Homework is a set of tasks that teachers assign to students to be completed outside the classroom. Assignment is designed to reinforce what the students have already learned. The main goals of giving it are to improve the students’ abilities and skills, prepare them for the upcoming classes, expand their knowledge, apply it in new situations, or combine their abilities, applying different skills to accomplish one task.
And even so, the effect of homework is discussed. College or university students are not as overloaded with their classes and studies as by many assignments. Many of them get so tired that they can hardly do their homework on their own. In some cases, this leads to the fact that students ignore the teacher’s tasks or complete them partially. As a result, the student might get low grades and begin to lag behind the program. This reason provoked the rapid emergence of helping services, which tend to provide help for students online.
Adverse Effects of Homework on a Student’s Life
Homework has various adverse effects on students :
1. Academic performance.
Homework research studies dating back to the early 1900s. However, there is no consensus on the overall effectiveness of homework. Homework scores vary based on many factors, such as the student’s age group and academic performance. Among adolescents, students who spend slightly more time on homework tend to have higher grades and marginally higher test scores than students who spend less time on homework. These studies have analyzed the relationship between homework variables, student behavior, and academic performance and found different results depending on the variables studied. Nevertheless, recent studies have reported negative associations between homework and student performance at different levels.
In his 2001 research “Does homework improve academic achievement?”, Dr. H. Cooper defined “degree of individualization” as a characteristic of homework. It focuses on the need to design assignments for different levels of productivity. For example, some students need to be assigned low-difficulty practice exercises to help them achieve their academic goals. In contrast, others need to be given high-difficulty exercises to stimulate their motivation for homework. Therefore, when there is a mismatch between completing tasks and students’ skill level, they may have to spend long hours doing homework and may experience negative emotions or even avoid doing homework. In case when assignment satisfies student learning needs, both student homework and academic achievement increase.
2. Health.
Homework has been identified in many studies and articles as the dominant or significant source of stress and anxiety for students. Research on the relationship between homework and health is sparse compared to studies on academic performance. Doctors Cheung and Leung-Ngai surveyed 1983 college students in Hong Kong. They found that doing homework leads to additional stress and anxiety and physical symptoms such as headaches and abdominal pain. Students who participated in the survey were ridiculed or punished by parents and peers and were more likely to experience symptoms of depression: 2.2% of students reported that they “always” had suicidal thoughts, and anxiety was aggravated by punishment and criticism of students by teachers in cases of problems with homework, as well as forgetting to turn in homework. 72% of students reported stress from homework, and 82% reported physical symptoms.
3. Everyday life
A 2007 MetLife study of American students found that 89% of students experienced stress over homework, with 34% reporting that they “often” or “very often” experienced stress over homework. Students who reported homework-related stress were more likely to be sleep-deprived and have communication problems. Homework can create tension and conflict both at home and school and reduce student family time and free time. In their article in Journal of Youth and Adolescence, Carla M. Leone and H. Richards claim that students, who tended to experience negative emotions with homework, decrease engagement in other activities.
Generally speaking, homework does not improve children’s academic performance. It also creates stress for students and reduces the amount of time they spend outdoors to exercise or play, work, sleep, or other activities.
