|
Karen's Linguistics Issues, October 2007 | Previous Months |
Give Students Homework Without Feeling Guilty
Doctoral student at Charles Darwin University, Australia
Introduction
Practicing teachers sometimes encounter discrepancies between language learning research and their own practice. I used to feel bad about giving my students homework because various studies maintain that an autonomy supportive environment has a positive influence on student learning while teachers’ controlling behaviour is detrimental (e.g. Stribling 2003).
This article explains how I reached the conviction that I do not have to feel guilty about giving homework, and hopefully gives some insights to other practicing teachers who also wonder if they should give their students homework or not.
Teachers’ controlling behaviour
Numerous studies suggest that teachers’ autonomy supportive behavior is motivating and encouraging, whereas controlling behavior, such as giving homework, is not, especially in the case of adult learners (Bernat 2002; Black & Deci, 2000; Dörnyei & Csizér, 1998; Li, 2004; Teven & Herring, 2002). Another study (Kavaliauskiené & Uzpaliené, 2002) found that adult learners did not like homework because of a shortage of time, work and family commitments. Interestingly, my past teaching experience with adult learners generally disagrees with these studies. My students came to Australia to study English. They often said that they could not discipline themselves, and they felt bad about their lack of effort outside of their classroom. As a result, some of them asked me to give them homework which I thought appropriate and suitable for them.
On one hand, I knew from the literature that I should create an autonomous supportive classroom for their motivation. I also knew that I should help students nurture self-regulating skills and my control over their studies would not be helpful to that end. On the other hand, I desperately wanted them to study at home. Therefore, I decided to give them only a small amount of homework.
Homework
Students were pleased to receive homework and always did it. However, I was still frustrated because the homework I gave them was usually the only thing they did at home. The homework surely increased their amount of study at home but the increase was not tremendous as I gave only a little. It was not possible for me to individually tailor homework for the students although two of my students asked me to do so. It would be ideal if I could cater to students’ personal needs and preferences and give them appropriate homework accordingly. Understanding individual differences among students is an important teaching skill (Oxford & Ehrman, 1993), but providing individual homework continuously is simply not realistic.
Should I increase the amount of homework so that my students will study more at home? Or would that be too controlling? My co-workers advised me to give them as much homework as they needed. It seemed only natural to give them homework when they wanted it. On the other hand, my beliefs in homework were so influenced and confused by many factors, namely articles related to motivation and learner autonomy, my own experience as an ESL learner, my previous teaching experience, and my local knowledge, that I was not convinced that I should give students homework simply because they wanted it. Unfortunately, there is little research on what role homework plays for adult learners and to my knowledge the only one is on Iranian university students (Kaboodvand, 2004) whose context is different from my classroom. Even though its findings showed that students enjoyed doing homework and thought homework important and necessary for their language learning, my students might react differently. So far, research on homework has focused on school children and its findings are far from clear (Corno, 1996; Edvantia for the Center for Public Education, 2007).
To me it seems important that students think about and acknowledge the purposes, values and benefits of doing homework. Teachers can have students understand these by communicating and negotiating with them. Then, they will probably perceive teachers’ behavior as less coercive. Still, students’ acknowledgement does not always lead to desired behavior. Engaging in homework is as needed as acknowledgement.
Behaviour modification
A behaviour modification approach aims at retraining or replacing certain maladaptive cognitions or behaviours with more adaptive ones. This approach is utilised in the teaching situation so that teachers help students behave in a more efficient way.
Mather and Goldstein (2001) state that there are four stages to manage behavior through consequences. They are:
The problem must be defined, usually by count or description.
Design a way to change the behavior.
Identify an effective reinforcer.
Apply the reinforcer consistently to shape or change behavior.
Vockell (n.d.) says that the most fundamental principle of behavior modification is “see to it that pleasant situations occur as a result of that behaviour”. If the person sees a cause-effect relation between the behaviour and a pleasant situation, the behaviour is likely to be reinforced.
I was going to use this approach in order to modify my students’ behaviour as of the second week in that term. Although I was not completely positive about attempting to change their behaviour using homework owing to its possible negative influence on them, I did not want to wait for students to start studying at home without knowing whether or not it would actually happen and when. Besides, students wanted me to give them homework. I decided to make the best use of this opportunity and bring positive outcomes.
Application to my classroom
Some of my students did not study outside the class even though they admitted its necessity. They claimed that they tended to be lazy and could not control their behaviour notwithstanding their strong desire to improve their skills. I planned my behaviour modification approach following Mather and Goldstein’s (2001) four stages.
First, I suggested weekly reading homework and explained to students that by doing homework and discussions based on it they could improve their language skills. I also said that we could change the topic, the level of the homework which I selected if they found it boring or too challenging. For the first homework, I chose a reading task on current affairs from a website for English learners at elementary level. After the first trial, most students gave me positive feedback. They found the reading task interesting and adequately challenging. The discussion in class was not smooth at first because students had not been used to talking about social issues. As the term progressed, however, they became more engaged in the discussion. During the term, all the students except one always completed the homework and their reactions to behaviour modification were generally positive. Therefore, we were able to continue this practice until the end of the term.
As a result of behaviour modification, students studied at home more constantly and rigorously than before. My initial aim, increasing students’ effort at home, was achieved. Also it can be said that their progress in reading skills was at least partially attained by having weekly reading tasks. However, I was concerned about its effects on their feelings. Although students made positive comments whenever I asked them for their opinions about the homework and the ensuing discussion, there was a possibility that they said so in order to please me. Accordingly, at the end of the term, I asked students to give me feedback regarding their lessons in general, without mentioning this particular practice so that I would not affect their responses. The majority of students mentioned the weekly homework and told me that it was useful for their learning. For example, one student said that she had always wanted to study at home, but she had not known what to do and where to start. She used to end up doing nothing but watch TV. After she started receiving the reading homework, she forced herself to organise her time and to complete it every week. Students did not think of me giving homework every week as controlling at all.
Discussion
This section attempts to analyse why my students did not regard my behaviour was controlling in spite of my concerns before implementing the behaviour modification approach. There are two possible reasons for it. First, students had a readiness to make an effort at home. Second, what I did was not as influential as how I did it on students’ feelings.
My students were all adults and they chose to come to school to improve their English skills. While they had family and work commitments apart from their study, they were well aware of how important it was to study outside the classroom. They understood that they should make extra effort by themselves and all they needed was an external element which encouraged them to act as they wished. The students and I had a short discussion in class concerning the reading homework. We established a mutual understanding of the reasons I was going to give it to them and the benefits for them by completing it. On a cognitive level, therefore, students were fully ready to take up the extra task.
During the term, some students told me that they liked my attitude and behavior in class. One student said that I attentively listened to students. Another student said that I was good at creating a friendly atmosphere which was extremely important for his learning. It appears that my demeanor in general positively influenced students’ feelings. As for the behavior modification approach in particular, I was very careful in implementing it because I had known its possible harm on students’ emotions. The students and I had a short discussion before starting the approach and I showed my willingness to be flexible regarding the topic, length, and the level of the reading homework. Furthermore, I asked students for their opinions about reading texts and the following discussion activities. All of these must have been perceived as caring teacher behavior by the students. Also, my expectations of students were clear because I explicitly said that completing the homework enabled them to participate in the discussion based on the text. The caring attitude and clear expectations are in fact some of the factors which make students’ learning experiences positive (Borg 2003 p. 87).
The classroom is a dynamic social context where many factors interact with each other. That is one of the reasons why teachers find general theories unsuitable in their classroom at times. In order to find an effective teaching approach for their students, it is important for teachers to understand their students well, that is, what students need, how their needs should be accommodated and continuous monitoring in regard to students’ reactions to the approach. Despite the possible differences between teachers’ own circumstances and findings in the research, the benefits from reading related articles should not be overlooked because teachers’ first hand experiences are limited and reviewing literature can expand teachers’ knowledge and thoughts. In my case, it was helpful in order to understand the advantages and disadvantages of giving students homework before I started the behavior modification approach. I tend to rely on my previous experiences as other language teachers probably do and reading articles pertaining to my puzzles and concerns in class prevents me from depending upon my individual experiences too much.
Conclusion
What I found through my experience above is the importance of mutual understanding and communication between students and teachers, and professional attitude toward education literature and classroom practice.
Teachers do not have to feel guilty when they give students homework. As seen above, my students reacted positively to the homework I gave them regularly. This did not take place accidentally, however. I do not believe that the same result would have been obtained if I had given students homework without knowing its potential hazard nor talking with them. Theoretical background, local knowledge, and a reflective and flexible attitude were all important for my endeavor.
I am not encouraging all teachers to bombard their students with a lot of homework. I would like to insist, however, that teachers should feel free to give students homework when they find it beneficial for students. When teachers are certain about positive outcomes of giving homework and they communicate with their students sufficiently, they can give it to students without feeling guilty. Experiencing success with different approaches enables teachers to establish their individual theories for their classroom even if previous research disagrees with them.
References
Bernat, E. (2002) Attending to adult learners: Affective domain in the ESL classroom. Retrieved 01/02/07, from http://www.hltmag.co.uk/sept04/mart2.htm
Black, A., & Deci, E. (2000) The effects of instructors' autonomy support and students' autonomous motivation on learning organic chemistry: A self-determination theory perspective. Science Education, 84, 740-756.
Borg, S. (2003) Teacher cognition in language teaching: A review of research on what language teachers think, know, believe, and do. Language Teaching, 36, 81-109.
Corno, L. (1996) Homework is a complicated thing. Educational Researcher, 25(8), 27-30.
Dörnyei, Z., & Csizér, K. (1998) Ten commandments for motivating language learners: results of an empirical study. Language Teaching Research, 2(3), 203-229.
Edvantia for the Center for Public Education. (2007) Key issues: What research says about the value of homework. Retrieved 09/07/07, from http://www.centerforpubliceducation.org/site/c.kjJXJ5MPIwE/b.2466963/k.D3DF/Key_lessons_What_research_says_about_the_value_of_homework.htm
Kaboodvand, M. A. (2004) Homework, is it effective? Retrieved 11/07/07, from http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/iatefl2004/christina
Kavaliauskiené, G., & Uzpaliené, D. (2002) Aspects of teaching adult learners. Retrieved 11/07/07, from http://www.esp-world.info/Articles_2/Aspects%20E.htm
Li, X. (2004) Motivating reading in elementary school classroom. Retrieved 15/04/2006, from http://nationalcharterschools.org/resource_listing_detail.php?id=84
Mather, N., & Goldstein, S. (2001) Behavior modification in the classroom. Retrieved 16/01/07, from http://www.ldonline.org/article/6030
Noels, K. A. (2003) Learning Spanish as a second language: Learners' orientations and perceptions of their teachers' communication styles. Language Learning, 53(1), 97-136.
Oxford, R., & Ehrman, M. (1993) Second language research on individual differences. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 13, 188-205.
Stribling, P. (2003) Motivation in the ESL/EFL classroom: Rhetoric and reality. Paper presented at the English Australia 16th Educational Conference "Best Practice: Rhetoric or Reality?" Melbourne, Victoria.
Teven, J. J., & Herring, J. E. (2002) Teacher power in the classroom: A preliminary investigation of instructor power, perceived credibility, and student satisfaction. Retrieved 06/05/06, from http://www.wtamu.edu/~jteven/teachpower.html
Vockell, E. (n.d., 03/10/03) Metacognitive skills. Retrieved 04/10/06, from http://education.calumet.purdue.edu/vockell/EdPsyBook/
© Mikiko Kawano 2007. All rights reserved.