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This week spoke with the mother of two of my students, and he told me what you care about duties. Many are parents who raised questions as: Are they really important duties? Do we well putting them to do? Must be autonomous? How do we motivate them time to get?

If your kids are sure to be thinking small: "My kids are still in kindergarten but I'm afraid that I expected!"

If so, este post te interesa, and a lot.

Then… ¿Duties whether or not duties? Are good? Do they improve their performance and learning? These are some of the questions that I will try to answer in today's post.

In this issue there are two distinct groups, those who defend tooth and nail duties, and those, conversely, They say they have shown that they are not at all positive. Let's see each of the arguments in order to establish our own conclusions.

YES DUTIES.

Who defends the duties and why? As you can imagine I, the main proponents of the duties are teachers. They claim that the duties help promote The responsability, the self-discipline, Apparently they serve to reinforce classroom and create a habit of facing more advanced educational levels.

Although according Kohn (2006), there is no scientific evidence showing relationship between the development of these values ​​and the realization of homework. According to this author, duties only teach "do what others tell you to do".

Some educators suggest that homework encourage reading and research capacity, and that not only exercises. I do not want to give my opinion until we have not seen all the views, but I think that here it is important to remark. Personally, I do not think that homework encourage reading and research capacity, quite the opposite. The duties are generally closed on activities and children have no desire to investigate. The research is favored by other activities, in many cases extra-curricular, but they need not be duties.

There is also Teachers say the difference between children who do homework and that is not huge, but again I disagree. I think what makes the difference are not the duties. They are parents who encourage their children, they push to research and want to know.

According to Maria Remedios Belando, Professor of Social Pedagogy at the Universidad Complutense, duties are beneficial to the extent that help “promote discipline, organization and responsibility”. But he warns that they may have a worrying counterpart. “In some cases, tasks cause problems of stress and low self-esteem if there are difficulties to develop them”.

The Catholic Confederation of Parents (CONCAPA) meanwhile he says: “Daily homework help create a work habit, Order and improvement, in which the family must be involved, stimulating learning with school”.

According to him latest barometer on education and family by the CONCAPA, almost eight out of ten families are very or fairly for their children at home to reinforce what they learn in the classroom, in front of 21% it considered unnecessary.

More arguments are the duties of Raquel Martinez-Amaya, professor at the University of Oviedo specializing in family education and school-family relationship, Joan Domenech, principal author Fructuós Gelabert and praise of slow education (Step), they consider that the duties rather they contribute to academic and personal development because they allow students to reinforce classroom learning and help create a habit of work and study, and promote the autonomy and the involvement of children in their learning, and link parents in the education of their children.

Further, at this point I consider important to mention that not only must take into account the groups that support the completion of homework. We must also ask whether it would really be possible to remove the duties of our education system.

According to Anne Sexton, Professor, Department of Teaching and School Organization UNED: "As today's school work duties are inevitable; in Spain it is a widespread practice that we consider normal and even required, because they are linked to receive a quality education ".

In fact, certainly will have heard parents and even yourselves will have said on occasion the "bad" or "less good" is this teacher who does not send homework ...

NO DUTIES.

We have seen some of the views in favor of duties. But, What about those teachers who ensure that the duties are not all that good? What arguments have to make these claims?

To begin with, according to Enric Roca, Professor of Education Sciences at the Autonomous University of Barcelona: "There is no study showing that the duties are ensuring educational success, nor otherwise ".

Although according Cooper (2001) and Kohn (2006). The impact on the academic performance of the duties is small and little or no secondary primary. En general, duties investigations have found no correlation between homework and results in primary education, and they have only found positive relationships in high school when the tests or tests are written by the teachers themselves.

Further, Some experts say the overload of tasks at an early age can take its toll. These experts say that the workload in low levels of education can generate rejection own learning. This makes sense when you consider that at an early age is what we must seize the curiosity to learn. We must let children discover the world around is through exploration and play your. And if the kids are loaded with tasks, this natural curiosity can break.

From my point of view, and I am aware that I share with many other educators. What we call duties should become "small tasks" which do not have too much time on the kids but enabling them to be developing some autonomy.

The duties may not be exercises that do not have time to do at school. These exercises are prepared to make in school, not in home. And that is, from my point of view, the main problem of the duties, which often become the way that teachers have to cover the contents they have to give and that otherwise they would not come even remotely.

But also, another problem. Generally there is no coordination between teachers to see what the burden of duties that day or week. In most cases, the teachers simply send the duties which it considers appropriate, without assessing the workload that child has already in other subjects.

Therefore, as indicated by many experts, coordination between teachers is crucial in this respect.

On the other hand, There are experts who claim that promote inequality duties among children who receive aid and that, due to their personal circumstances, They do not receive.

This idea is defended by Dudley-Marling (2003) ensuring that traditional duties are designed for typical middle class family a hundred years ago. Father, mother, several children, with a very specific hierarchy, and wherein one of the members, usually the mother, She does not work and is dedicated exclusively to childcare.

Therefore these authors believe that currently, families where both parents work or those single, They are disadvantaged compared to those with a similar period in the family context were designed. This will take into account the difference when students living in disadvantaged socio-cultural environments.

But also, What about the right of children to be children?

If we analyze what children spend their day, We see who spend at least 8 school hours. If we remove the 12 hours needed for rest and meals, would you 4 hours for other activities, if you remove these time spent on extra-curricular activities, and following the recommendations of the defenders of the duties (the proposal outlined below) must increase 10 minutes per course, How long will it remain a student in 6th grade to play, read, perform their personal hygiene, etc.?

Proponents of this view are Maria Jesus Comellas, governess, professor of Teaching and Educational Organisation of the Autonomous University of Barcelona, defending "The right of the creatures unless students during 24 hours ". And Michael Martinez, Professor of Education at the University of Barcelona and collaborator Jaume Bofill Foundation, than They believe that without duties "would gain education, there would be fewer problems with anxiety and attention deficit disorder in children and improve the climate and family relations ".

In line with the opinion of Miguel Martinez, I think that many times more than give parents the role of "second teacher", orientáramos'd better know them to establish a climate of dialogue in the family, so they know motivate their children and awaken their desire to learn.

At this point it is worth mentioning the efecto Pigmalión, describing as the belief that a person can influence the performance of another person. I.e., if we place expectations on a student or our son, increases motivation, and with this assurance of learning and success. In fact, Students will see how those in which no one believes, not even their own families, They are doomed to failure because very intelligent and have much capacity.

CONCLUSION.

Then, ¿Duties whether or not duties?

From my point of view the key is how many and what duties, not so much a resounding decide whether to send homework.

The Homework should take no time, must be integrated into everyday life so that "no look" we are doing homework, at least at an early age. Further, They must be customized. I.e., if they involve a strengthening or expanding the contents seen in class, Not all children need the same or in the same way, therefore, They must be appropriate to each student.

I mentioned that should take little time but, how much? There call ten minutes rule established by Duke University, in United States, that is to start with ten minutes a day in the first year of compulsory schooling and increasing cash them in another ten minutes per course, to reach 120-150 minute high school students.

In fact, in Finland, country that has become an educational reference and we talked on the post last week, if children have duties, but with a much reduced load throughout schooling. The duties of 10-15 minutes maximum. Same here…! 😉

But, What if a teacher can not customize duties 30 students? An alternative is posed many educators integrate the "review" in family life, something that I mentioned earlier. This simply involves activities such as make a shopping list with the kids, review the vocabulary while doing buying, let them calculate what we spent on the light or water ... En conclusion, anything of everyday life you can think of.

Al final, the important thing is to link what they learn in school to real life. Many teachers who, when they learn the composition of foods in class, instead of sending their students a full page of exercises they ask you to look at the labels of composition, or perform any recipe. This is what really will mark their learning and develop meaningful learning.

To finish, I would point out an important fact. Between 1997 and 2007 daily time spent on homework for Spanish children has increased significantly; now far fewer that they are less than an hour doing homework, the 20% instead of 37%, and many more who need to spend more than two hours, 32% frente a 23%. But, Do you think that the education system has improved?

Do you think homework is important? I would love to know your opinion on this topic!

As always thank you your time.

A hug and happy week!

"It is the duty that we demand of others."

Alexandre Dumas

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This entry was posted on Sunday, November 9th, 2014 at 7:52 pm and is filed under Present. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.