Teach-Secondary-14.1

HOMEWORK as a motivator Homework can be a frequent flashpoint in the relationships between teachers and students – but as Jovita M. Castelino observes, when approached thoughtfully, it can be a powerful tool for spurring students on R ani loves playing the violin. She goes to violin lessons, practises regularly and plays in concerts, all of which take up a lot of her time outside of school. In school, Rani struggles in science. In lessons, she feels lost most of the time, and on those occasions when she has an answer to share, her teacher will regretfully informher that it isn’t quite right. Her assessment scores are – in her own words – deplorable. When it comes to her science homework, she rarely bothers. She simply doesn’t have the time, nor the motivation, to complete a booklet of exam questions each week. Themotivation continuum As teachers, we expect rather a lot of our students when we set themhomework. We want them to plan their time well, remove distractions, attend to the task at hand and then immediately switch their focus to the next task on their list. That can be a tall order for anyone, but especially for students who lack motivation. This motivation exists on a continuum, however. The same student can be highly motivated in one lesson but demotivated in another, or even during lessons on the same subject on different days. In a classroom, teachers can guide and support students to focus their attention by employing a range of dynamic classroom strategies. It’s less clear what teachers can do when students are working on their homework, away from such supports. As counter-intuitive as it sounds, though, well- designed homework can actually serve to motivate students. When this happens, students start to feel more competent and begin building important life-long study habits. To illustrate this, let us look at Rani’s friend, Simran. Simran plays football and trains three times per week. Like Rani, she also struggles in science and finds the concepts quite tricky. But Simranmakes time for her homework, because it’s in a format she recognises, and includes some questions she has previously encountered in class. The result is that Simran feels more successful in the classroom; the next time her teacher explains a tricky concept, Simran isn’t clueless, because now she has some of the prior knowledge required to learn the new content. Consistent routines It can sometimes seem like motivating all students is an unattainable goal. In the past, teachers would be told that in order to motivate their students, they needed to make their lessons engaging and their homework ‘fun’. There is, however, a considerable amount of research which tells us that motivation can be generated – or at the very disproportionately short period of time in which to accomplish it? Now, imagine that this person has assigned you a series of different tasks, but done so sporadically, making it impossible for you to predict when the next task will be coming your way. When this has happened to me I’ve felt stressed, as though I have little control over my own time and workload – despite me knowing for a fact that I was good at my job. How, then, must it feel for students who don’t see themselves succeeding at a “Education isn’t just about gettinggoodgrades and theattaining thehighest marks; it’s alsoabout getting students to see the value in learning” least, influenced – through several key factors: consistent routines; a feeling of success; a sense of achievement and belonging; and perceived value of the task. All of these factors apply to homework. Has anyone ever given you a task, told you how important it was, and then given you a 22 teachwire.net/secondary