Homework for primary schoolchildren 'makes no difference to academic achievement', study claims
dailymail.co.uk
Giving homework to primary school pupils does not make any difference to their academic achievement, a new study shows.
Researchers say there is little link between how well primary school pupils do in national tests and the amount of homework they are set.
This is in contrast to secondary school pupils who are more likely to get higher grades if they regularly spend time doing extra work at home.
Homework is believed to be less effective for primary school pupils because young children find it harder to ignore external distractions and focus on work.
They tire easily and are also unlikely to study effectively, while secondary pupils are more experienced at using different strategies such as self-testing.
Researchers from Duke University, North Carolina, United States, reached their conclusions after a review of 16 years of academic study on homework.
They believe the effectiveness of homework also depends on what, and how much, is set.
Many primary teachers set homework to try to improve time management and organisational skills, rather than results.
Margaret Morrissey, of the National Confederation of Parent Teacher Associations, said she wasn't surprised by the findings.
She said: "Children get extremely tired mentally and physically at school. Then they have to come home and do more work on top of that. It's counter-productive.
"While we're making six, seven and eight-year-olds do extra work, in some countries they wouldn't even have started formal schooling."
But David Fann, head of Sherwood and Broughton primaries in Preston, Lancashire, insists that homework does improve achievement.
He told the Times Educational Supplement: "Reading books at home, or doing half a dozen spellings, is an essential part of primary education.
"Without that process, a lot of children wouldn't have acquired confidence in their literacy and numeracy skills.
"It's a reinforcement of what's going on in school. And it also keeps parents informed, as well as breaking down the barriers between home and school."
At present, the Government recommends that a Year Five pupil (ages nine and 10), should spend an hour a week on homework.
However, it is not uncommon for pupils in Year Five and Year Six (ages ten and 11) to be set two or three hours a week.
Many parents actually demand more as they believe it will give their children a head start at secondary school.
But last month, the Association of Teachers and Lecturers called for homework to be scrapped at primary school because it puts children under too much stress.
Leaders said middle-class children got help at home with their work, while less advantaged youngsters had none, causing resentment.
ATL general secretary Mary Bousted said: "Everyone just accepts that homework has got to be done.
"It puts a huge amount of stress, particularly on children from disadvantaged homes."
dumbed and panicked
I hadn't realised when I made the previous post that Tavistock's Daily Mail had carried this article. The Daily Mail is a dangerous disinformation source, I have a personal term to describe it in view of the methodology deployed there, I call the DM 'hegelmania'. Publicly they have a nick name of the Daily Panic, stories in an emotional context form opinion whilst bypassing reason. People who are in fear don't think, people who don't think are disabled. This newspaper does some of the damage to adults that is inflicted on children through 'education' at school.
The daily mail works with SOCA's interpol, even advertises a private common purpose group called the 'Virtual Global Task Force' on their website and contains stories they have authored that are presented as news. The Daily Mail would know this group is also headed by the same James Gamble who is leading the attack on the Internet, top salesman for the home office on the topic, on terrorism, on public monitoring. The same military trained James Gamble who fled Northern Ireland after the Special Branch unit he was based in were exposed for involvement in torture and murder.
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,329693469-107865,00.html
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/article2178538.ece...
The child is the most emotive topic there is, it is the most potent propaganda weapon and it is used by the Daily Mail to manufacture public opinion.
hegel
An understanding of how the Hegelian Dialectic is used to manipulate society without their knowing, e.g. Conservative/Labour and this applies to education as with all politics as enacted through government, commerce, the media, the police, charity, unions etc. In simplest form this is sometimes referred to as problem, reaction and solution. Educational crisis is created, this is then used to 'justify' radical form and an agenda is pursued using what politicians present as solutions to the problems they created. Each change sets the stage for the next step change. An army of social scientists produce the fake academic support, the official story used to deceive and confuse the public.
The costs of the deception and all this carnage are staggering, involving children it is the future that is being destroyed. All of this is funded through taxation. In Nazi Germany victims were charged for their trainfare, in China families charged for their own execution.
Some parents have noticed that it is too dangerous to allow their children to go to school and taken on the responsibility themselves. The only free domain for information is the Internet, this is why James Gamble of Interpol's SOCA is very active at this time trying to get into schools and tell children of the dangers of the Internet. What dangers there are (unless run by the state) pale into insignificance compared with what was determined as the greatest danger to children and adults alike; censorship.
education next time
The ATL is a political organisation, this article pure propaganda.
Through an array of research foundations the American educational system was completely destroyed by the crown corporation. The Rockefellers set up the GEB in 1902, Rand School of Social Studies in 1908 and the Carnegie Foundation for the advancement of teaching in 1905, John Major taking up official employment by this defense contractor after leaving office. There was a myriad of such foundations and the utter destruction of general education in America was hailed as a complete success. Some of the organisations were fronts for JP Morgan who currently employ Tony Blair.
The UK public is probably well aware of the wholesale destruction of the education system in progress at home even if they are unfamiliar with such groups as the round table and Tavistock who had already achieved the same overseas. Talking to teachers who have been in the system a while is enough to establish that what is happening is policy, major social engineering changes are normally achieved through war, revolution or children.