without homework in
Spanish.
Ike
Not having the worksheet hindered
my learning of Spanish.
Bradley
Without the worksheets, I feel lost
when
I learn the lessons.
If you had to choose one homework assignment
for the topics coveredthis week to help you further your
understanding, what would it have been?
Patton
I would of chose to conjugation of
estar.
Ike
I would choose a worksheet over
possessive
adjectives.
Bradley Stem changing and conjugation.
2 unit
topic.
Journal 6
Did not having homework help or hinderyou in your understanding of the topics for this
week?
Patton
It helped having work for me in
Spanish.
Ike
Not having the worksheet did not
hinder
my learning of Spanish
Midterm
Review
Bradley
It would have been easier to
remembervocab, conjugation with
worksheets.
Midterm
Review
If you had to choose one homework assignment
for the topics covered
this week to help you further your
understanding, what would it have been?
Patton
I would chose the congujation of
estar.
Ike
I would of wanted a worksheet over
"tan and tanto."
Midterm
Review
Bradley
stem changing, conjugation, midterm
review
material.
Midterm
Review.
Appendix D/ Codes 11-14 Name Response
Did not having homework help you
understanding of the topics covered
during the three weeks of no homework
being assigned?
Patton
Having no homework made learn a topic harder in
Spanish
Ike
Having homework definitely helped me in the
understanding of the topics.
Bradley
No; having the worksheets helped me more
than not having them.
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Homework 25
Did not having homework negatively
impact your studies?
Patton Yes because homework forces you to study
Ike Yes, I forgot some of the materials.
Bradley
Yes, because without a "guide" or in this case
th worksheets, I didn't really study at all.
What techniques did you use to
remember the course material when
you did not have homework?
Patton Nothing.
Ike
Staring at the paper and reading the words over
& over again.
Bradley
I really don't study my notebook often uless
there's a test coming up.
Has your opinion on homework changed
in the past six weeks?
Patton yes it has because it helped in Spanish
Ike Yes homework is very helpful.
Bradley
Only in Spanish. Every other subject I can
remember, but since Spanish is a new langauge,
but since Spanish is a new langauge, I would
welcome homework for this class.
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Homework 26
Appendix B
Action Research Proposal
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Homework 27
TEDV 535
Action Research Proposal
Statement of Purpose:
Homework has been an accepted form of assessment for many years. Teachers have routinely
assigned homework to assess student understanding, and give them extra practice outside of the
classroom. Recently, though, education literature has stated that homework can, in fact, be
detrimental to the learning of students, and that it does not necessarily improve a student's
studies. As Dr. Kralovec (2007) pointed out in an editorial for Encounter:
A recent analysis of homework research by the Center for Public Education (2007) found
that homework at the elementary level is counter productive, while homework in middle
and high school shows some correlation with small increases in test scores. But those
things do not hold across the board (Kralovec, Page 4).
Given the differences in opinion on this topic, the idea of looking at the question of what
students think about this subject, and whether certain types of homework could be more useful to
others when it comes to learning foreign languages, seemed like an interesting topic to choose.
By giving students questionnaires on whether or not they think that homework is useful, and also
what types of homework they think will best help them with their learning of foreign languages
some answers about the use of homework may be found. Based on the results of this survey,
then, a data collection could be done by assigning a variety of assignments to students, and also
no homework, and then recording how the students are doing in the class, looking specifically at
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Homework 28
whether the students do better in the class with or without homework, as well as which types of
homework were beneficial or detrimental to the language studies.
Description of the Problem:
The question of homework is very controversial, with the proponents and the opponents both
being certain that their side of the debate is correct. Many opponents of homework, for example
point out the fact that homework does not help students, and instead can cause them harm
because students can learn wrong patterns of habit, for example, and simply the wrong answers
to questions. It has also been argued that homework interferes with the much needed free time,
relaxation time, family time, and that homework interferes with the very necessary sleep of
youths and teenagers as mentioned by Alfie Kohn (2006) in his article "Abusing Research The
Study of Homework and Other Examples. Proponents of homework argue that it teaches
students responsibility, prepares them for college and university studies, and that it gives the
students the opportunity to get much needed practice and reinforcement from lessons outside of
the classroom. Foreign languages are very hard to learn. Students have to learn new grammar
rules, new spelling forms, and quite simply a whole new way of thinking when they learn a new
language. Many high school classes meet four to five times a week for fifty minutes. That is
between 200 and 250 minutes of foreign language, which equals about 10.4 hours per week of a
possible 168 hours in a week spent on foreign language. Is this enough time to learn a foreign
language when in an average semester students might have just about 720 hours of a foreign
language class in a semester? Both sides of the argument have very valid points, but is it
possible to get some balance between no homework and some homework?
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Homework 29
Literature Review:
Both articles reviewed had the topic of foreign language homework. One was set in the United
Kingdom, and dealt with French as a foreign language, and the other was set in Malaysia with
English as the foreign language being discussed in terms of homework. The first article "MFL
Homework in Year 9 French: Rising to the Challenge" by Hunt, Barnes, Redford (2009)
discussed the idea that homework should be revised in order to make it more interesting and
engaging for students. Specifically, this action research project aimed to find out what types of
homework the students preferred, and what kind of engaging homework would be preferred by
students. Specifically this ARP looked at the surveys, created an interactive project for the
students to do outside of class (though the project could also have been done in class to great
effect), and looked at the results of the project. All of the data that was collected, was analyzed
and compared based on a male to female comparison. Because the conclusions drawn from this
Action Research Project were never checked or compared to results with other projects, this
analysis was a starting point in the research for the project being proposed here.
The second literary review was on "Homework: Re-examining The Routine" by North and
Pillay (2002). In this article, the authors described their survey of Malaysian English teachers.
They surveyed what types of homework were used, and what the reactions to it were by the
teachers. The survey was flawed in the sense that there were no real details available on the ratio
of males to females in the class, what the age groups of the students were, and what their social
status was (middle class, upper class, lower class, etc). The conclusions drawn from this survey
were that homework and teaching instruction, in terms of homework, needed to be revised.
Teachers needed to be instructed on how best to create and use homework, including working
with other teachers who are in the same field to coordinate homework assignments, and also to
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Homework 30
create assignments that engage students. Teachers should not simply use their own work, give
busywork, and then blame the students for low scores, was one of the major conclusions drawn
by North and Pillay. They also encouraged immediate and drastic changes in the homework
process, so that it could be saved, as right now it does not help students. This is important to this
project, and related, as one of the main questions of this project is whether or not a compromise
can be found in which homework is beneficial to foreign language education.
Project Description:
Research question: What are student's perceptions of homework in foreign languages?
Sub-question: What happens when students do not have homework?
No homework debate can be made without acknowledging the fact that it might turn outthat homework truly might not be beneficial in any form. It is important for both sides of
this argument to be acknowledged, so by looking at this side, as well, no preference will
be given to either view.
Setting:
The setting for this project was a public charter school. The setting was a normal charter school
in the United States of America, and specifically in Southeast, Arizona. The setting was urban,
with the general demographics being students equally divided between male and female. When
it comes to ethnicity, there are students of African American, Mexican American, Caucasian, and
Asian American descent. According to the 2011 census results, a majority of the population in
this area is currently white, with a percentage of 88.1% followed by Hispanic or Latino at 32.6%,
Black at 4.8%, American Indian at 1.7%, and Asian at 2.1% (U.S. Department of Commerce
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Homework 31
United States Census Bureau, 2011). The size of the school should be the equivalent of a normal
sized public charter high school, and the student grade levels will range from ninth to twelfth
grade. Based on this information, the Socioeconomic Status of this vicinity is what we would
currently call middle class, or working class, with some lower class citizens, as well. Only 8.9%
of this area is considered under the poverty level. Additionally, 90.8% of the population in this
are at least high school graduates, while 28.2% of the population in this area have at least a
bachelor's degree.
Participants:
The participants numbered three student. Race was not be a factor in this decision, and grades
were also not a factor. Students who participated in this action research project were all in the
tenth grade due to the fact that my fourth participant, a senior, had to withdraw from the class
due to graduation requirements. As such the different participants were sixteen years old.
Timeframe:
The timeframe for this action research project was six weeks. This consisted of three weeks
where students had homework and three weeks where the students did not have homework
assigned to them.
Data Collection:
Research question: What are student's perceptions of homework in foreign languages?
Qualitative: To answer this students will be given questionnaires about whether or notthey believed that they can learn better with or without homework, such as fill-in-the
blank answers and reviewing material. This can be found in Appendix A. Students will
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Homework 32
also write in their journal about the effectiveness of the homework in a journal entry (one
entry per week, the writing will be done in class, ending with three total journals). The
journals will be collected at the end of each three week period. The questions will be in
Appendix B.
Quantitative: This question would be answered by case studies. Students would be givenhomework (such as worksheets for review purposes) to do for the first three weeks.
Sub-question: What happens when students do not have homework?
Qualitative: Students will be given a survey, in which they will be asked if theythink that homework can be beneficial or not, and why or why not this is the case.
Students will write in their journals, again once a week for three weeks, about
what uses homework could have in these three weeks. The specific question,
prompt, will be found in Appendix C.
Quantitative: Students will not be given homework for three weeks. Studentsgrades will be compared to the previous three weeks to look for differences.
Upon the conclusion of these two sections, the three weeks of homework and no homework, a
final survey will be given in which students will be asked to reflect on their experience. The
prompt for this survey can be found in Appendix D.
Data Analysis:
Research question: What are student's perceptions of homework in foreign languages?
The data will be analyzed by comparisons of the survey statistics, grades with or without
homework, and the analysis of the journal entries. The results will be broken down to include
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Homework 33
male versus female results, high grades versus medium or low grades, and also statistics based
on grade levels (ninth grade, tenth grade, eleventh grade, twelfth grade). The data will then be
plotted and graphed. To preserve the identity of the surveyed students, real names will be
replaced by other words (for example: dragon, firefly, etc). Names will not give indicators of
the person's race (for example seeing dragon as a name will not imply the person to be of Asian
descent).
The data was collected over six weeks. The first data points collected, codes one through six
respectively, were from Appendix A. This was the first survey, specifically the pre-project
survey, in which the participants (Patton, Ike, Bradely) gave their opinions on homework, and
whether they thought that their minds would change about homework in foreign languages. This
was done on the Thursday before the actual project began. Also, the first worksheet was given
out on this day to be due in seven days. This survey was collected upon completion.
The second part of this research project was the three weeks of homework, which in this case
consisted of three worksheets and three journal entries. Each Thursday, the day that the
worksheet was due, the participants would react to the helpfulness of the worksheet as a review
sheet. The participants retained their journals through the entire six weeks, though. These first
journals were categorized as codes seven and eight.
The third part of this research project, then, was the three weeks in which no worksheet was
assigned. The participants wrote three journal entries for this time, too. In this section, they
wrote about whether not having a worksheet hindered their better understanding of the topics
discussed, as well as what they would have like said worksheet for the week to be on. After the
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Homework 34
six weeks were over, all the journals were collected. The codes for this data collection were
codes nine and ten.
The last section of the data collection, consisted of an exit survey. In this survey the students
were asked if their opinion on homework had changed, if they preferred having worksheets, how
not having the worksheets affected their learning, and finally what they did to supplement those
worksheets. The surveys were collected upon completion, just like the entrance survey. The
data from this survey made up codes eleven through fourteen.
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Homework 35
References:
Hunt, M., Barnes, A., & Redford, J. (2009). MFL Homework in Year 9 French: Rising to the
Challenge.Language Learning Journal,37(1), 35-49.
Kohn, Alfie.Abusing Research The Study of Homework and Other Examples. (2006).
www.alfiekohn.org
Kraloved, Etta. (2007). New Thinking About Homework. Encounter Education for Meaning and
Social Justice, Volume 20 (Issue 4), Pages 3-7.
North, Sarah, Pillay, Hannah (2002). Homework: Re-examining the Routine. ELT Journal
Volume 56/2, 137-145.
U.S. Department of Commerce United States Census Bureau, 2011. Retrieved from
http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/04/04003.html.
http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/04/04003.htmlhttp://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/04/04003.htmlhttp://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/04/04003.html7/28/2019 Action Research Report-Wolfe-Final Draft
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Homework 36
Appendix A:
1.) What is your opinion about homework? Please explain your opinion. ____________
_______________________________________________________________________
2.) Do you think that your opinion on homework could change with this research project?
________________________________________________________________________
3.) How much time do you spend every night doing homework for your foreign language
classes? _________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
4.) How many hours a night do you spend doing busywork? _______________________
________________________________________________________________________
5.) Is the time spent doing homework beneficial to your education, and understanding of the
subject that you are learning about? Why or why not? ____________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
6.) What techniques do you think would be beneficial to use, for remembering lessons, if you
were not assigned homework? _________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
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Homework 37
Appendix B:
Question for reflection: Journals 1-3
1.) Did this homework assignment help or hinder you in the understanding of the topics
discussed this week? Explain. ________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
2.) Did the homework assignment help prepare you for the next day's topic? Explain. (This
question will be asked following the class discussion/lecture of the topic. _______________
___________________________________________________________________________
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Homework 38
Appendix C:
Journal 4-6
1.) Did not having homework help or hinder you in your understanding of the topics for this
week? Explain. _____________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
2.) If you had to choose one homework assignment for the topics covered this week to help you
further your understanding, what would it have been? Explain. _________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
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Homework 39
Appendix D:
Questions for last survey:
1.) Did not having homework help your understanding of the topics covered during the three
weeks of no homework being assigned? Explain why or why not? _____________________
___________________________________________________________________________
2.) Did not having homework negatively impact your studies? Explain why or why not.
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
3.) What techniques did you use to remember the course material when you did not havehomework assigned? _________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
4.) Has your opinion on homework changed in the past six weeks? Explain.
___________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
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Homework 40
Appendix C
Action Research Proposal Summary
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Homework 41
Project Summary
The main question of this Action Research Project is whether or not homework can be saved.
Homework has been called both good and bad by various people who are authorities in
education. With there being opinions that homework is detrimental to both education and to the
health of students, as well as statements that homework can actually help improve the studies of
students, the question is whether there is any middle ground to be found. Is there a way that
homework can be both beneficial to students, and can it be given in an amount that will not be
detrimental to the studies and health of students? The plan of action for this Action Research
Project, then, is to survey ten students, in order to see first of all what students think about
homework. This will be a survey about the question of homework, and about how many hours
students spend doing homework. The next step in this six week project would be to assign
homework to students for three weeks, and have the students react once a week in a journal as to
the effectiveness and benefit of the homework. After the end of the first three weeks, the
subsequent three weeks will be followed by no homework being assigned. The students will,
though, be asked to reflect at the end of the week on whether or not they thought that homework
would have helped them learn the lesson, and if so what kind of homework they would have
preferred to do. After the six weeks, then, the students will reflect on whether they found having
homework more beneficial than not. The data, then, will be analyzed based on gender and age,
to discern whether homework was beneficial, and to what extent (if any) it was seen as such.