Talk:How to Approach Homework?

-- Chris Mandato (talk) 11:35, 12 April 2014 (EDT)

1) I liked/What works well, Hi Jess, Great job. I like the topic, it's very interesting. The layout of your course is simple and to the point and flows well.

2) Have you considered this? One suggestion could be simply to add a few images to the course to motivate learners even more (although the topic is quite interesting by itself). The other suggestion is have you considered adding a study guide with thoughts of your own? I find that when there's a couple of different articles, it is helpful for the teacher to give his/her thoughts to direct the students' attention (like we have in this course). Hope this helps, otherwise great job!

-- Janewilde (talk) 15:07, 23 April 2014 (EDT)

What I like/What worked well:

* Intro: course title, clear info about what to expect in course (this is excellent "In other words, the learners will conduct a case study on a student they actually know in grades K-12 to observe the more tangible postive and negative consequences of homework. This course allows learners to reflect on homework practices, and decide on a policy for their own students. The main goal is for learners to take a position on homework with research to validate and support their claims and policies."), clear headings for each lesson, effective links

* Lesson 1: nice image, bold headings, information chunked, good resources, relevant meaningful activities, I like that you plan to use a mix of pdf, websites, Ted talks and case studies.

What you might consider:

* Intro: adding an image

* Lesson 1: adding relevant images to make the lesson more interesting and memorable. adding links to the other lessons on each page to make navigation easier. In task two you might direct learners to post their analyses/reactions on the lesson discussion tab. You could start the discussion by adding the first post in discussion that includes the instructions.

-- Lisa Perreault (talk) 08:40, 10 April 2014 (EDT)

Jessica,

What I like about your mini-course is the topic, Homework Practices. I think that reviewing current research about this topic is very useful for educators. I also like that you are including learning activities: educators conduct a case study on a student and develop a homework policy.

I came up with a few considerations. It would be helpful to define what you mean by homework and homework practices. You could consider clarifying what is adequate or suitable vs. poor homework practices. A rubric or another assessment tool may be useful for this.

The learners for your course are either K-12 or higher education. I am thinking that the research about homework and homework practices may be different for K-12 as compared to higher education. If your expertise is in K-12, it may be more effective for you to narrow your focus and keep it for only K-12 educators based on the research.

One of the goals you wrote about is to improve student achievement. Student performance, satisfaction, and motivation are some of the other goals that would add to the purpose of your course.

In the Introduction you describe relational evidence. Are you looking at only qualitative research? Case studies are qualitative research. You also mention varying theories. One suggestion is to focus on one or two theories that you can explain in more detail.

One question I thought of is: What does the research say about the effectiveness or benefits of students doing homework?

The lesson objectives are written as learning activities. What do you hope they will learn from doing the case study and developing a policy?

This is an excellent topic and will help educators think more about the importance of homework. Lisa